Friday, September 26, 2008

It's A Small World After All

The other day, while reading fashion nation (a fave), Stephie posted about Niotillfem (about which I’ve also blogged). In my post about Niotillfem, I indicated that I couldn’t even figure out from which Scandi nation it hails, what with the translation being so minimal to useless. Stephie, on the other hand, seemed to know all sorts of things about it and its author. Like her name is Sandra and she’s Swedish, for starters. Natch, I instantly determined that Stephie must be some sort of Singaporean multi- language expert. Turns out, there’s this super easy trick to reading the foreign blogs – a beautiful translator that’s part of Google. Thanks Stephie for sharing your expertise!

Here’s what you do:

1. Go to the blog you want to translate.

2. Copy the URL.

3. Paste it into your Google search bar.

4. When you hit enter, a link to the site will come up with the word “Translate” to the right hand side.

5. Click it to read an articulate (i.e. totally English seeming) translation.

*OK, perhaps I am the only blogger who didn’t know about this, but in the slim chance that you are as-yet uninformed, you have to give it a go.

12 comments:

  1. That's what I do with my german blogs :)
    But you know the translator is not so well, sometimes it doesn't translate some words and we have to guess the meaning, but it's ok, it's better than look to all those letters and couldn't read a thing.
    LOL

    xoxo

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  2. Yes I know - I love google translate so much!

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  3. Thanks for this tip.

    I hope this translator works. The other ones I've tried just spit back gobbledygook!

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  4. The results are still pretty haphazard - those literal translations can be bizarre. At least you get the sense of what's being said though!

    We sometimes translate reviews of my husband's movies in other languages and the translations are hilariously bizarre.

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  5. Actually you can just drop a tool bar in your browser.When you are in a page you just press the button and it translates. Obviously the translation is very rough most time s but good enough to understand I find.

    http://translate.google.com/translate_tools?hl=en
    in the page above just drag a box called English and drop that into the toolbar (if you have one) in your browser. Easy

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  6. Useful stuff! I'm going to try it now.

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  7. Hey Everyone: I have been finding that Google translator does a really good job. I mean, it's not perfect but it's 1000 times better than any other translator I've used - and it's not cumbersome.

    Thanks, Songy, for your excellent tip. I'm going so techie!

    Skye: You husband makes movies?? That is extremely sexy and intriguing. You are veritably a Hollywood Wife, yes? :-)

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  8. Fantastic...thanks so much for sharing this...I'm someone who didn't know about it. There are a couple of Swedish blogs that I love, I tried babelfish, but they don't have Swedish to English...well, I'm off to read those Swedish blogs:)

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  9. Thank you! I'm a 'blogger' who knows nothing about anything, so be advised that there will ALWAYS be someone who needs your tips and info.

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  10. Thought of you ;)
    http://store.americanapparel.ca/rntp354.html

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  11. I knew about that, but I was as surprised as you are when I discovered it!

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  12. Bronwyn: Happy to provide some useful info. I love those Swedish blogs too...

    Sister Wolf: So glad to know it will be helpful. Times move so fast on this here interweb. I never know if I'm the last one to hear :-)

    Y: I KNOW! I tried on the leggings and I almost bought them (insanely) but they were really $$ and very, very, very bright.

    Atelier: It's genius, yes??

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