Topical Words

Language translation is essential to modern business and global culture, and the only way that people in different countries can communicate with each other and share ideas and knowledge. While language translation has always been the domain of the multi-lingual and the professional translation agency (Übersetzungsbüro) , there is another force that has entered into the equation during modern times. Machine translation is the process where a computer program translates a source document into a target document, sometimes with post processing by a human translator. While machine translation has been with us in one way or another since the 1940s, it has taken off since the birth of the Internet and growth of public online tools such as Babel Fish and Babylon. However, while machine translation has a number of advantages in terms of cost and ease of access, it is still unable to compete with the services of a professional translation agency.

The act of interpretation is always involved in language translation, despite the word for word myth that exists around the world. In the vast majority of situations, a word in one language can not be directly translated into another language, due to differing language idioms, grammar constraints, and contextual issues, Instead, professional translators make an attempt to translate the implicit meaning of a document, through a direct knowledge of the target language and culture associated with it. As you can understand, the act of machine translation is unable to perform in this way, due to the automated process and the restrictions of machine learning. While machine translation is improving all the time, and a number of innovative solutions are being developed, human intervention and translation is still very much central to the act of professional language translation.

The services of a translation agency are required by all international businesses, except those that are so large that they have their own translation department. For modern businesses, a huge amount of material may need to be translated between multiple languages, for product documentation, marketing material, and customer communication. While machine translation may be used during the initial phases or product development or website translation, professional translation agencies are critical in the production of reliable target documents.