Oops!
I went on to Second Life last night...
I was doing this thing called "Camping" which is a way to earn free money. People who camp are the ones who don't want to buy fake money with real money, so we're kind of like virtual squatters.
There was a girl on who didn't speak much English but she indicated that she wanted to camp too. No one there spoke Spanish though so we couldn't tell her how it works. She started getting really frustrated and I could tell because she kept saying my name and shoving my avatar. So I went to Babelfish and typed in "I will try to help," translated it to Spanish, copied and pasted it to her, and she understood.
I went back to Babelfish and typed in this long list of instructions, translated that, and copied and pasted it to her. Then I waited for her to click the camping sign that said Join Group. But instead, she said, "tape worm I not have."
Oh my god, did I just ask her if she had tapeworm?! What the hell did I type into Babelfish that translated into that? I went back to Babelfish and translated "I do not think you have tapeworm. Sorry for my bad Spanish" (the last part actually was translated as "grieved for my badly Spanish," which I found out later after trying to recheck everything I was saying to this girl). Then I pasted it to her and she said "si."
Si is one of three Spanish words I know along with gracias and uno, and I only know the last one because of the game. I decided I'm going to learn to speak Spanish when I'm finished with my essay/article. I'm still curious about how tapeworm got in there though, and went back to Babelfish and tried to figure it out. No luck though.
Moral of the story: Don't use Babelfish again.
