Being an ESL (English Second Language speaker), I've learned to ask for help. I have a very dear friend who's helping me a lot, not only correcting my stories, but explaining me my errors so I can learn. Believe me, if I read my very first story in its original version, I laugh, or cry.
I've walked a long road and I still have a lot to learn, but I'm on the right path.
Sometimes I read stories with Italian sentences and often they're not right. Please, do not trust Google translate or other translator, there are so many exceptions that even google can say it wrong, like gender, yes, adjectives, nouns, verbs, they all have gender.
I can help. Message me your sentence in English, with a little background like the era we are talking about, if it's a man or a woman talking, stuff like that, and I will gladly help you. I'm not connected 24/7, but soon enough I will answer.
Thank you.
Ginger.
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YOU CAN'T LET ANYONE COME IN BETWEEN YOU AND THE THINGS YOU'RE PASSIONATE ABOUT IN THIS LIFE, OR IT AIN'T WORTH LIVING.
Yup.
If you aren't familiar with or have only a passing knowledge of whatever language you are running through Google Translate, things will likely not end well.
Yes, Google Translate has been vastly improved in the past five years due to the implementation of a system that runs algorithm driven "translation" through actual human beings like myself. The aggregate feedback is then touched by IT magic, and the more accurate translation of the phrase is integrated into the algorithm.
Still, this is only true of very common languages; French is my natural language, and even with 2,727,600 individual contributions from French speakers from around the world, Google Translate still has difficulties. Idioms, for instance. Idioms and certain other types of phrasing simply don't translate.
Same for Spanish, which like French and Portuguese has specific phrases that vary by vast margins depending on where the speaker is from--for instance, Québécois French has entirely different idioms, swear words, and even grammatical rules when compared against Metropolitan French (also called Parisian French). It is so different, and the gulf between the two are so vast, that if IRL, as a Québécois French speaker, I were to attempt to communicate with a Metropolitan French speaker, the latter would likely not understand or miss a great deal of the conversation.
The reverse is not true--Québécois French speakers have no issues with understanding Metropolitan French. In my own case, I volunteer to vet Google Translate translations of English to French because although Québécois French was my mum's native language, she also recognised that speaking Québécois French alone was not a good option, and so I had a governess(?) from Nice for at least the first decade of my existence.
And this is for a language that as recently as fifty years ago was the lingua franca of the world.
Spanish and Portuguese do not have the exact same issues, but again, an algorithm will never be an adequate replacement for a human being. Arabic would be another example, as would Farsi and Hebrew or Yiddish--all super common languages, and all an absolute bafflement to Google Translate. So yah, if you have zero familiarity with any given language, please, find someone who even if not a native speaker is able to spot errors.
Want to spend some time wallowing in a Recommended Read? Pick one! Or two! Or seven!
I know having to rely on machine translations - it can be a little hit and miss. Italian is tricky (mine is atrocious), my French is much better.
Google Translate is odd... sometimes, it uses colloquials, other times, very formal. It's like a truculent teenager, depends what mood you catch it in.
I get the point on machine translation of Italian, there is gender smeared all over the place in Italian. Unless you keep it basic - you will get into trouble.
@TheTravellingMan, remember, I can help!
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YOU CAN'T LET ANYONE COME IN BETWEEN YOU AND THE THINGS YOU'RE PASSIONATE ABOUT IN THIS LIFE, OR IT AIN'T WORTH LIVING.
