Machine Translation: Fast and Cheap, but Inaccurate
Machine translation is accomplished by feeding a text to a computer
algorithm that translates it automatically into another language. That
is, no human is involved in the translation process.
The advantages of machine translation include cost and speed.
Computers can process a machine translation almost instantly. There are
free programs such as Google Translate that can translate relatively
short texts instantly, but if you need to translate a very long
document, you can purchase software that can process an unlimited amount
of text at the cost of the software alone. There is also software
available that can be integrated with other computer and online tools,
providing instant translations in various contexts.
The major disadvantage is lack of accuracy. If you’ve ever used Google Translate
to attempt to understand a text in a foreign language, you will know
that this method does not produce a particularly natural-sounding or
accurate translation. Language is highly complex and dynamic, and while
this type of translation technology has improved greatly over the years,
it will never be able to completely accurately identify the nuances of
each language and transfer them into another language.
It is possible to hire a “post-translation editor” to look over the translation and correct errors, but it can be harder
to correctly deduct the meaning of a sentence from its machine
translation than from its original language. Translators hired to
“smooth out” such translations sometimes end up asking clients to send
them the original text because the translation was unintelligible. This
is a big waste of everybody’s time!
The best use for machine translation, then, is when you need to
understand the general gist of a text. If you need an accurate
translation that anyone can understand, you’ll want to opt for a
computer-assisted translation.
Computer-Assisted Translation: Human Translation Enhanced with Computerized Tools
Computer-Assisted Translation is a human translation
carried out with the aid of computerized tools. That is, a human
translator is the one reading and deducing the meaning of the source
text and transferring it into the target language. They are simply
utilizing computerized translation tools to help them work more quickly
and accurately.
You probably already use some of these tools yourself. For example,
nearly every word processor, and many web browsers, have a built-in
spell checker and/or automatic spelling correction function. This saves
writers and translators a lot of time looking up words in the
dictionary!
Speaking of dictionaries, when a translator does need to look up a
word, they can save time by using a computerized dictionary. As a
translator, my most often-used tools are the multi-language dictionary
(to help recall words that may be escaping me at that moment) and the
thesaurus (to help me choose exactly the right word for my translation).
More complex computerized translation tools include translation
memory tools (databases of texts in multiple languages), terminology
managers (that help translators maintain consistent terminology
throughout the translation), terminology databases (to help translators
locate the correct terminology for that field), bitext aligners (which
align the source text and the translation for side-by-side comparison),
and more.
Source: https://www.ulatus.com/translation-blog/machine-translation-vs-computer-assisted-translation-whats-the-difference/
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