Oh google translate, I want to love you, but you just don't cut it. I give you a Japanese sentence to translate for me, but half the time you spit out something in a mangled English that may have been written by a monkey. Sure google can translate simple sentences for you such as: 私は寿司を食べます (I eat sushi), but try and input "I eat sushi" in English to get a Japanese equivalent, and you get: 私は寿司を食べる. The thing google gets wrong here is that 食べる is not the polite way to say eat! The polite form is 食べます! Politeness is a big deal when you're using Japanese, so though this may seem like a small mistake, you could actually end up offending some one if you use the wrong form! So don't rely on google translate to give you accurate results.
However, google translate still has some use. Google translate can do one useful thing for you, and that is providing you with Japanese audio to go with the Japanese sentences you input. Simply input your Japanese and you will notice a small blue button labeled "listen" which will read the sentence out loud for you (just make sure the "From" tab is set to Japanese first). Let's say that you run into this word while you are reading: 先生. Of course you'll have no idea how to say this word since it's all kanji, but with google translate's audio function, you'll be able to hear how it is pronounced! Glorious.
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