I’m often asked why we need professional translators when Google Translate (for example) is free. The short answer is because Google Translate, and other MT engines, can make mistakes. The picture below, of a mistranslation from a Russian Menu, has been circulating on Facebook. “в асс.” is short for ассортимент or assortment, meaning choice – and has been badly mistranslated.
Russian ice cream menu translation mistake
I checked with Google Translate and sure enough it makes the same mistake, it may of course have been the mistake’s original source…
Why you shouldn’t use Google Translate
So if you are a professional translation provider and you’re asked the ‘Google Translate question’, ask them if they like ice cream …
Oh and by the way folks, Bing is no better …
Why you shouldn’t use Bing translate either
As this is Russian, I thought I’d give Yandex a try, and sure enough it does a ‘slightly’ better job …
Yandex translate does a slightly better job
So if you’re going to use machine translation for Russian unless you want your ice cream in the “a*s” use Yandex, or better still a professional translation provider.
[…] Unless you want “Ice Cream in the a*s” use Yandex for Russian MT, or better still a huma… […]