Back in the ’90s, the magazine Language Today published an article by George Weber that analyzed the world’s most influential languages. It was an interesting analysis, because it accounted for “influence” of a language in a number of ways.
For example, Chinese has the most speakers in the world, but it ranks 6 on the list. The formula also takes into account the number of secondary speakers of a language (of which Chinese, a relatively complex language, has few), as well as other factors, such as the economic power of countries that use the language.
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Mere days after my last post about human vs. machine translation, the blogosphere was abuzz with one of Google’s latest moves: AJAX Translation API.
AJAX Translation API is a machine translation tool developed by Google to perform on-the-fly translations for emails, Web sites, and other basic documents on the Internet. Ostensibly, its purpose intersects with one of ALTA’s primary language services-document translation. And in truth, it’s a useful tool for very basic purposes. When quality isn’t a factor, a machine-produced translation can help a user recreate the bare bones or gist of a portion of text. The application also features language detection, a helpful tool that sets Google’s API apart from many other free, Internet-based translation applications.
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As a project manager at ALTA, I’ve seen my fair share of proofreading requests from clients. Sometimes the text has changed slightly; other times, clients just want to double-check on the quality of the translation. Frequently, though, a review of the translation finds the document was generated by some sort of translation software. In my experience, these documents have to be re-translated by a human every time.
Technology has come a long way, but translation software still has far to go before it could be deemed anywhere near trustworthy. Granted, if it worked well, I think I’d be out of a job! But I’m not alone in my opinion.
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