The language industry is looking at the advancements in automated interpretation and wondering “will human translators be rendered obsolete in the future?” We all must admit that whether it’s the free Google Translate or more robust translation tools, machine translations are a wonder of modern technology. However, I submit for your consideration that these tools will actually drive more demand for live human to human interpretation in, at least, the short term. How can this be? The cost free or low cost availability of language translation tools will unleash pent up commerce that was traditionally only affordable to large corporations. Now a young fashion designer in Brazil or a small game maker in China can create marketing targeted at North America or European markets without a large financial outlay. If the sovereign trade regulators can get the mix right, we all will benefit.
England gives us a case study in human over machine translation. Attention has been drawn to high levels of economic migration to the UK over the past few years with a genuine influx of for language service needs which prompted the report. It would be much easier and cost effective for a company or municipality to depend exclusively on machine translation, but there’s an excellent reason why this doesn’t occur. The very fact remains that, oftentimes, device interpretation fails because of its failure to consider contextual problems and social subtleties. That said, it certainly can work in simple communications but we start to see new problems arise as people mix internationally. Cultural customs and idioms force third party explanation and, as commerce continue to expand; proper understanding of the messaging has a clear, measurable impact either way.
The steady growth of the internet has demonstrated the need for clarity in language interpreting. As emerging markets add new voices to web commerce an evolution occurs in views, methods, and ideas impacting the very texture and taste of the net. Recently, China has overtaken the United States in its quantity of web users with a reported 253 million users. Considering there are less websites available in Chinese than in English this truth is made even more relevant. As the internet market brings buyer and seller closer the language and cultural barriers will be the last hurdles remaining. A quick Google search of misinterpretations reveals some unfortunate but hilarious translation blunders. As we can see in situations like these, machine translations are virtually worthless other than a chuckle. Even the most sophisticated algorithms cannot keep up with the evolution in language cultural sensitivity which in the case of English is not axiomatic. There simply must be a human intervention clarifying these interactions or your brand will be forever damaged in a new market. The risk is simply too great not to use real people to insure proper communication.
In the UK, several government projects have now been put in place to identify integration among current and growing towns. Literature, municipality content and street signage have all been edited and republished in languages apart from English and this was done with people. Likewise the world community is continually changing when it comes to complexity and size; It maybe not inconceivable to think about the possibility that as more and more small companies begin to understand how useful and profitable it is to provide multilingual information and therefore interpretation companies will continue to prosper. The mistakes of machine only translations are self evident and therefore we continue to need human eyes to ensure a true meaning is communicated.