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Jun 9, 2018
4,012
12,927
England
I just went on smokingpipes.com to check out the new Erik Stokkebye Small Batch Jubilaeums Flake and to read the reviews. All the reviews were in Chinese and the consensus seems to be it's a great blend with ppl giving it 4 to 5 stars. However, one of the reviewers only gave it half a star and I wondered why. As I can't read Chinese I copied the review and pasted it into Google translate. This is the translation it came up with:

"Upstairs said to receive the goods 200? Are you blind or something, you received the goods, it only came out yesterday, and you received it today? You thought you opened it so fast, this thing is an IQ tax, the price is close to $50, the shipping fee is $20, and you can buy a broken box for $70 and send 100 grams of grass for delivery. This business is insane, spoons, you buy it!"

Now, I doubt very much that that's what the guy wrote but I really really hope it was?
 
Jun 23, 2019
1,845
12,758
Looks like the Chinese are just like us and have differing opinions on tobacco blends.

And even more like us, 'small batch' 'limited run' virignias seem to be the most controversial. LOL

"Upstairs" is slang for the post above me, there are some other Chinese Internet lingo/metaphor I don't understand. Obviously, Googles going to struggling with slangs and metaphors.
 

timelord

Part of the Furniture Now
Oct 30, 2017
949
1,966
Gallifrey
The other week I needed a digital caliper (to measure some watch parts - not pipe related). Having no idea what they are called in Portuguese I printed picture of one and took it the hardware store. I was duly handed what I wanted and it's called a Paquimetro.

When I got home I ran that through google translate which gives the English as Pachymeter - presumably it's a device for measuring (very small) elephants? (Anyway, I now to my digital caliper as an 'elephant meter')

That said; I'm genuinely impressed that google translate seems to cope well most of the time; although translating something to and from another language a few times can sometimes yield interesting results.
 

anotherbob

Lifer
Mar 30, 2019
15,675
29,391
45
In the semi-rural NorthEastern USA
a fun game is to run something through google translate in a circle. Start with English or your native language go through three or four random other languages before going back to the starting language. You can also do volleyball where you pick one language to bounce back and forth between. English to Greek to English to Greek. It's fun watching the meaning decay and morph.
 

Flopoz

Lurker
Feb 6, 2023
13
13
I just went on smokingpipes.com to check out the new Erik Stokkebye Small Batch Jubilaeums Flake and to read the reviews. All the reviews were in Chinese and the consensus seems to be it's a great blend with ppl giving it 4 to 5 stars. However, one of the reviewers only gave it half a star and I wondered why. As I can't read Chinese I copied the review and pasted it into Google translate. This is the translation it came up with:

"Upstairs said to receive the goods 200? Are you blind or something, you received the goods, it only came out yesterday, and you received it today? You thought you opened it so fast, this thing is an IQ tax, the price is close to $50, the shipping fee is $20, and you can buy a broken box for $70 and send 100 grams of grass for delivery. This business is insane, spoons, you buy it!"
In spite of the fact that artificial intelligence and several helpful applications greatly simplify our lives, we can infer from the example of a well-done translation that only a qualified professional can accurately modify the text. For instance, the website translate offers translation services for a variety of language pairings, not just English. The specialists there have the necessary training and experience.
Now, I doubt very much that that's what the guy wrote but I really really hope it was?
It's not easy to describe, but I got it.