By Thomas Tolnai
The translation business must be a confusing place for young professionals. After spending many years studying numerous textbooks, research papers, courses on achieving quality in translation, after many attempts to improve their writing and adaptation skills, their feeds suddenly get flooded with AI and MTPE talk.
To be sure, machine translation has come a long way. However, if our young professionals put it to the test, they’ll notice that the results are generic, to put it mildly. But that’s fine, they’ll say, things can be improved in post-editing. And then, they discover the rates some LSPs are willing to pay for this service. It’s difficult not to lose faith in the concept of quality, isn’t it?
The subliminal message AI evangelists in the translation ‘industry’ convey these days is that quality is overrated and that people don’t actually care if their translated leaflets, instructions for use, labels, etc. are well-written, well-adapted, have a nice flow and neat grammar, as long as they are loosely legible and comprehensible. I assume end clients are persuaded that superficial (i.e. light-) MTPE is more than enough for their needs. Productivity instead of quality is what should prevail! This seems to make sense considering the huge amounts of text that need translation on a daily basis.
And yet, we think this approach is wrong. Machine translation is a valuable piece of technology, and it can be an extremely useful tool. But it should be a tool in the hands of translators, not of end-clients and LSPs. The purpose of this tool should be to improve quality along with productivity. You see, in the complex business model that is the translation market, translators are the mediators, the link between end-clients and readers. They should swear allegiance to their designated audiences. And, as mediators, translators alone should be the judges of what audiences expect and need. Most translators will tell you that audiences expect and deserve high-quality translations!
On 20-23 March 2024, at TranslateCluj, we will talk about quality in translation. Going beyond international quality standards, our speakers will talk about the objective and subjective features that define the quality of a translation.
Will you be there? Have you registered yet?