What Translators Need To Know: Machine Translation Post-Editing

 

As mentioned previously, machine translation is becoming an increasingly viable option for professionals seeking economical translation services, one chief reason being the capability of handling large volumes of text in a much shorter time-period. However, machine translation has yet to reach the point of perfection, in that it makes mistakes that are obvious to human readers and lacks the ability to know the context for a particular document (i.e. what a document is going to be used for, how formal the writing needs to be, and so on). Though the worry of being replaced by technology is there, humans who are certified translation providers in Singapore can still find a role to fill in this process, which is handling the task of Machine Translation Post-Editing.

As the name itself explains, Machine Translation Post-Editing (or MTPE) is the act of reviewing the text produced by machine translation. For instance, if a translation company has used machine translation in a legal translation service, they can then bring in a translator (whether in-house or freelance) to appraise and correct it where needed. If such a company wants to retain their reputation from providing certified document translation services in Singapore, they want to ensure that whatever machine translation program they use results in documents free from errors and correct in its usage of terms (legal, technical, and etc).

This is especially the case when the produced document has an important purpose, such as that which comes from a notarized translation. Not only are legal professionals with costly services involved, but the document that is notarized and certified cannot be corrected after the process. A machine translation program neither cares about wasted fees nor loss of reputation, so the duty of ensuring the absolute correctness of the document (and in turn the success of the translation and the future success of the client’s intent for the document) falls to the human translator in Singapore assigned to this task.

In some cases, translators could even be required for the MTPE process simply for the sake of improving machine translation. A company behind a particular machine translation program could have it translate a large randomly selected series of texts, and then bring in translators to either make corrections to the results or to translate lines of text on their own. The company then compares both results (that of the machine translation program and that of the human translators) to see where the program succeeded or failed, how translators improved on what the program produced, and how the program itself can be improved from what has been observed.

Even with machine translation, there are certain aspects of the translation industry that cannot be automated, and the process of improving machine translation can provide roles for human translators to fill. In the meantime, before machine translation is fine-tuned to human (or even superhuman) levels of professional quality, if one requires translation services (such as a PR application translation service), the best options available are still either a certified translator or a certified translation company in Singapore.

Tools of Translation: Machine Translation

 

In the past, numerous jokes have been made about the awkward nature of machines, especially when they were used to simulate typical human actions. Robots were portrayed with clumsy movement and stilted speech; texts produced entirely by a computer were either nonsensical or unfocused. Even today, one can personally witness the difficulty machines have with human words and speech by selecting YouTube’s options for automatic transcription or translation. However, this clumsiness is becoming a thing of the past, as technological advances and increasingly refined data morph the capabilities of machines from science-fiction jokes to frighteningly useful tools. The translation industry is no stranger to this, where machine translation can potentially achieve results on par with that of a certified translation company in Singapore.

Though clients seeking guarantees of quality may still turn to humans, particularly for crucial work such as a notarized translation, one key reason for opting for machine translation would simply be volume, or rather the capability of converting a high volume of pages from one language to another very quickly. After all, it may be simple enough to provide a translation service for a dozen or so pages, but if the client requires the translation of hundreds of pages in a limited window of time, then it may be too unmanageable for only a few translators to do on their own, or it may be that the certified document translation services in Singapore necessary to finish that work before the specified deadline would be too costly for the client. Of course, clients aiming to seek out cheaper translation services in general is a key reason of its own.

On the other hand, the adage of “you get what you pay for” applies here as well. Machine translation programs may have advanced in quality as tools since their creation, but on its own, machine translation still has a reputation of producing noticeable errors as well. A computer may have whole encyclopedias of various languages in its database, but it may end up making obvious mistakes if it is unable to understand context like a human. For example, if a legal translation service is being provided, then it requires more formal language. Some machine translation programs use a brute-force method of running words through countless dictionaries for their equivalent in another language, but if they run into the names of peoples or places (such as in a PR application translation) and are not instructed to leave them alone, the program can make the grievous error of translating a name into something unrecognizable.

Mind you, this is not making an argument against machine translation, as it is a tool just like any other. Rather, it is an argument against blindly using machine translation. A dictionary may know each word’s meaning, but it cannot put together a letter. It is still up to thinking humans to direct the meaning of the text, just as it is still up to a certified translation professional in Singapore to compensate for what a machine translation program lacks. This process of machine-translated results being later reviewed and rectified by a human translator has a specific name: Machine Translation Post-Editing.

Challenges Of Translation: Improving Proofreading Skills For Legibility And Quality

Recent articles have been about the necessity of proofreading when it comes to the work of certified translation professionals in Singapore. Being fluent in two specific languages may be enough to directly translate a document from one language to another, but that will likely not be enough to convey the correct meanings or satisfy the client requesting the translation. That is where proofreading is performed, either by the translator or another employee of a translation company in Singapore, to verify that a document that has gone through the process of document translation services is both accurate in its details and of high-quality in terms of its grammar and phrasing. Previously, what it means to be accurate and how this can be better achieved was the focused-upon topic. Now, attention will be turned to the what’s and how’s of achieving legibility and quality through proofreading for a translated document.

The accuracy of its details is a key quality for translated documents, particularly those from PR application translations. Fortunately, ensuring that a document is accurate can be straight-forward;compare the later translated draft to the original source document in whatever way one is familiar with, and make sure that specific aspects of it (such as names, dates, etc.) are correctly spelled and in order. In this regard, one only needs to confirm that the final draft’s names and dates (and so on) matches the source documents, as these details typically remain the same (unless one considers national and cultural differences).

However, ensuring the translated document’s legibility and quality is a different matter. Rather than confirming that specific portions of the document are spelled or phrased correctly, here the person proofreading must confirm that the overall final draft of it can be easily read and understood in the requested language. Further, the document must be recognized as having been written by an educated professional, not only devoid of errors but also of a good enough writing standard to have come from a notarized translation (i.e., coming with a recognized lawyer’s certification) and presented to official government institutions. If a client has requested certified translation services in Singapore, then they expect the translator or translation company to produce a translated document that clears the high bar of quality described above.

In this case, there is no quick and sure-fire way of immediately learning how to proofread for legibility and quality. This aspect of the skill is one developed over time and experience, either by working within the translation industry itself or just through reading and writing formal documents in other occupations. For instance, if one was previously in a profession related to legal matters, one would of course experience legal documents of various types. With memories of such documents, and if a decision is made to work as a translator in Singapore, then one can use their past work experience to aid in providing legal translation services, as well as later proofreading the documents produced through such a translation service. Although, in a tight situation, the internet also has plentiful examples of formal documents or formal document templates.

Indeed, it would be an ideal situation if a certified translation provider in Singapore can produce a document of high standards immediately acceptable to the client. However, human error is a persistent fact of life, and many other factors can also hamper the quality of a document (including national/cultural differences, lesser-known legal terms, and potential unusual circumstances). As such, a translator or someone assigned to the translator’s work must be versed in proofreading to confirm that the document’s details are accurate, as well as to particularly ensure that the final version of the document is a professional product acceptable to both the client and to the important purpose that the document is intended for.