Recently, we have noticed a reoccurring article popping up
in our Google searches about a small Spanish town, As Pontes, advertising for
an upcoming food festival. The local
municipality decided to use Google translate in order to advertise for the
event, translating words between Spanish and the local language. Unbeknownst to
everyone in the town for weeks, the online translator had misunderstood the
word “grelo” a locally grown green being featured in the food festival, and
rendered it into a term for a body part in the female anatomy. This went
unnoticed for some time before people starting catching the unfortunate mistake
that had been made resulting in a big embarrassment.
We see many examples of these types of errors that may only
be one word off, but like we see in this case, that one word can make all the
difference. What is interesting and
very important when considering online or automated translation, is the comment
made by a spokesperson from Google directly.
He admitted that, “Google Translate is an automatic translator – that
is, it works without the intervention of human translators, using state-of-the-art
technology instead.” They also went on to say “since the translations are
generated by machines, not all translation will be perfect and sometimes there
will be mistakes or mistranslations.” This is the problem. People are more and more frequently turning
to online translators to avoid the costs associated with using an actual
translation company. However, no matter the level of technology you are using,
there are special nuances in language that only humans are able to detect. Even the best translation tools will
translate word for word; only the words it knows or has in its dictionary and
does not consider the context. It can possibly be at best grammatically incorrect,
but can also turn into complete unrelated nonsense or even something
derogatory, as in the case of the food festival.
This is
not to put the blame on the tools themselves; they are doing the best with what
technology exists right now. It is up to the individuals using a translation
tool to make a judgement call as to the costs being saved by using online
translation and foregoing a real linguist. Are you willing to risk the bad
press that may come with an incorrect translation, turning your message into a
joke and negating any information or promotion you are trying to convey? With the
added cost of a professional translation comes peace of mind that what is
translated is appropriate to the market and the situation at hand.
