The software is already that good at the high end.
But it requires a certain style of writing (or speaking) that avoids idiomatics, analogies, puns and other indirect usages that require cultural knowledge - none of my jokes would work, for instance ;-) IMHO it would be acceptable to write in this new translatable style, in the interests of communication with a broad range of different cultures/languages.
In the meantime, we have ET in English. I don't think we should change. I visit blogs in Finnish, and post there in Finnish. Here at ET I can dialogue with a greater range of people in a common language. Perhaps what will ultimately emerge over the next few months is a network of blogs - each in a single language - but with common members who can summarise important diaries/comments in another language or use them to create their own diaries in other languages. As I stated before - this could also be automated in the near future. You can't be me, I'm taken
Nobody uses it because it's hard enough to have one language version for a page. I've never looked but I bet the browsers don't send sensible requests either.
I never believe demos.
A pleasure I therefore claim to show, not how men think in myths, but how myths operate in men's minds without their being aware of the fact. Levi-Strauss, Claude
I hope you are damn right!!!! Can I see it too?... please.... please.....
Then another interesting area is that of language bots which hold a dialogue with you. Try this one. The bot learns a whole range of idiomatic responses by endless trial and error.
There are several others that are too complex to be explained here. But in my opinion it is only a matter of time, as I stated earlier.
FINNISH is a language with few exceptions to the rules (unlike English). Pronunciation is always the same. Once you know how to pronounce the letters, you can pronounce any word. All letters are sounded, including double consonants and vowels. The emphasis is always on the first syllable. Recognizing compound words is more tricky (and there are plenty in Finnish) but the same basic rules apply. Adverbial word stem endings, although complex, are always part of the noun or verb they modify and therefore easier to understand.
Having Finnish as one half of a language pair makes the translation process less complicated. But the developments going on here in Finland at the moment, are moving fast.
Let's see who is right ;-) If we are still here in 5 years, Colman will owe me a bottle of bubbly. Which will be translated into pleasure. You can't be me, I'm taken
And software will probably be very bad even in the future...We will be lucky if in 50 years you can get a decent translation of something written using the most plain vocabulary you can get..
I hope I am wrong...really.
