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Google Translate, Now a Threat to Freelance Translation Services (Good Thing for the Public, Though)

It has been hotly debated in the translation industry on whether Google Translate would become a threat to freelance translation services. While many people have focused on Google Translate's recent change of offering real-time translation, expert at Abacus Chinese Translation Services believes that soon, Google Translate would replace much needed services of freelance translators.  That is because Google Translate's quality would improve as more and more professional translators use Google Translate to translate, improving the size of Google Translate's database, making it a virtual Trados software, eliminating the needs of simple translation works of freelance translators.

by Sunny Wang
November 18, 2009

Also see Microsoft's Chinese Translator Lags Behind Google Translate

Los Angeles, California.: Will Google Translate become a threat to freelance translation services? It has been hotly debated in the translation industry.  American Translators Association probably believes that it won't happen, as it posted an article from the Washington's Post (dated 5/24/09) titled "Machines No Match for Human Translators".  However, Samuel Chong, a certified Mandarin court interpreter in the State of California and a professional Chinese translator in Los Angeles, believes otherwise.  He thinks that as more and more professional translators use Google Translate's database, it will improve Google Translate's quality because it will become a virtual Trados software with the extra benefit of having the largest translation database of the world.

What makes Samuel Chong, the Chinese translator, think so now rather than before? "It is because of Google Translate's new change.  Before, you copy and paste a sentence or a paragraph, and then Google Translate does the translation for you.  Google then asks you to suggest a better translation.  You can do that voluntarily, of course, but not many professional translators would take the time to do it." Chong says.

"Now, things are different.  With the new change of Google Translate's interface, a professional Chinese translator such as myself can easily see that I am now able to create an account, and upload my files for Google to translate it automatically.  Then, the most important thing is that I can correct Google's translation on the interface manually, and then decide whether to share my corrections with the rest of the world.

"This, in turn, creates a virtual Trados translation software, with potentially (and probably already is) the largest translation database in the world.  As more and more professional translators use Google Translate and share their suggestions for better translations, Google Translate's quality will definitely improve.

"The result, is that people will no longer need freelance translation services for small translations.  They will go to Google Translate directly, and Google Translate will do a good job for them" Chong explains.

However, this will not happen over night, and it takes time for that to happen.  Also, professional and technical translation needs will not go down because of Google Translate as they still need the human touch to make sure the translations are accurate. 

"It will be good for the public who wants certain documents to be translated.  For some of the freelance translators who rely on written translations, they might see their work load reduced and they might want to go into something else such as oral interpretations".  Chong suggests.

"It is inevitable, really inevitable.  If that happens, I wouldn't blame Google Translate for the reduction of businesses.  Because if there were no Google Translate, there would be Yahoo Translate, Bing Translate, or even Abacus Chinese Translation Services Translate, that do similar things"  Samuel Chong says.

"There would still be the needs for simultaneous interpretation services or phone interpretation services, for example.  The industry will survive with certain changes, just like the computer industry in which few people use floppy disks today"  Chong concludes.

This article can also be found at http://www.certifiedchinesetranslation.com/09/1118-Google-Translate-Threat-to-Freelance-Translation-Services.html

Responses to our news article:

Response No. 1:

I am a professional translator. I am more computer literate than most (an engineering degree and used to be a software engineer). I welcome the use of computer tools and use Translation Memory every day. (not Trados, one that I think is better).

Google Translate is sometimes useful, to suggest a term or maybe a complete sentence. This service is getting better and better and there are clients who will use it more and more, instead of having all documents professionally translated.

However, there is something that you did not address: Most of my translations are performed for clients who require confidentiality agreements. These agreements don't specifically cover use of Translation Memory software, but it's clear that I would not be permitted to send their text anywhere, and that includes Google.

The documents that I translate are not nuclear secrets, or military tactics, but they do involve confidential company information.

Even if Google promised not to let anyone have access to their database, there have been too many cases all around the world of supposedly "private" information becoming public.

Sincerely,

Steven Marzuola
http://www.techlanguage.com

President
Houston Interpreters and Translators Association
http://www.hitagroup.org