Technology to remove language barriers – a friend or enemy of translators?
As tech advances to break down language barriers, so does the role of traditional translators. The hype around recent technology does not imply computers know or do it all; it may change the approach to translation though.
According to experts, translation technology is divided in two categories: machine translation (MT), which relies solely on software, and computer-assisted translation (CAT), which is used as an aid for translators, who say that only this method assists to produce high quality results. Nataly Kelly, author of Found In Translation, explains: “Professional translators take great care to ensure that the message resonates with a foreign audience as the original author intended it to. Machines still lack the ability to do this. A machine doesn’t have a sense of humour, or the ability to choose the perfect words for a target audience.”
