I recently came across a post in my FB feed from the Korea Tennis Association (KTA). I wanted to quickly compare FB's translation vs Papago's and Google's translation.
Here's the original text:
최근 초등테니스대회에서 정율호 스타일이 주목받고 있다. 전주금암초 6학년 정율호는 올해 전국주니어 단식 4강, 제1회 대한테니스협회장배 준우승, 복식 우승, 종별 8강, 복식 4강, 그리고 오늘 제77회 전국학생선수권 12세부 남자단식 우승을 차지했다. 이번 대회는 큰 목표가 있어서 단식에만 집중하려 복식은 참가를 안했다.
작고 마른 체격조건이 상대적으로 불리할 수 있지만 어릴적 빙상선수와 축구를 했던 경험으로 어떠한 공도 다 받아낼 수 있는 빠른 발과 영리한 두뇌플레이로 상대를 무기력하게 만드는 정율호. 정율호가 코트에 들어가면 상대선수나 벤치에 앉아있는 지도자, 선수부모들이 모두 고개를 절레절레 흔드는 모습 쉽게 볼 수 있다.
아무리 세게 쳐도 베이스라인밖으로 나가는 공이 없고 넘기기만 하는가 싶으면 어느새 달려와 위닝샷을 만들어 포인트를 챙긴다.
초등 상위랭커들도 정율호 하면 긴장을 한단다. 자신만의 스타일대로 테니스하던 선수들 이제는 정율호를 이기는 방법 빨리 찾지 않으면 안 될 것 같다.
정율호는 이번 우승으로 국내 남자 초등랭킹 3위에 오르며 목표로 세웠던 미국 오렌지보울대회와 에디허 대회를 가게 됐다.
아울러 이번 대회 특전으로 10월 양구에서 열리는 ATF 양구국제주니어 1차대회 본선 와일드카드도 확보했다.
Translated to English (Facebook, now Meta)
Jung Yoon-ho's style has been getting attention at the elementary tennis tournament recently. Junju Geumam Elementary 6th grader Jung Yoon-ho won the 4th round of the National Junior Fasting, 1st Runner-up, 1st Korea Tennis Association President Cup, 8th round of doubles, 4th round of doubles and today won the 77th National Student Championship 12th round of Men's Fasting. I had a big goal in this competition, so I didn't participate in the doubles to focus only on fasting.
Although his physical condition may be relatively small and dry, but Jung Yoon-ho makes his opponent powerless with his quick feet and clever brain play, which makes him powerless with his quick foot and clever brain play. When Jung Yoon-ho enters the court, you can easily see the opponent, the coach and the players' parents sitting on the bench shaking their heads.
No matter how hard you hit, there is no ball going out of the baseline and if you just want to pass, you will run and make a winning shot to earn points.
Even the top bankers of elementary school get nervous when Jung Yoon Ho is doing it. Players who used to play tennis according to their own style should now find a way to beat Jung Yoon-ho.
With this victory, Jung Yoon-ho will go to the American Orange Bowl and Eddie Her, where he set his goals to climb the third place in the Korean men's elementary rankings.
As a bonus of this tournament, I secured a wild card for the ATF Yanggu International Junior Championship finals to be held in Yanggu in October.
Translated to English (Papago)
Recently, Jung Yul-ho's style is drawing attention at elementary tennis competitions. Jeong Yul-ho, a sixth grader at Jeonju Geumam Elementary School, won the semifinals of the national junior singles, the runner-up of the first Korea Tennis Association, the doubles championship, the quarterfinals of each type, the doubles semifinals, and the 77th National Student Championships today. This tournament had a big goal, so I didn't participate in doubles to focus only on singles.
Although his small and thin physique conditions may be relatively disadvantageous, Jung Yul-ho, who makes his opponent lethargic with his fast feet and clever brain play that can catch any ball from his experience of playing soccer with an ice skater as a child. When Jung Yul-ho enters the court, it is easy to see the opponent, the leader sitting on the bench, and the player's parents shaking their heads.
No matter how hard he hits, he doesn't have a ball that goes out of the baseline and just runs over it, making a winning shot and taking points.
Even top elementary school rankers get nervous when they hear Jung Yul-ho. Players who used to play tennis in their own style now have to find a way to beat Jung Yul-ho quickly.
With this victory, Jung Yul-ho will go to the U.S. Orange Bowl and Eddy Herr tournaments, which he set as the third-ranked male elementary school in Korea.
In addition, it secured a wild card for the first round of the ATF Yanggu International Junior Tournament in Yanggu in October as a special bonus for this tournament.
Translated to English (Google)
In recent elementary tennis tournaments, Jung Yul-ho's style is attracting attention. Jeonju Geum Reef 6th grader Jeong Yul-ho won the national junior singles semifinal this year, the 1st Korea Tennis Association President's Cup runner-up, doubles championship, category 8, doubles semifinal, and today the 77th national student championship 12-year-old men's singles champion. This tournament has a big goal, so I didn't participate in doubles to focus on singles.
Although his small and skinny physique may be relatively disadvantageous, Jung Yul-ho's experience of playing soccer with an ice skater as a child makes his opponent lethargic with his fast feet and clever brain play that can catch any ball. When Jeong Yul-ho enters the court, it is easy to see the opponents, the coaches sitting on the benches, and the players' parents shaking their heads.
No matter how hard he hits, the ball doesn't go out of the base line and if he just wants to pass it, he runs and makes a winning shot to get points.
Even the top rankers in elementary school get nervous when they hear Jung Yul-ho. Players who used to play tennis according to their own style must now quickly find a way to beat Jung Yul-ho.
With this win, Jung Yul-ho went to the American Orange Bowl and Eddie-Hur competitions, which he aimed to climb to third place in the domestic men's elementary school rankings.
In addition, as a privilege of this tournament, they secured a wild card for the first round of the ATF Yanggu International Junior Tournament to be held in Yanggu in October.
Who's the winner? ... and My Amateur Analysis
I am far from bilingual, so this is a very amateur analysis, done for fun. If you are bilingual, please share your thoughts and which translation you think is best. Before comparing, I was actually expecting Papago to be a bit better than Google and Facebook. From my limited Korean reading comprehension skills, here's a list of things that immediately jump out at me.
- Google and Facebook's translation software struggled with subject pronouns, while Papago was much better at knowing when to use "I" vs "he".
- Tennis terminology like "단식" - Papago and Google got it right and output "singles". Facebook translated it to "fasting".
- The people who post to FB should be taught that it's better to not Koreanize (Hangulize?) proper names like "Eddie Herr" (or put the foreign names in parantheses next to the Hangulized version). Translation bots, I'm guessing, aren't really designed for things like names of people.
- Facebook translated "초등 상위랭커들도" to "the top bankers of elementary school", while Papago and Google (slightly better) output "the top rankers in elementary school" (should have been "top-ranked").
- The kid's name is 정율호. Facebook: "Jung Yoon-ho". Papago and Google did fine, and output "Jung Yul-ho" as expected.
- Casual readers and tennis fans alike will be able to grasp the big picture, but all the translations share this in common - even if you are a tennis expert or enthusaist, the fine-grain details of the story will be hard to extract, and you'll have to guess or ask a bilingual friend to fully get the details (still might not be enough). Ideally, a bilingual friend who also plays a lot of tennis would be able to catch all the tennis terminology used (and created) by Koreans. Not sure how engineers are supposed to build software that can prevent most of the meaning from getting lost.
(Nice article about Google Translate in The Atlantic)
Final Grades
- Papago B-
- Google C
- Facebook D