Do we still need humans?

30/04/2024 11:00 - By RUTH BARTLETT

The impact of automation on the translation industry

The adoption of machine translation by translation agencies has been heavily criticised by professional translators. Whilst many have emphasised the negative effect is having on standards and working conditions in the translation industry, most feel obligated to precede any criticism with a disclaimer that, "machine translation has its place", explaining that in certain circumstances it can be a useful tool.

I disagree. I have yet to see machine translation output that is not littered with inaccuracies, mistranslations and ambiguities. If a text does not accurately convey your message or, worse, perverts it, then how useful a tool is it?

‌It shortchanges customers

‌Financial translation offers an instructive case study. I regularly come across a litany of shocking mistranslations in the financial reporting of some of France's biggest multinationals: profits reported as losses, assets reported as liabilities, bank accounts mistranslated as life insurance, "depreciation" and "amortisation" used interchangeably... Translation is about context. Words have different meanings in different contexts. Translators care about context, machines don't. What's worse, the "post-editors" hired for quality assurance are being trained and incentivised to ignore context. If the CEOs and Chairs of France's CAC 40 knew just how much misinformation they were feeding to their English-language clients, shareholders and stakeholders they would be horrified.

Good translation is about more than fluency in two languages. It requires top-class research, writing and communication skills. A degree in history and French and my career as a researcher at the British Embassy in Paris and at the European Commission Delegation to the OECD and UNESCO have given me the perfect tools for the job.

Intensive research

I deliver texts with the same impact as the original, with the terminology carefully researched and recorded in your own customised Word bank.

Your translations are available for you to download in your own confidential, collaborative workspace where successive versions can be viewed at a glance, doing-away with miscommunication and ensuring that we are on the same page.