RE: [FLS] Google Translate

[Luan Vannithone]

Hi Divon
 
I receive the email below from FLS group/forum. You can see how silly the Lao translation results often are.
My 1st reaction is how can I help improve it.
When I hover mouse pointer over the Lao word 'love' (incorrect translation from Stupid) the system gives me the impression I can improve it, because of the pop-up message "Click to edit and see alternative translations".
Since there are no alternatives I want to provide new suggestions. Unfortunately there are no actual mechanism to accept new suggestions. Frustration.
Divon,  (as an Google representative in Southeast Asia) Can you do something or arranging to create such mechanism to allow inputs from Lao people at large and channel them to the internal Google Translate engineers responsible for Lao language.
 
Regards,
 
Luan Vannithone
 

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From: in...@intolaw.com
Date: Wed, 27 Feb 2013 10:30:52 -0800
Subject: [FLS] Google Translate
To: F-...@googlegroups.com; ly...@laonet.com

Google Translate translates "Stupid" to "ຮັກ" (Love)!

Imagine a use of Google Translate: An English-speaking woman tells a Lao man: "Stupid". The Lao-speaking man asked her to type the word on Google Translate. She did. The Lao man thought that he had a green light and went for it! ... lol ...

Well, someone just told me that it may really mean the same thing anyway! Maybe Google Translate is right after all! ... lol ...


Into
www.LaoLawyer.com

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[Houmphanh]

Sabaydii Luan et all,
I often talked about it before, it is going to be a long road before Lao translation will work to an appreciable level. The issue of context analysis is still primitive, in case of Google translate, it is due to lack of data references for Lao.
Anyway in this case, of 'love' = 'stupid' farang :) being a one to one dictionary it can only be explained as wrong data, or duplicated data  and GTL just grabbed whatever its search got to 1st.

Google can fix this popup thing, as in my popup that you saw, new suggestions can be added. In this phase, the more data the merrier, but one day someone or some tools has to process the data.

Sookdii

Pan

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[Into Champon]

"Dumb" means "stupid".

However, if she was a nurse, she might have meant "numb" which means "devoid of sensation especially as a result of cold or anesthesia" UNLESS of course, you were playing "Green Light. Red Light" with her! ... lol ...


Into

On Wed, Feb 27, 2013 at 7:23 PM, ວິຈິຕຣ໌ ສເດັຈຕັນ <vik....@gmail.com> wrote:

Good day Luang,
I wonder how the Google settings are made before the translation of an English word into Lao (in our case) is accepted and posted online. How many steps and people involved are there?
Perplex and wonder how "stupid" means "love" in Lao? Might there be a technical glitch in the Google translating machine?

Back in 1976, an OZ nurse said "dumb" to me!!! I went for a toothache treatment. Is "dumb" same as "stupid"?

Dear Into,
For "stupid", the Lao guy will feel "NOT insulted" anyway, 555555!!!!

Have a nice day, All.

Vichit
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On Thu, Feb 28, 2013 at 7:31 AM, Luan Vannithone <luan_va...@hotmail.com> wrote:

[Into Champon]

Vichit,

Talking about racist people being stupid, a White patient told my wife who is Chinese but raised in the US:  "Go back to Russia"!  She just laughed at her.   A White old man once told me to go back to Vietnam.  So, I told him to go back to Africa!  I laughed and walked away.  A white police officer beat up my client for exposing himself in public while being high on drug.  My law firm helped him recovered $750,000 from the city that employed him.  The laws allowed victims of Civil Rights violation to recover attorney fees and costs in these cases.  Although the US is still far from perfect, things have changed for the better.

Kids in US schools are now being taught to respect other cultures (In the past, they used to be taught the melting pot concept to melt into the main stream culture which led to the feeling of inferiority of many immigrants who are now adults).  The so-called American-Indians were the first inhabitants from Asia.  Chineses arrived in the US in 1860s to build the railroad linking East and West, long before the influx of White immigrants.  Asians are now the largest legal immigrant group to the US!  As I wrote earlier, White population is projected to total less than 50% by 2043.

Into

(LaoLawyer.com)

On Friday, March 1, 2013, Into Champon wrote:

I've heard similar stories from other people who experienced them in Thailand and Western countries.

Over the years, I found that racist people are usually very stupid.  

When I was in high school on my way to the US, I decided to board the plane in London because it was cheaper than to do so in Paris.  With the saving, I bought Europass/Eurorail card and visited most countries in Western Europe.  Just about everyone in all those countries that I visited, was nice to me, possibly because there was not that many of us and they mistakenly thought that I was Japanese.  French women adored us possibly because Bruce Lee movies were popular and most of us know martial arts.  When I returned to visit a decade later, I could feel that I was not as welcome.  It will be interesting how my family and I will be received during our next visit when we will be staying in 5-star US-based hotels.

Unlike others, I have been very lucky.  When I was in high school in Paris, a French parent told a Lao friend of mine to the effect that the school was built by French people for French kids.  However, my classmates were very nice to me.  I was invited to lunches and dinners at their homes.  The parents of my history/geography teacher were refugees from Hungary.  He frequently asked me whether I had enough to eat and whether I was ok.  When I arrived in the US, all White people were equally nice to me.  The only people who did not want to be associated with me and other refugees/immigrants, were some Asians who were born in the US because they were afraid of being seen as refugees too.  As there are now more  minorities (In the US, White population is projected to be less than 50% by the year 2043), racism goes both ways.  Asians are now the most successful educationally and financially as a group.  Some Asians now look down on White people.  The US is so large that you can not generalize.  I found that with rare exceptions, White people who were racists, were usually very stupid and jealous of our success.

Into

On Thursday, February 28, 2013, ວິຈິຕຣ໌ ສເດັຈຕັນ wrote:

Sbaidee Into,

Yes, I clearly heard she said "dumb" NOT "numb" which surprised me very much because I had heard of Australian hospitality and politeness before we flew over from Vientiane. I didn't expect such a word from that lovely nurse at all.

She said "dumb" because I was coughing up as she thrusted a lead plate deep inside my throat for an X-Ray. Naturally anybody would cough if a strange matter was inside your throat, wouldn't you?

Another reason might be that lots of Asians started to migrate to OZ after the VN War and xenophobia started. Later on we, Lao students, came to learn the word "second class citizen" which we didn't hear in our Lycee school, and discrimination of aboriginals !

No question of "Green Light. Red Light" at that dentistry hospital Into.

I had another bad experience with a Thai porter at Don Muang Airport on the day we flew out of Bangkok to Sydney also. The Thai porter said "mong naa tham mai"!!!!???? I'd heard of this bad behavior before I encountered it myself!

Have a nice day.

Vichit

[Into Champon]

PS:  I do not want to mislead anyone that there is no racism in the US or in any other country and that everyone sees things the same way as I do.  In fact, one of my cousins who have been in the US since elementary school and are doing reasonably well, told everyone in his perfect American accent that "The US is the most racist country in the world"!  However, I should point out that his entire family arrived in the US with nothing, obtained all government benefits including welfare, and that many of his siblings are now millionaires!  

I see things differently. I am old fashioned.  I am grateful and have never forgotten those who did things for me, helped me and have been my friends throughout difficult times.  I had a very good life growing up in Laos.  I would never turn my back on Laos.  Anyone who spread lies about Laos upset me.  Similarly, I do not believe that I could start from scratch and reach where I am in any other country than in the US.  When I experienced discrimination, I worked twice as hard and eventually gained respect instead of feeling sorry for myself and give up.  I brought up my kids to work as hard and believe that they can accomplish anything that they truly want and never forget where their father is from.