Machine Translation Tools and Discounted Rates … June 8, 2009

Nowadays, the Internet not only provides access to the information we need but also offers the opportunity to have this information (sentences or even whole websites) translated into foreign languages or from a foreign language into one’s mother tongue free of charge.  On the Internet you can find numerous free online translation tools, like the Google Translate and Yahoo Babel Fish translation systems, which you can use for a rough translation of a document to get an idea what this text is talking about. 
However, even today’s most powerful and sophisticated translation software is not capable of even vaguely approaching the fluency of a native speaker or the accuracy and skills of a professional translator.  Translation tools also throw up fundamental errors which a professional translator would never be prone to.
 
Although these machine translations can be quite useful if you want to get an idea of the contents or information in a foreign language text, their translations are useless when you want to express yourself in a foreign language (like in a personal letter) or want to convey some business or personal information. For an automatic machine translation to be accurate is very difficult, if not impossible, because the meaning of words always depends on the context in which they are used and this is too complex for translation software. A translation tool like Google Translate sometimes provides some rather “imaginative” translations as for example:

The English sentence, “Don’t put off to tomorrow what you can do today”
translated into German as, „Nicht die lange Bank geschoben wird, was Sie tun können, heute“ and this German translation translated back into English will then read, “Not long will be shelved, what you can do today.”  !?!?

or:

„Der Gründer W. Herzog hat Transparenz in den Mittelpunkt der Produktbeschreibungen gestellt. So erhalten die Nutzer/Shopper neben Preis und Produktbild auch Informationen über den Nachhaltigkeitsfaktor der vorgestellten Produkte.“
translated into English:
“The founder of W. Herzog has transparency at the heart of the Product made. To get the user / shopper addition to price and product image and information about the sustainability factor of the presented products.”
 This English translation translated back into German will then read:
„Der Gründer von W. Herzog hat Transparenz in den Mittelpunkt des Produkts aus. Um die Benutzer / Shopper Neben Preis-und Produkt-Bild und Informationen über die Nachhaltigkeit von der präsentierten Produkte.“

As you can see the results of these translations are rather strange but with a bit of similar imagination you might just be able to figure out what the original sentences actually expressed.  If you use this method of translating the text into the foreign language and then back into the source language you will be able to see to what extent the Google or Yahoo machine translation has garbled the translation and how much it actually reflects the original sense of a text.  

It is quite obvious that you just cannot rely upon a machine translation system for documents which require an accurate and precise translation.  If you need a flawless translation of an official document (e.g. business letter) or you need to make a good impression in a foreign language text such as a dissertation, a wedding speech, a personal letter or email to in-laws or friends who don’t speak your language – to mention only a few examples – then you should definitely use the services of a professional translator.

Unlike free online translation tools these services will need to be paid for and not everybody can afford the services of a translation agency.  Translation agencies tend to focus predominantly on the needs of businesses and professional organisations and their pricing reflects that.  I’d like to try and take that into account so that private individuals, like students or pensioners, don’t have to go without accurate, professional translations for their personal purposes.  In order to do this, I am giving a special discounted rate for members of the private sector.  All you need to do is to let me know that you are a student or that your text is a personal document when you contact me.  You can email me via my Contact Form on my website (www.englishgerman.co.uk/) to ask for a free quotation.

Simon´s Cat – funny! September 26, 2008

Cat Language …

I am a great cat lover. Although I don’t own one myself we have a regular visiting “day-cat” who comes over every morning when her owners (our neighbours) put her out and go off to work.  She often stays with us until the evening.  My translation work is naturally of little interest to her due mainly to the lack of food involved.  However, it does mean that I am sitting in front of my PC for hours on end and she has the opportunity to lie on my lap and indulge in excessive sleeping!  It is nice for me to look down and see this cute little creature curled up with her head and paws wrapped round in a little furry ball.  It can be a nice little break from translating a dry technical text for instance.  Although we obviously don’t speak the same language (despite a few feeble “Miau” copying attempts on my side  ) there doesn’t seem to be a communication problem … when a cat wants something then the “human” will definitely get the message!  You’ll get a very vivid example of how this works when you watch the little video above. Have fun!

Further Training for Translators – how to become an Amateur Magician! September 3, 2008

 

Sometimes investing time and effort beyond an expected service does pay off in unusual ways.  This happened when I was challenged with the translation of books on magic tricks for children which had been translated from several languages into English. As often happens with this kind of source material at best something had been “lost in translation” and at worst some sentences were completely mis-translated … all of which would have a devastating effect on the efforts of the poor little aspiring magician who is trying to follow the instructions.  No doubt they would end up with their hands tied by a piece of rope with lots of knots in that cannot be undone.  Instead of the little boy or girl stepping into the footsteps of the great escape artist Houdini they end up in tears of disappointment.  So that left the poor translator – me – tearing my hair out trying to work out how to translate the wrong English into correct German instructions!  In this situation there was nothing for it but to plunge in and try the tricks myself using the magic box provided by my client.  When in doubt, I tried a trick over and over and … when I was pretty confident that I had got it right … I showed it to my partner.  That means he spent a fair bit of time with his hands tied up in knots but I think he’s forgiven me!  I also obtained confirmation of “my version” from my client who consulted their professional magicians to get the final okay or an amended version of the trick.  By doing this for several weeks I quite got into “doing magic” – something I otherwise would never have been interested in – and I am determined to carry on practising some of the tricks with the aim of doing a little magic show at my nephews 11th birthday party!  I’ve got the gear; I need to practice and then … Hocus Pocus … German Translator turns into German Magician! 

How to turn an actor into a German in one week! September 2, 2008

Sometimes I get an “emergency job” which really requires some resourcefulness on my part in order to come up with a feasible solution for the client’s problem. This was the case when a theatre group contacted me because they had decided – a week before the debut performance of their latest play which was set in World War Two – that it would be more effective to have the lines spoken by the German soldiers spoken in German rather than in English.

Unfortunately for them, not only did none of them speak German but they didn’t even have the faintest idea how to pronounce the simplest words in German. So they asked me whether it was possible not only to get the lines translated into German but also to have a phonetic transcription of the individual words so they would have a better idea of how to pronounce them. I had no problem with their request but very much doubted that, even with a phonetic transcription, the actors would be able to make the lines sound really “German”.

Actors often spend a great deal of time with a voice coach before they can convincingly express themselves as a “native speaker” of that language and not just sound silly (like the Irish-sounding Greeks in Oliver Stone’s film of Alexander the Great for instance). So I tried to come up with something better than phonetic transcription. Fortunately my partner is a musician and came up with the wonderful suggestion of recording me speaking the lines. He would then turn the recording into a good quality but small sized audio file that could be emailed. This would enable the actors to hear a native speaker speaking the lines and give them the opportunity to try and copy my pronunciation. I got in touch with the group and asked them whether they were okay with handling MP3 files. They were and they were delighted to get a recording of the lines as well as the written translation … and at no extra charge. If there were any Germans in the audience then I’m sure they would have been impressed that the actors were not just speaking English with dodgy German accents!