Translation AZ Blog

Machine Translation Vs Human Translation – Which is Better

machine-translation-vs-human-translation-which-is-better

Translation has always been of great importance for humans. Documents – historical, literature, technical – needed to be translated into many languages to make them available to everyone irrespective of their culture and language. It has long been one of the effective ways to communicate between countries, businesses, cultures and more. Translators have played their roles effectively for centuries.

In modern times, professional translation services have taken the job of translating a wide range of documents. However, for the last few years, machine translation has become quite popular. Google Translate is quite a popular service and it is widely used to translate content in foreign languages. Over time, the technology had only been improved.

But, does machine translation suffice for your translation needs? The answer is NO. Machines translation can be helpful in many ways, but they cannot replace human translators for various reasons. Here is why…

Machines Cannot Perceive the Language As Humans Do

Language is not just about words and sentences. It reflects the way people live and their culture. The machine cannot perceive a language in the context of culture like a native speaker. Machines lack the ability or the complexity to understand the nature of names, idioms, slang and many other things.  A translation agency has native speakers who can translate your documents in any language and the way that the people of that particular country can understand.

In different culture, words have different meanings and machine hasn’t yet mastered the way to decode it. Language translation requires more than just technical terms. It needs to be humane and connecting so that people can receive the message.

Localization Is a Difficult Task for the Machine

Document localization is essential for any business. But, it is not possible to localize a machine to produce a meaningful translation. Since machines cannot relate words to content, accurate translation is not easy. Anyone who has used Google Translate for translating a story or a novel to another language will know that translated copy isn’t what they expect. But you can use Google Translate for easy tasks like understanding a particular word or phrase from another language.

On the other hand, translation services have native speakers who can easily localize your documents rendering them authentic and making them genuine. The way language evolves every day, the machines will have to be programmed often to create translated copies that match the need. For the native speakers, there is no such problem as updating the language vocabulary. They already know about it. This is one of the benefits why a translator and a professional translation agency like Translation AZ can be more helpful than the machine itself.

Machines Cannot Imitate Style and Tone 

Birth certificate translation is different from the business brochure and so is a novel or a poem. When translating different documents, it is essential to understand the tone and the type of writing. A native speaker or a professional translator can easily do that. The machine on the other hand cannot replicate the same tone or style of writing. This is a drawback that makes machine translation less appealing as opposed to human translation.

Conclusion

If you want a genuine translation, the one which accurately translates the language, feelings, tone and style, trusts the human translators. A translation agency can help you translate your document for effective communication.