A colleague recently introduced me to a YouTube channel, called Google Translate Sings, run by Malinda Kathleen Reese. Reese runs English language songs through various languages in Google Translate and then back into English again and then sings the results. You can compare the original lyrics and the new lyrics on the screen as she sings. While these videos don’t have a huge educational value, it’s worth a few minutes at the end of class to show one of these if you have the time. I think they do a very humorous job of illustrating the limitations of this tool our students tend to rely a little too much on! I told my students after we watched some of the videos to remember that every time they use Google Translate, this is how ridiculous they could sound! Here are a few of my favorites:
