What is the first thing that comes to mind whenever you require any content to be translated? Either for business or personal use, the need for language translation will arise. So, do you turn to Google for help? or would you rather find someone who knows the language well for translation? This is where the comparison sets in, Human translation or machine translation?
Both human and machine translation are forms of language translation just that while one makes use of artificial intelligence, the other uses human mental effort.
The decision on which form of translation is better is yours to make but having the right information on these will not just help you to make the right decision but to make it easy. If you agree with me on this, then this article is for you.
What is Human Translation?
Human translation (HT) employs the use of human translators who have relevant professional experience and are highly qualified in the field of language translation. Most of the time, the translators are typically native speakers, so they will comprehend every element of the text they are translating.
Since the beginning of recorded history, people have made use of professional translation services provided by knowledgeable linguists such as Torjoman. The expertise and commitment of human translators are necessary for producing work of a high calibre due to their extensive experience and training.
Features of Human Translation
There are certain characteristics of a good that human translation services possess. You should look forward to these when employing the use of human translation services. They include;
- Accuracy: The capacity of humans to recognize precisely the exact word or phrase to use to produce a translation of the highest possible quality is unrivalled by any other civilization.
There are many slang terms, jargon terms, metaphors, and subtleties in the language that either do not translate well or do not translate at all. With human translation, the author’s style and terminology are respected throughout the translation process, which results in an accurate reflection of those elements.
It has a keen awareness not only of the content, and intention of the original text but also of the most effective ways to portray those things in the chosen language.
- Clarity: When discussing translation, “clarity” refers to the ease with which one may comprehend a given text. Once more, this is a phrase that is both somewhat nebulous and extremely complex. For a translation to be accurate as earlier stated, the source text must be presented in such a way that it is clear to the reader what the intended meaning is and should not provide any challenges in doing so.
Clarity is determined just as much by the linguistic abilities of the translator as it is by their attention to detail. It centres on how one perceives the information, the attribute only human translation services can provide.
When working with a text that is poorly written, translators may be expected to edit the source text before translating it. This will help ensure that the translated text is clear. Each competent translator is aware that the clarity of the output should be ensured, although the quality of the original text may vary.
- Authenticity: Authenticity is an essential component of any translation that is of high quality. It is considered to be one of the most important principles of translation that a translation must not appear, read, or sound like it was translated.
The translation must be well-written and convincing enough to be mistaken for the original. It should not be possible to determine from the target text that it is a translation of another one in any way.
As authenticity is not a task that is easily accomplished, it takes only a person who understands the language well to make this possible which is why only human translation services can make this possible.
- Cultural Adaptation: It is required of a competent translator to never forget to consider the readers of the text they are translating. This is because the content that has been translated ought to be adequately tailored to the cultural background of the audience that will be reading it.
Human translators investigate the possibility of finding suitable equivalents in the target language when it comes to ensuring that the translated material is culturally suitable.
To effectively communicate with the intended demographic, they must be familiar with both the given and required languages. The translator is responsible for ensuring that the reader will not be offended or confused by any component of the target text.
What is Machine Translation?
Any translation that is carried out by a computer utilising an electronic neural system is referred to as machine translation.
MT is an easy method of translation that gives the user the ability to select the language they wish to translate from and to. However, MT will conduct equivalent word-for-word substitutions of a text written in a language specification with those written in the target language.
Although it has been available for more than 60 years, machine translation has only just begun to be regarded professionally, particularly in the linguistic sector. Machine translation is becoming increasingly popular among corporations, language service providers (LSPs), translation firms, and freelance translators as a means to cut expenses and increase output respectively.
Characteristics of Machine Translation
Since the market for machine translation is expanding at such a rapid rate, analysts anticipate that it will reach $983.3 million by the end of the year 2022. This expansion was due to its outstanding features, some of which are;
- Accessibility: Aside from the fact that Machine Translation provides accessibility to varieties of languages, the form of translation itself is accessible. You do not have to start looking for trusted translation services when you can access MT at any point in time. It also provides vast knowledge of different languages for translation.
It is essential to keep in mind that translators are finite assets. Their capacity to devote much time to particular tasks will not give them the liberty to engage in a greater variety of tasks, which will result in much pressure on the market, increasing the number of businesses that will be competing for their services.
Machine translation on the other hand excludes companies who put it to use from the competition.
- Speed: Computers are so much faster than people that people can’t keep up with them. When there is a large quantity of content that needs to be translated in a relatively short length of time, businesses frequently turn to Machine Translation.
In certain circumstances, the capacities of translators can be increased by a factor of three to five thanks to machine translation, which enables more information to be translated in a shorter length of time.
- Low Cost: The rapid response time and the fact that Machine Translation may be customized help businesses reduce their expenditures on translation. Businesses will be enabled to translate more information into a greater number of languages as a result of increases in efficiency and decreases in expenses.
As a result of the absence of fees associated with revising content, machine translations are far more cost-effective than human translation services.
Differences Between Human Translation and Machine Translation
There are relatively few people who dispute the specifics of the distinctions between the two, although many disagree on the accuracy of the translations. To understand the differences between the two forms of translation, you must first understand their concepts and how they operate. So, by now, I believe it would be easy to comprehend the following differences;
| Human Translation | Machine Translation | |
| 1. | It concentrates on providing an artistic translation of the source language. | It provides word-for-word substitution of texts. |
| 2. | Accuracy is prioritized over speed | The primary benefit is its speed |
| 3. | The probability of translation is very low | Translated content has to be examined due to the high possibility of mistranslations. |
| 4. | Hiring professional translators, incurs more cost than utilising machine translation | The cost of machine translation is less expensive compared to that of human translation. |
| 5. | The availability of translators is limited so are their services | Machine translation excels at sorting through vast quantities of data. |
| 6. | Human translation is reliable | It is associated with security flaws and risks. |
Final Thoughts
Language is the primary medium through which people communicate while translation is the most important tool for gaining comprehension of the information presented in a language that is not known to the reader.
However, it is not as simple as it may sound. The intricacy of real languages makes it challenging to generate a translation that is accurate to one hundred percent. This is the reason behind the high demand for translation services in Riyadh among other countries.
Having proven the importance of translation and the differences between human and machine translation, it is logical to conclude that machine translation by itself is not adequate, and if combined with human translation which is more reliable will yield great results.
