Translation technology has multiplied enormously over the past five years, largely thanks to tech giants like Google and Microsoft. By combining their hoards of data with machine learning, the biggest names in technology are able to create translation algorithms that learn by themselves. More importantly, they are developing apps that people carry around in their pockets and have access to on a daily basis.
This is onlythe consumer side of the spectrum, however, and translation technology isactually making its biggest impact in how it helps brands engage with theseconsumers in a globalised business world. Not all translation technology iscreated equal, either, and there are three types of software today’s brandsneed to know about.
#1: Machine translation for quick results
Machine translation is the kind of technology you will find in Google Translate and similar tools that provide an instant translation of content. The important thing to remember with this kind of software is that you are not going to get perfect results and even the most basic of content can cause problems for machine translation.
Highly creativeor complex pieces of content can render machine translation almost useless, butthe technology can be a great tool for quickly getting a first draft or roughtranslation of content.
As long as youunderstand the technology’s weaknesses and know you are not going to getperfect (or even particularly good) translations, this kind of software canprovide an instant first step. Imagine how much of a difference this can makeif you have got a series of 30,000-page studies that need translation.
#2: Translation memory for cutting out the repetition
Something thatbecomes very apparent once you start translating content is how much repetitionnaturally takes place. Of course, great content should not repeat itself unlessit’s absolutely necessary, but there are plenty of situations where repetitionis unavoidable.
For example, abrand’s slogan is going to be repeated across hundreds or thousands ofdifferent pieces of content. Likewise, the instructions manuals for differentversions of similar products (e.g.: same brand TVs) are going to have hugeamounts of repetition and the same thing goes for food packaging, bulk emailmarketing campaigns and all kinds of project types.
In thesescenarios, translation memory (TM) means you do not need to have the same pieceof repeated language translated multiple times – not only saving time and money,but also improving consistency across each piece of content. The technologyworks by storing all of your translated content as individual words and sentencesand automatically inserts these translations into future documents whererepetition exists.
This means yourtranslators never waste time doing the same work over and over again and youget 100% consistency, no matter how many translators are working on yourproject – or how long your project runs on for.
#3: Translation management systems for making complexprojects simple
Modern brandsneed a huge amount of content translated across multiple projects that cancomprise of dozens or hundreds of campaigns at any one time. For example, aninternational brand could have multiple TV advertising campaigns running forhalf a dozen different countries – and this is before you include online ads,content marketing, social media, documentation, contracts with retailers, legaltranslation and more.
Managing all ofthese projects can be a complex process and translation managementsystems (TMS) provide a single platform where everything can be managed andaccessed by you and your translators.
This way, youalways have a centralised view of how your translation projects are comingalong while any potential issues are flagged up and easy to see before theystart causing major problems. It also gives you a platform to communicate withyour language project managers, make changes to workflows and ensure everypiece of content is ready to deploy when you need it.
While toolslike Google Translate might be the most famous examples of translationsoftware, they are not the pieces of technology that are actually making themost impact upon the industry. Human translation is still essential to gettingthe kind of accuracy and creativity any translation project requires, but thebest language professionals know how to use the latest technology to getresults more quickly and more reliably.
Our team can help you implement the latest industry innovation into your translation process. Get in touch with them today to find out how translation technology can benefit your business.
Ivana DimitrovaPosted on: April 11th, 2019
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