Ever since China joined the World Trade Organization in 2001, many opportunities have emerged – both for dong business in China and for foreign businesses to create profitable linkages with Chinese companies. Read more…
Singapore – multi-racial, multi-cultural. It is truly a city that is alive with a diverse population. Thus, it only makes sense that this is the place to source for the best professional translation services. Read more…
1) Great quality. An outstanding translation company will never compromise on quality. Over and above everything else, a great translation is the criterion used to measure the work done and most highly prized by clients.
2) Competitive, not Lowest Pricing. I have always been skeptical of claims delivering highest quality at lowest prices. Having worked in the translation (and other industries) for a decade, I am forced to conclude that this simply is not possible. High quality translations can only come from dedicated professionals who have spent many years honing their skills. They therefore have a right to fair renumeration. Thus great translators will not work below a certain price, which is ultimately borne by the client.
Competitive pricing, on the other hand, is a definite possibility. The outstanding translation company can act as a medium between the client and translator, negotiating a fair, acceptable and competitive price between the two.
3) Deliver BEFORE, not on time. Delivery on time is acceptable. However, this is only the minimum industry standard. You have only met, but not exceeded client expectations. So when possible, deliver before time. There are also practical reasons why this is so beneficial. Let me illustrate with an example:
Suppose a translation is due by 5pm today. You deliver at 5pm to the client. He checks and discovers mistakes and misunderstandings. There is a mad scramble to correct the document as he needs to deliver to HIS boss at 5.30 pm.
Suppose now you deliver at 2pm. He is free at 3pm, reads it and discovers the problems. You (and him) now have at least 2 hours in order to rectify the problems. There is time for revision. No fuss or panic is created.
4) After Sales Service: A great translation company will always ask its clients for feedback and ways to improve.
5) Reliability and consistency. An outstanding translation company will always deliver on time, with great quality translation and competitive pricing. It should also be able to hold one to its best translators and avoid changing them for long-term assignments.
These are just some of our personal feel.
With the increasing popularity of online machine translations, one question that is increasingly being asked is this: Will there be a time when human translators become obsolete?
Having worked as a translator for a few years, I have had some experience using online machine translations. Let me answer this question with a confident NO! I will explain why below.
Firstly, the key reason why machine translations work badly is because they do not understand ‘context’. While humans intuitively understand what this means, ‘context’ is a difficult word to explain properly. Teaching it to a machine, or writing it into a programme, is consequently fraught with difficulties. For those with some background in IT and programming, a common way to do so, is to search the words before and words after in order to figure out the correct translation (think optimization or probability), but this method is still not too accurate and more often a case of ‘hit-and-miss’. As anyone who works long enough with languages know, there are all sorts of exceptions with regards to the rules of any language, let alone translating into another language. How to optimize and increase the accuracy of such a procedure is currently a matter of intense research.
Hence, we find that translations work fairly well for singular words used generally, where context is not so critical. On the other hand, translations of whole sentences leave much to be desired.
The source language and target language also greatly affect the accuracy of translation. Since English is the most common source language (and also target language) of translation, let me use this language to illustrate my point. From my experience, I have found that if the target language is an “anglicized” language (like German, Malay, French, Spanish, etc), the translations tend to work better.
However, if we translate into “non-anglicized” languages (like Chinese, Japanese, Korean, etc), we often find that the translations do not make much sense. This has to do with the fact that the structures of such languages vary quite differently from English and most translation programmes were first written primarily to translate between European languages, not to mention that most European languages are rooted in Latin.
In conclusion and to reiterate the question posed: Will there be a time when human translators become obsolete? My answer is a resolute NO!
PS: All opinions expressed above reflect the views of the writer only and do not in any way represent the views of Whizwordz International. While all due care and attention have been made with regards to the content, the writer cannot be held responsible for any inaccuracy or factual error.
After been in the piles of work for some time, we need to stop ourselves for a break, to take a look at the world around us. Because amidst the busy-ness, time never does stop for anyone. So when we stopped to look around, things have already changed so much that one may not be able to recognise or follow up.
Same goes for the world of translation… 5 years ago when you want to look for these companies to assist you in translation, you can only find a few under yellow pages. However now if you were to look into yellow pages again, you will find more of such providers, big or small.
Does this mean the pie is getting smaller?
According to “The World is Flat”, it seems that now the world has become more globalised and that even smaller companies can compete with the large corporations in the business world, and they not only can compete within their home country, they can also compete globally, thanks to the availability of the world wide web.
And of course with globalisation, comes the need for people to communicate more with counterparts who may not understand one’s own language. So the need for translation and interpretation increases.
However with the increase in the demand for such services, there is also a need to ensure that the quality provided is maintained at its highest. Translation is a skill which not many people, although whom seem to be able to speak a couple of languages, are apt in. Same like the world, translators also need to keep improving and changing and look at the bigger picture – the World.
And anyway, that’s why we’ve also changed our blog outlook.
There are many translation tools out there. There are those that you need to pay for, and those that are free. Of course if you just need to do brief checks on whether what you have translated is right or wrongly, you can use the free ones online, which I had previously mentioned in the blog on multi languages website translations/.
However recently I read on this news that “Babylon Translation Tool Does a So-So Job” by Erik Larkin, which makes me think that sometimes even machines that you have had to pay for, might not even do a better job than those that are free! So does this statement “best things in life are free” (sang by Madonna in “This used to be my playground”) apply in this case?
Ultimately, I personally still think nothing beats a human translator, as the brain is the most complex tool in the world. Ability to absorb information, process and then spit out in a different language is not something that a machine can replace, because very often, emotions are not included in the texts. That’s why we also need to “read between the lines” for a deeper understanding of texts. This understanding is not easily adapted by machines.
Still, the human brain is the best translation tool so far.
I’m not too sure what kind of jobs do not require constant upgrading. Nowadays, with the economic situation, it would be great to sit back, slow down and do some reconsolidation of your current skills, your work, your life and your future. What do you really need to move on in life, or in your work?
Take translation for example, it seems like the colloqualism of languages are always increasing, and with the internet, more lingos are added day by day. Are there any old words that are being phased out? Yes of course. And also, I realised that the way that we write our books, are becoming more and more conversational. No longer do we need to stick to standard English. Often, you get to see words like “don’ts” or “gals”, which only exist in a book as a conversation.
As we broaden our horizons, our experience go UP, and so you can only get better. So I think we all should read more, see more, listen more and learn more. Translation is no longer just translation, but also an experience or a story behind the words.
This headline was written by ANDREW ADAM NEWMAN on June 28, 2009 for the New York Times at:
Translators Wanted at LinkedIn. The Pay? $0 an Hour.
It says this: “About half of the 42 million members of LinkedIn, the online professional networking Web site, are outside the United States, and to further expand internationally, the company hopes to be translated into more than its current four languages — English, Spanish, French and German. But when LinkedIn asked thousands of its translator members to complete a survey this month that asked whether they would consider volunteering to translate the site into other languages, many said “nyet.””
If it were you, would you do this job for free? It really is a controversy. Right now, I’m even having a split mind whether I would do it. It takes up much time and effort. If I get more sales and recognition from doing this, yes, perhaps I would.
For those who would accept the job, I salut your courage and time, but hope that you can consider twice or thrice or even ten times, because everything we do, these intentions can be interpreted differently along the way.
Everyday, tens of thousands of thoughts fly through our minds. Things that we see, hear, feel, taste and smell are translated into different experiences. Some of these may be thought of as bad, while others are good. But have you ever wondered, what if things are not as they seem?
Many times we tend to translate differently, things that are happening around us. Some people may tell you, “You must have woken up from the wrong side of the bed today!” But if you stop or slow down to reflect on the events, you may find that, if you go with the flow, things are not as bad as they seem!
Today, in this period of global recession, you may think losing a job is bad. But taking a step back, this might be a time of consolidation, a time for you to slow down and think of what you really want. Most of us are so caught up with the rat race, that we stop to care for others, be with our families, spend time with friends. What will all these translate into in the end? Life is definitely not like a piece of english document translated into a chinese one within days. Whatever you do now, will translate into something else down your life path perhaps in a matter of years!
So, start thinking about how you ultimately want your life to be, and how you want to start “translating” it into now…
With regards to dermatoglyphics, we also realise why some people are so good with words, others are good in athletics. These abilities are inborn, since the day we were fetuses in our mothers’ womb. However having those kinds of qualities do not necessarily translate you into a genius in those areas. One must still have a nurturing environment to help you develop those qualities.
Back to translation. For those who are learning a third language, it is also important to immerse yourself into that environment so that you can pick it up faster. Non-native linguists who stay for long in a country would tend to understand even the localised terms. A language comes together with the culture. Thus building language bridges would allow one to build culture bridges as well!