At some point in their life, people use machine translation (MT) such as Google Translate for various purposes on their devices. One of the easiest ways to find out the meaning of a word or sentence written in a foreign language is by using MT to translate it. When using MT, all processes are handled by machines without human intervention.
Have you ever used MT to translate something? Do you get good results when translating a long paragraph composed of complex sentences? Good translation requires an appropriate understanding of context and accuracy of equivalents. Machines cannot completely replace human’s roles.
However, over time, the accuracy of MT has increased. That being said, if you want to get an accurrate translation with an impeccable grammatical structure that stays true to the context of the target language, Pruf Ritz is your answer.
The Importance of Human Translators in MT Technology
MT is a good fit when you need to translate something instantly without paying much. However, MT has its own shortcomings, which stem from the lack of involvement of human translators.
Human translators can use their expertise to produce good translations from poor source texts. They can analyze the content of the source texts and translate them with more effective and accurate writing styles according to the norms of the target language. Human translators are also more flexible when translating creative texts.
With adequate research abilities possessed by pretty much any experienced translator, they can find an appropriate equivalent for a metaphor or idiom that may be present in a text. They can also produce more natural translations by tinkering with the language style of the target texts while keeping the message of the source texts intact.
In addition, you can guarantee the confidentiality of a document by requesting human translators to sign a confidentiality agreement (NDA). This way, you can minimize the risk of information leakage as there are consequences that must be faced by translators if they violate the NDA.
Strengths and Weaknesses of Machine Translation
So you have learned the importance of expert translators’ role in relation to the use of MT. Next, Pruf Ritz will list the strengths and weaknesses of MT below.
Strengths
If you still want to try using MT on your devices, check out a couple of benefits of doing so.
Fast
The translation process using MT is instantaneous. You can simply enter the word or text that you want to translate into the MT, and with just a few clicks the translation results will appear. Purely in terms of speed, human translators are no match for MT. If you need something translated at a moment’s notice, MT may be the perfect choice for you.
Cheap
As a matter of fact, using MT is much cheaper than employing the services of human translators. There are tons of MT services that can be accessed for free on the Internet, such as Google Translate, Microsoft Translator, and Yandex. In addition, there are several paid MT services that offer various features, such as the ability to determine the degree of formality of the translation results produced by MT.
Weaknesses
Before using MT, we should consider its drawbacks when we want to translate an important document. Here is a list of MT’s weaknesses:
Translation Results are Directly Proportional to the Quality of Source Texts
The quality of translation results generated by MT is largely determined by the quality of the source texts. If the source text is filled with ineffective, illogical, or ambiguous sentences, it is almost certain that the MT’s translation results will be of poor quality.
Translation Results Tend to be Literal
Currently, MT has not been able to properly detect the context of a sentence and is more likely to translate a text word by word. Therefore, the resulting translations tend to be literal. This will not be a problem if the wording and phrases of the source text are simple, as can be seen in instructions for operating a piece of equipment, which are generally written matter-of-factly.
However, for creative texts such as articles, advertisements, or fiction works, chances are the translations produced by MT will feel stilted or even awkward to read. This is particularly true for fiction works that are riddled with metaphors and idioms.
The Risk of Leaked Document Confidentiality
The use of free MT comes with its own risk, namely theft of important data or information from a document. As quoted from Elite Asia’s article, a Norwegian agency, NRK, revealed the case of data theft at Translate.com because one user used a free translation application, Microsoft Translator. Hence, do not use MT if there is important information in your document.
Ultimately, even though MT is a very useful technology that makes it easy for users to translate a text or document, human translators’ role is still very much needed to ensure that there are no minor or major mistakes in the translation results.
Pruf Ritz team reassures and satisfies its clients as it can maintain professionalism and quality as well as keep the confidentiality of a document. Contact the professional and friendly Pruf Ritz team through this page.
