What Are The Three Types Of Translation?
It’s no secret that translation has been around for centuries. However, it may come as a surprise to know that there are three types of translation. This includes human translation, machine translation, and post edited translation.
Human translation is accomplished by human professional translators who render the source language into the target language. Machine translation is a computer-aided process that translates from one language to another by means of an algorithm. Post edited translations are those where machine translated text has been reworked by a human translator to improve its quality. Each type of translation has its own benefits. Let’s take a closer look at the types of translation.
Human Translation
Human translation is the process of translating text from one language to another by a human translator. This type of translation is more accurate and reliable than machine translation. It often results in a more natural sounding translation. However, human translation is more expensive and time consuming. For this reason, it is not always the best option for large-scale translations.
Some of the benefits of human translation include:
- Accuracy: Human translators can accurately translate text by considering the context and nuances of the source language.
- Fluency: Human translators can ensure that the target text sounds natural and fluid in the target language.
- Attention to detail: Human translators can pay attention to detail and recognise the many elements of a text, such as symbols and metaphors.
- Cultural sensitivity: Human translators possess a deep understanding of two cultures and can accurately translate between them.
Human translation is more accurate when it comes to translating text from one language to another. However, machine translation steadily gained popularity in recent years.
Machine Translation
Machine translation is a computer-aided translation process in which a machine attempts to translate text from one language to another. It is often used for large-scale translations, as it is cheaper and faster than human translation. However, machine translation is not as accurate or reliable as human translation, and it can often produce translations that are awkward or unintelligible.
Despite the shortcomings of machine translation, it is still a valuable tool for translating text between languages. Some of the benefits of machine translation include:
- Speed: Machine translation can be much faster than human translation, making it ideal for large-scale translations.
- Cost: Machine translation is often cheaper than human translation, making it a more affordable option for businesses and organisations.
- Volume: Machine translation can be used for translations involving large amounts of text, even if the volume does not justify hiring a human translator.
- Availability: Many types of machine translation are available free of cost on websites and mobile apps.
Post Edited Translation
Post edited translation, also known as post-editing machine translation (PEMT), is a form of machine translation. It entails reworking machine translated text by a human translator to improve the quality of the translations.
Unlike human translation or machine translation, post edited translation does not involve translating text from one language to another. Rather, it involves taking machine translations and editing them to make them more accurate and readable.
Post edited translation can be good when human translation is not an option due to cost or time constraints. It is also good when the quality of machine translations is not good enough for publication or use. By editing machine translations, human translators can improve the accuracy, fluency, and readability of translations.
Although post edited translation is much faster than human translation, it is still more time consuming than machine translation alone. Post edited translations are often used in tandem with machine translations to complete large projects within a short amount of time.
How to know which type of translation to use?
When deciding how to translate text, cost and time are two of the most important factors to consider. For large-scale translations that do not have a short deadline, human translation is often the best option.
On the other hand, when an accurate translation needs to be done quickly, machine translation may be preferable. Post edited translations are used in cases where both types of translation are necessary or required. They are also beneficial in cases where machine translations cannot provide enough context for understanding what is being said in the source text.
When it comes to accuracy, human translation tends to be more accurate than machine translation and post edited translations tend to be more accurate than machine translated texts alone. However, because they rely on computers rather than humans for processing information, machine translations can handle the types of texts that are difficult for humans to interpret.
Conclusion
The types of translation are human, machine, and post edited. In this article, we have discussed some of the benefits of each type of translation. Human translation is the preferred method for large-scale translations. Machine translation is a cheaper and faster alternative to human translation, but it often produces incomplete or awkward translations. Post edited translations can help to improve the quality of machine translations, but they still do not produce the same level of accuracy as human translations.
Although each type of translation has its own benefits, machine and post edited types of translation are often used in tandem with human types of translation to complete large projects within an acceptable timeframe.
Renaissance Translations can help!
To guarantee a qualified resource is always available when needed, we have pooled the talents of native translators and thousands of linguists internationally. If you want to discuss your project, please contact our project managers at info@renaissance-translations.com or call us on 0161 3940408.
