Tano - 6-10-2010 at 01:22 PM
Increasingly, I have been reading about people, mostly Americans living overseas, using online translation to fill out paperwork required in their new
land. On a lark, I used the Google translator to give me the Spanish equivalent of the common expression “Don’t be silly,” generally used in social
situations to show an accommodating inclination. The result was No seas tonto. Not even No sea tonto, which would be a tad less
offensive.
It’s going to be a long time before computers can tell the difference between “Don’t be silly” and “You’re being silly.” Imagine more complicated
language constructs.