Are you a science fiction fan? Imagine a futuristic world where all the hard work is done by machines. Sounds pretty cushy, right? But a bit scary at the same time…I mean, I’m a fan of Arnie, but I’d hate to go toe-to-toe with the Terminator.
As technology develops, so does the automation of work. Many sectors have begun to feel the effects of the slow yet inexorable invasion of the machines. But what about translation? Is it true that machine translation is making us human translators obsolete?
The answer, for the time being, is no (sighs of relief all around the room).
We’ve all witnessed (or suffered) the godawful yet highly entertaining results that come from machine translation, like that time you saw “roasted husband” on the menu at a Chinese restaurant and thought it would be safer to stick with the wontons. Google’s translator may help you find donde está la biblioteca, but for anything more complex than that you may want to consider changing your strategy. Not even the most advance machine translators are capable of producing a fluid (or even understandable) translation.
So, what’s missing? The human touch.
A machine can translate, but it can’t understand what it’s translating. Instead of translating, what the machines actually do is take words in one language and spit them back out in another. You can hardly consider that translation in the true sense of the word. Now you can see why our job is so important. To really translate, you need to be able to understand the text at hand as well at the context surrounding it, which is something only we can do: translators of flesh and blood.
That’s why, if you need a quality translation, you should consider hiring a professional translation team (like ours, for example). That way you’re sure to get the results you want and the quality you deserve while avoiding machine translation disasters.
What do you think? What will machine translation be like in the future? Share your thoughts in the comment section.
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