GOOGLE AND

D I G I TA L November 21, 2022

T R A N S L AT I O N
 
GOOGLE The internet giant says new artificial intelligence
technology is enabling it to vastly expand Google
T R A N S L AT I O N Translate’s repertoire of the world’s languages. The pros
and cons of Google translate not only impact professional
translators in the language service industry, but rather
anyone who chooses to use it as a translation tool.
Certainly, online public access to a free, quick, and
relatively accurate translation method represents significant
progress in translation technology. But when one directly
compares translation quality and accuracy using Google
Translate with that of an experienced human translator,
there is no real comparison.
 D I G I TA L
T R A N S L AT I O N

 Most current digital translation tools

operate on a translation-as-replacement
model. Users type in a word or phrase in
one language, select the desired target
language, and click “Translate.” The
equivalent word (or a selection of
equivalent words) in the target language
then appears on the screen.
PROS

 One of the main advantages of Google Translate is that it is very fast. In fact, a human
translator(s) cannot compete with the speed nor, as a result, the quantity of translations that
Google Translate is able to perform. In an average workday, an experienced translator can
translate about 2,000 words maximum (300-400 words/hour) depending on the difficulty of
the text. In contrast, Google Translate is able to produce a translation with the same number of
words in just seconds.
 Google Translate uses a statistical approach to build an online database for translations that are
often (but not always) produced by humans and are available online.
CONS

 Google Translate often produces translations that contain significant grammatical errors. This
is due to the fact that Google’s translation system uses a method based on language pair
frequency that does not take into account grammatical rules.
 Google Translate does not have a system to correct translation errors. There is no way of
reporting errors in order to avoid having them repeated, nor is there a way to proofread what
has been translated unless one is fluent in both the source and the target language.
I M P R O V I N G T H E D I G I TA L T R A N S L AT I O N

 As people continue communicating online in hundreds of different languages, the

technologies we use to translate information between languages have also continued to evolve.
For example, Google’s Translator Toolkit and Skype’s multi-language translation script
translate content into more than 130 languages. Cross-language Information Retrieval
Software (CLIR) (for instance, Google searching) allows users to search for information in
one language and get results in multiple languages at once. Social media platforms like
Facebook provide instant translations of posts, so content once limited to a specific audience
is now more widely accessible.
 EXAMPLES OF
D I G I TA L
T R A N S L AT I O N
TOOLS

 SDL Trados Studio

This is a phenomenal translation tool used
by translators all over the world. It is a
professional translators’ first choice, making
their work swift and more precise. It has
outstanding features such as translation
memory, terminology, software localization,
machine translation, etc.
 Linguee
 It is the most popular language-
translation tool used by people
nowadays. Linguee is a meaningful
amalgamation of a dictionary and a
search engine that allows you to
translate words and expressions in
various languages.
 Microsoft Language Portal
 Microsoft Language Portal is the best translation tool
for translators working in IT and software fields. Using
this translation software, you can translate the key
Microsoft terms and IT terminology with ease.
SOURCES

 https://www.languageconnections.com/blog/the-pros-cons-of-google-translate/
 Gonzales, L. (2017). Improving Digital Translation: Research Findings from Multilingual
Communicators. User Experience Magazine, 17(5). Retrieved from
https://uxpamagazine.org/improving-digital-translation/
 Team Pepper (May 16, 2022) “20 Digital Language Translation Tools and Their Benefits”
https://www.peppercontent.io/blog/20-digital-language-translation-tools-and-their-benefits/
 O’Brien, Briceño (May 13, 2022) “Google diversifies its translation service, adds 24
languages” https://www.csmonitor.com/Technology/2022/0513/Google-diversifies-its-
translation-service-adds-24-languages
THANK YOU!!