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You\u2019re considering hiring a translator or agency to help you with translation, but you\u2019re new to the industry. Isn\u2019t translation just a matter of finding the right word in the new language for each word in the current language? Because then all you need is a free online translator, right? Not really, and we can explain why.<\/p>\n
In the translation industry, \u201cmachine translation<\/a>\u201d means using software instead of humans to translate words. When you\u2019re on your favorite social media platform and see a small \u201ctranslate\u201d option under a post written in a language other than your profile language, that\u2019s machine translation. It has come a long<\/em> way from its early days, but it still requires a human touch to work with.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s why.<\/p>\n Your foreign language studies, even if they were sparse, likely focused on memorizing lists<\/a> of words:<\/p>\n All you had to do was memorize these lists, know where to put the words in a sentence, and voil\u00e0<\/em>! You could speak in tongues.<\/p>\n Can\u2019t computers do that? As we say in German, \u201cjein<\/em>.\u201d (In English, that would be \u201cyo,\u201d which doesn\u2019t mean the same thing. See how confusing this can quickly become?) What that German word\u2014a combination of ja<\/em> and nein<\/em>\u2014means is \u201cyes and no.\u201d<\/p>\n Yes, you can look up the words, but words by themselves don\u2019t convey meaning, so no, you can\u2019t immediately translate them. If I say, \u201ckeyboard,\u201d and nothing else, not even with my body, you won\u2019t know what I mean. Do I mean an input device for a computer? A musical instrument? A piece of playwood in a garage that has keys hanging on it?<\/p>\n We need sentences (and usually other factors) to convey meaning, e.g., saying \u201cMy keyboard is broken\u201d to an IT team member at work most likely does not refer to your musical instrument standing in your living room at home.<\/p>\n (However, if that IT team member loves music, then it actually could. But do you see what\u2019s happening here? We\u2019re looking at the context of that statement, something machine translation still needs to perfect.)<\/p>\n Machine translators can\u2019t detect context unless you give it to them, and even then, it\u2019s impossible to train them to see all contexts. The human brain continues to surprise science with its capabilities, and we can\u2019t technologically reproduce those yet.<\/p>\n Prepositions are used in English to connect nouns to verbs and nouns to nouns. For example, these sentences are identical except for the preposition:<\/p>\n And these:<\/p>\n Indeed, two of those examples may have made you laugh, because they\u2019re impossible, like running the washer around the dryer. But hopefully you now see the role prepositions play in English.<\/p>\n So, can\u2019t machine translation do that? Often, yes, but it depends on the meaning of that sentence. For example, \u201cThey\u2019re out to lunch if they think that will work\u201d was translated by a well-known machine translator into German to mean that literally, i.e., \u201cThey\u2019re going out for food at about noon if they think that will work.\u201d It didn\u2019t understand the implied context and return, \u201cThey\u2019re crazy if they think that will work.\u201d<\/p>\n You might think that the solution is to add in the translation \u201cto be out to lunch\u201d means \u201cto be crazy.\u201d But if the machine translator doesn\u2019t understand the proper context, it may return that crazy translation when the literal one is intended.<\/p>\n Prepositions may be (usually) small words, but they\u2019re big players when it comes to understanding an English sentence. Humans use many clues to give us context that MT can\u2019t pick up on yet. Machine translation is getting better, but it\u2019s still miles from perfect.<\/p>\n Did you know that not all languages have prepositions? They may change a noun or verb to include the meaning we give to prepositions in English. Other languages don\u2019t differentiate between the sentences \u201cI\u2019m working\u201d and \u201cI work\u201d because they don\u2019t conjugate (change the form of) verbs to account for an event that is being carried out right now and one that is carried out over a longer period of time or is a habit.<\/p>\n This is another reason why you can\u2019t translate one word for another. German only has \u201cI work\u201d and requires other signals to help an English speaker understand the time component.<\/p>\n A good machine translator will of course pick up many of the differences we\u2019ve discussed, but not all of them. That\u2019s because computers, despite all the incredible advances in AI<\/a>, still can\u2019t process context the way a human can.<\/p>\n The assumption that everyone in the world speaks English also doesn\u2019t hold any water: most people don\u2019t. Estimates range from about 1.1 billion to 2 billion speakers<\/a>, including native speakers and those who speak it as a second or foreign language. Translation is the only solution if you expect your company to have any strong influence globally and have any hope of ultimately conquering any global markets.<\/p>\n In some cases, human-only translation is the best option. But in the usually straightforward language of business and technology, machine translation can help save time and money.<\/p>\n But you always need a human involved who knows both languages exceptionally well.<\/p>\n That\u2019s because effective and fast translation requires a solution that lets standard translations be carried out automatically while still allowing for a human to confirm the context and approve the translation. This is the best of both worlds and a solution you should expect from the translation agency you choose.<\/p>\n There are time-saving ways to translate the documents, applications, and multimedia that your company needs done to reach a wider audience. At text&form, we use a variety of translation tools<\/a> to complete your translations accurately without resorting to word-for-word lookups and time-consuming, human-only translation processes.<\/p>\nCan\u2019t Machine Translation Just Look Up, Well, Translations?<\/h2>\n
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One Pesky Word That Can Change It All<\/h2>\n
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Languages Are Built Differently<\/h2>\n
What\u2019s the Solution?<\/h2>\n
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