Automated translation
Bantelmann Translate is able to translate texts using automated tools to handle large volumes of work within tight deadlines and to also provide pre-writing and post-editing services, where necessary, to ensure that high-quality content is delivered.
What is automated translation?
Automated text translation, i.e. translation that is performed using digital tools, was once limited to single phrases or short texts. However, it has undergone prodigious developments in recent years: from rudimentary tools that could at best approximate the meaning of a text, to software has become capable of providing satisfactory results even for complex and technical texts.
Although there are currently no automated translators that are able to fully substitute professional translators, this type of software has become a tool in the translator's arsenal, and can be used for support especially when managing large volumes of work.
When is automated translation used?
Automated translation is mainly used to support large translation jobs that need to be completed within a very short time. Additionally, automated translation can be used to reduce costs compared to relying solely on a specialised native speaker translator.
The areas where translations of this type are most needed are the technical and medical fields. Here, a high degree of repetitiveness of specific contents is often combined with a greater emphasis on precision rather than style.
Even in the case of volumes and deadlines that can only be managed with the aid of automated translation, however, the translated text still requires correction by a human professional, which is why post-editing and pre-writing services are used.
Pre-writing: preparing for automated translation
An automated translator encounters difficulties with all non-literal or idiomatic expressions and jargon that normally appear in texts either out of habit or as a conscious stylistic choice. In the same manner, the text interpretation algorithms used by these software programs may encounter difficulties when dealing with similes or metaphors.
In order to overcome these issues, the text must undergo a pre-writing phase, i.e. a preparation phase in which a specialised human operator corrects and rewrites expressions that would otherwise prove difficult for the translation programme, so that it is then able to correctly interpret the meaning of the text and convert it into the target language.
Post-editing: finalising an automated translation
For the same reasons, the text resulting from an automated translation process will not represent the final version: even a simple data sheet or instruction manual may contain fatal mistakes, and more elaborate content will also lack tone and character, and often fluency.
The process that is implemented to solve this problem is called post-editing. During this phase, the text translated by the software is reviewed in its entirety by a specialised translator, who makes the necessary changes to ensure the accuracy, perfect readability and expressiveness of the contents. The translators employed in this delicate phase also possess sector-specific skills and those requirements that guarantee compliance with ISO:17100 certification, i.e. experience and specific training that enables them to review and edit the translation in terms of grammatical, syntactic, semantic and stylistic aspects to guarantee a result that is entirely equal to that which would have been obtained with a completely "human" translation.
Ultimately, automated translation is a useful and by now often indispensable tool, but the result must always be optimised by human intervention to achieve the best quality. However, the use of automated translators in appropriate scenarios and with human intervention for pre-writing and post-editing, enables larger quantities of text to be processed at lower costs than work carried out entirely by specialised translators.