Greeters using Google Translate

Question

Hi, this is for all you greeters using Google Translate to greet South African (fully bilingual in most - I would even say probably in all - cases) new volunteers and managers - please do not do that. When you are born and bred with Afrikaans (and English - both subjects were compulsory at school) and someone greets you with a text that seems to be garbled, disjointed and not making contextual sense, it comes over as very amateuristic and unprofessional. Even if it is meant well. Please - I am a language volunteer; if they really need greeting in Afrikaans (i.e. do not understand English at all which is unlikely - remember - South Africa was part of the British Empire), please contact me. I'll be happy to do it. 

In general I'd be aware of the pitfalls of Google Translate in any language - it does not translate context ...

Taking this moment to thank you all as well for taking / making time to greet and guide! I appreciate it (do not have time myself - unless it concerns names I'm following - to do it but will translate if necessary).

Comments

I don’t post in someone’s language using google translate, but I do provide the link when they’re not posting in English (which will allow them to turn my post into their language, if needed).

@ Chris - I don't think we have any scripted other language posts anymore. The Spanish one I'd coordinated wasn't ever used, as we now have Spanish-speaking greeters, and as far as I know, that was the only one. Also, the French I encountered on two trips were wonderful to me when I tried to speak French - I did preface it with parlez-vous Anglais & a gallic shrug when they said non, which usually made them smile.

Cheers, Liz

Answer 1

Hi Philip,

On the other hand, don't you think some people appreciate that a person would take the time to try?

I know when I'm in a foreign country (unless it's France) people usually seem to appreciate when I try to speak their language, no matter how badly, rather than assuming they speak English.

Chris

Comments

But on the other hand again, if it's a boilerplate, scripted, cut-and-paste welcome, this wouldn't apply.

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Hey Phillip and Chris.  I am aware of this specific situation.  A greeter thought the lanuage was probably dutch, so the person who jumped in to help (Google translate or not) was working from incorrect assumptions.

When a person posts a Volunteer comment in a different language the Greeters try thier best to get them an answer from a language volunteer or ask for a tranlsation.

Thanks for posting this.  We will work on getting the language volunteers more involved.

Mags

Answer 2

No Chris, even though it might be well meant, it can have just the opposite effect ... I have French Dutch speaking FB friends who at times post in French and I would then translate with Bing (even worse than Google translate) and repost it - hilariously funny at times; you don't want that with greeting newcomers - you risk insulting them or just not getting the message across that you'd really want them to understand. I myself have been brought in deep embarassment more than once by people (customers) who thought that I had written something someone else had Google translated ....

Comments

Sorry Chris, I sent this from my smartphone and it wasn't meant to be anonymous (got 1 down vote for it I see as well). It was me, Philip - didn't know or think my name wouldn't show up in the feed ... Anyhow, point made. Thanks for answering and commenting. I appreciate all the work the WikiTreers put in this endeavour, and I'm sure it (the Google Translation) was made with good intentions.