The Importants of a Good Trans Late Or

I’ve often been asked if translators should fear becoming obsolete due to advances in computer language recognition and translation. These advances are indeed amazing, especially in the eyes of someone who began in this profession solely using dictionaries.  But…

NOTHING can take the place of an experienced translator. For a message to be communicated correctly, everything must be perfect – the grammar, parts of speech, regionalisms…and you do not get that with a computer.

Take, for example, the photo below. This is a construction sign around the corner from our offices in Brooklyn, New York, a city full of Spanish speakers. The Spanish on this sign is full of errors – acera and cerrado do not agree in gender, the noun cruz is used instead of the verb cruce, the necessary definite article is missing from otro lado…It essentially says, “Sidewalk Close; A Cross to Another Side.” If you were to read a sign that said this in English, you would definitely raise your eyebrows. An experienced translator would have translated it as, “Acera cerrada – Cruce al otro lado.”

A client does not want a text (whether it be a short street sign or long novel) to merely give the gist of a message, but rather they want the message communicated exactly as it is in the source language. Bottom line? Get someone with experience. As for free translation programs online, the old saying holds true: you pay for what you get!