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I've been doing translations in my spare time for a while from home and for larger projects I've always thought, wouldn't it be great to have software to do an automatic draft copy of the document! How much time I could save if there were such a thing! Then I discovered that intelligent machine translation does actually exsist. But is it something really worth while considering or are they generally too inacurrate???
Has anybody had any experience??
I use a macintosh and the only compatible software i found (for Spanish<>English)was a program called "NUEROTRAN" by "Translator Experts",
Any thoughts would be much appreciated!!
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Post #155
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Last Login: 2/3/2006 12:13:33 AM
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[quote user="paul redfern"]... I discovered that intelligent machine translation does actually exsist. But is it something really worth while considering or are they generally too inacurrate??? ... Any thoughts would be much appreciated!![/quote]Yes, Paul, they are generally not worth the bother for non-repetitive work but if you are satisfied with "inacurrate" and "exsist" then you might not notice it in practice. Be prepared to pay a thousand dollars or more and to spend some time feeding it but still don't expect it to be very "intelligent" - you have to provide the intelligence!
Microsoft uses machine translation for their technical data base and it still messes up at times. If you can afford a better system than Microsoft has then you might stand a chance, otherwise my recommendation would be to save your money. It is better to concentrate on being an intelligent translator!
The best productivity aid a translator can have is to be super proficient at touch-typing. If your touch-typing is still shaky, that is the thing to improve first.
Derek Thornton
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Post #172
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Group: Forum Members
Last Login: 4/8/2010 12:36:00 PM
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I most definitely agree that currently there is no such thing as intelligent machine translation. I saw an example of a machine translation in "The Translators Handbook" (2002) and what I read looked and sounded like a schizophrenic word salad! There may have been some improvement in the ensuing 3 years, but Paul, wouldn't you prefer the intellectual exercise you get when you don't rely on a machine?
femme
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Post #472
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Last Login: 6/17/2006 3:19:36 PM
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The natural languages can be considered as programming languages for humans. Every word initiates a process in the brain. There is a saying: You cannot teach anyone anything, you can only help him to discover it within himself.
This implies that as soon as computers will be able to translate as well as humans, they will also be able to think and solve any other office task. I estimate that this will not come sooner than in 50 years and not later than in 500 years.
Having said this, I must admit that the software Personal Translator helps me to translate some kinds of text in En-De about 50% faster than without any pretranslation, but it does not work with all kind of texts.
In comparison, it is as helpful as a poor human translation.
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Post #536
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Last Login: 7/13/2008 11:34:41 AM
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Dear Paul; No software is accurate enough to be considered a good tool to translate into spanish; Spanish grammar can be complicated at times and my personal experience is that no software is able to get the idea or real meaning of a word or sentence sometimes. This will definitely means a problem for those using such softwares since, as Mexican I am, I can tell you there for sure will be so many errors on the translated text, so I'd recommend you to stick to your spanish knowledge or look for help in order to get an accurate translation.
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Post #1093
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Last Login: 12/14/2009 5:25:49 AM
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Intelligent MT software? Now you are really joking, aren't you?
If you work on repetitive translation, you might consider using some CAT tool, such as Trados, SDLX (both now sold as one bundle), WordFast, MemoQ or Across.
But forget about machine translation, PLEASE.
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Post #1838
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Group: Forum Members
Last Login: 12/14/2009 5:25:49 AM
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Machine translation again... Well, it may work for SOME language pairs but I believe that for most language pairs, machine translation is currently completely useless.
CAT tools are a different story; please do me a favour and do not mix up CAT with MT.
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Post #1909
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Last Login: 9/7/2011 4:19:09 AM
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Intelligent machine translations are too inaccurate and amateur as well. Wemay not be able rely on the translated output. They usually work by replacingthe words with the ones that carry the nearest meaning. It works similar toGoogle Translate. And in your case, the Spanish grammar is too complicated tobe carried out by any software. From my experience of reading the translatedoutput from one such intelligent machine, I think sometimes we may figure out avague outline of the idea that is conveyed but it is too inaccurate to be usedat anywhere professional.
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Post #2743
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Last Login: 6/8/2011 4:05:50 PM
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Hi Standa, what difference do you make between machine translation and a CAT tool?I am still pondering whether to buy a CAT tool or not and go on working the old-fashioned way...
Jacqueline
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Post #2775
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Group: Forum Members
Last Login: 9/29/2010 5:21:39 AM
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jackieh (11/12/2011)
Hi Standa, what difference do you make between machine translation and a CAT tool?I am still pondering whether to buy a CAT tool or not and go on working the old-fashioned way...
Jacqueline
Hi Jacqueline, the difference is simple: 1. Machine translation, as the name suggests, is automatic, with little or no human intervention. You simply paste the source text into one field and receive a machine translation in another. 2. CAT tools in the narrow sense of the word are built around the concept of translation memories and databases of terminology. Translation memories are linguistic databases which store all of your translations in bilingual source-language and target-language translation units. Put simply, translation memories "remember" all of your previous translations and suggest them if you come across the same or a similar sentence at any point in future. If used wisely, CAT tools can bring you and your clients many benefits.
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Post #2803
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