http://prudentclassroom.wordpress.com/2008/11/26/using-online-translators-to-communicate-with-parents-and-students/ For Teachers who Live Lightly and Economically Wed, 13 May 2009 16:03:35 +0000 http://wordpress.com/ hourly 1 http://prudentclassroom.wordpress.com/2008/11/26/using-online-translators-to-communicate-with-parents-and-students/#comment-78 institutrice Thu, 18 Dec 2008 04:38:50 +0000 http://prudentclassroom.wordpress.com/?p=174#comment-78 Yes, definitely be careful with slang and idioms! My Spanish was pretty good when I taught second grade in Arizona, but one day I needed to type up a letter very quickly at the end of the day so I just typed it into Babelfish. I think it was directions for a writing assignment because I remember that I knew the word for "sentence" is "frase", but it put something else. I laughed and said, "Oh, watch it means like a prison sentence." I printed it out and was going to send it home when I decided to check ny dictionary. It *did* mean prison sentence, so I was telling the parents that their kid had to read a book and write a *prison sentence* about what happened. Needless to say, I changed the word to "frase", printed it again, and avoided some embarrassing phone calls!!! Yes, definitely be careful with slang and idioms! My Spanish was pretty good when I taught second grade in Arizona, but one day I needed to type up a letter very quickly at the end of the day so I just typed it into Babelfish. I think it was directions for a writing assignment because I remember that I knew the word for “sentence” is “frase”, but it put something else. I laughed and said, “Oh, watch it means like a prison sentence.” I printed it out and was going to send it home when I decided to check ny dictionary. It *did* mean prison sentence, so I was telling the parents that their kid had to read a book and write a *prison sentence* about what happened. Needless to say, I changed the word to “frase”, printed it again, and avoided some embarrassing phone calls!!!

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