Free online translation service for Japanese noob

Although I had self-studied Japanese for several years and how much I indulged myself into Japanese stuff, I’m still at beginner level of Japanese language. Blame my own laziness . In the past, when I listen to Japanese songs, I listen to the rhythm is enough, but now, I want to know what is the lyric mean, plus i surf a lot and a lot Japanese sites, for example Oricon chart and Japanese Wikipedia pages. But with my own tiny knowledge of Japanese language, how am I going to interpret the exact meaning?

Then, I found some free online translation services on the Internet that allow us to translate either partial of text entered or the whole web page content from Japanese into English. It is very convenient and useful for me who know a little of Japanese only. Here I listed out 10 available translation services that you can use freely. Some of them even supports other languages as well.

10 free online JP-EN translation service

Livedoor Translator
Service: Text translation (16,000 characters), Web page translation.
Other Supported Languages: Korean, Chinese, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Portugese
Translation Engine: Amikai

http://translate.livedoor.com/

So-net Translator
Service: Text translation (4,000 characters), Web page translation (16,000 characters).
Translation Engine: Amikai

http://www.so-net.ne.jp/translation/

@Nifty
Service:Text translation (4,000 characters), Web page translation.
Other Supported Languages: Chinese, Korean
Translation Engine: Amikai

http://tool.nifty.com/globalgate/

Excite Translator
Service: Text translation (4,000 characters), Web page translation (30,000 characters).
Other Supported Languages: Chinese, Korean
Translation Engine: Bizlingo (Chinese: Kodensha. Korean: Amikai)

http://www.excite.co.jp/world/

Infoseek Translator
Service: Text and Web page translation.
Other Supported Languages: Korean, Chinese, French, german, Italian, Spain, Portugese
Translation Engine: Cross Language

http://translation.infoseek.co.jp/

Yahoo! Translator
Service: Text (4000 characters), Web page, keyword translate + Search
Other Supported Languages: Korean, Chinese
Translation Engine: Cross Language

http://honyaku.yahoo.co.jp/transtext

OCN Translator
Service: Text translation (4000 characters), Web page translation
Other Supported Languages: Korean, Chinese
Translation Engine: KODENSHA

http://www.ocn.ne.jp/translation/

Fresh Eye Translator
Service: Text and Web page translation
Other Supported Languages: Chinese
Translation Engine: Self build

http://mt.fresheye.com/ft_form.cgi

Google Translate
Service: Text and Web page translation.
Other Supported Languages: Many languages supported
Translation Engine: Self build

http://translate.google.com/translate_t

Yakushite.net Translator
Service: Text and Web page translation.
Other Supported Languages: Chinese
Translation Engine: Self build

http://www.yakushite.net/cgi-bin/…/wa/main

So.. there are plenty, but which is better?

Which translator is better? Unfortunately, there is no “perfect” free online translator out there. It’s very hard to judge because, this translator may works better with this texts, but it might be worse with another. It is good to use some of translator listed above to translate the same text in order to get a better result.

But is there any site that provide batch translation using some translators listed above at the same time? Answer is yes!

Cross Translation is a site that batch translation of a total of 9 translation services, some of them were mentioned above. I had tried some translation, and found out that, Excite, Infoseek, So-net and Livedoor is pretty decent translator, thanks to the engine they used. Besides that, I do found out that Google Translate and Fresh Eye is not bad too.

So, here is it, free online translation service to translate your desired Japanese texts or sites into English and thus, learning both language at the same time. Very beneficial isn’t it? Just bookmark this page if you find this article is useful.

credit: pop*pop