Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Tower of Babelfish


I'm sure most of you know the Babelfish as "the strangest creature on Earth" from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. However, Babelfish is also the name of Yahoo!'s free translation service and the home to my new favourite game: Broken Babelfish. Like Broken Telephone, Broken Babelfish is a game of miscommunication. Simply type a sentence into Babelfish and have it translated into numerous languages before finally returning to English.


Start out with this: "It went rather well. It was like playing a really complicated game of 'broken telephone.' Mrs Solazzo was right, I speak French like a Spanish cow."


And get this:


"He was liberated well. Him Was with a game which is complicated with justice realness; In order to play; tel. cassé." Solazzo Ms French which says with the cow Spanish people, accurately, was."


This is what Babel fish gives you when you go from English to French to Dutch, to English, to Greek, to English, to Korean, and then finally back to English!

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