(A post about how to use the Google Translate Tool to practice a language.) I recently decided to brush up on my Chinese. I always roll with laughter when I see “Learn Chinese in 7 days” programs being advertised.
Whenever you learn a language, the great limitation is vocabulary – in speaking and also in understanding. Trying to increase my own fluency, I just created the following technique for practice.
I was listening to a guided meditation in English and was trying my best to translate what I was hearing into Chinese. I was vitally hampered by my lack of vocabulary. I played with my English-Chinese dictionary and then my Chinese English one for a while. (The great danger in using a dictionary – paper or electronic – is that it may give you a completely different or inappropriate translation. That’s why you should always translate in both directions.)
Led by my curiosity, I went on my computer and started using the Google Translate Tool to test my own knowledge and learn new words. I usually find the tool’s results are remarkable, especially when translating European languages – close linguistic relatives. With Chinese, the accuracy is more limited but still useful. I started typing sentences in English and reading the Chinese translation. I would then take the Chinese translation and plug it back into the tool to retranslate into English. (This catches many gross mistakes.)
This taught me a lot of useful expressions and vocabulary. The next step will be to run them by a native, to see if I found the right words and how natives would use them. Fortunately I love being laughed at.
The important thing to remember – if you decide to play with this technique – is to use very short and non-ambiguous sentences. ”The woman laughed at the dog” is much safer than “Although he feared the elevator had begun to malfunction, he rushed out to the street in search of a new diagram.” The more complex the grammar, the more likely an incorrect, hilarious translation.
If you use this system with care and a big grain of salt, you can test your capacity to generate sentences while learning new vocabulary. It is a fast and fun way to develop your capacity to express yourself. It is definitely not 100% or even 80% accurate but it is still amazing. The next step is to check with a native of course.
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