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PART 3:
THE POWER OF HUMAN TRANSLATING:
The most common question we encountered in running a translation agency is
the question: “why can’t I use an online program to translate my documents?”. It’s a fair question to ask if you are not involved with translations and localization. Computers are wonderful (when they work properly). They do lots of functions really well. Unfortunately, translation isn't one of them. And it hasn't been in spite of over 45 years of trying.
We've all heard about computer problems with spelling, grammar and punctuation (Should you write "there", "their" or "they're"? The software usually doesn't know.). But nuance is often lost, and the meaning is there. Suddenly, how the question "How are your wife and kids?" becomes "How are your wife and baby goats?" Or, "Next Tuesday we will hold a Board Meeting." becomes "Next Tuesday we will have a collection of planks of wood." It might have the Correct translation. But it's the Wrong meaning altogether.
Translations software is fine if you want to get the "gist" of what something says. About 60 percent accuracy with lots of grammar, syntax and spelling mistakes are perfectly acceptable. In our opinion, those standards are not fine. That's why translations should be done by human brains only. They can readily make subtle distinctions of nuance and determine the best way to phrase a concept and not just a particular word which may not have an exact equivalent in the target language.
Computers can, in fact, help with the translation process in terms of
Translation Memory tools, Internet services, terminology databases
and other technologies that translations professional teams rely on.
Although it’s not a matter of feeding the text into the computer,
the expertise, the technical and the lexical knowledge of the translator
is indispensable. That's why machine translation plays no part
in professional translation Agencies.
A professional translation Agency should rely on only the finest translation
professionals, skilled human translators with many years' experience and highly
reputable qualifications. Most of all when you deal with adult material the
knowledge of local slang and terminology plays a big part for the final outcome.
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