Request I received concerning German-translation softwares

[FRITZ JUENGLING]

Many of my students have no idea how to use a foreign language dictionary, even though I tell them again and again.  They simply go to some site like translator.com (I do not know if this is really a name, I'm just making it up.) and plug in what they want.  Often, if they plug in one word, they can get away with it, but at the sentence level, what they get is almost always mumbo-jumbo, especially if they want a past-tense sentence (from English into German).  However, even one word translations render nonsense.  Here is one of my favorites:  Brunnen, brunnen, Sprung bruch war sehr spass (Well, well, spring break was a lot of fun).  Those of you who read German will see the many mistakes.  Not only have several English words been translated to the wrong German words, but there is an idiomatic problem as Brunnen (well).
How does one translate (from English to German) the word 'get'?  A buddy of mine from grad school came up with a list of German translations--there were about 30 German words for English 'get.'  I don't think any translation program is ready for this yet.
Fritz Juengling
>>> gcohen at UMR.EDU 01/27/04 10:22AM >>>
Today I received a request from a student concerning translation
softwares.  Would anyone on this ads-l list be able to provide him
advice/guidance? I'm not familiar with this subject. Are we perhaps
still at the stage where human translators are required?

Gerald Cohen


>Subject: Research Project, Need A German Translation Software
>Date: Mon, 26 Jan 2004 22:14:24 -0600
>From: "Pitts, Fred Douglas (UMR-Student)" <fdp6w8 at umr.edu>
>To: "Cohen, Gerald Leonard" <gcohen at umr.edu>
>
>Hello, my name is Doug Pitts, and I am a student in the Mechanical
>Engineering dept.
>
>I am working with Dr. McAdams on a research project involving books
>written in German.  We are wanting to translate a book that is
>largely technical content from German into English, and are in the
>need of better translation software to do so.
>
>  I was wondering if there was any particular software that you would
>recommend over another, or if you even had any idea as to the
>"ability" of the translation softwares...
>
>These are web addresses for a few programs that I found
>
><http://www.free-online-guide.com/free_translation_software.htm>http://www.free-online-guide.com/free_translation_software.htm
>
><http://store.yahoo.com/logomedia-software/>http://store.yahoo.com/logomedia-software/
>
><http://www.tranexp.com/>http://www.tranexp.com/
>
>
>Any help you could provide would be most appreciated.
>
>Thank you for your help,
>
>Doug Pitts