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Gmail adds email translation features: Is this helpful?
Google also has a web-based language translator. It comes in handy if you're trying to read a news item on a web site in a language you don't speak. But I'm not sure I really need this feature in my email. I don't tend to correspond with people who speak languages that I can't understand via email. But maybe that's just me. Because Google just rolled out a new Gmail labs feature that lets you add a translation button to messages in your inbox in a foreign language.
I suppose there is one area where this could be useful. If you have a friend who speaks German as their first language, but who also speaks English, you may find yourself corresponding most frequently in English. But while he might be able to keep up with a little work, he may find it easier to hit the translate button. Unfortunately, computer translations are usually bad enough that even if his English isn't great, he may find them harder to understand after they're translated.
Comments
15
Subscribe to commentsInsomnicMay 19th 2009 9:08PM
I feel the same way. I think the only time this would be useful is if you have a public facing email address (like a blog or store front) and expect correspondence from it that may be from readers or customers in other countries.
MadisonMay 21st 2009 7:27AM
One usually does not write emails to people they don't know or don't understand their language but if it comes to business emails things are different. Clients often write in their own language thinking that officials must speak all languages but this is not always so. If I need to read an email in a language I don't speak I often use Interlecta's MozTrans (http://home.interlecta.com) because it works in the browser and you don't need to go to another page and copy and paste the text but if I need to reply in a foreign language a service like an email translator in your mailbox is quite a good idea.
r3loadedMay 19th 2009 9:08PM
The problem is that people write e-mails in a slang, chatty type of way - which is hard for a computer to translate. So even if you did find a scenario where you'd use it, it probably wouldn't work very well.
EthanMay 19th 2009 9:08PM
I think this is a brilliant addition to the many useful features of Google Mail. I can read all of that Japanese spam I get now;
"㊣ white 裡 being transparent crimson 臺 灣 superior superior water woman"
Who knew?
JoshMay 20th 2009 7:33AM
Water woman for the win!
Matthew FalkMay 19th 2009 9:09PM
It's great, as someone who often has to email hotels in small towns around the world, I often have to copy and paste in and out of google translate.
jfjbMay 20th 2009 7:32AM
@ brad Linder
ahem...
In Europe, Asia, Africa, Central and South America, a lot of people speak two or three languages because their borders are so close to one another and because they went to school were languages are taught.
Now, think twice about NOT communicating in 'alien' tongues because you do not speak them and you might soon realize your singled out position.
Just imagine the possibility to talk and do business in your own tongue with foreigners without a translator. You've just had the futuristic optic of the (big) guy like google -- and others -- which have automated translation built in their applications and tools. Totally transparent, no need to belong to corporate America, no MIT diploma...
My take.
I may be wrong.
Mais je parle d'autres langues, alors je peux aller voir ailleurs.
jfjbMay 20th 2009 7:33AM
P.S. Google is not a company serving products to Americans only.
DarkbhuddaMay 20th 2009 7:33AM
I usually find corresponding with someone whose native language isn't English is easier than with native speakers. Too many native speakers of English can't be bothered writing English properly.
Can we have a google translation from crappy English to understandable English?
Bryan PriceMay 20th 2009 2:30AM
Now I can understand what my spam says!
Although I must say lately, Gmail's been letting more spam in than usual. The spammers have gotten around more of Google's blocks.
I'm getting tired of the Russian ICQ ims asking to be my friend, while at the same time advertising some website.
RPMay 20th 2009 7:33AM
Our engineering team did a joint project with a team in Japan. We spoke no Japanese, they spoke a small amount of English.
This would have been VERY useful.
Of course the automatic translations are sometimes more funny than useful.
chandrahas.sinhaMay 20th 2009 7:33AM
free this software downloade
MattMay 20th 2009 8:52AM
I can say, as a former teacher in a predominantly Hispanic area, this would have been useful for corresponding with parents. I would use my work email to correspond with them, so in gmail it wouldn't do me very good, but in the email system we used, it would have been nice to have this feature.
Rita OatesMay 24th 2009 10:24PM
Lots of school districts use ePals SchoolMail for exactly the reason you give. Teachers can write to parents in English and use the automatic language translation (available since 2000 in ePals!) to translate to the language of the parent. OR the teacher can send the email in English, let the parent try to read it, then translate it to their native language. The parent can reply in their own language and the teacher can translate it.
Students who are doing collaborative projects where they are collecting data, sharing information, etc. may want to send their answer in their native language but work across multiple countries and languages. That's where the power of and need for embedded translation in email becomes quite evident.
BboyMay 21st 2009 4:13AM
I'm more likely to speak with people who I have a common language with.
And if I HAVE to mail some alien language person (maybe if I plan a trip to Russia ?) I will write in English, admitting that everyone speaks English.
So this feature doesn't seem very useful.
But if we look forward in the future, a "universal translator" isn't such a bad idea, if we suppose:
- there is no predominant/almost-universal language as English is today
- OR the quality of the bot-translation improves a lot.
- OR *people have the right to communicate in their own language*
Some precision: I speak 3 wide-spread languages, and English is not my first one, so I understand translation is important