Honestly speaking, I sometimes depended on mchine tranlstion on PC. It can be usefull when his dictionary is trained enough (over 500 words). I used it to read 300 pages of English document in a very short time for example. Of course the translation is mess. but I can see what is disscussed in which page quickly and then I read it intensively point to point.
Machine translation is stupid. But I think it is not meaningless when you understand them. As we have Japanese saying, "ばかとはさみは使いよう;Idiot and scissors are useful when you use skillfully".
Here, I would like to compare google translator and excite translator.
Original is JF system operator's message. Translators are
Google
http://translate.google.co.jp/translate_t
excite
http://www.excite.co.jp/world/english/
AFter the first translation (English to Japanese). I tried to translate the result of the translation to opposite language.
Original:
Rainy season seems to have started early in Tokyo this year, but at least it's not too hot yet!
But this isn't a post about weather, so... Early this morning we did some major upgrades to the JF server. I am hoping that it will make the site even faster. If you notice any problems or bugs after the upgrade, please let me know!
Here are the results.
Original-(Google)-Japanese
雨季の東京では今年初めに開始しているが、少なくとも まだ暑くもないのだ！
しかし、この天候についての記事ではありませんので... 我々はいくつかの主要なアップグレードしたサーバーに JF早期今朝。私は、このサイトでも高速化を実現するこ� ��を願っています。場合は、アップグレードした後、ご� ��絡ください何の問題やバグを予告！
Original-(Google)-Japanese-(Google)-English
Tokyo is the rainy season started earlier this year, at least it's not too hot yet!
However, this article is not about the weather ... we have upgraded the server several key JF early this morning. I am hoping to achieve speeds in this site. If, after the upgrade, subject to any bugs or problems please contact us!
Original-(Google)-Japanese-(Excite)-English
It is not hot though begins in Tokyo of the rainy season at the beginning of this year at least yet.
However, because it is not an article on this weather . . . We are JF this mornings in some upgrading main servers of the early stage. I am wishing speed-up to be achieved also on this site. The situation reports after it upgrades and notifies of what problem and the bug beforehand.
Original-(Excite)-Japanese
梅雨は今年早く東京で始まったように思えますが、少な くともそれほどまだ暑くはありません!
しかし、したがって、これは天気の周りのポストではあ りません… 今朝早く、私たちは、JFサーバにいくつかの大きな更新� ��しました。 サイトをさらに速くすることを願っています。 アップグレードの後に何か問題やバグに気付くなら、私 にお知らせください!
Original-(Excite)-Japanese-(excite)-English
It is not hot though the rainy season seems to have started early this year in Tokyo yet. at least too much
However, this is not a post around the weather … We did some big updates to the JF server early this morning. It wishes that the site be made faster. Please inform me if you notice some problems and bugs after the upgrade.
Original-(Excite)-Japanese-(google)-English
The rainy season seems to start earlier this year in Tokyo, at least not too hot yet!
But, so this post is not around in the weather early this morning ... we, JF has some major updates to the server. I hope to make more sites faster. If you find any bugs or problems after the upgrade, please inform me!
Conclusion:
There are two phase in translation. One is to understand the original language and another is to generate another language.
In this case, the original sentences might be too easy. however, both translator did not find "rainy season started early in this year" correctly. Google apearently fail to find it and excite fail to express it even if excite found it.
As the quality of the translated Japanese, excite is much better than google. Excite has been studying auto translation for long time and learn many things through their trials.
I can not estimate the quality of the generated English. How do you think ?
Attension!:
I do not recommend you to use machine translation unless you can check the translated results are suitable or not.