Google gets cabbage fronds both ways.

To follow up on an oldish post on the patchy quality of Google Translate, I tried the examples and found that they now translate very well.


Even doing a lengthy trip between very different languages produces quite good results, which is a good sign that the meaning behind text is being properly treated:

English "I like to eat cabbage fronds all day long." -> Japanese "私は長い一日キャベツの葉を食べるのが好き。"
Japanese  -> French "J'aime manger les feuilles de chou toute la journée."
French  -> Kannada "ನಾನು ಎಲೆಕೋಸು ಎಲ್ಲಾ ದಿನ ಎಲೆಗಳನ್ನು ತಿನ್ನಲು ಪ್ರೀತಿ."
Kannada  -> Hindi "मैं सारा दिन गोभी के पत्ते खाने से प्यार है."
Hindi  -> Irish "Is breá liom a ithe na duilleoga cabáiste an lá ar fad."
Irish  -> Korean "하루 종일 배추의 잎을 먹는 사랑 해요."
Korean  -> Polish "Uwielbiam jeść liście kapusty cały dzień."
Polish  -> Welsh "Rwyf wrth fy modd i fwyta'r dail bresych drwy'r dydd."
Welsh  -> English "I love to eat the leaves of cabbage all day."

So our 9-step purple monkey dishwasher train converted "I like to eat cabbage fronds all day long" into "I love to eat the leaves of cabbage all day".

There were a couple of languages (Arabic, Gujarati, Chinese) which mangled or lost some of the information (e.g. "cabbage fronds" into "cabbage" or "all day" into "every day"), but this is pretty impressive, and a tangible improvement in a relatively short time. Good work, lads!