A Comparison Between Professional Translation and Machine Translation

Document translation using machine translation has greatly improved in the past decade, but despite tools continuously developing, machine translation still can’t fully replace human translation. For this reason, many businesses today choose to find services by searching “translation offices near me” to translate documents into various languages to help with smooth communication between companies and clients.

Even though document translation by humans and machines can yield accurate results, both approaches have their pros and cons. In this blog, we will take a deeper look at machine and human document translation to help you choose what’s best suited for your different types of document translation needs.

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The importance of human translation

The human brain possesses the great capacity to translate text while considering and interpreting the context and maintaining the essence of the message to be conveyed. An ability that, so far, cannot be replaced by machine translation.

Even with the amazing advances AI has made, there is still a need for human interpretation to review and edit the results produced by machine translation. This, especially in cases related to culture, language, and art, where greater accuracy in specialized topics is needed.

Only professional document translators can interpret the true meaning of a message, choose the correct vocabulary to best reflect the meaning in the target language, and give the text the right flow. Today, Thailand has many professional document translation providers, both in Bangkok and other provinces. If you’re looking for document translation services in your area, simply search “translation offices near me.

The benefits of using professional translators

Translation performed by professionals is undoubtedly of a higher quality. Below is a detailed list of the advantages of human translation compared to machine translation:

  • Quality: In document translation, professional translators apply reasoning and observation and are able to spot and correct mistakes.
  • Accuracy: Professionals are well-versed and have knowledge in various topics, such as technical, scientific, legal, etc. For this reason, they can assure the precision of each term or concept, which machine translation can’t.
  • Language proficiency: Native translators are proficient in the source language, and native in the target language.
  • Natural flow: Professional translators always take into account sensitivity to the nuances, subtleties, and values of the target culture.
  • Creativity: Professional document translators use creativity to incorporate the most appropriate expression for the context and the message that is being communicated.

These advantages of translation by professional translators make it an excellent choice for companies, as it can convey a clear message and branding to the audience. For businesses that need to translate documents, search “translation offices near me” and select the translation provider that best suits your needs.

The limitations of machine translation

Document translation by machine translation has greatly improved in the last couple of years, but there are still limitations to what it can do.

  • Machine translation has a lack of contextual understanding, it doesn’t understand differences between cultures and expressions that exist in human language. Because of this, machine translations often lack precision and fail to capture the intended meaning.
  • Machine translation cannot effectively analyze cultural sensitivity. This may lead to inappropriate translation; this is especially true in sensitive content areas such as marketing, legal, and health care.
  • Industry-specific knowledge, technical terminology, jargon, and industry-specific language are still difficult for machine translation to produce efficiently.

Should you choose human translation or machine translation?

AI-based machine translation can quickly process a large volume of text and deliver an almost instant result in various languages. But machine translation does not consider the context or the nuances or particulars of the target culture, especially if it is content that requires creativity, like marketing, literature, or advertising.

Machine translation is an excellent and practical option for processing personal content that will not be published, such as emails. It is not advisable to use machine translation for documents, texts or content to be shared with partners or customers, because it may affect business relationships. It is advised to use professional translators for content listed below:

  • For the translation of documents, reports or any text to be published.
  • For the translation of websites.
  • For the translation of content that requires some specialization or technical, legal, financial or medical knowledge.
  • For the translation of marketing, advertising or commercial content.

However, it is possible that in the future, most document translation may be done using machine translation or translation software. In that case, translators will act as editors, checking and fixing errors and inconsistencies.

Need your documents translated? Contact us at DoubleCheck. We provide English consulting and document translation services by native English speakers, designed to help your Thai business communicate skillfully with English-speaking audiences. Whether on your website, billboard, video, flyers, or social media, our translation service will ensure that all the English in the materials you produce is perfect and avoid the risk of public embarrassment. We use nuanced language tailored to your target audience, increasing your effective reach and, most importantly, helping to bolster and protect your brand image. You can visit our website at https://doublecheck.co.th

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