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Translating web pages into Russian
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Posted by: Hostile_hostage

This is probably really easy to do. I've searched online but cannot find the thing I'm looking for.
I'm from England and thought it might be nice to send some traditional English Fairy Stories to my 'girlfriend' in Russia.
Rather than just send the stories and get them translated into English over in Russia I thought it would be better to translate them online first into Russian and then copy/paste them into an email once translated.

A site i am using to try and write letters into Russian is http://imtranslator.net/translator.asp

Posted by: Jill

My husband uses Promt to translate websites and is satisfied with it. However, the translation serves merely to get the meaning of what is written. I doubt fairy tales (or other literature) would come out very well. I think any electronic translating program would fail to capture a lot it

Posted by: Cheburashka

www.translate.ru has a link to translate entire web pages.

Posted by: Hostile_hostage

Cheburashka - Many thanks I've found the link.
My next question regarding translation.
You may be familiar with the Hans Christian Anderson tale 'The Ugly Duckling'
If I used this programme to translate this story from English to Russian, would the story make sense to a Russian person reading it?

Posted by: Meico

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hostile_hostage

You may be familiar with the Hans Christian Anderson tale 'The Ugly Duckling'
If I used this programme to translate this story from English to Russian, would the story make sense to a Russian person reading it?

Copy, Paste, and translate your story to Russian then translate it back to English with the same machine translator. This should answer your question. Machine transluation is easy for us to use but it's very limited.

Choice of words and word order will play a big role in what the outcome is. For Example... If you write that you want to wrap you arms around this lady for a big hug...."arms will translate as "weapons" on some of the machines. Don't want to scare her off before you meet her???

Play with the machines both directions and see what the outcome is. Nataliya and I have been the happiest with http://www.freetranslation.com/

They say a picture is worth 1000 words. Instead of reciting the Duckling story, send pictures??????????

Posted by: inlove

There is a russian translation of Ugly Duckling already. All russians know this story. Why do you want to traslate it all over again?

Posted by: Hostile_hostage

InLove - Ugly Duckling was just an example.............it could be any story !!

Posted by: Leprechaun

http://translation.paralink.com/

back translates, makes it a bit easier.

Posted by: Hostile_hostage

Cheers Leprechaun !!

Posted by: wavetossed

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hostile_hostage

This is probably really easy to do. I've searched online but cannot find the thing I'm looking for.
I'm from England and thought it might be nice to send some traditional English Fairy Stories to my 'girlfriend' in Russia.
Rather than just send the stories and get them translated into English over in Russia I thought it would be better to translate them online first into Russian and then copy/paste them into an email once translated.

First, are you sure that you actually KNOW some traditional English Fairy Stories. A lot of the fairy stories that we read in childhood are originally German fairy stories or are ancient folk tales from before the time that the Russians, Greeks, Iranians and Germanic peoples separated into different groups. Think carefully about what stories you choose.

Second, if you are relying on machine translation then DO NOT copy and paste somebody else's story. That is plagiarism, not a real fairy story. Real fairy stories are RETOLD from person to person from their own memories. The advantage to retelling the story is that you get to CHOOSE YOUR OWN WORDS and therefore you can choose words and phrases that the machine translator can cope with. Use simple direct language with no slang and test everything with back translation.

Just off the top of my head...

Long ago, an old man and an old woman lived in a hut at the edge of the forest. They had no children. One day a man came to the door selling wishing beans. He said that these were magic beans. The old woman bought a bean from him. After the man had left, she wsat beside the fire and wished for a son.

Later that evening, her husband came home from the forest carrying firewood. He dropped the bundle of firewood in the corner and heard a squeak. A mouse!, he cried. He picked up a hammer and looked in the corner. His wife also looked in the corner. They were surprised to see a little man in the corner, no bigger than a mouse.

The old woman gently picked up the little man and placed him on the table. He is not any bigger than my thumb, she said. Who are you? she said to the little man. I am your son, he replied.

... et cetera.

I haven't tested that on a machine translator but I expect most of it will translator much more accurately than a cut and paste fairy tale.