Machine translation (MT)

Increased efficiency and productivity with machine translation

Machines make many aspects of our lives easier, including in the translation industry. Using neural machine translation (NMT) can often help if you need to translate a lot of text in a short space of time, or if you need a version of a text in another language just so that it can be understood.

KEY FACTS

Machine translation can save you time and money.
State-of-the-art: SemioticTransfer uses neural machine translation.
Rule of thumb: anything that will be seen by many people, deals with a specialist or technically complex subject matter or aims to communicate strong emotions should not be entrusted solely to a machine.

Efficiency and lower translation costs thanks to machine translation

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Efficiency and lower translation costs thanks to machine translation

Machine translation saves time and money. It should nonetheless be borne in mind that a machine cannot understand every passage of text correctly, and may make mistakes with jargon, specialist subjects or the level of formality. Accordingly, you should always have machine-translated texts checked by a native language post-editor if the translation is to be used further. You can therefore see machine translation as a compromise when there is too much text to translate in the time available, but there are certain circumstances in which you should not do without the expert eye of a native speaker. The rule of thumb is that anything that will be seen by many people, deals with a specialist or technically complex subject matter or aims to communicate strong emotions should not be entrusted solely to a machine.

What is neural machine translation (NMT)?

In neural machine translation, the sentences of a text are converted into the target language by a vast quantity of text-trained programs hosted on massive server farms, without any human involvement. At first glance, using machine translation may seem extremely appealing, in view of the time and money it can save, but these benefits should be enjoyed with caution. Only a review by a specialist will guarantee that a translation is correct.

What does machine translation have to do with post-editing?

Post-editing is where a text is reviewed by a specialist after it has been translated by machine. This step is essential in providing a higher-quality final product. Because machines cannot think and even the best computer systems can misinterpret sentences and contexts, you still need a person to have a look at the text.

Find out everything there is to know about machine translation and more...

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Frequently Asked Questions about Machine Translation

How does machine translation work?

There are various approaches to machine translation, including rule-based systems, statistical models and, most recently, deep learning neural networks. These systems analyse the source text, identify patterns and then translate the text into the target language.

Is using machine translation a professional practice?

Machine translation (MT) can simplify a translator’s work enormously and help to make efficiency gains in the translation process. However, MT must be used responsibly by a competent professional in order to realise these benefits. It’s also important to check whether a particular text is suitable for machine translation and not to use MT if the quality of the translation will be affected.

Can machine translation replace human translators?

Machine translation can handle many simple translation tasks efficiently, but human translation is often indispensable in the case of demanding texts that require cultural sensitivity or specific expertise. A good solution for many projects is to combine machine and human translation, as happens in post-editing, for example.

So should I use machine translation for my translation or not?

As is so often the case, the answer is: it depends. As an experienced translation agency, we’re happy to support you with an assessment of whether we would recommend the use of machine translation for your texts or whether there is a risk of quality problems occurring. Please contact us for a no-obligation assessment.

What are the data protection implications of machine translation?

With many free online tools, data security is poor and it’s hard to establish who has access to the data you copy into tools like these. At SemioticTransfer, we ensure that your data is not accessed by unauthorised third parties, even when MT is used. We guarantee the security of your data in accordance with the ISO 27001 quality standard.

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