Why Computers Will Never Replace Humans
A few years ago I had no way to interpret some of the parent letters I sent home into Spanish, so I innocently used a computer translating program. This year, I am so fortunate to have a paraprofessional who is fluent in Spanish and used to work for a written translating service. Well...today I asked her to revise a letter that I send out every year about a field trip our class takes. I told her it should be pretty easy because I already had a Spanish version that just needed dates and times to be updated. Boy was I wrong. I English I had written "The Cherry Creek Mall." The computer translated this to "the main road in the cherry quarry." I had also written "You may meet us at school at 9:00." The computer translated this to "you may come satisfy us at school at 9:00." And yes, that phrase does have the same connotation in Spanish that it does in English. So, to translate in terms that everyone will understand, I sent home a letter to the parents of my preschoolers telling them that, "You can come to school and have an orgy with us at 9:00 before we head over the the main street in the cherry quarry." Surprisingly, none of my Spanish-speaking parents showed up that year!!!!!