Translation: The Brave New World

Used to be that a college degree, a collection of dictionaries, a typewriter and a supple intellect were all you needed to be a translator. New technology, perhaps starting with affordable PCs, changed that. These days, being a language wiz is not enough to stay on the cutting edge in translation. Computer savvy, string decryption and mind reading skills also come in handy.

Translators now benefit from, or wrestle with, a wide variety of translation tools. Some, like Trados and Déjà Vu, are commercially available. Others are provided to translators by their clients. In an article published in the Translation Journal, Suzanne Assénat-Falcone identifies two examples: IBM TM/2, Star Transit and Alpnet's proprietary TSS/Joust. In their particulars, these tools are different.

In general, they all aim for the same objective. Deborah S. Ray and Eric Ray, in an article originally published by Technical Communication Online and re-published by The Official TECHWR-L, offer a concise description: "translation memory systems assist human translators by following along as a document is translated, creating a database of translated material and terminology, and allowing translators to access previously translated material easily. Using this technology, translators can translate, save, and reuse material, making the resulting translations highly consistent and the overall process more efficient and cost effective than working without this technology."

Translation memory tools, a refinement of machine translation research, do not pretend to be independent from human intervention. To a large extent, they rely on human intervention to function effectively, indeed they can improve markedly with wise use. In this sense, they are "intelligent." Unintelligent human intervention, however, can render these same tools almost useless.

Per N. Dohler, an independent translator (German<>English), hosts a site that explains some of the challenges of modern translation. He also offers a vivid "day in the life" example of a source document from h***.

Actually, the source was from "a well-known software manufacturer" and consisted of phrase fragments of "fixed and variable parts" that might be translated in myriad ways (and not only in German). File preparation of the short file, theoretically a quick job, made it practically-speaking "untranslatable." Why? According to Dohler, "The tools used are often created by software engineers who don’t seem to know or care enough about the mechanics of language."

Another tool of the trade these days is the Internet. In-country translation is "in" and why not? The Internet makes access to translation resources easier than ever. Indeed, the virtues of such access — lower costs, talent "in touch" with the rapidly changing vocabulary of technology and speed-of-modem turnaround — are touted by most localization providers and hard to deny. The down side?

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