While fluent in my native tongue of American English, I have not been able to master any other language. I have studied Spanish, Russian, and Arabic. In each case, I have progressed no further than the level of a kindergartner. So when I see abstracts written in English by researchers whose native tongue is a language other than English, I admire their ability to do as well as they do, despite the grammatical errors.
Which brings me to the point of today’s tip: using Google® Translate, or any other Web based translation tool, to help find keywords in a language other than one’s native tongue.
Pretend, for example, that I am a researcher whose native language is Chinese. I have a functional understanding of English, but an incomplete grasp of technical vocabulary. And let’s say that I want to Google® for technical articles pertaining to dibenzothiophene, but I can’t remember the English word for dibenzothiophene.
I go to Google®, click “More” and then “Even More,” scroll down the list and click on “Translate.”
二苯並噻吩
Now I see the key word, in English, that I need to use to Google® for articles written in English that pertain to my topic.
As I browse the results, I can reverse the process. Since, in this pretend scenario, my English is not 100%, I may run across technical terms that I am not familiar with. I can use Google® Translate to translate those words “From English” and “To Chinese.”
Theoretically, I could use Google® Translate to translate the whole English language article into Chinese … but I am not sure I would trust the result.
I would welcome any comments on this Google® Translate tip. And, I would welcome any reader’s LinkedIn invitation. My LinkedIn profile is:
www.linkedin.com/in/jeansteinhardtresearch
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