Translation — Expectation vs Reality
Whenever people talk about the translation industry, they immediately think only about the people who are experts in the skill of translation. Or about the modern AI-based tools that run-off-the-mill translation agencies use to translate large amounts of digital content and deliver sub-standard results.
The reality is that the translation industry is more than linguistic experts and AI-based tools. Furthermore, due to the absence of proper content that highlights the intricacies of the translation sector, people who need or seek translation services often have unrealistic expectations.
This post, in the following sections, will shed light on some of those unrealistic expectations and their subsequent realities.
Here goes –
Expectation # 1 Any bilingual individual can be a translator
Reality — Not true!
People need to understand that when they need translation or localization services, they have to hire a revered localization agency and not some individual who speaks two or more languages.
Being bilingual doesn’t necessarily label a person as an ‘expert’ in the language. And when it comes to translating marketing collateral for a business or brand, it is always a safe bet for the CTO of an enterprise to hire a localization agency with years of experience, certifications and memberships in renowned organizations like the Indian Translators Association.
Translation agencies have strict hiring policies where they would hire native translators for all the languages they cover through their translation services.
Furthermore, revered translation agencies follow strict quality assurance protocols in a bid to make sure that the content they are translating and delivering to their clients is on par with international quality standards.
On top of this, translation agencies have an army of linguistic experts, editors and project supervisors who work in tandem with the native translators in a bid to ascertain that quality is maintained across all stages of the translation process.
Hence, hiring the average bilingual individual for a localization campaign is a bad move, from a business perspective — it is as simple as that!
Expectation #2 AI-based translation returns better results than human translators
Reality — Not true!
Often, in order to save time, translation agencies will take the shortcut of translating content for their clients using AI-based translation tools. When the client is vigilant and the agency is being confronted, the agency spokespersons would try to convince the client that AI-based translation is more accurate and would generate natural-sounding content.
On the other hand, there could be instances where a professional translation service agency would be compelled by a client to deliver content quickly using AI-based tools instead of human translators.
Either way, translation agencies and people who need translation services need to understand that AI-based translation will not sound smooth or natural. The reason is simple — AI-based translation tools do not have the capability of understanding the context of a sentence, a word or a sequence of words that would allow the tools to create meaningful paragraphs.
Human translators, linguistic experts and editors, on the other hand, can acknowledge the context and make sure that the content they are translating leaves a lasting impression on the target audience(s), thus allowing a brand or business to use the translated content in a bid to achieve their respective corporate goals.
Expectation #3 Translation experts can translate all forms of content
Reality — Not true!
It is true that agencies that offer translation services are capable enough to translate all forms of content. But that doesn’t mean that they would assign the various incoming projects to the same team of translators.
Translation is an intricate process. This means that a linguistic expert who specializes in translating financial content will not be as efficient as a translator who specializes in translating website content for e-stores.
If sector-specific translators are not assigned to a project then the linguistic expert will resort to word-for-word translation which will entail sub-standard quality deliverables.
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