Another Discussion About Human and Computer Assisted Translation Quality

Machine translation or automatic translation is an accepted part of many translation services these days and there are few English German translation service providers who are unaware of the pros and cons associated with the technology. Automated technology has been evolving quite fast and these days the more sophisticated technology allows human translators to intervene in a way they were unable to before and it is not seen as a definitive alternative to human translation itself.

It should be recognised here that by non human or computer aided translation we are not referring to the simplest type of computer translation which can be readily accessed on the internet. These are rarely used by professional German translators or shouldn’t be! However they do have a place when used by the individual who wants to know quickly what an individual phrase might mean or wants to compose an email to a foreign business or supplier in a simple sort of way and is not prepared to wait for a professional translator to do the job for them.

The type of translation described in the last paragraph certainly has its uses, but is not up to the standard of most translation requirements. Computer aided translation software and related technology has been specifically designed to help the professional German translator cope with voluminous and often repetitive text. Instead of laboriously translating this sort of text every time it arises, it can be remembered by translation software and then used in any translation task. Basically, the translation memory is instructed to retain chunks of translated text whenever these chunks are repeatedly used over and over again.

In some translation tasks, a German translation service will use the computer assisted software to translate a text, and then improve it based on their own translation and language experience. This cuts down the time taken to complete a translation task without compromising on quality. This is of benefit to both the translation provider and the client. The client benefits because the time taken to retrieve what they wanted to translate is reduced and the translator benefits by completing more work and therefore earning more money in the same time period.

What the computer aided translation technology cannot do very well is translate nuanced text and idiomatic expressions. Time and time again, attempts to incorporate more idiomatic expressions into this sort of translation software have been unsuccessful as it is often completely context dependent.

There have been estimates that in the near future that “intelligent” robots could take the place of as many as 50% of all jobs presently performed by people, but it seems that human translators are still quite safe from getting the sack, even if some of them are beginning to look over their shoulder!