【Revised】Lost in Translation?

We might come across millions of people a day in SL but all of us probably speak different languages such as Korean, Arabic or Spanish. In the uncommunicative circumstance, are you eager for a personal interpreter?

Some of you may have run into the situation that you cannot get help from others or build rapport with people you met due to the language barrier. Don’t worry! We got a free custom-made interpreter here in Language Translator -By Simbolic . Get ready to have one? Here we go!

While you are teleported there, find the half cave named “Language Translator” and then you will see a board -Simbolic Translator. After you take the translator, you should put it on for operation. Whenever it is functioning, you can only translate one language into your speaking language. Click the bar right on “I speak” to choose your speaking language, and then opt for the target language others speak.

With the portable interpreter, you can explore around SL and visit various exotic places, contacting foreigners even though you are not multilingual. It seems a satisfactory tool for basic translation; however, if you would like to build deep relationship with other speakers, I am afraid the translator couldn’t serve as the best bridge as you thought. The following is my experiment in English-Chinese translation:
Dezno: hi
translator: 您好
Dezno: is anybody here
translator: 是谁在这里
Dezno: what the hell
translator: 什么是地狱
Dezno: oh my
translator: 噢，我的
Dezno: bad translation
translator: 坏翻译
Dezno: well i had better translate myself
translator: 以及更好地将我自己
Dezno: how comwe
translator: 如何comwe
Dezno: how come
translator: 怎么
Dezno: no one here
translator: 没有人在这里
Dezno: i feel bored
translator: 我觉得无聊
Dezno: i had better take it off
translator: 我有更好地把

First of all, some words the translator uses are out-of-date like 您好and there are also some mistranslations. By the way, if you misspell words, the translator could not tell and correct it on its own like a human being. It can’t even translate some colloquial phrases precisely. As to the translation quality of other language, I couldn’t affirm they are the same as English-Chinese translation. Yet there is one thing I am sure-if you do really like to make friends with people in SL, especially Chinese speakers, you had better be the interpreter yourself, or you maight lose in translation.