What Are Translation Essentials: Debunking Myths About Translation?

Translation Essentials: Debunking Myths About Translation

Have you heard that computers have now made human translators obsolete? I 've heard it, too. Don 't worry, it 's not true, at least not yet. This is just one of the many myths and false statements that have been made about the translation service industry over the last few years. Some of the false assumptions can trace their roots back a very long ways, others are fairly recent. Let 's take a look at five of them.

1. Translation is the process of taking words from one language and changing them into words in another language. The primary fallacy in this train of thought lies in the concept of "words". Words are vehicles for communication, but they are quite limited. Instead, consider

It is not the autos that are important, it is the people and things inside of them. Simply moving a bunch of cars, trucks, and buses from point A to point B will not do much, but transporting the people and goods will. Bring the people to the wrong place and things won 't work so well. In the same way, words are only as good as the meaning assigned to them, if the words end up in the wrong order or in a way that does not have meaning in the culture then the intent of the message is lost.

2. Translation is a small market. Because many people do not deal with translation every day, they assume that translation services do not comprise that large of a market. When most people think about translation, they think about immigration papers, perhaps a major book like Harry Potter being translated for the international market, or even a Fortune 500 company marketing their goods overseas.

Despite common knowledge, the translation industry is not small or isolated. In fact, it is an industry drawing in nearly $50 billion annually. From websites to military contractors, baby food distributors to technology tools, and, yes, literature and immigration papers. It is estimated that there are over 30,000 translation service agencies located around the globe with nearly 6,000 in the United States,

Machine translation will eliminate the need for human translation. Machine translation has made people think about translation. In some parts of the world, like India, Japan, the Netherlands, Denmark, etc., speaking multiple languages and translating between them is just a way of life. However, in much of the English-speaking world, English is the only language known or understood. This is a problem when contrasted with a global economy and ever-increasing international clientele. Machine translation has inspired many who had never thought about expanding their webpages beyond their own languages into multi-lingual sites, or targeting a different demographic that does not read or speak the source