Machine Language Translation

Machine vs. Human Translations

What is machine translation? It is the translation of text by a computer. You may have seen software tools such as Google Translate, or BabelFish translate words from one language to another, right before your eyes. This may be good enough in communicating via email with an overseas pen-pal, or to get the gist of the content of a foreign website.

A translation which communicates what the original words were meant to say can save a patients’ life, win a bid, or persuade a shopper to buy your product.

However, good communication requires the original thoughts and ideas of the sender to be well understood by the receiver. Try machine translating another language. The translation engine will convert your words into the selected language. But, if a native speaker of that language were to read it, would he or she get a true understanding of what was intended from the original English words? Probably not.

Why?

Because a computer mainly translates word-for-word, rather than taking into consideration the context of the original text. For instance, a word in one language can have several different meanings. How can the machine translation software know what you were trying to say? Even though machine translation and software can be useful tool to get an idea of what is being said, for accurate meaning to be conveyed, a professional, human translator will always provide the best accuracy.

In today's era of rapidly expanding modern technology, we all have access to machine translation programs online. But remember that they remain tools. Like dictionaries, they can help you understand the general gist of a text, or give you different possible translations for a word. However, machines will not be able to do the job of a qualified human translator, in the foreseeable future.