According to Google, MTPE (machine translation post-editing) “combines the speed of machine translation with the expertise of human editors to create a more polished and accurate translation.”
We asked Héloïse, our in-house French>English translator and Active Languages general manager, to compare the two with a project combining MTPE and human translation.
MTPE vs. human translation
🏃♀️ Speed
Human translation (HT): My speciality at Active Languages is tourism and marketing, so I’m flying through this one at around 1000 words per 45 minutes. I just read the source, get my head around it and write it how I’d read it in a travel magazine.
Machine translation (MT): First I have to look at the translation, work out what it should say then go back to the source to check I’ve understood properly. It also makes me second guess myself and double-check that what I think it should be is actually correct. Then I end up rewriting a lot of it so it does take longer than a standard translation.
💡Expertise
HT: Being a native English speaker from the UK with French heritage, I understand the source language and any nuances behind it as well as knowing how to write engaging text in English. So if we’re talking about a “station d’hiver”, as a human translator I know we’re talking about a ski resort or winter sports resort, not a “winter resort”.
MT: The clients themselves have entered a note in the translation (translated by MT) to warn readers that machine translations are basic and should be used as a guide. That says it all!
🦢 Polished
HT: We translators spend years honing our skills and mastering our language. A translation should never read like a translation; it should read like a native content writer has created the text from scratch.
MT: “Check-out possible from 9 to 11” is a prime example of clumsy translation I’ve found so far. If we’re given specific hours to check-out in, we can just write “Check-out between 9am and 11am” or “Check-out: 9am-11am”. There’s no need for “possible” to get involved even if it does appear in the source!
🎯Accuracy
HT: As a translator, we constantly read and research our own language to make sure we stay on top of new lingo and translate into standard English using natural expressions.
MT: As a machine, it’s natural to assume “choix multiples” should be “multiple choices” given the French plural. It takes a human to know that we say “multiple choice” when we’re dealing a questionnaire.
And the winner is…
Human translation is faster than post-editing machine translation. A machine can never beat our expertise and knowledge of a subject. We translators all have our own styles but we’re always polished and as native speakers, we’re more accurate than a machine.
Contact Human Translators at Active Languages Translation Agency: contact us
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Selected by FRENCH-PARIS – Learn French in France: “Choose a Trusted Translation Agency: Active Languages”
