Google introduced the ability to translate from and to Arabic/English. I first heard about it last year, from my friend Basem, and it was until I saw it, and tested it, that I knew it is a good translation tool.
To test it, I used a text from BBC (Arabic and English News) about a recent car bombing. I started with the Arabic-English. I used text from this news piece (81 Words):
أفاد مراسلنا في العاصمة العراقية بغداد أن انفجار سيارة مفخخة في مدينة كربلاء أدى إلى مقتل عدد من الأشخاص لم تعرف بعد حصيلتهم وإصابة عدد آخر بجروح نقلا عن مصادر رسمية عراقية. وكانت مصادر في الشرطة العراقية قد أعلنت أن سيارة مفخخة انفجرت قرب محطة حافلات رئيسية في وسط كربلاء وقرب مقر المحافظة. وتقع كربلاء على مسافة 110 كيلومترات جنوبي بغداد، وتضم بعضا من أهم الأضرحة المقدسة عند الشيعة، وقد شهدت في الآونة الأخيرة عددا من الهجمات والتفجيرات التي شنها مسلحون.
And it was translated as (101 Words):
A correspondent in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, a car bomb explosion in the city of Karbala which killed a number of people did not know yet hard and wounding a number of others were injured, quoting official Iraqi sources. The sources in the Iraqi police have announced that a car bomb exploded near the main bus station in the center of Karbala, near the headquarters of the governorate. Karbala, located at a distance of 110 kilometers south of Baghdad, including some of the most sacred shrines in Shia We have recently witnessed a number of attacks and bombings mounted by gunmen.
It seems that the system was able to translate the text with above average accuracy. The English translated text although contained some grammatical mistakes, was generally readable, and one could understand the context of.
For the English-Arabic translation, I choose a different kind of article, a Blog post by Natasha.. The original text goes like this:
After nearly six months absence, Mental Mayhem’s opinion poll is back. The topic this week is the ongoing Hamas debacle. So far the poll’s results are in favor of the Jordanian government version of the story. Part of me wants to believe yesterday’s airing of the confessions of Hamas members on Jordan’s national TV would alter the opinions of skeptics out there. But I think I might be mistaken. A quick sift through the comments posted on different Jordanian blogs here and here and on my own blog seems to prove otherwise. Sadly enough, and for reasons I won’t get into now, it seems that there is a segment of society that insists upon doubting anything coming from the Jordanian government — no matter what; even if it involves their own security.
I wonder if those that continue to deny Jordan was eyed by some Hamas members as a possible military target have forgotten that Jordan was recently attacked. Jordan has been — and still is — a target. That’s the sad reality we have to grasp. Whether the perpetrators were Alqaeda or Hamas, I believe Jordanians should stand up and condemn these attempts instead of resorting to the old Middle Eastern option: embracing conspiracy theories.
As for the translation:
بعد غياب نحو سته اشهر والفوضي العقليه في استطلاع للراي عاد. موضوع هذا الاسبوع الجاري حماس الكارثه. حتي في نتاءج الانتخابات لمصلحه الحكومه الاردنيه روايه القصه. من يريد ان يري لي امس بث اعترافات اعضاء حماس في الاردن في التلفزيون الوطني ان تغير اراء المتشككون الي هناك. لكن اعتقد ان الخلط. سريع خلال التدقيق تعليقات علي موقع مختلف الاردنيه بلوغس هنا وهنا بمفردي بلوغ يبدو ان يثبت خلاف ذلك. المحزن ، ولاسباب لن ندخل في الان ، يبدو ان هناك شريحه من المجتمع الذي يصر علي الشك في صدور اي شيء من الحكومه الاردنيه — مهما. حتي ولو كان ينطوي علي امنها. اتساءل اذا ما واصل رفض الاردن مراقب بعض اعضاء حماس علي هدف عسكري يمكن ان ننسي ان الاردن مءخرا لهجوم. فقد ظل الاردن — وما زال — هدفا. وهذا الواقع المءلم وفهمه. اذا كان مرتكبو القايدا او حماس اعتقد ان الاردنيين الوقوف وادانه هذه المحاولات بدلا من اللجوء الي الخيار القديم الشرق الاوسط : تبني نظريات المءامره.
Not that good, I am not sure why, but the output text contains many spelling mistakes.. most of them are related to the Hamza. According to sources, people working on the Arabic translation for Google are not native speakers of the language, nor with good knowledge of it.. if that is the case, I think that the output is acceptable. It is worth noting that it translated “Blog” to “بلوغ” which is a transliteration of the world rather than a translation.Google marks Arabic translation as BETA, so it is right assume that it will be better in the near future. I think that such service will be of great value to the arabic internet audience, as it will help opening more doors, and lowering the language barrier for them.
Arabic, Google, Internet & Technology