How do you say "flush a toilet" in that language ?
Americans are notoriously bad at languages -- so bad, in fact, that we often don't even understand how hard it can be to speak something other than English. How many people do you know who claim to speak French or Spanish or whatever, but when you press them you find that they really just know numbers and some common phrases? Speaking another language is super-hard, so how do you tell if somebody is really "fluent"?
Here's the test I use whenever I run into one of those know-it-alls who wants to brag about how he speaks 17 languages. Ask him how to say the following simple phrase: "flush a toilet".
If the guy speaks fluently, he'll answer immediately, without hesitation -- it's a common phrase that everyone fluent in a language old and young will know. But it's not taught in text books and rarely found in phrase books because you almost need to say it in normal conversation. Most people who claim to speak a language will hesitate before replying and then will say some contorted version of "See that thing there in the bathroom? It has water. After finish on the toilet, you push something and the water comes out." Uh, I guess you could say he got his point across. But would you really want that guy to interpret for you in a business meeting?
Well, that was the first test I tried on the new beta of http://translator.live.com, the free web service that's been under development by MSR (including my friend Andrea!) for many years. The version you see on the web uses both the Systran and the MIcrosoft translation engine (the latter for computer-related content), but the especially cool part is the UI, which I think is much easier than some of the other web alternatives out there. My favorite part is the way you can enter any URL and watch it progressively turn it into another language.
Try it! Does it know how to flush a toilet in your language?
