Human Translation & CAT Tools
There is a misconception that the profession of translation is only a straightforward and technical work of word-for-word rendering of two languages that can be executed by simply being proficient in the said languages. This is especially true for people who are not working in the same field. The said description is only applicable for machine translations. On the other hand, human translation is another matter.
An experienced professional translator who has studied the needs of a particular project does the translation. A human translator also has a comprehension of the Translation Paradigm and is adept in applying it. Professional translators put their senses for a good cause. They are capable of learning, developing and updating their knowledge. Thus, a constant process of knowledge absorption and development helps in broadening their personal and professional experience.
There is nothing wrong with machine translations when you need something translated fast and accuracy isn’t the main concern, but human translation is always recommended when it comes to professional translation, especially when supported by CAT tools. Such tools, which include a Translation Memory, are helpful in saving time, money, and efficiency. Translators, translation agencies, and clients prefer these tools.
There are several advantages of a Translation Memory tool. The first is the improvement of the quality and consistency of the translation not just for one document, but for all documents that have been translated for that client. The reason behind this is that the TM is able to save strings of texts or even pairs of terms, and duplicate them when a similar Source Language or SL string or term appears again throughout the document. Thus, there is consistency due to the use of the translated equivalent for the same set of strings and terms. Translation would also be more efficient as the TM can be used for future translation projects. The result is a consistency in the style and terminology of translated works.
The second advantage is the ability to save time for the translator. Searching for terminology could take up to 75 percent of the time allocated for the job. TM solves this by sidestepping the searching process of repeated texts in documents. This is helpful especially in long projects or related projects from the same client. A translator only needs to translate once. The TM will do the rest by giving the translator the option to use the previous translation of the same strings and terms when they appear again. A freelance translator does not need to remember and search the document again whenever a string or term comes up within the document.
The last advantage of a TM is increasing the productivity, which leads to lowering the costs of the translation as well. The TM helps translation agencies to be more competitive since many clients also require translation projects to be done using the tool. The great thing about a TM aside from all its advantages is that it is also portable. It can easily be stored on a flash memory disk or on a CD.
NordicTrans provides high quality human translation at affordable rates and is able to use any CAT tools if they are needed by the client.