Why machine translations can never replace translators?

by Target Language Translation Services

- November 15 2021

As technology evolves quickly, it has changed the way translation is getting done. With machine translation, or translation computer software, able to translate entire documents at the click of a button and at very low costs, one might think there is no need hire a human translator to do their business translation work. However, there are several problems that come from machine translation which can only be overcome by hiring a human translator. Keep these in mind before choosing to use machine translation as these problems with the translation will become business problems if you don’t get them resolved.

The problems with machine translation

Here are some reasons why you can never rely on a machine translation to translate your marketing materials and why no matter how much technology evolves, machine translation can never replace professional translators.

Quality Issues

Machine translation is all about rules. In 1950, machine translation systems used colossal bilingual dictionaries and hard-coded rules to calculate the word order in the final output, which, as you can imagine, does not translate well.

By the 21st century, computers had acquired more powerful computation abilities and a larger storage capacity, which enabled higher quality machine translations. However, the basic mechanism hasn’t changed: dictionaries and rigid, with every single rule of translation having to be taught to the computer. Meanwhile, translation is much more complex than learning isolated words in a language. From one language to another, the grammar, order of words, and metaphors are different.

With tens of thousands of words in every language and several different meanings to thousands of words based on the context of a word being used, it is not possible for a computer program to understand context, especially in complex situations.

Without being able to understand all of these factors, machine translation will always have problems with the quality of its translation.

Writing skill issue

Machine translation and machine learning are used to give the machine data, to let people tag the data, and to allow the machine to generate a sorting algorithm. The machine creates the rules.

Good writing often breaks the rules. Good writing is more than just writing. It’s a very complex and unquantifiable thinking process that machines cannot copy unless we invent machines that can pass a very high-level Turing test, but for now, that is really just science fiction. Good writing is important when communicating with business partners or clients within your global market and also when communicating your message to potential clients in that same market. Human translators with expertise and experience in both languages at hand will be able to deliver a more appropriate solution that will resonate with your business partners and consumers.

Can’t get feedback or cooperation

Trying to get a program to give you feedback or collaborate with you isn’t realistic. This means that if you are trying to translate a significant marketing message into a foreign language for your marketing team getting ready to launch a new product in a new global market, you won’t be able to get feedback or cooperation from any software on the best way to translate that into the foreign language. Business is about setting yourself up for success by only taking calculated risks. In translation, this can only come from leaning on someone who has expertise and experience in translating and working in the foreign market, such as working directly with a professional translation company.

Without sensitivity to culture

Each country has its own culture which in turn have their own values and norms that are . The values and norms of each culture impact the way people within that culture communicate with each other. Without having experience with the culture, it is impossible to know which values and norms to be sensitive to when communicating. Machine translation cannot be sensitive to cultures’ values or norms. This can result in problems by conveying the wrong message to your business associates or consumer, or even worse offending them when you’re not meaning to. This could potentially cause your business many problems which can be very costly as it will affect your performance in that foreign market.

Conclusion

Though the latest translation apps and programs are extremely handy when we visit foreign countries and they help us to understand certain words and instructions, in all reality it is not the best solution for most of your business needs. For these, think of working with a professional translation company who has both the experience and expertise to navigate effective communication within foreign markets.

This article is reprinted from inWhwtLanguage and MH DIGITAL.

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