Name: Reagan Tomlin School: Ariton

Date: 1/10/20 Facilitator: Mrs. Johnson

0.08 Online Translators

Open Google Translate in two separate tabs. Then, answer the questions below. (18 points)
1. In the first tab, copy and paste the following text into Google Translate. Translate to
French. Then, in the second tab, paste the French and translate it back into English. Paste
the final English translation in the area below. Highlight the places where it differs from
the original text.

“I think of Google Translate as an aid when a teacher isn’t there,” sophomore

Nikolai Levisohn said. “At times it doesn’t give you exactly what you need but
it can be helpful when there is no other aid. In class your teacher is a human
translator, so you should be able to use a translator when you aren’t in class.”

2. In the first tab, copy and paste the following text into Google Translate. Translate to
German. Then, in the second tab, paste the German and translate it back into English.
Paste the final English translation in the area below. Highlight the places where it differs
from the original text.

One of the main reasons teachers are able to tell if a students used a translator
is because there was vocabulary or sentence structure that was outside the
students level of the language, and another is that translators tend to use
literal translations.

“I have felt that Google Translate was like a calculator in a math class. It was a
tool made available to me and I used it when I couldn’t do something on my
own. If you know Spanish you should know when it makes an obvious
mistake,” sophomore Kendall Powell said

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 3. In the first tab, copy and paste the following text into Google Translate. Translate to
Spanish. Then, in the second tab, paste the Spanishand translate it back into English.
Paste the final English translation in the area below. Highlight the places where it differs
from the original text.

“Online translators tend to use literal translations instead of stating it in the

way it would be said in that target language,” Spanish Professor Heather
Harper said. “For example, in Spanish if you want to say ‘I am 20 years old’
you would say/write ‘Yo tengo veinte años’ where the literal English
translation is ‘I have 20 years’.”

"Online translators tend to use literal translations instead of saying it the way it would
be said in that target language," said Spanish teacher Heather Harper. "For example, in
Spanish if you want to say" I am 20 years old, "I would say / write" I am twenty years
old, "where the literal English translation is" I am 20 years old. "

4. In the first tab, copy and paste the following text into Google Translate. Translate to
Latin. Then, in the second tab, paste the Latin and translate it back into English. Paste the
final English translation in the area below. Highlight the places where it differs from the
original text.

What do people gain from all the hard work

that they work so hard at under the sun?
A generation goes, and a generation comes,
but the earth remains as it always has.
The sun rises, the sun sets;
it returns panting to the place where it dawns.

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 5. In the first tab, copy and paste the following text into Google Translate. Translate to
Chinese. Then, in the second tab, paste the Chinese and translate it back into English.
Paste the final English translation in the area below. Highlight the places where it differs
from the original text.

There’s a season for everything

and a time for every matter under the heavens:
a time for giving birth and a time for dying,
a time for planting and a time for uprooting what was planted,
a time for killing and a time for healing,
a time for tearing down and a time for building up,

Everything has a season

The time of everything in the world:
Time of delivery and death,
The time of sowing and the time of uprooting,
Kill time and cure time,
The time of dismantling and the accumulated time,

6. After reviewing the translation errors above, what can you say about the types of errors
Google Translate makes? Give specific examples from the samples above.

Google translate translates everything literally, instead of translating the nouns and
verbs correctly. An example of this is when the original text said Professor but the
translated version said teacher.

7. In your own words, give at least two reasons why you should not use online translators to
complete your work in ACCESS.

It is cheating and it is mostly inaccurate and you will get it wrong.

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 8. The ACCESS Academic Integrity Policy states that “Students will give credit to others
whose work is used. Neither Internet content nor the work of WBI or VCI classmates will
be cut, copied, or plagiarized.” Based on this policy, is the use of online translators
permitted? Explain why or why not.

No, because it is cheating and it does not always work.

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