Translating websites.

[chiangrai]

I've just been getting into buying online in Thailand.

I search on Google and then press "translate this page"

it's terrible.

Some tell me to get Google Chrome because it translates automatically.

But I sometimes use the Google translate page and that's terrible too.

Does anybody know is Google chrome better than the other 2 Google translation services,

or better still have another alternative,before I install Google chrome and see what it's like.

thanks

[bifftastic]

I have yet to see results from any translation software that does well translating English into Thai.

There are many words that have more than one meaning, which is probably something to do with it.

Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

[SpaceKadet]

Online translators are notoriously bad at translating to and from any language. They are improving, but most of the time it is just verbatim and sometimes totally wrong. For example, the first sentence of the OP translated to Thai and then to English comes back as:

I have been in online purchases in India. ( ผมเพิ่งได้รับในการซื้อออนไลน์ในประเทศไทย)

Huh? One would think that the Thai translator would at least get "Thailand" right.

Unfortunately, there is nothing you can do. The translators are web based and not part of the browser, so it doesn't matter which browser you use.

One really fun thing you can do is to take a paragraph from a newspaper or a book, translate it online to Thai, then take that translation to Japanese, then to German, and then back to English. Now see if you can recognize the original text

[chiangrai]

O.k,

I think I will continue with the way I've been doing it so far.

My wife can read Thai and I can speak it so I get her to help me.

But it's mainly hardware shops I'm searching and that makes it so difficult because technical terms aren't in the dictionary.

Ah well,I learn a lot of Thai this way but it ain't convenient

Thanks for your help.

P.S sometimes I find something on eBay in Thailand and then try get an internet address but I think eBay make this difficult.

[infinity11]

Are not most technical terms actually in English?

just watch out for the pronunciation

in fact might be best to write it out on paper

Edited October 21, 2013 by infinity11

[chiangrai]

No,not most,a very small percentage actually.It's tough going.

[laowai1960]

A tip for self-generated translations is to 'de-colloquialize' your writing. That is to say, use specific words rather than expressions and phrases.

Adopting this method, the sentence, "I've just been getting into buying online in Thailand." could be changed to, "Recently I have started to buy things online from Thai websites." which Google Translator translates to, "เร็ว ๆ นี้ผม ได้เริ่มต้นการ ซื้อสิ่ง ออนไลน์ จากเว็บไซต์ ไทย."