[sldev] Please help testing the SL Viewer with integrated universal translation

[Mike Monkowski]

Henri Beauchamp wrote:
>>>Automatic translators are utterly useless and totally unable to translate
>>>properly from simple languages such as English into more complex and subtle
>>>languages such as French, German, Chinese, Japanese...
...
> You can say and explain very complex things, even with "simple" languages,
> but I assure you that English is incredibly simpler than French or German
> (since I did learn all three, I know what I am speaking about).
> The grammar is incredibly much simpler in English, and the vocabulary is
> simpler too. For example, you can translate "to get" in at least 30
> different verbs in French. or "power" into two different names (these are
> just two examples out of my head, but cases are countless).
> Fact is that at school (some 4 decades ago), I just needed a couple of
> months to learn the basis of English, while even after three years, I
> could never express myself as fluently in German (and since forgot
> pretty much everything I was taught in this language). That's also one of
> the reasons why English is so successful as an international "common"
> language: it's easier to learn and use than most (if not all) other
> languages.

Perhaps it's just that speakers of English are more tolerant of mistakes 
than are Francophones.  Although your English is not bad, "incredibly 
much simpler" is not good English. One translates "into" not "in".  You 
meant "nouns", not "names".  "Out of my head" means lost emotional 
control.  I assume you meant "off the top of my head".  That's "basics", 
not "basis".  It should be "have since forgotten", not "since forgot".

I have been trying to learn French for decades.  The problem I have is 
that the only places I can hear it spoken is on my XM radio and on 
rented videos.

 From my experience, Chinese grammar is less complex than English 
grammar; Spanish phonetics are more consistent than any of the languages 
you list above; and three and four year old children are amazingly adept 
at learning any language.

:-)

Mike