Monday, 30 July 2012

Simultaneous Translation –Full Speed Ahead!

Translation can be such a tricky Endeavour, and speed is not always of the utmost importance when it comes to matters such as these. Language is the code of custom, of distinct social behaviours and conducts that caution has to be exercised to prevent being lost in translation!

So can websites such as Google Translate be the best solution? How accurately does it translate and how in fact does it work? Could you get away with using it in everyday life in a different country? How has translation software transformed through the years from Babel Fish to Google translate and the Quick Translate on a variety of pages, especially on Facebook? How can it translate so many languages in a simultaneous fashion so that it can be transformed from one to another with a click of a combo drop down button?

The answer for a long time seemed to be the translation program was SYSTRAN – which was founded in 1968! It was the answer to the programs Babel Fish and Google Translate (the latter until around 2007) – simultaneous translation in many target languages, usually to French or English. So how does this new technology work?

In fact, from the Google OS’ script, it breaks down words in translation in a similar way to how we learn languages. It will start by referring to a set of grammatical rules and words, but at the same time – an obstacle that I’ve experienced and I’m sure anyone who has been learning a secondary language will realise – that they are always exceptions to a translation rule! Because of this, the quality in translation services can break down – however, Google Translate has been fed so many different language patterns so it does its best to find the best match! However, although it possesses many revisions, how can it always find the right language exceptions and noodle out any subtle nuances that a native speaker will know?

Forbes’ Lee Gomez wrote that he was “doubtful” that its language proficiency would ever rival a human’s, and by the myriad of concepts that goes into a language, its history, background and culture, this is understandable. Although Google Translate won’t compensate for simultaneous interpreting services when living abroad, it has gone through leaps and bounds to provide some pieces towards our translation puzzles! We can see how it’s transformed from its SYSTRAN ancestry to a faster and more fluid simultaneous translation system. Despite this, nothing beats the power of humans when it comes to translation!


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