Google Translate is my friend

I'm seeing more EU folks in the North American servers. In my VG, we have several EU folks. Last night, around 12:30 AM, one of our VG mates from Spain logged in and was looking for team. I had about an hour before bed, so I offered to team up. He said that his english wasn't too good, so I fired up Google Translate and hoped that it would do a decent enough job. He needed the Brickstown mayhem, so I decided to do speed paper missions. I try to tell him what I was doing:

Translate: I will look for Welder and his guards.
--> Voy a buscar Welder y sus guardias.

Since I'm speeding the paper missions, I skip the other mobs and go for the target.
Translate: He's on the third floor.
--> Es en el tercer piso.

Even though I chatted in spanish, he replied in english. After we get the Brickhouse badge, he completed his accolade. Yay! I ask him what he wants to do next.

Translate: What do you want to do?
--> ¿Qué quieres hacer?

This time, he replies in Spanish. Doh!

Sweating, I copy and paste his response in Google translate, spanish to english. Ah, he wants to do rogue tips... I think...?

Since I don't respond right away, he asked if I spoke spanish. I said:
Translate: No, I guess.
--> No, supongo

Then I show him the link to Google translate. He laughs.

I ask which tip he wants to do.
Translate: My tips are Nemesis, CoT and Crey. Who do you want to fight?
--> Mi consejo es Nemesis, CoT y Crey. ¿A quién quieres pelear?

He says Nemesis, so off we go.

At the end of the mish, he says the wifey needs him. It's 1:30 am, so I say Buenos noches (without Google translate. I know at least that much).

He says Buenas dias, since it's morning in Spain. We log out and that ended my day.

/em applaud

I love living in the future.

Now that is incredibly awesome!

Having fun knows no boundries!
Tener diversión no conoce límites!

Eeez not a rat, eeez a hamster

Que?

"You got to dig it to dig it, you dig?"
Thelonious Monk

Pretty cool.

I'm taking a twice weekly Spanish class at work and I was able to understand about 2/3 of your untranslated Spanish. I'm pretty proud of myself considering that 7 weeks ago the extent of my Spanish was the strange insult, "Tu eres un pato grande"

Too bad google doesn't handle dying languages like Osage. I've had to pick up bits of that the hard way for playing one of my characters. But at least that's sparked an interest to pick up more of the language before the last of the last of the 200 or so living fluent speakers of the language are gone.

Thankfully, some of the Wazhazhe** youth through 40 somethings are now trying to learn more of the tongue to help keep it alive.

(** that's phonetic Osage for the French named and spelled Osage. Think about it and try this at home: pronounce Osage as if it were a French word. Sounds a lot like Waz-ha-zhe!)

There are people raising their children to be native Klingon speakers. That's right, they speak Klingon at home so their children will pick it up .

This gives me great hope for the survival of dying languages.

... all we need are more Osage nerds.

I still usually double-translate- translate TO the language I want, then back to English, just to be sure.... Had a few scarring embarrassments back when Babelfish was the translation service of choice. Most were horridly maligned phrases that I can't specify here.... I'll just say they were terribly suggestive.


of course, I'm no better IRL.
Back in College, I befriended a young Mexican lady and at about the time that it started turning into something more than friendship, I was just in my first semester of taking Spanish. I was still novice enough that I used word association to remember most translations ("table-->mesa... also a flat raised surface..." that kind of stuff). I'd also picked up a smattering of American Sign Language the same way, though, and I sometimes mixed up which association was for which language.

So... there I was, trying to think of a way to say something in her native language... something simple. I wracked my brain for the Spanish word for 'beautiful.' I remembered an association of beauty-->face (american sign language for beautiful is a hand gesture over the face) and thought of the first face-sounding Spanish word I could find and said, "tu eres muy fácil."

Not something you say to a date.

Vivo en California, y por eso yo estudiaba el español en la escuela secundaria por cuatro años. Hay muchos hablantes de español aquí.

My counselor was actually going to put me in French at first. Best decision I ever made for a class change.

freetranslations.com is how i was able to play on the french servers from time to time. Actually helps in shaking things up a bit from time to time, makes things more crazy and unpredictable

Gotta love teaming with people who you dont have a clue what they're saying

oh and btw, stop stealing our players!