A word-for-word translation is not faithful to the source language!
Poor translation!
What an inaccurate translation!
These are some of the negative comments about Machine translation.
Like every other persons, you might at a time condemn the work done through machine translation. In fact, you may be more disappointed when you discovered that the poor work is coming from some translation solution services. The poor work make cost a great deal of fortune especially if you are annexing a new country for your products and services.
However, at ConveyThis we have a measure of trust in machine translation. In fact, when it comes to handling more sophisticated translation assignments such as translation of an individual’s or brand’s website from one language to another ConveyThis employs machine translation. You may wonder what the reason is. You may also wonder why ConveyThis accommodate machine translation when it comes to localization of a website.
First of all, we will consider some fictions or misconceptions about employing the service of machine translation. We will take a look at least six (6) lies that people tell about machine. And after that, we will discuss the role of machine translation in developing a multilingual website. Without wasting time any further, let us discuss each under each subheadings below.
Misconception 1: Machine Translation Lacks Accuracy
The number one thing anybody can think of when it comes to localization and translation is accuracy. The question now is how accurate is a translation done by machine? Simply put, the accuracy of your translated material is fully dependent on the targeted language. It is easy for machine to render a nice translation if the targeted language is a frequently used language but may pose more difficulty when it comes to a language that is hardly been used by people.
Also, the contextual use of certain text should also be noted. It is pretty easy for machine translation to produce a perfect or near perfect translation for a text that simply describes goods, products or services. A more complex text that is an internal part of your website may need proofreading after the machine translation has been used. For example, you, someone from your team or a professional might be needed for works like translating your homepage.
Anyway, when it comes to machine translations, you need not to be worried about accuracy. The main reason is that services that offers solution to translation such as ConveyThis gives you opportunity to edit your translations after it has undergone machine translation. When you start your translation work with machine translations, you are set a better path for your website translation and localization journey.
Misconception 2: Machine Translation is The Same Thing as Google Translate People frequently say this. Over time, people have wrongly point to Google Translate as what is meant by machine translation. This may be because Google Translate is the machine translation solution people think about and it is the most widely known translation tool.
One other thing some even make the mistake of is thinking that ConveyThis is more or less like Google Translate. You know what? ConveyThis is far different from Google Translate. While it is true that ConveyThis employ services of machine translations as the foundation for translating website, Google Translate is not what we use.
To help us provide the best website translation services, we oftentimes research and make tests on providers of machine translations such as Yandex, Google Translate, DeepL, Bing Translate etc. We compare the outcomes of the translation in whatever pair of languages we are handling so as to ensure we are providing the most natural, recent and updated translations for our users.
Also, do not forget that translation is not the same thing as website localization. It is just a facet of website localization. Hence, ConveyThis can as well help you with how your website will look like. And not just that alone, you have the opportunity to manually modify any part of the translation in case there is a need for adjustment in what has been translated.
Misconception 3: Machine Is Not Dynamic Since They Cannot Think
Although it is true that computer cannot literally think, it is noteworthy that they can learn. Machine translation services are driven by a huge number of data. That is what providers of machine translations depends on. This means that they make use to their advantages the day-to-day countless numbers of communications and interactions that involves different languages on their platform. That is why the translations they provide is standard since they can tap out of the real time discussion on their platform rather than basing their activities only on a programmed dictionaries of terms. The truth is that having dictionaries is part of their process but the system has come to learn new terms, context, and meaning from conversations. This make it looks like the machine can think.
With this ability to “think”, so to say, we can now say that machine accuracy is functionally dependent on the ability to learn. That is, more learning turns out to be more accuracy. Years back until this moment machine learning has evolved. Since statistics has shown that machine are now learning at higher speed, it will be wise to make us of that opportunity in website translation and localization.
Do you know that machine has memory? Yes is the answer. Due to the sophistication in machine’s ability, ConveyThis tactfully keep sentences that are similar on your website in a save place and help to recall them to the appropriate part of your website so that next time there won’t be any need for manual editing of that part.
Misconception 4: Machine Translation is Time Wasting
Definition of a machine helps us to know clearer that this also is a lie. A machine is that device that is employ to make your work easier and faster. The truth of the matter is that machine translation was introduced to upscale speed of translation works. In fact, professional translators sometimes dash in to the use of machine during translation projects.
It requires more time for a professional human translator to translate a document than it will take machine to do the same. For example, it is said that a professional translator can translate only some 2000 words in a day at an average. It will require some 500 hundreds human translators to translate 1 million words in a day. A million words that machine will translate within minutes.
This does not mean that editing machine translation work is discouraged. Rather, the emphasis is that while using the opportunity of speed in machine translations, you will better use the professional translators as proof-readers and editors of the work done by the machine.
Misconception 5: Machine Translation Lacks Expertise
While it is true that more is needed to provide an accurate and trustworthy translation, yet machine translation can provide an effective result. This result when properly adjusted with the help of human experts and professional translators can amount to a great deal of expertise. Some specific contents that you want to translate may best be reserved for human translators. For example, the technical aspect of your website may be given to translators that deals in that field.
Good to know that it is not a must that you lay the foundation of your website localization with machine translation when using ConveyThis as your website localization solutions. You can bring in your own already translated material. Another feature is that ConveyThis allows you to add a translation expert in through your ConveyThis dashboard. With this additional feature you can augment machine translation to a genuine expertise.
Misconception 6: Machine Translation Lacks Contextual Understanding
Truly, humans are known for their emotional prowess. This emotional capability helps humans to be able to understand the contextual meaning of a text, group of words or sentences. It is hard for machine to distinguish a humour from a serious talk. Machine cannot tell if a word will be offensive or complimentary for a certain location.
However, previously in this article, it has been said that machine have the ability to learn. And from what they learn they are able to understand some, not all, contexts in which certain words are used.
When translating general purpose area of your website, you can use machine translation while sections that are sensitive can be left for professional translators. That is why it is a very good idea to subscribe to translation solution that avails you a machine translation, post translation manual modification and website localization features.
What can we Say about Combination of Machine Translation and Website Localization?
The combination is possible with ConveyThis. Don’t just condemn machine translation, give it a trial by subscribing to our services. Remember that machine does not know what joke is from seriousness, can’t say a sentence is proverb or idioms. Hence, for you to have a trouble free, cost effective and superb translation and localization of your website, try ConveyThis where you can get a combo of machine translation and professional human translator handling your website solutions for you. If you want to initiate your website localization plan, the best you can do is to start it with machine translation.