Beyond Translation Apps: Keeping the Human in the Loop 

Translation apps, a particular form of machine translation, have become a vital tool for communication across language barriers, making everyday cross-border interactions more efficient.

The most popular apps, such as Google Translate, Microsoft Translator and iTranslate, offer a variety of features, including automatic language detection, speech-to-text translation, and even real-time audio translation. 

Travelers use these apps to gain information about unfamiliar places and interact with locals. What’s more, many translation apps can be used offline, making them perfect for travelers who don’t have access to a reliable Internet connection, and they carry the added benefit of enhancing language learning, featuring interactive lessons, flashcards and quizzes.

Considering their amazing utility and affordability, it might be tempting to use such apps for localizing your business content and material.

But is this really such a good idea?

As a test case, let’s take this excerpt from a recent article on the TrueLanguage website: 

“It’s true that some businesses, generously funded enterprises with extensive global outreach programs, do employ full-time translators on-site.”

We ran this sentence through Google Translate and translated the English separately to Spanish, German, Portuguese, and French. We then used professional human linguists to translate the results back into English. Here are the results:

Spanish

It’s certain that some businesses, businesses generously financed with extensive programs of global reach, employ full-time translators on the site.

German

It is true that some companies, well-funded companies with extensive global outreach programs, engage full-time translators on site.

Portuguese

It’s true that some companies, generously financed with extensive programs with global reach, employ full-time in-house translators.

French

It is true that some companies, which are generously financed through large international awareness programs, hire full-time translators on site.

As we can see from a single sentence, machine translation apps provide spotty results and can change the meaning when translating a single sentence. A paragraph, article or white paper can become unintelligible. Even if the reader can get a sense of the original meaning in some cases, it can still be a frustrating experience.

Clearly, such automated translation needs a real, live human being – preferably a professional linguist – to adjust it so that it accurately reflects the source material. In other words, computerized translation like this requires a human in the loop. This review process is known as post-editing.

When a company’s reputation, brand, or sales are on the line, skipping this step can be disastrous for your bottom line. It can damage customer and vendor relationships and, in a reverse halo effect, cause your valued connections to wonder what else you’re getting wrong if your communications are so mangled.

At TrueLanguage, we have worked extensively in the legal, medical and scientific fields. You can only imagine the repercussions if your carefully crafted documents, contracts or manuals lose their original meaning and intent during translation. It could affect livelihoods and people’s health.

In marketing, branding, and website copy, getting lost in translation can cost sales, goodwill, and customers, making the difference between profit and loss.

Perhaps a day will come when artificial intelligence has advanced to the point that it doesn’t require human input and correction. That day, however, remains beyond the foreseeable future in spite of many remarkable advances.

So, with all that in mind, on your next overseas vacation, go ahead and enjoy communicating with your Uber driver or ordering food using convenient machine translation apps on your phone. 

When it comes to your business communications, ensure you’re using deploying professionals trained in post-editing to who are not only native speakers of target languages but subject matter experts as well. 

If you need help getting started, TrueLanguge has created a three-step signature process can simplify even the most complex projects, and our TrueGlobal™ and LocalVoice™ trademarked approaches ensure accurate results the first time and every time, on time and on budget.

Contact us for a free consultation. We can help you with your next translation project every step of the way. Learn more at www.truelanguage.com.