My husbands first language is arabic (Jordanian) and speaks/understands english pretty good and mine is english (a lil broken too..mixed plate raised in Hawaii ). During our relationship and my 3 month stay in Jordan I learned a few arabic words and phrases (thank God they speak and use their hands alot..just like me).
Ok.. so we meet..talk & talk for hours (phone + txt + internet IMs + voice mssgr + cam)...fall head-over-hills in love... language of love is universal.. we marry "Alhumdullilah!".
He is getting better with his english..but wishes he could express himself more verbally so I can know even more how much he loves me. So (instead of waiting until he becomes more fluent in english) he types IMs & emails to me in arabic and I use the free online translator. The problem is..its a machine and some things I don't understand.

Anyone know of some real good "arabic to english" translator online (free or low-cost)?

Try "Golden Al Wafi translator" my husband uses it. Google has a feature in beta, but the translation is bad.

Good luck.

I would agree that google can translate Arabic in beta, (translate.google.com) but any spelling errors or grammar errors will leave you with a pure mess of a translation. It still might be helpful if you did only a couple of words at a time. Or you could use a combination of two or more translating tools. That way, any words that one doesn't pick up on, the other service might. I know your messages are very personal (coming from your husband) but any small or impersonal words you could ask someone from here to translate for you. I wouldn't mind helping you.

I tried a few places online.. I think google was one of them..As for Golden Wafi..Im not sure where to get that and if it translated arabic to english (my husband has program in his pc and its english to arabic). If theres a site..can you let me know here or PM.

As for pasting what he wrote here..I really would know what parts to cut out and paste. Maybe i could send you a PM of one email in particular. Can you read arabic?.. anyway..i will do that now.

Thanks for any help and advice
Gwen

the problem isn't that the machine doesn't work well, the problem is that YOU NEED TO USE A MACHINE TO COMMUNICATE.

Hey I never heard of this site and I appreciate the info...I had some things translated and sent to my SO and I shall see if it works..hahaaaa...thanks again....

gee, i used a machine to communicate with nessa. it's called a "computer"
sometimes i even used a strange machine called a "telephone"

very good point charles as i use my machine to communicate to you now, do you hear me now?, do you hear me now? anyway good luck hopefully someone maybe even on here can help you translate..

For me the purpose is to write in arabic and its neat to be able to do this...my SO and are able to communicate and what slang words he does not understand are easily explained through the use of other words....

sarah makes a good point. A translator's a good intermediate step, but if you're serious about each other and he wants to move here, work on his English proficiency. They do seem to worry about that in the interviews.

Thank you for your profiency and ability to understand what I am talking about.

Hello, I'm earth, have we met?

No machine translator is capable of producing the quality of translation a human can. Language is complicated. A lot of words have different meanings depending on the context. Most people don't necessarily follow formal language rules when writing. Slang and style will easily trip up a machine translator. Alot of languages dont always consistantly follow rules. Just look at English, for every rule. there are a dozen exceptions. At least for now, the quality of translation by machine is limited, that could change in the future.

I should clarify that *any* common language will suffice.

Its amazing how some things go way off and get a bit twisted. I didn't think I needed to explain more..I thought what I wrote was clear. We are really not in NEED of any online translator to communcate. I summarized things.. we communicate well enough to fall in love and get married. Our relationship is soooooooo strong.. but as most of us know who are in love and in strong relationships, but are not yet fluent in one anothers native tongue, We will do and get whatever is available to us to communicate and convey even more of what we are feeling for the other. I mean even if we did speak the same language.. we would still have another language to learn.. continually for the rest of our lives.. The language of a man and the language of a woman.. and not all are the same. We are very much aware of this too and have committed ourselves to learning this language too and doing whatever it takes to learn this.

No thank you sarah and hicham for your words of advise..because it doesnt apply to me...but maybe another reader could use this advise. To give the benefit of the doubt.. I appreciate your good intentions.

Thank you to all of you who are giving your good positive input, encourage, wisdom, leads and valuable info.. At some point of this journey we could benefit from it in one way or another. Its so good to not travel this one alone.

Mahalo (thank you)
Gwen

I would also like to give a big thank you to "Monnik" who helped me out personally via PM. This letter that I shared with you, which is one of the many others received from my husband (98% of all in English) really meant alot to me.

Hey Gwen are you in Hawaii?

You are welcome.

Not at this time..but will return there with my husband to enjoy the relaxing beaches, breathtaking sunsrise/sunsets, beautiful mountains, sweet fruits, picking a fresh "plumeria" flower and putting it in my hair, my favorite island "plate-lunches", crazy and wonderful family and friends.. (I could go on and on)... Oh oh oh.. i also cant wait to enjoy a 5am moon setting at the beach with Ahmad..

Okay.. i know this is off the topic..but just wanted to reply to JODO

..getting back to the topic..

One more big Mahalo going out to you who PM'd me and replied here.. so helpful.

a few around here are renowned for that......

And some can't wait to point it out and perpetuate a situation that could easily be left alone.

as demonstrated by your post