[s-cars] Why is ETKA site only in Russia?

[Kirby Smith]

I think, Igor, that translating a language with cases, declensions, etc.
should be easier than a positional language such as English.  I only had
two years of Latin, but I bet translating it into English would be a
straightforward logic process.  I also think that translating English
(American) abbreviations into Russian would be at least as difficult as
the reverse in your example.  In general, a language with many rules
makes the software programming easier than one that allows the same
thing to be said many ways.

Also note that there are expensive translation programs that are, I
expect, not being used by Babelfish.

kirby

Igor Kessel wrote:
>
> Kenneth Hayes wrote:
> >
> > for you guys who are language challenged, as i am, you can use this
> > translator website.  although i've been told the translations done through
> > this website may not be 100% accurate, it's better than guessing.  i think
> > it works pretty well, but to qualify my last statement; it's hard for any
> > translation software to be 100% accurate because of innuendos or words that
> > are used in multiple ways, etc.
> >
> > this site does russian to english phrases or web pages.
> > http://babelfish.altavista.com/
> >
>
> Well, Ken, I am not exactly challenged when it comes to my mother
> tongue.
> ;)
>
> As for the altavista translation, here's my old post to the A4 list of
> 31 July 2002 posted on the identical occasion.
> ===========
>
> Audi A4 wrote:
> >
> > If you go here:
> >
> > http://babelfish.altavista.com/
> >
> > You can translate the entire page and browse it.  Use the "translate
> > a webpage" dialog box.
> >
> > Jon
>
> Well, I am a bit skeptical about bablefish successfully translating such
> an enormously complex language as Russian into such fairly simple
> language as English, where the word largely stays the same, yet its
> meaning depends on its position in the sentence. No cases, no
> declensions, no genders, no prefixes, no suffixes to worry about like
> the case with Russian would be.
>
> As an example I have taken one of my cars, a '98 A4TQ and drilled down a
> few pages:
> http://194.87.53.210/audivw/vag4.asp?cid=219&motor=AEB&cyl=4&vol=1,8&myear=1998
>
> Here's the result.
> Lines 1 through 4 are OK.
>
> .....
> Line 5.
> The actual Russian page: Final Drive, Differential, Steering
> Babelfish translation: Front axle, differential, steering control
>
> Line 6.
> The actual Russian page: Rear Differential
> Babelfish translation: Rear axle
>
> .....
> Line 8.
> The actual Russian page: Steering, Pedal Cluster
> Babelfish translation: Control, the treadle knot
>
> .....
> Line 10.
> The actual Russian page: Electrical System
> Babelfish translation: the electrician
>
> It gets worse if we drill down further, say into the Engine link.
> Firstly babelfish has no way of knowing that the left button's caption
> reads "Search"
>
> Secondly, it can't decipher abbreviations and instead it simply
> transliterates them. Such as:
>
> Line 1.
> The actual Russian page: Air Pipe, Viscous Coupling (the long Russian
> adjective "air" is abbreviated)
> Babelfish translation: vozdushn. pipe the viscose clutch
>
> .....
> Line 3.
> The actual Russian page: Clutch (the long Russian "Clutch" is
> abbreviated)
> Babelfish translation:  it is coupled.
>
> :)
>
> Nothing beats owning the Family Album.
>
> --
> Igor Kessel
> two turbo quattros
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