Have you ever wondered what Machine Translation is? It is the use of modern software and technologies to translate texts between languages quickly and at a low cost, making it a powerful tool for processing large amounts of data.
It relies on complex algorithms such as neural and statistical translation to analyze texts, but it is not perfectly accurate and requires human post-editing to ensure translation quality, especially in specialized texts.
Despite its ability to accelerate the process and reduce costs, human translation remains essential for correcting errors and ensuring an accurate understanding of meaning and emotion.
Definition of Machine Translation
Machine translation can be defined as a type of translation that is performed using machines and software, where the translator is a computer and automated programs, rather than a human being or human translator.
All you have to do is input the text you want to translate from one language to another into these programs, and the text translation process is completed automatically within minutes.
Steps of Machine Translation
- Initially, the text to be translated is prepared by the machine through a series of filtering and organization processes.
- Subsequently, the machine’s system is trained and programmed for translation operations by using examples of texts in various languages and their corresponding translations in other languages.
- Then, the machine learns how to operate and analyzes the examples so that it can understand them, analyzing the patterns and probabilities related to the way words or sentences are translated.
- Afterward, the machine begins to use this mechanism again when a new text is entered for translation.
It is worth noting that the results of this translation are not perfectly accurate and require human review and editing, and errors are sometimes found within them.
What is the Difference Between Machine Translation and Human Translation?
Currently, reliance on machine translation has spread across many fields and companies, especially with the rapid digital development in translation technologies and programs and their diversity.
Nevertheless, human translation still maintains its essential and indispensable position, as many institutions rely on it to ensure accuracy and quality.
The difference between machine and human translation lies in the fact that machine translation is executed by pre-programmed digital tools and software, which makes it prone to errors and a lack of emotional feeling and meaning in texts.
As for human translation, it is performed by a professional translator who possesses linguistic and cultural expertise, ensuring an accurate translation with a natural and expressive style.
It is noteworthy that machine translation cannot achieve high quality without human review and auditing, where the translator intervenes to improve phrasing and add the human touch that makes the text more impactful and appropriate for the reader.
What are the Technologies Used in Machine Translation?
Machine translation technologies include Rule-Based Machine Translation and dictionary-based systems, which rely on fixed rules to translate texts, in addition to using Reinforcement Learning to improve system performance through continuous feedback. Below are some common machine translation technologies:
- Rule-Based Machine Translation
- Reinforcement Learning in Machine Translation
Advantages of Machine Translation
Machine translation is characterized by speed and efficiency in translating multilingual texts at a low cost, with the ability to customize it for specialized fields such as medicine and law. It also ensures terminology consistency and quality improvement accuracy thanks to Artificial Intelligence technologies:
- High Flexibility in Language Use Most electronic sources are robust enough to translate multiple languages at once, which helps you localize your texts for more than one audience while saving time and effort.
- Speed of Translation Operations Machine translation is distinguished by its ability to translate millions of words very quickly, and the development of artificial intelligence helps it improve the translation quality as the content it handles increases.
- Low Cost of Translation Operations Despite the need for human translators to edit texts that have been translated by machine translation, machine translation servers are effective in reducing translation costs and shrinking the time duration required. Machine translation technologies relieve human translators of the burden by providing them with various translation drafts for them to only modify.
- The Ability of Machine Translation to be Specialized Machine translation systems can be developed to be more accurate in specific fields by training them on specialized data pertaining to that field. This is done by collecting previously translated texts in fields such as medicine, law, or technology, which enables the system to absorb the specific terminology of each field and use it accurately during translation.
- Consistency in Terminology Use Consistency in terminology use refers to maintaining the coherence of words and vocabulary across all translations, which is a key factor in ensuring accuracy, clarity, and ease of understanding. For example, translating a specific term in more than one way within the same document may confuse the reader and affect their comprehension of the text.
Machine Translation Cannot Replace Human Translation
Despite the significant development in machine translation technologies and their speed in completing huge texts at a low cost, they still lack the human touch and accuracy in conveying cultural and emotional meanings.
Whereas human translation is distinguished by its ability to understand context, accurately interpret meanings, and add a human dimension to the text.
Therefore, human translation remains an essential element in fields that require high quality and deep understanding, while machine translation can be used as an auxiliary tool to speed up work and improve productivity.
Disadvantages of Machine Translation
Machine translation suffers from low quality due to the inaccuracy in using terminology and expressions, which leads to linguistic errors that affect the comprehension of the text and the intended concept.
Furthermore, machine translation lacks a deep understanding of texts, which compromises its accuracy compared to human translation. Below are the most prominent of these disadvantages:
- Low translation quality
- Inaccuracy in translation
- Presence of some errors
Uses of Machine Translation
Machine translation has become an essential part of our daily lives, offering many benefits across various fields. Below are some of its most prominent uses:
- International Communication
- Commercial and Marketing Translation
- Website and Application Support
- Translation in the Field of Education
- Legal and Technical Translation
- Simultaneous Translation Services in Conferences In international conferences and events.
- Assistance in Scientific Research
- Translation in the Healthcare Field
The Importance of Using Machine Translation
The importance and benefits of machine translation are evident in many different points, including:
- The translation process is immediate and fast.
- A large number of words can be translated in seconds or minutes.
- It supports a large number of different languages.
- It is low in cost.
Some Machine Translation Applications and Programs
- Google Translate
- Naver Papago
- DeepL Translator
- Yandex Translate
Master Legal Translation with Mondo Experts
Do you want to develop your legal translation skills and face the challenges that beginner translators encounter?
At Mondo, we realize that legal translation requires accuracy and expertise that go beyond mere word transfer. Join our specialized training courses to acquire the knowledge and skills that qualify you to provide accurate, reliable, and professional legal translations.Contact Us.
Machine translation is the process of converting texts between languages using software and technical tools that rely on advanced algorithms. Machine translation differs from human translation in that it does not require human intervention in text interpretation, which makes it faster and more cost-efficient.
This technology supports many languages and can handle large quantities of text quickly, but it may not be entirely accurate, as it often needs human improvements to avoid grammatical and semantic errors.
Machine translation technologies are numerous, including rule-based, statistical, and neural translation, each relying on different methods to analyze and translate texts.
Although machine translation offers great benefits such as speed and cost reduction, its accuracy remains limited compared to human translation.
Therefore, there remains a need for human intervention to improve the translation and ensure text accuracy, especially in specialized fields or texts that require a precise sense of meaning and interpretation.Contact Us.
