Warning About the Sentences from the Tatoeba Project
Bilingual Sentence Pairs - About the Tatoeba Project - Warning / Caution - Japanese Reading Practice
What is the Tatoeba Project?
- Tatoeba.org is a large database of example sentences translated into many languages by its members who volunteer their time.
- Many of the sentences were imported from the (English-Japanese) Tanaka Corpus.
- Read more.
Warnings about Sentences from the Original Tanaka Corpus
- Most of the sentences were typed in by students as part of a project, but were not proofread by the teacher.
- There are many sentences that don't sound natural in English.
- Many sentences sound old-fashioned or archaic.
- Some sentences sound as if they are computer translations.
- There are many sentences that don't sound natural in Japanese.
- Many Japanese sentences are obviously detailed translations of the English and are not the most natural way the ideas would be expressed in Japanese.
- Read more.
Warnings about New Sentences Being Added by Tatoeba.org
- Additional errors and "less than natural" sentences are being created by a few members who are over-confident in their own foreign language ability and submit sentences in a language other than their own that aren't quite right. However, there are also many members who contribute sentences in their own native language.
- If you carefully look at usernames, you will eventually learn who the native speakers are and whose sentences you can trust.
Invitation to Help
- The Tanaka Corpus is now being maintained by tatoeba.org. You are invited to become a member and help make corrections and additions.
- If you do decide to help, I would encourage you to only translate from your non-native language into your native language. This will help help prevent further errors, both the definitely wrong sentences and the slightly-strange-sounding sentences.