Don't give unorthodox linguistic aid
 

Hi All

I originally wanted to post this up on the language help page, but then I decide that this is probably a better place for it. So if any of the MODs want to move it, feel free

Some of you, feel extremely proud thinking that "I am cool if people think that I know Japanese"

Well, just say, I too sometimes are pretty proud of myself when I am able to help others learn a language. But to truly HELP someone, you need to really know the language

I've seen too many examples of people picking up translation from Google Translate, Freetranslation.com or the like.... Please stop doing that, these translation are literally direct translation, somethng I refer as "Word to Word" translation. They are not wrong, but in most cases, it doesn't apply to the poster's context.

Please stop pretending that you know the language unless you truly do, your help is causing confusion, and is giving out the wrong information, not to mention, its not helping the person asking the question at all.....

I can't believe people actually ''try to help'' others, if they don't even know the language. Jeez, this is definitely a problem. I think this post should've been in the Language section, but I don't have the 'powers' to move it.. I'll get someone to do it though. Thanks for bringing this up, it's definitely a problem!

I've seen quite a few cases of this happening on this forum. You can tell that the person answering the post got his/her translation from one of the web translation tool.. just type the sentence or whatever back in google translate and you will know what i mean.

The other day, I took a short sentence from news24.jp and threw it in to google translate, the translation wasn't far off, I mean, most people can guess what the article about, but MAN, it was hilarious.....

Frankly, using online translation to answer questions in the threads does less harm than doing so in PM's.

My point is that you'll get caught pretty quickly anyway if you do that in the threads. I myself would rarely overlook. However, when a weaboo comes in, claims to know Japanese and starts teaching it in PM's where no one can see it, it does nothing but harm. It wil hurt JF's reputation in the long run.

I know this for a fact because I get PM's from members asking me if someone is teaching them proper Japanese.

Funny enough, I was one of the people that got a PM teaching me Japanese after I posted a question a while back. While I only know bits and pieces (just enough to get around and keep me out of trouble), I still think I know more than this "teacher" who "taught" me over PM

Why in the world would someone PM you an answer? If you asked a language Q in the forums, it should be answered in the forums. Someone else might have the same question as you.

See, thats what shock me. These people are smart enough to reply via PM so that he or she doesn't attract attention for their completely inaccurate translation, but they are dumb enough to think that the PM recipient will never find out.....