Google translate is... iffy. Here's an example from this morning, where I asked a colleague about how the mooncakes were at last night's mid-Autumn festival:
were the mooncakes good last night? -> google translate -> 月饼好吗昨晚好吗？
月饼好吗昨晚好吗？ -> google translate -> Would you like me last night?
I ended up forming my own question, which was slightly wrong - my colleague asked 你是要说好吃吗? ("did you mean to say 'tasty'?") which I threw into el goog for a laugh, and got in return: "Are you going to be delicious?"
So either google translate is a bit iffy (still amazing, but iffy) or mooncakes are some sort of aphrodisiac and I'm not understanding that :)
> It's hard to see the financial incentive to provide unlimited translations to anyone in the world for free.
More communication = more trade, more market penetration = more money floating around. It's not a direct incentive, but it's there.
were the mooncakes good last night? -> google translate -> 月饼好吗昨晚好吗？
月饼好吗昨晚好吗？ -> google translate -> Would you like me last night?
I ended up forming my own question, which was slightly wrong - my colleague asked 你是要说好吃吗? ("did you mean to say 'tasty'?") which I threw into el goog for a laugh, and got in return: "Are you going to be delicious?"
So either google translate is a bit iffy (still amazing, but iffy) or mooncakes are some sort of aphrodisiac and I'm not understanding that :)
> It's hard to see the financial incentive to provide unlimited translations to anyone in the world for free.
More communication = more trade, more market penetration = more money floating around. It's not a direct incentive, but it's there.