Translations?

Subject: Translations?
From: Geoff Hart <ghart -at- videotron -dot- ca>
To: TECHWR-L <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>, bryan johnson <bryan -dot- johnson -at- motoman -dot- com>
Date: Fri, 12 Jan 2007 16:12:03 -0500

Bryan Johnson reports: <<My current employer has a need to translate some of our documents (FM) to Spanish (LA) and French (Canada). Many of our customers are asking/demanding our manuals be translated. I have investigated various translation services etc. and have together with our VP of International sales, proposed a plan to recoup our translation costs. Everything looks good... We presented our plan to our CEO who promptly shot it down saying he wouldn't approve the plan but would approve "software" to do the translations...>>

Charitably? He may have heard the phrase "machine-assisted translation", and if that's what he means, you can defuse the whole situation simply by pointing out to him that the translators you chose do use this software. If that's not the case, and he really does believe that there's a magic box that can do this:

<<how can I go about educating him on the short comings of machine translation?>>

First, let's distinguish between machine-assisted translation, which is a tool used by human translators to increase their productivity and accuracy, and machine translation, which is a fun but only marginally useful toy like Babelfish. The former doesn't have major shortcomings in the hands of a pro; the latter has a great many shortcomings.

Let's assume he really does mean the magic toy. In that case, the simplest solution is the best: Agree to his suggestion, but with a caveat: "I have reservations about this approach, but I'm willing to give it a try on the condition that our customers approve the results. If they're happy, we'll all be happy. If not..."

Then do a trial translation using the toy, pass it to a typical customer, and ask the customer to provide feedback. Odds are good that they'll give you an earful, and you can pass that along to your boss as proof that his idea won't work. In the interests of not looking like an idiot to the customer, and possibly scaring them into the arms of one of your more clueful-seeming competitors, you may want to do a bit of expectations management to explain what you're doing and why before you send them the test. <g>

Another useful trick is to offer your boss a translation produced by Babelfish and other toy translators. Ask him to pick his favorite language, find a text sample in that language, and run it through the translator. He'll get the point. My personal experience with this (a French author who thought they were doing me a favor by giving me a Babelfish translation "to save time") is that these tools are a complete disaster if you're trying to do anything more than get the gist of a text. Even then, use them very cautiously.

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Geoff Hart ghart -at- videotron -dot- ca

(try geoffhart -at- mac -dot- com if you don't get a reply)

www.geoff-hart.com

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References:
Translations: From: bryan johnson

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