Online translations are they reliable ?

Hi I am trying to find out in on-line translations fron English to Japanese are reliable.

I speak some Japanese and read Katakana and Hiragana, but like many westerners I have problems remembering Kanji, some common one I remember, but not enough to write what I want to write.

I am studying Japanese in my own time, but it is not easy for me because I cant give enough time as much as I want to.....

I want to write some serious words in Japanese including Kanji, but I just find the grammer when using Kanji too hard at the moment, My Japanese without Kanji looks like a childs writing because no Kanji.....

I want to write a serious letter but witout Kanji it would not look serious, so I wanted to ask about online translations.

Does anyone have a recommendation for a good qualirt reliable inline trabslation service, free or pay for translation is OK, the most inportant thing it is reliable.

My letter is personal so I don't think it will be good to ask it to be translated on the forum....... sorry.

I feel embarassed about it because I can read Hiragana, Katakana, understand most spoken Japanese and read Japanese books and Manga ( When the kanji have the hiragana written next to them) but I just dont have the Kanji knowledge to write well.....

Can anyone recommend a good translation serive, maybe online free or paid for translation, this would be helpful.

ほんとにありがとう.‏

Online "machine" translations are not reliable. The result for English to Japanese comes out better than Japanese to English, but still a lot can be lost in the process.

I see that you are in the UK - I am sure there are many translation agencies there. If you are willing to pay for the service, it would be better you find someone/some company with translators that you can ask questions and check on phrasing, etc. So you might want to try your local resources first :)

Thanks AK, I am sure you are correct.

I will search some agencies to see if I can find a reliable one who can help me.

Thanks for taking time to reply.

I once used Google to translate from Japanese to English.
It was a real estate site and one of the items on the list about a home was translated as "point of prejudice"
I remembered the Jane Austen book "Pride and prejudice" and clink on the "point of prejudice" link..
Sure enough...it was about the items in the house the owners were most PROUD of...(yes I know that one can be favorably prejudiced about something or someone but prejudice is more often than not used in its negative meaning)

Translating whole pages from French to English with Google also miss most of the most important points or use wrong words. It is fine if you are at least a bit fluent in both languages but it is very frustrating.

Then there was a can I bought in Canada, where labels must have English and French. The French translation for 'this can can be recycled" was..re-translated in English.. "this can make bicycle" (it was grammatically wrong in French, besides being a totally wrong translation).
let's not talk about the debit / credit cards terminals that use the wrong translation in French for "welcome"!

I sometimes use Google Translate to double check my Japanese homework, but I would never rely solely on their translation, as I've seen some very horrible/inaccurate ones. Also, online translators tend to do a very literal translation which might come off awkward to a native speaker. However, if it's just Kanji you're needing help with, you might have luck with an online dictionary. I use Nihongodict. You can type the word in English or hiragana and be given the Kanji.

You have an excellent reason to start learning kanji. Just start with the words you need for your letter and then go from there. There is no better way to learn than being forced by something you want to do (ie. you must write your letter in Japanese so you need to learn those words).

Google translate, ssems too unreliable really, but any onliner trabslator needs some understandign to know if the translation is correct...... its a balance between understanding the translation and just acceoting it isnt it......

A translation for me is because my Kanji knowledge is not so good yet and my Kanji dictionary takes a very very long time to understand, but it does have over 3000 Kanji in it so it is a good boof but changing from the dictionary for to the tte fore etc etc all takes time when using the Kanji dictionary and and I have tio undertsand the two types of Kanji type om and kun yomi I think...... it is still hard but I will keep practicing for sure.



You have an excellent reason to start learning kanji. Just start with the words you need for your letter and then go from there. There is no better way to learn than being forced by something you want to do (ie. you must write your letter in Japanese so you need to learn those words).

Yeah that is true.

Thanks for all your advice.

Regards

Hello

This one is the best I found.
Not perfect but very usefull.

Click the second option to translate from jp to english.

http://www.ocn.ne.jp/translation/

Thanks curcuma I will be sure to check it out later and see how accurate it is.

I have a few on my note book, buyt they seems not so good, so I will try this one.

Thanks for the info I appreciate it.