Are there any really good translators?

[Stephanie]

Like an app or anything? My aunt from Cuba sent me a friend request on Facebook and she only knows Spanish, she messages me, but it's in Spanish... And I don't think google translate is very accurate so I don't want to use that... Thanks

[zirp]

No there aren't. Machines are machines. They can't handle homonyms, homographs, context, figures of speech, proverbs, etcetera. They don't understand what is said, nor do they know which wordorder is customary.

The only good translators are humans

[Mark]

Not really. You have to know the basic grammar (and vocabulary) of a language for such translation programmes to work for you. For instance "I am using a monkey wrench" is NOT "ich bin benutzend einen Affe Schlüssel" in German, more like "ich verwende einen Engländer."