Despite sophisticated machine translation technologies, such as those based on artificial intelligence, there are still limitations in the ability of these technologies to produce completely accurate translations. That's where post-editing, work done by an experienced human translator who can recognize and correct any errors, thus ensuring that the translated text is true to the meaning, style and tone of the original text.
Post-editing is a practice that requires both language skills and familiarity with technology. A human translator reviews the automatically translated text, correcting any errors, removing ambiguities or inconsistencies, and ensuring that the translated text faithfully reflects the original.
There are two main types of post-editing: light post-editing, where the main goal is only to ensure that the text is understandable and free of obvious errors, and full post-editing, which aims to match the translated text as closely as possible to the original text, not only in terms of content, but also in style, tone and consistency.
The reason why human translators employed by professional companies can effectively ensure the correctness of a text they proofread has at least three basic aspects.
Professional translation companies have translators with a deep linguistic and cultural knowledge, experienced professionals who not only detect and correct translation errors, but can also notice and solve more subtle problems, such as cultural inconsistencies or inappropriate language usage. Achieving this level of language proficiency takes years of study and practice, and no machine translation algorithm can offer such a proficiency in the current state of affairs.
It is the processes proven by long years of work that enable professional translation companies to maintain high standards of quality: processes ranging from the employment of highly qualified translators, to the intelligent use of advanced technology, to rigorous quality control carried out in full adherence to international translation norms and standards.
Considering that machine translation is implemented to speed up work, saving time at the post-editing level is an important element in not wasting the advantage gained, especially in today's fast-paced world. Professional translation companies have full teams of experienced translators and proofreaders for this purpose, who normally work in parallel on different parts of a project, significantly speeding up the process.
Second, translation companies can handle large volumes of work because they have implemented and acquired a proven and effective method of handling such tasks. For those who are not involved in translation full-time, unexpected difficulties and complications are just around the corner and can take away valuable time, whereas a specialist could foresee them and solve them easily.
To top it off, outsourcing post-editing to a professional company frees the client from the work of checking and editing, allowing them to focus on the parts of their business they are best qualified to handle. This inevitably leads to greater efficiency and productivity by entrusting each person with the task in which he or she has experience and expertise.
Photo by Gerd Altmann on Pixabay
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