Transhorsa

Abstract: The present article discusses the definition of Machine Assisted Human Translation by making contrast with the technical terms: Computer- Assisted Translation and Machine-Assisted Translation. It puts forward that MAHT is concerned with computer tools which assist the human translators in the course of a translation process.

Nowadays, globalization has turned the earth into a village; as a result, translation has become a booming industry for frequent and massive information exchanges among the people from different countries. In translation industry, Machine-Assisted Human Translation, MAHT for short, is playing a more and more important role at present.

Before we introduce MAHT, it is needed for us to make clear another two terminologies. Specialists and translation practitioners are interested in mechanical aids for translation or translation automation is most frequently confronted with the somewhat misleading term “Computer Assisted (or Aided) Translation” and sometimes “Machine Assisted (or Aided) Translation”.

Over the years, there has been much confusion concerning the definition of the terms. In view of the scientific and popular interest in Machine Assisted Translation and Computer-Assisted Translation, the latter has become an umbrella term and is therefore no longer synonymous with MAHT. Considering Computer Assisted Translation as a generic term, Machine Translation and MAHT can be divided into two major subgroups. Today, Machine Translation is generally understood to be the process in which a “machine” (specifically a computer program is the pivotal component in the translation process while humans are in charge of developing the software (which includes, for instance, grammatical and lexical rules), updating the programs, pre- and post-editing texts, and sometimes interactively communicating with the machine to solve the translation problems in the text which is being translated. At the other end of the Computer-Assisted Translation spectrum we find MAHT tools, also known as “translation workbenches”, where humans are pivotal to the process. In the latter type, human translators prepare the target-language texts and the “machines”(computer programs) assist translators by offering terminological support(terms are retrieved automatically or semi-automatically from an appropriate database) and by building and employing translation databases (Translation Memories) to suggest identical (100% matches) and similar segments (fuzzy matches, which are less than 100%) that have been used in previous translations and stored in the database.

As hinted, MAHT is a budding discipline which has not been precisely defined. First, MAHT is defined as a discipline that is concerned with computer tools which assist human translators in the course of a translation process. By mentioning translation process, we does not mean mental processes that take place during translation, but surface processes that start when a translation assignment is accepted, which end with the delivery of a finished product. Such translation process has two major constituents parts: one is a creative part requiring human evaluation leading to the production of a translation for which a human translator remains solely responsible; the other is a technical part which includes all such tasks as receiving and sending documents, typing and formatting, scanning documents for identical or similar segments to reduce the number of words and phrases that must be left for translation by human translators, desktop publishing and terminological consistency, and other features which can be handled by mechanical tools. But what we have pay attention to is that it is humans who are responsible for the end product and its quality, whereas the strength of a MAHT system is that it ensures the terminological, phraseological, and segmental consistency which is crucial to e.g. scientific and technical translation.

It is often of great significance that we make clear of the definition of something which we would like to apply to.

Author Information:

Heyi

Project Manager of

Transhorsa Translation Co., LTD., Shanghai

http://www.transhorsa.org

Native translator & Proofreading

Theory Study huge project translation, language translation service, multilingual DTP services

Every translation blog on our shrinking planet, our treasured home, our precious blue waterworld, possesses a living soul unique to itself and to its readers.

The uniqueness of each translation blog informs a substantial part of what we call “individual character” and, together with the obvious arrangement differences, plainly differentiates one language from another one.

Critical choices are available to everyone as the new century begins to unfold. Upon the wisdom of big power hangs the fate of all life on this planet. Mutual understanding is crucial and language, not only several major languages, but all languages, holds the key, .And translation blog offers an alternative choice for international communication.

Common interests, enticements and rewards of trade, technology and cultural exchange have brought the great societies into a smaller world now named Global Village. Inevitable that as the trade barriers began to fall, the language barriers would follow. Therefore, translation blog will be a pioneer bridge between languages.

Translation bloggers are destined to be major players in the affairs of Planet Earth during the twenty-first century. They form a symbiont circle: what happens to the one will bear directly on what happens to others, and, by extension, to the entire globe.

It is an optimistic beginning. Translators and interpreters have seized the initiative with determination and good will, beginning with the hot passion for language usage. With the Internet technology, translation bloggers are building a great bridge to link all languages whose role is more crucial than the Tower of Babel. As a Chinese, I am glad to see more “Confucius Institutes” are set up around the world, and Chinese language learning is booming followed by the English language fashion.

We are all the beneficiaries of the international program to teach every child and most adults foreign language. The approachable virtual technology can fulfil every desire for language learning and cultural communication. And more and more bilingual links are from translation blogs, which exemplifies the values, thinking patterns, imagination and cultural awareness of a nation. They provide visitors a window into a unique intangible cultural heritage as a result of its long history.

Many translators or interpreters are indulging in demonstrating their language abilities on their translation blogs, which boosts the language developments and international communications. In doing so, they have put forward a challenge and clarion call for us in China to join in.

At the dawning of a new century and a new millennium, our world is at a turning point. A golden dream of deliverance, a dream of global unity, prosperity and responsibility, looms before a planet wearied of terror, wars, and environmental devastation. It is a remarkable moment fraught with opportunity, but the hour is late, very late. The dream must be realized, otherwise we will be lost. Therefore, we translation bloggers in China should find ourselves in a unique position, feel privileged and honoured to be “in the right place at the right time”. We humbly accept the challenge to contribute, in whatever way, to the realization of this dream. 

Author Information:

Albert Lau 

Marketing Manager of  Transhorsa Translation Co.,LTD.,Shanghai

http://www.transhorsa.org

Native translator & proofreading

Global Business Strategy multilingual DTP services, multilingual manual translation, multilingual translation, professional translation team, translation blog, translation outsourcing

 Once translation is considered as a kind of business, the force of commercialization will show its prowess in many ways. Translation quality has now become a hot topic. In this paper we will first cast a sight on real problems that determine the translation quality in today’s translation industry. The ISO9000 and 14000 quality standards are recommended and regulation of the translation industry needs to be launched forcefully. Finally, some personal viewpoints are suggested to formulate guidelines for translation services.

English has always been the international language as an information vehicle despite the world language had been formulated for decades. Now the translation market is broadening its horizon at an amazing speed, bringing about more opportunities as well as generating more challenges like any other booming industry. At present, the gross global translation production has reached over $13 billion dollars annually. The translation industry therefore can be called one of the hottest industries in the world.

It is ideal for any customer that the price and the quality could go with a cost- effective principle and the translation process could be an automatic plug-in one in a shortest waiting time. But the human translation working is under such a high pressure that it becomes so dear resulting in high quality. Early in the 1990’s, Lixianlin, a linguistic master deemed the translation crises are caused by many reasons; one of the most important was the increasingly declined translation quality. It is undoubted that the translation quality is a problem that we can not obviate any more.

When a translation work piece appears below the normal standard, the first idea strikes our mind is the translator is lack of required certificate or the ability of understanding a foreign language instead of pondering over something deeper.

In the second, the inadequate sense of social responsibility makes the poor translation quality. The translator should place the customers’ benefit above anything else. For example the overseas market effects of the products to be introduced in a language which is popular in the target area are largely determined by the translation quality. This is what translators or translation houses should make clear. Furthermore, a few translation companies run their business under such a situation in which the project manager himself is a layman in translation supervision!

The translation industry guideline has not been imposed to be executed by all translation service body and some illegal behaviors such as deceiving and big quote difference are making wormy sores in this industry structure, which makes the industry standardization rushing. Some ratfinks assign the projects they get and have no mind to pay for their contemporarily employed translators’ work. Some translation companies quote the lowest one can’t imagine in order to grab large amount of deals. After getting

They either employ unqualified translators or dissect the whole manuscript into small paragraphs of hundreds of word and get the free translation from hundreds of different translators in the guise for a trial. At last the customer becomes the biggest victim.

Translation Trend legal document translation, multilingual DTP services, multilingual manual translation, multilingual translation, professional translation team, translation outsourcing

Like many industries, translation industry has its own bio-system, which usually consists of translation service buyers, translation service providers, translation assistance tools, translation trade associations and translation skill-training organizations. Technical translation is becoming an ever-important part of our hi-tech business world, taking up larger share of the translation market and developing at ever-increasing speed. Let us shed some light on the first two components: the translation service buyers and translation service providers:

1. Translation Service Buyers

According to information from LISA Asia Globalization Resources Survey (2002-2003), most companies employ their own technical experts such as engineers with only mid-level target language ability to translate their product documents and also act as their only overseas market liaison communicators. Such companies could be described as technically oriented and production-cost oriented. They impose a higher responsibility on their experts to provide secondary services (language translations and communication channels) at the detriment of their actual technical duties not to mention the increased time demand on them. And only one third of these companies will entrust a third party translation institution with the target language edition and translation. However, if both an affordable quotation and professional, precise & accurate multi-language translation services are available, 50% of the companies are most likely to buy a full packaged translation service.

As to the spending on translations, the majority of companies will allocate from 2 to 5% of their gross income on project/product localization and from this, only 80% of the fund is paid for direct translations and linguistic maintenance with the rest 20% spent on electronic business services, network promotions, etc.

In terms of international languages market segment, English and Chinese are the two topmost target languages with market shares of 53% and 14% respectively, followed by Japanese of 11%, Korean of 7%, German 4% and French 3%.

2. Translation Service Providers

Currently translation language service providers can be classified into three main types: domestic translation companies, international localization institutions along with their affiliates located in the developed regions of the world and freelancers registered in a whole mass of translation platforms. The first conspicuous feature for the domestic translation companies is that a legion, supported by putting some words into the other ones, is being formed. The second feature is that most of their permanent staff although bilingual, are limited in technical knowledge and most will in turn contact and engage freelancers when a service order comes in. Their main customers are native companies who pay a moderately high bill for such hand-over service. Their target language business includes English, Chinese, Japanese, German, French, Korean and Russian and their service catalogue covers the fields of trade, legal, electronic, telecommunications, computers, machinery, the chemical industry, oil, auto industry, medicine, food, textiles and sports. As a result of strong competition and wide industries coverage, such companies are exposed to one another and the quotations they put in have a tendency to outbid one another and the corresponding service levels they provide also drop.

The total number of elite (field specific) experts who are engaged in project/product localization is not more than 1,500 persons and they are usually hired by some of the reputable language service companies such as MLV and RLV. The translators working in these companies must possess strong welding ability from source to the target language and have high level of technical knowledge with preferred career experiences in related fields. Such localization companies also rarely use freelancers. Freelancers enjoy their full scale of freedom from the price they charge to the way they work. Bypassing the language agencies, having no referrals, they are free from paying the commission but they cannot guarantee their work outputs would be professional and accurate. They seem more welcomed by those smaller firms who have limited budget allocation and one of type of work. However, it must be said that the freelancer group is flooding the market overwhelmingly at an incredible speed with little guarantee of quality and timeliness.

Industry News language translation service, multilingual DTP services, multilingual manual translation, multilingual translation, professional translation team, translation outsourcing