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A little early for doom and gloom – Google Translator ToolkitAs with every industry, the localization world loves buzz. Last week it was “LinkedIn and the death of the localization industry” this week it is “Google Translators Workbench and the death of the localization industry. My old colleague Nic McMahon’s question to the world in a recent entry in the Lionbridge blog Localization 2.0 is typical.
I think my answer to Nic (and everyone else) is, “don’t panic and don’t be afraid” – much as it was last week when everyone thought the world of professional translation was dead due to crowdsourcing. In the right place the toolkit might be useful – but a systematic replacement for professional translators it isn’t. Renato Beninatto had a pretty measured response in his own blog earlier this week.
Google has done a great job of making the world rethink its approach to information and if they continue to develop the workbench and resolve some of the not-insignificant issues around the intellectual property of TMs it might someday be a force to be reckoned with. 5 comments to A little early for doom and gloom – Google Translator Toolkit |
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I would have to agree with you on all points. As our tool XTM is a web based translation enviroment we watched the news of Google Translates release with quite alot of anticipation, however when we actually had a chance to try it our fear were put to rest. The issues about TM is a key, who owns the copyright, how to distribute, wheres it stored, how is it manages. All of these issues need to be overcome.
I see Google Translate as a tool for the standard Google user, and it will be used in the same way that Gmail and such is used. When Enterprises start adopting Google Translate in the same way as Gmail then we may have a major player in the professional translation scence. Until then it is a novelty toy filled with good intentions and false starts.
Elliot
It may be or not a threat for translators of other languages. However, it is useless for English to Hindi translation. So there’s no need to fear of this tool. The main reason of its failure is the deference of both languages’ grammatical format, which is very deferent, while other languages such as English, French, German and several European languages have similarity in grammar. Nevertheless, Indic languages are very deferent, so we Indian translators have no problem with it. If other languages’ translators are facing any problem, I am not aware of that so I can’t comment on their problem.
the Google translation kit seems applicable to translation of already released products/material and any situation where confidentiality/privacy is not an issue. Global corporations typically start translation of their products/services before the product/service is released in the source language and therefore requiring strict confidentiality which does not seem feasible under the current conditions of the Google translation kit.
I wish I had said it that coherently!
Google Translator Toolkit is based on an Automatic translation engine. Automatic translation engines are nothing more, just automated dictionaries, which is totally useless (it takes more time to manually correct an automated translation then translating it manually from the very beginning). There won’t be any proper automated translation tool until artificial intelligence will be created, for which we are still decades away from breakthrough. Translation is not replacing words, it is creating thoughts upon reading a text and then expressing these thoughts in a different language. Machines can not think, they are still just bots, they do what they are programmed to doo, nothing more. So there is no reason to worry, at least not for the translator. CAT manufacturers can vary however, if GTT will slowly take over their market, what I doubt. GTT can be a free ticket for anyone into the translation market, but don’t forget that becoming a good translator takes years of practice and commitment. There is already a huge crowd of extremely low quality, self-appointed translators, which is making a good translator more and more valuable. So I am happy, that such tool is available for everyone, because it means tons of amateurs entering the scene, and this will make me, a professional translator, much more valuated.