Saturday 24 March 2012

Why I love Google Translate.

Some of my MFL colleagues will tell you that online translators are the bane of their lives and, to a certain extent and in certain circumstances, I agree.

There is nothing worse than a pupil handing in a piece of work which has been Googley Translated especially if it is in the wrong language.

A colleague recently received a piece of German homework written in Dutch. The child thought it said "Deutsch".

When marking students' work I have google translate open on my computer and if there is anything I'm not sure about I type it in to see what they were trying to say.

Everyone has their own google translate story and I'm sure that many of them are true.

My own personal favourite was this from a year 7 boy only this week:

"JLS sont bouffées."

I'd no idea what he was trying to say, so I used google translate to give me an idea.

It came back with the phrase "JLS are hot."

I asked him about this. He got very embarassed and turned a bright shade of red.

What he'd typed into the translator was "JLS are puffs."

Sweet revenge from the google corporation.

And that's why I love google translate.


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