I thought it was about time I re-drafted the German version of my CV. So, I happily saved it as an .ODT and started a project for the English to German translation using my favourite translation software, the lovely, Open Source, OmegaT.
OmegaT has an integrated Google Translate look-up tool, which I had a short glance and giggle at.
Whilst I am sometimes quite impressed at the results Google Translate can produce, it seems to be having an off day today. See below:
Original Text Fluent German-speaker and has been self-employed overseas.
Google Translate: Fließend Deutsch-Lautsprecher und wurde selbständig Übersee.
The above, back into English: Fluent German-loudspeaker and became self-employed overseas*.
*Note: this is a very literal translation, inferring seas were indeed crossed, and did not consider that “overseas”, when written by a Brit, tends to mean abroad in general.
A better suggestion: Englisch Muttersprachlerin mit Erfahrung als freiberufliche Übersetzerin in Deutschland.
German speakers will note that, in the German translation of my CV, I have changed a few things around. It now emphasises that I am an English native-speaker, since the fact I speak German is now obvious from the language of the CV. Secondly, I felt it flowed better to use the “mit Erfahrung” formulation than the equivalent of “has been”. German CVs tend to have a bias toward nouns. Thirdly, freelance and self-employed basically mean the same thing, but the more accurate word,’ freelance’, has negative connotations in English that are not reflected in the German ‘freiberuflich’, so I have used its equivalent. Lastly, what is the point in saying “overseas” any longer, when I can detail that it was Germany? Surely that will be of greater interest to German clients.
As you can see, some translation jobs go beyond mere editing – there is a bit of thought regarding one’s target audience and the intention of the text.
Translators are often told, mockingly, that there is no need for their profession in a world where everyone speaks English, and for everything else there is Google Translate.
I think the reason why our industry still exists is made amply clear by the example above. Even when committing one of the cardinal sins of translation – by translating a text as a non-native speaker of the target language – I still beat Google Translate hands-down. That code could not grasp the difference between a speaker and a loudspeaker, nor could it comprehend the need to intelligently alter the text to suit the target audience. That’s the trouble with computers, and machine and computer-aided-translation (CAT) tools – they just cannot understand what they are saying. Whilst I am optimistic for a world where this is no longer the case, for now I shall rest easy, knowing my profession is quite secure…
One should never use a machine translation services for their business or any other important . Machine translation are not always perfect always . Its better to hire a professional translation service people.
This is a great work you have done there, I do think that Google translate is useful but you have to be very careful when using it as it does not always pick up the right meaning of the word you are trying to translate. Human translators will definitely be needed for a few decades. I don’t think that one day CAT will become as good as human one, even though I did hear that the Pentagon was working on it. Well who knows what will happen? Well done on this analysis, it was really interesting to read!!!
Good work! We have done a similar analysis too! Check it out.
http://www.santranslate.com/language-news/babelfish-review-on-free-portuguese-translation/
At first sight, Google translation appears to be a good option for someone who needs a quick translation, but I realise some problems when this programme has been used with the whole article or even a long sentence. You will get a result that does not even relate to what it supposed to be.
For documents, I would still use a professional freelance translator – definitely NEVER an agency. Agencies are just so unprofessional – they even spam freelance translators’ blogs in an attempt to up their Google ranking! Rosetta, or someone acting on their behalf, tried to do that on this very blog…!
If I was looking for a freelance, high quality German translator – I would definitely go to you, Rose!
Translation divices such as Google Translate are surely innovative and have expanded rapidly but human translators can still surpass them. Translatiors need to consider the target market, cultural differences and so on. Translation devices cannot do this. One should be careful when choosing a translation services.