Will Human Translators Survive Tomorrow?
Any product or service, including translations
, can be defined in terms of three parameters: cost, delivery time, and quality. All machine translation systems offer unbeatable speed and very low prices, principally if you are going to deal with high volumes. Web-based systems are free, at least for the time being.
All this means that we humans must compete on quality alone. Unfortunately, MT quality is visibly improving. The results are often better than many professionals can providealthough not yet as good as the results delivered by a good professional.
The point is that quality is an elusive and complex parameter. What is quality? What is a good
translation? How good a translation must be before it is considered "acceptable?"
Today's translator will probably be tomorrow's pre-editor or post-editor, but those who are competent and can adapt will be here tomorrow.
Some translations will be unanimously considered unacceptable. Above that level, however, quality may be a matter for disagreement. Quality means different things to different people and that is one of the reasons why there are so many translation theories. In fact, you can only evaluate the quality of a translation against the backdrop of a specific theory.
Most MT packages cannot tell Brazilian from European Portuguese, for example, and will even merrily mix both varieties in the same sentence, possibly in a well-intentioned attempt to reunify the two flavors of Portuguese, an endeavor wherein the so-called orthographical agreement has utterly failed. The same should apply to German, French and Spanishnot to mention Englishand perhaps to several other
languages in different measures.
If you deal with any of those languages you know how dangerous it is to use the variety that is wrong for your public. It may look funny or annoying and in some cases it will make no sense at all. In the worst cases, it will be misleading. But Google Translate and most other systems ignore the problem, like the client who wants "a translation into correct and elegant Portuguese that will be accepted on both sides of the Atlantic." It is a fact that such clients will readily find someone willing to translate into "mid-Atlantic" Portuguese, producing texts that will look equally funny and unacceptable on both sides of the pond, but that is a different problem.
But we know some of the results provided by MT systems are simply wrong, under any theory and for all linguistic flavors. Even MT suppliers will admit that and that MT output for publication must be "post-edited." Depending on output quality, post-editing may be a difficult and thus expensive task. Editing time and money can be saved if the text is written in some kind of controlled languagemeaning short sentences, simple constructions, a limited vocabulary, and no ambiguity. This may range from very easy to utterly impossible.
CAT software searches the translation memory for materials that can be "recycled" into a new translation and offers the translator a suggestion that will be edited into a correct translation for the particular segment at hand. Sometimes nothing is found and the software leaves the target field blank. If the MT option is used, however, the software will ask Google for a translation, enter it in the target field and give the translator a chance to edit and accept it.
In a word, surviving is just a case of adapting to change. That should be no news to anybody: we have been adapting to change since the times when we lived in caves. Many people said CAT would be the end of us, that agencies would accumulate huge memories and do without translators, didn't they? Nothing of that kind: the quantity of work going round has increased incessantly, and it is likely to continually increase in the foreseeable future.
Today's translator will probably be tomorrow's pre-editor or post-editor, but those who are competent and can adapt will be here tomorrow, and remember the "good" old days when you actually had to type every single letter of a translation.
Aunes Oversettelser AS has been in the business for 26 years, and we are specialized in technical translations. We are specializing in the Nordic languages, and can offer services into Swedish, Danish, Finnish, Norwegian and Icelandic. The premier translation agency for Norway and the Nordic region! Technical translation services for businesses in the Nordic countries and translation agencies world-wide.
by: carmen
Buy Human Growth Hormone Human Hair Wigs Or Extensions,which Do You Use? Dog Fashion At Its Humanly Best Humanizar O Foco De verson Zico - Cricima Human Life Is Closely Linked To The Packaging Boxes Human Eyes - The Organs That Provide You With The Ability To See Becoming Part Of The Human Workforce The Benefits Of A Human Resources Masters Degree On The Net Unlocking The Potential Of Outsourced Human Resource Management An Unknown Blessing To Humankind- Lathe Machine What Challenges Human Resources Departments Face In The 21st Century? Human Hair Extensions For Beautiful Hairstyle The Changed Dynamics Of Human Security With Camera Surveillance System