In the not-so-distant past, translators wrote out their translations on paper and could use only books and dictionaries they owned, or which were available at local libraries. The computer era has obviously changed the nature of language translation work immensely.
Google’s recent announcement that they will be getting involved in “human” translation services proves what we have known for a long time: in the forseeable future, machines will not be able to do the job of a qualified human translator, because they cannot understand the complex cultural and linguistic nuances present in all languages.
In the field of foreign languages, “false friends” are pairs of words that appear to be similar, but actually differ in meaning. For example, in French, the verb “attendre” means “to wait” – quite different from the English sense of “to attend an event.” False friends are treacherous for language learners because they are so [...]
Although we all know that pure online translation doesn’t yield professional results, there are plenty of online translation aids that have opened up a whole new world for professional translators. My personal favorite is Le grand dictionnaire terminologique, which is run by the Office québécois de la langue française. This is a great language translation [...]
I’ve said it plenty of times before: machine language translation is definitely no substitute for human linguistic knowledge and writing ability. But it’s always encouraging to hear others with the same point of view, especially when they know the translation business.