Translation and Multilingual Practices

I think agree with the Raley reading in that I think it is at least difficult and at most impossible for language technologies to be refined to the point of being true to the translation. I think that though translation technologies are definitely useful, it would be way too much to be able to translate the small inflectional differences language has, mostly idioms, since they vary across the world and even across countries who speak the same language. One of the points I found interesting is that language technologies are very English-centered, which I think largely limits the accessibility of them.

I do think, however, that the use of language technologies could be useful in art. Not so much in doing something like translating books, which I do very much think need a native speaker of the target language who can understand how to genuinely and not literally translate certain parts of the book, or poems that sometimes hold importance in structure that cannot be done by just literal translation. No, I think it has its own artistic implications. I think we have spoken in class about how some artists have taken their poems and put them through a translation program multiple times and come out with a completely new piece. I think this is interesting in the point of view of the reader, who has to translate literal translations in their heads to their native language in a way that makes sense and carries meaning.