{"id":758,"date":"2010-09-14T09:01:51","date_gmt":"2010-09-14T09:01:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/alexeames.com\/blog\/?p=758"},"modified":"2010-09-14T09:01:51","modified_gmt":"2010-09-14T09:01:51","slug":"will-computers-replace-translators-tranfree-73-15-sept-2010","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/alexeames.com\/blog\/2010\/09\/will-computers-replace-translators-tranfree-73-15-sept-2010\/","title":{"rendered":"Will Computers Replace Translators? &#8211; tranfree 73 &#8211; 15 Sept 2010"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.tranfree.com\/tf73.mp3\">Will Computers Replace Translators? tranfree 73<\/a><\/p>\n<h3>Editorial<\/h3>\n<p>I received  some feedback about last month\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153email reliance\u00e2\u20ac\u009d  article. Some good points  were raised, so I thought I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d share them.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Skype and Yahoo Messenger can be used for direct peer  to peer  file sharing. This is a useful backup if email systems are misbehaving.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Sites like yousendit.com can also be used for delivery  of large files.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Thanks to Marie-H\u00c3\u00a9l\u00c3\u00a8ne Hayles for raising  these points. <img src=\"http:\/\/www.translatortips.net\/ubb\/smile.gif\" alt=\"smile\" \/><\/p>\n<h3>Touch  Typing<\/h3>\n<p>I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been  helping my son to learn to touch type over the summer.  He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s 8 now and I felt it  a good idea for him to learn properly now  before he learns, the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153wrong\u00e2\u20ac\u009d way. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s  been hard work, but worth it.  He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s now the proud owner of an Acer ONE netbook.<\/p>\n<p>I also  got interested in the idea of touch typing and I went through the program as  well (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.kaz-type.com\/\">http:\/\/www.kaz-type.com\/<\/a>).  I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve managed to get myself up to 23 words per  minute and 98% accuracy.  But it still feels really slow. So, for a bit of fun,  I decided to do  the speed test my \u00e2\u20ac\u0153normal\u00e2\u20ac\u009d way.<\/p>\n<p>I was a  bit blown away by the results. I managed 82 words per  minute and 99% accuracy  typing my way, using about three fingers on  each hand. I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know I could  type that fast. To be honest, it makes  me wonder whether it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s actually worth  persisting with the touch  typing? I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t really feel like giving up, but  that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a short-term  potential productivity cut of over 75%. 82 words per minute  is good  enough for most applications. But it would be nice to be able to type  that  fast without looking \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s why I hope to persist.<\/p>\n<p>I hope you enjoy and benefit from <em>tranfree <\/em> <img src=\"http:\/\/www.translatortips.net\/ubb\/smile.gif\" alt=\"smile\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.translatortips.net\/images\/alexsig.gif\" alt=\"Alex\" width=\"79\" height=\"60\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Alex Eames<br \/>\n<em> tranfree<\/em> editor, Author &#8211;<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.translatortips.net\/ht50.html\"> How to Earn $80,000+ per Year as a Freelance Translator<\/a> and<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/translatortips.net\/sell-your-services.html\">Selling Your Professional Services on the Web<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u00ef\u00bb\u00bf<\/p>\n<h2>Will Computers Replace Translators?<\/h2>\n<p><em>By Alex Eames<\/em><\/p>\n<p>It seems  that, every year, our lives become increasingly enmeshed with  our computers.  Unless we rebel by going to live in a swamp somewhere  with no electricity, that  looks set to increase rather than decrease.<\/p>\n<p>Last week  I renewed our house insurance policy. One of the items  covered in the  accidental damage section was \u00c2\u00a32500 GBP worth of  electronic downloads \u00e2\u20ac\u201c that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s  a sign of the times.<\/p>\n<p>After my  brief review of GT4T in the last <em>tranfree<\/em>,  it seems clear that some translators feel threatened  by the existence  of free machine translation (MT) in the form of Google  Translate.<\/p>\n<h3>Computers Acting Up?<\/h3>\n<p>It looks  as if professionals in other areas are also feeling  threatened by the  ever-increasing proliferation of advanced computer  software. A recent BBC  article about animation and motion capture (a  way of recording and simulating  human and animal movement) had this to  say&#8230;<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Some of the biggest movies of the last few years  haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t<br \/>\nactually featured any actors in the flesh.<br \/>\nIs technology stealing their limelight?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/technology-11025543\">http:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/technology-11025543<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Having  said that the results of computerised motion capture are not good enough, the  technical director of DreamWorks said&#8230;<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153You want expressiveness, you don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want<br \/>\nliteral  translation. It&#8217;s come a long way but in terms of using it for  animated films it&#8217;s not what we&#8217;re looking for.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>And this  gives a very interesting parallel with human versus machine  translation. In the  main, the results of MT simply aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t good enough.<\/p>\n<h3>Human Threats?<\/h3>\n<p>We are  living in interesting times. Virtually everyone has a  computer and access to  the internet. Add to that the fact that many  people find themselves out of work  in these economically challenging  times of the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153post greed\u00e2\u20ac\u009d era. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not  surprising that many people  with language skills hit upon the idea of earning  some money doing  translations. So there are more human providers entering the   marketplace.<\/p>\n<p>Add in  the global economic squeeze and you find companies trying to  minimise costs, either  to stay in business or make (more) profit.<\/p>\n<p>So it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s  hardly surprising that some companies might be sorely  tempted to cut their  short-term costs by using Google Translate. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s  human nature. They will try  this. And let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s be honest with ourselves,  for some applications, it is  perfectly appropriate. Human translation  is expensive \u00e2\u20ac\u201c that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the point of <em>translatortips.com<\/em> after all \u00e2\u20ac\u201c to help you juice the full worth out of your  translation  skills. You can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have it both ways. You want human translation to  be  expensive!<\/p>\n<h3>MT Has Its Place.<\/h3>\n<p>Some of  you may not like this, but machine translation definitely has a place in the  mix.<\/p>\n<p>MT might  be useful for assessing which portions of a large document  need translating  properly, or for getting the gist of what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s written.  But unless the  documentation has been written for MT in the first  place, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s unlikely to be  usable for any other purpose.<\/p>\n<p>But now  for the good news. I hope you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re listening&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>The kind  of clients who would be looking at cost cutting in this way  are not the kind of  clients who would want to pay you decent rates, on  time, and treat you well.  Yes. <strong>These are not the clients you want.<\/strong> So don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t worry about the lost opportunity. Just as you can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t compete  with 2  cent per word translators in low wage economies, you can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t  compete with MT  either. So don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even try. Forget about that market  segment and concentrate on  clawing your way up to the top end.<\/p>\n<h3>You Don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t Want To Work For Idiots Do You?<\/h3>\n<p>I  remember when I was an employee. It didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t suit me at all. The  boss was an  idiot. I realised that the only (legal) way to eliminate  the idiot was to  become my own boss. People who want free or cheap  translations of important  documents using MT are idiots. You don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want  to work for them. <strong>They see you as an over-expensive bilingual  typist.<\/strong> So, if you don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want those kind of clients anyway, why is Google   Translate a threat? Put simply, I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t really think it is. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s in your  head.  In the long term, I expect it will generate even more work for  human  translators.<\/p>\n<h3>Worthwhile Clients<\/h3>\n<p>At  university, one of my roommates was studying marketing, which I  found much more  interesting than analytical chemistry. I remember  commenting on a TV  advertisement \u00e2\u20ac\u201c saying how unappealing I thought it  was. My roommate\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s reply  was a bit of a revelation&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><em>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153It probably wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t designed to appeal to you.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&#8230;and  this is a mistake many people make. <strong>Not  every potential client is a client worth having.<\/strong> Some clients will not be  profitable. Some will. Which do you want? The ones who will value your  services, or the others?<\/p>\n<p>So we  have a few challenges in the global translation market&#8230;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Increasing numbers of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153wannabe\u00e2\u20ac\u009d translators<\/li>\n<li>MT causing a  decrease in the perceived value of translation<\/li>\n<li>Economic squeeze causing a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153get it done cheaper\u00e2\u20ac\u009d  mentality<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>So What\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s To Be Done?<\/h3>\n<p>What can  you do about it? Actually, I think there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s very little  you can do about this apart  from focus on your own area. But here\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a  few suggestions&#8230;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Only accept profitable work<\/li>\n<li>Educate clients  and potential clients, but be discerning how much time you spend on this<\/li>\n<li>Look at market trends, but don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t obsess about them.<strong> <\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong> <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>You don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t need the whole global  translation market to grow and thrive.<br \/>\n<strong>You  only need your business to grow and thrive.<\/strong> (Although it  will obviously be easier in a buoyant market.)<\/p>\n<p>That reminds me of the two guys in the  bear forest. One says to the other&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><em>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Can you run  faster than a bear?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The other guy pauses for thought and  replies&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><em>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t need to  run faster than a bear. <\/em><br \/>\n<em>I only need to  run faster than <strong>YOU<\/strong>!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/em><\/p>\n<h3>Terminator Scenario<\/h3>\n<p>Avatar  was one of the films (mentioned in the BBC article) that  didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t use actors \u00e2\u20ac\u0153in  the flesh\u00e2\u20ac\u009d on screen. So it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s ironic that another  James Cameron film \u00e2\u20ac\u201c The  Terminator \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00c2\u00a0paints an apocalyptic  picture  of a time when the computers take over and see humans as a threat.   That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a long way off. But let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s keep a cautious eye on what they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re  doing  without wasting\u00c2\u00a0 too much time watching  our backs.<\/p>\n<p>So let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s  look forwards, get out there, find some real clients with real business needs  and meet them.<\/p>\n<p>Alex Eames is the founder of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.translatortips.com\/\">translatortips.com<\/a>, editor of <em>tranfree<\/em> and author of the eBooks&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.translatortips.net\/ht50.html\">How to Earn $80,000+ Per Year as a Freelance Translator<\/a><br \/>\nand<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/translatortips.net\/sell-your-services.html\">Selling Your Professional Services on the Web<\/a><br \/>\nISSN 1470-3866<\/p>\n<p>***<strong>End of issue 73<\/strong>***<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Will Computers Replace Translators? tranfree 73 Editorial I received some feedback about last month\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153email reliance\u00e2\u20ac\u009d article. Some good points were raised, so I thought I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d share them. Skype and Yahoo Messenger can be used for direct peer to peer file sharing. This is a useful backup if email systems are misbehaving. Sites like yousendit.com <a href='http:\/\/alexeames.com\/blog\/2010\/09\/will-computers-replace-translators-tranfree-73-15-sept-2010\/' class='excerpt-more'>[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3,7,8],"tags":[51,69,76,114],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/alexeames.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/758"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/alexeames.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/alexeames.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/alexeames.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/alexeames.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=758"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/alexeames.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/758\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/alexeames.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/alexeames.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/alexeames.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}