As a non-native English speaker, that posts regularly in English myself, I've really enjoyed reading your post. I have to say I agree with all your points - and even would like to add a couple:
Use your browser's spelling corrector. It seems so obvious to me so I thought you might have left that out because it's too obvious.
Once I've finished writing my post, but before I publish it, I like to click the preview button - and then copy and paste the content, paragraph by paragraph, to translate.Google.Com - and translate to your native language.
If the translation seems half-decent, you're probably doing something right. As a bonus, a lot of times you'll be able to spot common mistakes like writing "then" instead of "than", "though" instead of "thought" or "through" and stuff like that.
Regarding number 1, I always write in Google Docs first and found that the spell checker there is much better than in the browser, might be some configuration problem on my side though.
Number two is a great suggestion! And with Google Translate you can even make it say your text out loud, that helps you find errors that you could've skipped by simple reading it.
Absolutely.
Whatever criticism we can make of auto-translators, if it gets it right twice in a row, that indicates it gets it right the first time!
I always reflect important paragraphs back from my target translation to double-check the meaning was clear. It can even lead to me improving the clarity of the original sentence. So much so that I wish that "translate back again" was a third pane on google translate! Luckily the browser-sized google translate has a one-click reverse translation.
Still, beware of colloquialisms that may survive the round trip. "Smack your ass" still comes back as "smack your ass" => "beat your donkey" => "beat your ass" in many languages.
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As a non-native English speaker, that posts regularly in English myself, I've really enjoyed reading your post. I have to say I agree with all your points - and even would like to add a couple:
Use your browser's spelling corrector. It seems so obvious to me so I thought you might have left that out because it's too obvious.
Once I've finished writing my post, but before I publish it, I like to click the preview button - and then copy and paste the content, paragraph by paragraph, to translate.Google.Com - and translate to your native language.
If the translation seems half-decent, you're probably doing something right. As a bonus, a lot of times you'll be able to spot common mistakes like writing "then" instead of "than", "though" instead of "thought" or "through" and stuff like that.
Hey, Zohar. Thanks for your collaboration!
Regarding number 1, I always write in Google Docs first and found that the spell checker there is much better than in the browser, might be some configuration problem on my side though.
Number two is a great suggestion! And with Google Translate you can even make it say your text out loud, that helps you find errors that you could've skipped by simple reading it.
Absolutely.
Whatever criticism we can make of auto-translators, if it gets it right twice in a row, that indicates it gets it right the first time!
I always reflect important paragraphs back from my target translation to double-check the meaning was clear. It can even lead to me improving the clarity of the original sentence. So much so that I wish that "translate back again" was a third pane on google translate! Luckily the browser-sized google translate has a one-click reverse translation.
Still, beware of colloquialisms that may survive the round trip. "Smack your ass" still comes back as "smack your ass" => "beat your donkey" => "beat your ass" in many languages.