Translation Memory (TM) versus Machine Translation (MT)

What is a Translation Memory?

A translation memory (TM) is a linguistic database that continually captures your translations as you work for future use.

All previously translated segments are accumulated within the translation memory (in source and target language pairs called translation units) and reused so that you never have to translate the same sentence twice. The more you build up your translation memory, the faster you can translate subsequent translations and your new project is more consistent, enabling you to take on more projects and increase your revenue.

Translation memory managers, usually included in Computer-Aided Translation (CAT) tools, are most suitable for translating technical documentation and documents containing specialized vocabularies. Their benefits include:

Consistence - Ensuring that the translated documents are consistent, including common definitions, phrasings and terminology. For example, if the software is already translated and now it is time to translate or update its manual or help, the translation memory will use the previous stored sentences to guide the current translation. In other words, the documentation or the help file will be consistent with the terms used in the main software.

Flexibility - Enabling translators to translate documents in a wide variety of formats without having to own the software typically required to process these formats.

Speed - Accelerating the overall translation process; since translation memories "remember" previously translated material, translators only have to translate it once.

Cost - Reducing costs of translation projects. For example, your company just updated the radiology image equipment. Usually, most of the user guide document will stay unchanged, only some items in the document will need to be updated. The translation memory has the ability to use the previous sentences stored in its database to pre-translate the current updated manual. This benefit will cause a relevant impact in the translation cost.

How does translation memory software differ from machine translation?

Machine translation automatically translates a document without any human input (or assistance).

These kinds of tools are fast, but result in a poor quality translation as a machine cannot understand the subtleties or contexts of language. As a result, quality and accuracy tend to be around 50% - 70%, therefore it is not advisable to send the raw form directly to your customers.

For example, the simple text below was translated using Google Translate (one of the most popular Machine Translation tools). The source text was translated from English into Korean. Using the same MT system, the translated sentence was translated back to English (which we call as reverse translation).

Original English text:

"Excel Translations' unique organizational structure allows the company to handle all phases of a medical translation project."

Korean Translation:

"엑셀 번역 '독특한 조직 구조는 회사가 의료 번역 프로젝트의 모든 단계를 처리할 수 있습니다."

Reverse English Translation:

"Excel Translations' unique organizational structure, medical translation project, the company can handle all phases of."

However, the "imperfect but fast" machine translation system is efficient in some cases. IBM and Microsoft have been using machine translation engines for the last ten years to provide real-time feedback for their customers. For example, a user can ask a question on the IBM portal about the installation for an acquired product in China. This question (written in Chinese) is automatically translated into English, so IBM's server's search engine finds the highest match topics. Then, these topics are automatically translated into Chinese and the customer can find a solution for his question in a few seconds.

In this case, the quality of the translation is poor, but the customer is a 100% satisfied because he is now able to install his product. However, on the other hand, the Machine Translation's quality is not acceptable for providing a multilingual prospect for a Neurovascular Array system.

Documentation: Part of Your Core Business Asset Portfolio?

The last decade of the 21st century brought more changes in publishing technology. Not only did publishing move from paper to the WWW, but it became more versatile, effective and interactive. Publications could be searched and content could be extracted.

Additionally, multimedia features deepened access to published information. Hypertext links enabled users to navigate through documents and allowed them to watch video clips with sound while reading a warning paragraph. With these new technologies, users were able to design their own experience of published material.

Throughout these advances most companies have viewed documentation –such as user guides and technical manuals– as a necessary tool to help consumers use the products they purchased. However, it was rare that documentation would get the business asset treatment, worthy of significant investment. The documents were still semi-interactive: though the companies could enable users to change their experience of the text, they could not present different versions of the text to users based on the user’s interaction with the document. In other words, companies did not have the technology to enable users to change the presentation of content to reflect their own needs.

For example, an American professional mechanic and a Brazilian apprentice require different levels of information from an auto-repair manual. The apprentice will need every step explained in detail and it will be much better if the instructions appear in Brazilian Portuguese while the mechanic will need only the data unique to the specific automobile. Yet these two levels of users could not interact with the same manual so the documentation had to be tailored to their respective levels of expertise.

New technologies such as XML enabled the creation of truly interactive documents in which the readers can specify their own needs and preferences and have the text change accordingly. With XML, a single document can contain the same text in different languages. Previously, companies with multiple foreign markets had to produce separate volumes for each language. Today, the text can be stored in a single XML-based FrameMaker document so that layout specifications (such as which illustrations go with corresponding captions) are preserved and smart action can be taken when automatic translation tools are used (for example, excluding proper nouns from translation). Another aspect of the auto-repair manual that could be changed interactively is the units of measure: imperial units (inches, gallons, degrees Fahrenheit, and so on) could be converted to metric units (meters, liters, degrees Celsius, and so on) based on the reader’s locale and preference.

The “new” ability to produce documentation has transformed documentation into “a core business asset” with serious revenue-producing potential. So, If your business hasn't been paying attention to your documentation, you're ignoring a sales tool and a revenue generator.

Time to actually read the manual!

Creativity as added value

In the translation industry, we tend to undervalue the creative aspects of the translation process. We rather focus on objective quality standards and evaluation methods to obtain measurable results about the translation output. We prefer to link translation quality to quantifiable and assessable variables. Our different QA steps are designed to guarantee accuracy, completeness and linguistic correction of the target text. This objective and scientific approach to translation prevails, and these are also the values that we present to clients when we describe the benefits of our professional translation services. Creativity is not a good companion of objective quality, neither a popular sales argument in the translation industry.

However, creativity is a very important skill that operates throughout the whole translation process. First, translators need to be extremely perceptive when they read and understand the source text. This initial interpretation work requires high levels of creative alertness to explore possible multiple meanings and grasp all the nuances and connotations conveyed in a text. Creativity will also play a crucial role in the second part of the translation process, when this complex meaning and content network is transferred to the target language and culture. A successful projection of the richness of meanings and evocations of the original text will be partly determined by the writing abilities of the translator. It is obvious that a technical user manual will not contain metaphors, second meanings, connotations or evocations and will thus not require as much creative talent in the interpretative as well as representative work involved in translation.

However, a clear insight of the source and an intelligent representation of the target message are crucial to reach the audience through certain document types or messages related to advertising or marketing. This is why many argue that another step beyond translation is sometimes required for certain texts to accomplish complex communication goals. Transcreation is the term used to define this extra creative effort to adapt a message to the target culture. Yet, any translation process and any translation work that aims at excellence should include transcreation, as well as the creative value it entails. As Walter Benjamin states in his essay ‘The task of the translator’: ‘to some degree all (great) texts contain their potential translation between the lines’. We could add that to discover this ‘potential translation’ and reveal it can be actually considered an art. Moreover, the quality and greatness of a translation work can depend on the artistic and creative talent of a translator or team of translators. The fact that the industry prefers to look in another direction will not change that.

The European patent is still on course…

In our last entry about patents in Europe, we wondered when it would be possible to talk about a unique pan-European patent system.
That has already become a reality! European Parliament gave its approval to member states so that they could use the enhanced cooperation procedure in order to establish a unique patent system within the European Union.

The goal for European companies? To encourage and boost innovation and competitiveness, thereby making the patent registration procedure easier and reducing all the inherent costs (especially translation costs).

On March 10, 2011, 25 EU member states gave their green light for the creation of a unique pan-European patent system. Only Spain and Italy are standing their ground and squarely refusing to participate in this agreement. Despite this, the process is definitely moving now. Indeed, last April 13, 2010, European Commission presented two proposals for unitary patent protection. Now, any companies or any inventors will be able to protect their inventions within those signatory 25 member states. Patent requests can be registered in any language, but the EPO (European Patent Office) will continue to submit patents in one of the three official languages (English, French or German). During a transitory period of 12 years maximum, patents submitted in French or German will have to be translated into English, and those submitted in English will have to be translated in one of the 2 other official languages. These translations will be necessary until the machine translation system is totally workable and efficient.
In the meanwhile, all additional translations completed up to now will be used in order to expand and enrich the machine translation system database.