Our New Horizon in 2017
Machine Translation has made viewing websites almost too easy. Translation has become a commodity to the extend that one gets spammed on a daily basis by translation scammers that
use the resumes of other translators.
An anti scamming, anti piracy site was created to counter this:
www.translator-scammers.com.
All I can say is this has Karmic implications, and if these people know how to scam, they can take their skills and do better things in life, that are more productive.
If you need a translator, first google them, check the scammers directory and check them out through a professional translators organization. Then diligently check out some references.
That being said, I already spoke about back translating a machine translation into the original language. sure machine translation has improved with more cyber horsepower. there are today
cloud based systems that employ literally hundreds of processors. what cloud really means is a remote data Center that has your data. How secure is it really ? Answer: Don't even ask. Otherwise
unless your data is encrypted, you just never know who can view it. Another defense: Just don't create any thing that interesting or compromising. Safety in boredom. :)
Translation is about nuances and writing skills. If it takes years for a human to acquire these skills, or lifetimes for that matter if you believe we are not here for the first time, AI may have a bit of catching up to accomplish before it can surpass the human mind.
High end translation is both a skill and an art. This is what we endeavor to offer our clients. This takes decades. Certainly translators are paid for their work, but they also give a piece of their lives.The same can be said for authors and artists. At the end of the day, translation is an art.
If you place a translation job on an auction site, you really do not know what you are getting. This can apply if a translation is spread among several translators and managed by a Project Manager / Editor. Call it a homogeneous hodgepodge if you like.
Translating a book? You even have to be more careful. We have seen some awful book translations, it sad. I would be very selective were I an author or publisher and had the budget for high end translation.
On of the hardest jobs is re-editing or re-translating someone else's problems. Been there done that.
Translation requires tremendous amount of mental energy, and deadlines can literally exhaust one's energy and brain. A translator needs to rest, and then edit after a day has passed and one's mind is rested.
Trust me you would not want your book translated by the lowest bidder and with the highest daily word output. Most important a translation needs to be edited with a clear energetic mind after the first go around. All of this is factored in high end translation.
Shel Stein
www.cistranslations.com
