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Mac Forum / Applications / Mac Applications / January 2005Chinese <--> English Translation Programs?
Do any of you have any positive or negative experience(s) with Chinese/English translation programs for the Macintosh? I'm asking about something that can translate entire sentences. I ask because I've been chatting with a charming Chinese lady who seems to find me interesting ;-) through some sort of translation program that translates entire Email messages both directions. It seems to do an amazingly good job in fact. We're toying with the idea of her coming out here (US) to visit me, so it may be helpful to have such a whole-sentence translation program available at a moment's notice. So, any suggestions? Thanks for the ideas!  Signature(Preferably reply to the newsgroup, please. If you reply by Email, I will sincerely try to receive your message, but it will probably get buried in spam.) Gary Morrison: > Do any of you have any positive or negative experience(s) with > Chinese/English translation programs for the Macintosh? I'm asking > about something that can translate entire sentences. > I ask because I've been chatting with a charming Chinese lady who seems > to find me interesting ;-) through some sort of translation program that > translates entire Email messages both directions. It seems to do an > amazingly good job in fact. We're toying with the idea of her coming > out here (US) to visit me, so it may be helpful to have such a > whole-sentence translation program available at a moment's notice. > So, any suggestions? Definitely have a suggestion. Find a new love interest. > Thanks for the ideas! I doubt you'll thank me for this one. Davoud -- Lived in Asia for many years. Signatureusenet *at* davidillig dawt com > Do any of you have any positive or negative experience(s) with > Chinese/English translation programs for the Macintosh? I'm asking [quoted text clipped - 8 lines] > > So, any suggestions? Thanks for the ideas! On Mac OS X, Sherlock has a translation channel that claims to do this translation. Whether it's accurate is not something I could evaluate. SignatureTom "Tom" Harrington Macaroni, Automated System Maintenance for Mac OS X. Version 2.0: Delocalize, Repair Permissions, lots more. See http://www.atomicbird.com/ >> Do any of you have any positive or negative experience(s) with >> Chinese/English translation programs for the Macintosh? I'm asking >> about something that can translate entire sentences. [snip] > On Mac OS X, Sherlock has a translation channel that claims to do this > translation. Whether it's accurate is not something I could evaluate. Is he looking for Mandarin or Cantonese? In Sherlock I typed in "How much does it cost?" and it came back with something that I didn't have the skill to read, so I tried the more literal "How much money?" and instead of "duo1 shao3 qian2" (which I used on a daily basis when shopping in China) it produced "duo1 shao3 hou4 bi4" which seems to be "How much currency." For what it's worth. I'm not at all good at Mandarin. Without boring you with other examples, I didn't think it could interpret my meaning very well by returning the standard translations that were common in my textbooks. Someone more learned should probably chime in here. This isn't what you want, but it's nice anyway: <http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/9954> SignatureHuan > Is he looking for Mandarin or Cantonese? Written Chinese to written English and the reverse. I'm assuming that the written-Chinese character usage is largely the same between Mandarin-speakers and Cantonese-speakers. Signature(Preferably reply to the newsgroup, please. If you reply by Email, I will sincerely try to receive your message, but it will probably get buried in spam.) > Written Chinese to written English and the reverse. I'm assuming that > the written-Chinese character usage is largely the same between > Mandarin-speakers and Cantonese-speakers. However, if I'm mistaken in that regard, the answer to your question is "Mandarin." Oh, perhaps where dialect matters relates to how the Chinese words would be entered from a US keyboard? Signature(Preferably reply to the newsgroup, please. If you reply by Email, I will sincerely try to receive your message, but it will probably get buried in spam.) >> Written Chinese to written English and the reverse. I'm assuming that >> the written-Chinese character usage is largely the same between [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] > Oh, perhaps where dialect matters relates to how the Chinese words would > be entered from a US keyboard? Yeah. I think there's other methods, but I use the first one I found when poking around in OS X, which is to enter the pinyin and use the arrow keys to find the characters you want. SignatureHuan >>Oh, perhaps where dialect matters relates to how the Chinese words would >>be entered from a US keyboard? > Yeah. I think there's other methods, but I use the first one I found > when poking around in OS X, which is to enter the pinyin and use the > arrow keys to find the characters you want. Ah, gotcha. So, do you by chance have any experience with any other such programs? One of my friends recommended a Mandarin Chinese *instruction* program called HyperChina, which is only available for the Mac, by the way (yeehah!). It seems to include some strictly-cultural, non-language education too, so I'll look over the website for it (http://www.sinologic.com/hyperchina) again; perhaps it may have one or more translation capabilities too. Signature(Preferably reply to the newsgroup, please. If you reply by Email, I will sincerely try to receive your message, but it will probably get buried in spam.) ["Followup-To:" header set to comp.sys.mac.apps.] >> Yeah. I think there's other methods, but I use the first one I found >> when poking around in OS X, which is to enter the pinyin and use the [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > > So, do you by chance have any experience with any other such programs? Other what? Input methods? No. I started out by going to the International settings in System Preferences, and added simplified Chinese to the lists in "Languages" and "Input Menu" also checking the box that displays the input menu in the menubar. Command-space also changes between input methods. So when I want to write in Chinese, and I'm in an app that accepts it, I just use command-space and type pinyin, then use the arrow key to browse through the list of characters that comes up as a result of typing the pinyin. TextEdit and Study Card Studio Lite work well with Chinese, and that program that was linked in my previous post, WordLookup. > One of my friends recommended a Mandarin Chinese *instruction* program > called HyperChina, which is only available for the Mac, by the way > (yeehah!). It seems to include some strictly-cultural, non-language > education too, so I'll look over the website for it > (http://www.sinologic.com/hyperchina) again; perhaps it may have one or > more translation capabilities too. This is interesting and I didn't see it before. However it appears to be pre OS X, so I'll check out the demo when I boot into 9. Studying Chinese is very worthwhile, but I'm not sure I condone internet dating. :-) SignatureHuan >>So, do you by chance have any experience with any other such programs? > Other what? Input methods? Uhm, no, other programs - other translation programs. Looking at MacMall, I see one for the PC, but not for the Mac. Thanks for the thoughts on Chinese-input methods, and the languages in the System Preferences thingie. Signature(Preferably reply to the newsgroup, please. If you reply by Email, I will sincerely try to receive your message, but it will probably get buried in spam.) teste2 > On Mac OS X, Sherlock has a translation channel that claims to do this > translation. Whether it's accurate is not something I could evaluate. That's a good tip; thanks. However, there appears to be a complication: Best I can tell, that mechanism requires me to be on-line to be able to use it, and I don't expect to necessarily have internet access when I need translations. So, this seems like a good start, but a stand-alone program would be a lot better. Signature(Preferably reply to the newsgroup, please. If you reply by Email, I will sincerely try to receive your message, but it will probably get buried in spam.) |
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