Electronic or professional translation

From time to time, people who need an express translation of text prefer to use various electronic translators rather than contact a professional translation agency Everybody has his/her considerations in this respect: one is trying to save money and time, and the other is more confident with modern technologies. Some people rely on electronic programs in the hope that they are able to provide an authentic translation of standardized texts, like business documents.

However, even if it is the case, you may be disappointed. For example, a translation of legal text cannot have any inaccuracy. And if we speak about less standardized texts – literary or journalistic ones, for example, a professional quality translation in this case can be done only with attraction of a specialist.

We may put emphasis on the main problem of electronic translation – polysemy of words. The Russian language is rich, indeed, for words which have multiple meanings. On the one hand, the polysemy of words enriches the language but, at the same time, it may provoke some difficulties in translation. Speaking frankly, sometimes it is very hard to find proper words to express our thoughts more precisely. This is even harder to do using a foreign language, as a word may convey a whole chain of meanings, and a translator is trying rather to guess than to translate directly. In this case, a PC is helpless, it may automatically choose any version according to the structure of its dictionary. It should be noted we have touched upon only lexical issues not grammar ones. Moreover, morphology and syntax have many specific underlying potential problems which may be very complex for electronic translations.

What may a conclusion be? The most accurate translation of text may be done by a person who is a professional translator, since a PC is beyond the understanding of text essence, even approximately. It can be stressed that human perception is not a scientific process accompanied by neuron functions but a much more mental phenomenon.