Machine Translations

A person who wants to have texts translated has to pay a lot of money. Professional interpreters or translators are expensive. Despite this, it is becoming increasingly important to understand other languages. Computer scientists and computer linguists want to solve this problem. They have been working for some time now on the development of translation tools. Today, there are many different programs. But the quality of machine translations is typically not good. However, the programmers aren't at fault for that! Languages are very complex structures. Computers, on the other hand, are based on simple mathematical principles. Therefore, they can't always process languages correctly. A translation program must learn a language completely. In order for that to happen, experts have to teach it thousands of words and rules. That is practically impossible. It's easier to have a computer crunch numbers. It's good at that! A computer can calculate which combinations are common. It recognizes, for example, which words are often next to each other. For that, it has to be given texts in various languages. This way it learns what is typical for certain languages. This statistical method will improve automatic translations. However, computers cannot replace humans. No machine can imitate a human brain when it comes to language. So translators and interpreters will have work for a long time to come! In the future, simple texts could certainly be translated by computers. Songs, poetry and literature, on the other hand, need a living element. They thrive on the human feeling for language. And it's good that way…

Guess the language!

French is counted among the Romance languages. That means that it developed from Latin. It is thus related to other Romance languages like Spanish or Italian. Today French is spoken on every continent. It is the native language of more than 110 million people. A total of about 220 million people speak French. For this reason French is considered a world language. Many international organizations use French as the official language.

In the past French was the language of diplomacy. Today English has taken over that role for the most part. Nevertheless, French is still one of the most important common languages. And the number of speakers has steadily climbed for years! This is due to strong population growth in the African and Arabic region. French is also spoken on islands in the Caribbean and in the South Pacific. If you like to travel you should definitely learn French!