Much talk on the socials lately about the neural machine translation engine DeepL, the self-billed "world's most accurate translator", and its less than flattering results in handling specialised terminology has made me wonder...
How accurate is DeepL in translating good old Strine (Australian English)?
Earlier this year I investigated how well LinkedIn's automated translation was with some typical Australian English sentences (link here)
Needlessly to say, it wasn't a shining success 🤦🏻
DeepL must then be a dead cert to get it spot on, right? ☑️
So I've ran the same sentences as before in DeepL into one of my working languages – Bulgarian – and here are the results (with back-translation) ⤵️.
* For full details as to what these Australian phrases mean, refer to the previous link
🦘 I barrack for the Rabbitohs. They're heaps good. Carn you bunnies!
🌹 Аз съм барак за Rabbitohs. Те са много добри. Carn you bunnies!
Translation: "I am a shack for Rabbitohs. They are very good. Carn you bunnies!"
Well, not even bothering to translate some of the text really defeats the whole purpose of translation engines like DeepL – translating text.
FAIL ❌
🦘 You can find the doonas in Manchester next to the lay-by counter.
🌹 Можеш да намериш дунапрените в Манчестър до гишето за разтоварване.
Translation: "You can find the foamy ones in Manchester next to the counter for unloading"
This is way off course! Hardly anything here was accurate.
FAIL ❌
🦘 The truckie parked his road train at the service station and then went off at the eshays.
🌹 Камионът паркира пътния си влак на бензиностанцията и след това тръгва към ешалоните.
Translation: "The truck passed its road train at the petrol station and then went towards the echalons."
"Eшалоните" is not even a Bulgarian word! Crazy how the truckie (a truck/lorry driver) has become the truck/lorry itself in Bulgarian. Quite a transformation!
And phrasal verbs are tricky. All it takes is one extra, carefully placed preposition to change the meaning completely, something that computers really don't get.
FAIL ❌
OK, maybe a language with greater online resources will do a better job. So I tried Russian. Here are the results
🦘 I barrack for the Rabbitohs. They're heaps good. Carn you bunnies!
🐻 Я болею за «Раббитохс». Они очень хороши. Карн, кролики!
I support the "Rabbitohs". They are very good. Carn, rabbits!
Not bad! It got the message across, but it just transliterated "carn" and therefore should have had quotation marks.
🦘 You can find the doonas in Manchester next to the lay-by counter.
🐻 Дуны можно найти в Манчестере рядом с прилавком.
The dunes can be found in Manchester next to the counter.
Yep, it has no idea here. Where... is... the... accuracy?! Well, not here.
🦘 The truckie parked his road train at the service station and then went off at the eshays.
🐻 Дальнобойщик припарковал свой автопоезд на станции техобслуживания, а затем отправился в Эшейз.
The truck driver parked his road train at the repair garage and then headed to Eshays.
Well done for getting "truckie" and "road train" correct, but the rest is not accurate. A service station should have been "автозаправочная станция", it didn't get the phrasal verb "to go off at" (meaning, to start yelling at) and treated "Eshays" as a place name ("гопники" or "шпана" would've been perfect).
The verdict? 🥁
❗Where's the accuracy or even at times the translation?
Fails all round.
Note:
💡 Use automated translation at your peril
💡 For true accuracy or, indeed, proper translation, get a professional to do the job
💡 You get what you pay for
If you want accurate translations, talk to me. I'll make sure that your truckie does not become the truck!
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