Translation involves converting text from one language into a different language. Traditionally, translation has always been done by humans. However, artificial intelligence has been developed to aid the translation process. Unfortunately, even the most advanced AIs cannot come close to a professional’s translation.
Advantages of Human Translation
Translation is very sensitive to errors because even the slightest mistake can change the entire meaning of a text. Accuracy is critical, especially in medical and legal fields where the wrong translation of documents, such as medical equipment instructions or prescriptions, can lead to irreversible consequences.
This need for precision calls for more attention to detail while translating any written content, be it medical documents, interviews, websites, legal documents, manuals, or personal documents. Human translators can provide the accuracy that machine translation fails to offer. Let’s discuss the reasons behind this fact.
Human Translators Understand the Intricacies of Language
The human language has intricacies such as slang words, humor, homonyms, and expressions that one must consider when translating. A human translator native to the target language will be creative enough to choose words that would deliver the intended message of the source text. On the other hand, AIs cannot decipher aspects such as slang words and idioms.
Human Translation Has Better Flow and Conciseness
Each document has a different tone and style. Human translators can identify the “personality” of a text and mimic it in the target language. This is not something that software can do because it lacks one very important element: emotion.
Additionally, human translators can identify the document’s context and choose the appropriate words to deliver a good translation. On the other hand, an AI tool will translate words automatically without contextualizing them. Additionally, human translators can read through the document after translating it to ensure it makes sense and has proper flow.
AI Can Be Culturally Insensitive
Some words may be acceptable in one language and taboo in another. AI programs are not great at differentiating such terms. On the other hand, human translators know what is culturally accepted and what is not. Therefore, they carefully choose words that effectively deliver the message without being insensitive to any party.
Just think about what happened to Pepsi when it tried to expand its dominance in China with the slogan, “Pepsi brings you back to life.” Its team made the grave error of mistranslating the phrase and came up with, “Pepsi brings dead ancestors back from the grave.”
Humans Translators Apply Specialized Professional Knowledge
Reliable companies that offer language translation services only hire human translators who specialize in fields such as marketing, law, medicine, or finance. With their specialized professional training, they can translate specific documents with the appropriate industry terms that convey the message as intended. This ability ensures accuracy in error-sensitive files such as those in the medical and legal fields.
Human translators also help to advertise your products and services to a larger audience in their native languages. In an area such as marketing, the professional translator can apply creativity and their marketing background when translating content. They can ensure that it remains captivating and vibrant to the target audience. When machines translate marketing content, it becomes dull due to a lack of ingenuity.
Human Translation Boosts SEO
SEO is paramount to the success of any business. If your target market cannot find your products when they search for them, then they cannot buy from you. This is why it’s essential to use human translation when localizing your website and its content.
You want to ensure that keywords are not translated in a way that they lose their meaning and, therefore, cannot reach your target audience. Human translators can use keywords that are relevant to local markets. You cannot achieve good SEO by using machine translation.
Additionally, search engines such as Google often conduct website assessments for ranking. If your website is AI-translated, it is probably of low quality, which will cause it to have a lower ranking. Your business will lose organic traffic and suffer as a result.
Final Thoughts
Overall, human translation is far more effective than any AI translation. Hiring human translators from reputable translation companies such as GoTranscript guarantees high-quality and error-free translations. Good talent is essential to maintain brand dominance and reach a broader global market. Effectively, you want to avoid the expensive ramifications of translation errors.
Laila Azzahra is a professional writer and blogger that loves to write about technology, business, entertainment, science, and health.