What is your Vote? Machine Translation or Human Translation

Machine Translation

Technology has certainly helped in developing machine translation system that can translate text from one language to another. The system uses a database and a set of grammatical rules to translate the text into the target language. Machine translation has come a long way from being used for word translation only to sentence translation and now being used for all forms of literal translations of documents that are technical translation and non-technical translation.

While machine translation cannot replace human translation, it has a great advantage in terms of handling millions of words with unmatched speed for multiple language translation. Machine translation is available free on the web. The investment in hardware and software is also very low.

Machine translation is greatly used for internal reference and for translation of draft material where accuracy is not an important criterion. Machine translation is a great boon for a researcher who can refer to published material in a foreign language at ease and get the gist of the document in the preferred language.

It is well known that the quality of translation you get from MT is very low and is useless for publication. Due to its great advantage of speed, ability to handle large volume, multiple language translation, and almost zero cost, Machine translation can still be used for the first rough cut and subsequently with the help proofreader fine-tuning the translated matter with reference to source material. This way translation cost can be reduced.

Vote for MT if you need almost no-cost translation solution, speed in churning out the large volume in almost all popular language and independent handling of confidential ‘For your eyes only’ matter.

Human Translation

There is no replacement for human translation as long as there is no way to get in to the context of the message in the source language through any automated process. Word for word translation does not produce a satisfying result in the target language as grammar and structure of language differs from language to language. Local reordering rules like positioning adjective to noun etc have been set and advances in Machine Translation are done to make accurate simple document-translation possible. But it is still a half-baked stuff.

Native professional translators with expertise in the subject matter and having knowledge of both source language and target language can be relied upon to give translation that is meaningful, readable and can easily “say what you mean” in any language. So for all commercial purposes, if you need to communicate with the power of clarity, you need to involve with translators who can go beyond words and get in to the context matter for translation in target language with the same impact as in source language.

There are many words in English which are commonly used and conveys different meaning when they are read in the context of communication. Literal translation, Machine translations or translators who do not have domain knowledge and are not in-country native language professionals cannot pick up the style, subtle differences, and cultural changes while translating your source content in a target language.

Professional translation service providers understand the importance of translation which is to ensure that your multilingual communication resonates with the same power of clarity as source language. It is all the more important to engage with professional translation service provider if you have a multilingual multi-media campaign or if you need your message to have consistent voice with a local touch across channels.

Vote for Human translation if you want quality and not some garbled machine translation that is meaningless and not understood by the target.