Chapter 10: Reducing Localization Costs with Machine Translation
About a decade and a half ago (before the internet was what it is today), one of the authors went on a sightseeing trip to Switzerland. It was an impulsive, last-minute decision and was carried out with not a lot of planning. The travel itself was uneventful, and the author was aware that German is an acceptable language in Switzerland, and so busied himself with the English to German Rosetta tone during the trip. Based on advice from friends who had been to Switzerland before, a rough itinerary was put together that included visits to Zurich, Interlaken, Bern, and so on. With his very naïve German and, more importantly, due to the excellent English spoken by the Swiss, the author relaxed and even started enjoying his trip – until, of course, he went to Geneva, where everyone spoke only French. His attempt to converse in English was met with indifference, and the only French words the author knew were "...