For me, it was bacon. There I was, standing¹ in the streets of Medellin, Colombia, looking hungrily at a delicious empanada. The sign read 'queso y tocino'. Because I'd got my tongue round some essential Spanish vocabulary, I knew that 'queso' was cheese. But 'tocino'? I typed it into my smartphone translation app. What came back? 'Tocino'. I later learned that means 'bacon' in the local lingo².

 

Computer-assisted translation is popular. Google Translate, for example, is used by more than 500 million people. But while convenient and easy to use, they are hardly perfect. Now, dropping the odd expression now and again is hardly important on an informal conversational³ level – as might happen to a tourist on holiday. But in more formal circumstances, such as a medical or legal discussion, the wrong vernacular⁴ can be disastrous⁵. So, can a computer translator ever equal a human?

 

The technology has come a long way. These days, people can wear a 'translation earpiece'.  These pick up the foreign terminology⁶ and translate it directly to the wearer. Andrew Ochoa, chief executive of US start-up Waverly Labs, a producer of one such earpiece, says they work by 'combining a network of algorithms and speech-recognition technology'.  But they have limitations. Firstly, there's a delay while the phrase is translated. How long often depends on the connection strength. Secondly⁷, they aren't able to communicate human sentiment well.

 

Human conversation is subtler than just the words used. It has tone, attitude, nuance⁸, for example. "If you want to create a relationship… you need a human translator to make it sound natural," Zoey Cooper, brand and content director at Wordbank, a global marketing⁹ and translation agency, told the BBC.

 

So, while many professional translators do use computer-assisted translation tools to help them with the repetitive nature of translation, context is important. It might work well for a survey or instruction manual, but for important human-to-human speech, and for the time being at least, better to use a translator, or your message might get garbled¹⁰ or lost in translation.

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