Lost In Translation: Facebook's Bing Tool Is Faulty
The Bing translation tool introduced by Facebook last month is apparently lost in translation, with successful translation rates of under 50 percent.
The Bing translation tool introduced by Facebook last month gets less than half of the translations correct.
Lexiophiles examined Bing translations in 10 languages, including slang terms, and only one language barely squeaked by 50 percent accuracy, with several coming in at under 10 percent.
“Overall, it is highly likely that the translation Facebook suggests to you will be nonsensical, or, worse even, misleading,” Lexiophiles wrote.
Like Lexophiles says:
As you can see, the end result is far from being perfect, even though the example selected was written in flawless French. While the first sentence is comprehensible, albeit not idiomatic, the rest displays some of the several issues characterizing thetranslate feature.
- The heart icon and the link are not carried over;
- The meaning of “three seasons in a” cannot even be guessed;
- “Ma belle” was not translated, and
- “Vivement les photos” (I cannot wait for the pictures) became — somehow — “3 strongly pictures.”
Slang is always tough to translate, but that’s what most people use in their Facebook posts.
Automation still can’t keep up with what modern vernacular, no matter whether it’s Bing or any other non-human attempting the translation.
Readers: Have you had any humorous translation experiences on Facebook?
