Why do people that don't understand the target language love to respond questions about translations?

Question

Seriously. There are immense amount of bad answers here. Worst thing is that a lot become best answers. I don't understand why anyone would answer a question without giving fair warning when they have almost no knowledge of the langauge to traduce or worse yet when they use free translation or babelfish.

Answer 1

You are absolutely correct. But this is not the case only with the language section, this happens everywhere!

I had posted a question regarding a particular law and the answers which i got was rubbish to the core!

I deleted the question because i didnt get the right type of information.

Yahoo made the scoring system so that people may be induced to participate to help others with knowledge, but some of us have taken the points so seriously that we dont even bother to see that do we really know the answers and are we really trying to help the person.

People must think before writing a nonsense answer that the reason a person is posting a question is to get correct data and not random garbage!

Well i think the people are desperate about the points and dont wish to lose a single opportunity to score!!!!

No offence to anyone but I wonder are these people equally eager in life to acheive something!

Anyway, Nice question. It shows there are people who are taking this medium seriously and as a way to help others with the knowledge and experience they have!


Merry X'mas and a Happy New Year!

:)

Answer 2

I think it is mostly for points, but that can't be the whole reason for everyone.

Some people seem to be convinced that online translators are a great tool (which they are for certain things, no question) that not everyone knows about.

But I think others (and sometimes I'm in this category) are answering a question about a language they're learning, just to give it a go. Like they learned something like that in Spanish class last week and they suspect this other thing that looks almost the same works the same way, which it may or may not. I don't think that's a bad thing--Yahoo Answers calls itself a "community" after all--but it's certainly only fair to let the Asker know that you're not an expert. (I like to cite my source for French translations as "my awful French" because a lovely Answerer was once so kind as to recognize it as such.)

Funny thing, although this is my favourite category so that may be part of the explanation--this question seems to come up regularly here in the Languages section, but the issue is by no means unique to Languages, or to translation questions. Tons of people answer English grammar questions entirely wrong (confusing, say, passive voice with past perfect--usually in the Words&Wordplay category, sometimes here) and while you will get questions asking "why do people use such bad grammar?" I don't see questions like "Why do people who don't know the difference between Past & Passive answer questions about grammar?". Or in the Travel--Switzerland category, you'll get answers from people who have never been to Switzerland, but no one asks why.

Answer 3

I completely agree. I automatically give a thumbs down to anyone who suggests using an on-line translator or whose translation is obviously from an on-line translator. No mercy. When I answer a question about Hungarian, I always list myself as "I speak (rusty) Hungarian" so everyone knows that if a native speaker comes along after me, their translation is more reliable. People have come to believe that the computer solves most of their problems and that the internet solves the rest. It's sad that human expertise in one area where human expertise is absolutely essential has come to be devalued.

Answer 4

I totally agree with you. I know a lot of French, but I saw others have better grip on that language than me. So I didn't dare to correct someone's writing. I think our first responsibity is helping others not collecting points. It gos with the whole philosophy, do I help myself first or others. And if I do help myself, do I do it in any price, like cheating, lying, mocking, hurting...others? etc etc Law of Jungle or law of humanity?

Answer 5

Altar, or is that alter, or maybe älter...............
anyway its on account of an all tear ego !

It is fun to see ideas expressed in another tongue and to guess at their meaning, and although I ususally restrain myself it is tempting to wade in sometimes. I do however put a ? in with what I am not terribly sure of.

I also like to chide and kid when I see an opening !

Answer 6

I'd say it's because they are hungry for points. I don't see any other reason.