Although Google Translate has certainly come a long way over the years, “It looks like they just used Google Translate” is never a compliment, and it’s not a reaction any business owner should ever want to hear about their website. In principle, localization is generally a good idea, but bad translations make businesses look unprofessional and are one of the fastest ways to lose the trust (and business) of potential customers.

It’s essential for businesses to provide information in the target language of their customers, but translation can be time-consuming and downright difficult, depending on the target language, so what’s the best way to translate a website? We’ll shed some light on the evolution of website translation and the tools that are making it faster, easier, and more accurate than ever.

How to Translate a Website – The Old Way

Traditionally, website translation used to be done in the way you might imagine: a business wanting its website translated into Chinese would first approach a website localization agency in China. After agreeing on a price, a human translator would manually translate it by browsing the website one page at a time, translating and transcribing all of the content onto a Word document, and then provide the Word document with the content in both languages to the customer.

This method can be time-consuming and prone to errors when it’s time to create the new web page. Humans are, well, humans. They get tired, overworked, distracted, etc., and especially if the web designer building your page is not fluent in the language the website is being translated into, or if your instructions are not crystal-clear, there’s a higher likelihood that the web page will contain errors.

How to Translate a Website – The Path Forward

The development of computer-assisted translation (CAT) tools over the past few decades has been a game-changer, boosting the productivity and consistency of manual translation. CAT tools consist of many technologies, including a translation memory (enabling translators to reuse previously translated content), translation management systems (which automate project management and publishing), terminology management systems (which increase the consistency of standard terms, names, and translations), and quality assurance tools.

Desktop CAT tools

These are the earliest translation tools, but the market for desktop CAT tools will continue to grow, as they can interoperate with cloud translation management systems, and continue to become more powerful with each iteration.

Client/Server CAT Tools

Client/Server CAT tools are a key resource for the translation and localisation departments of many enterprises, and as the name suggests, they are composed of a central server and many clients. The central server is usually installed at the client, while the client software is installed on the employees’ and translators’ machines. The clients are typically Windows-based, as this has been the standard configuration of most enterprise software over the past ten years.

• If your company runs a static website (that is, a web page with fixed content which displays the same information to every visitor and does not require any web programming or database design), translating it is as easy as copying the HTML pages of the website, analyzing the text with the dedicated CAT Tool and directly updating the content of the HTML pages with the new translation.

• For dynamic websites (such as WordPress) with a multilingual plugin setup (e.g. WPML), you can directly download the website content as a set of XLIFF files (native files for dedicated computer-assisted translation software). After the translation has been completed and added to the XLIFF files, simply upload the updated XLIFF files through the plugin, and you’re all set!

Web-based CAT and Mobile Translation Tools

Web-Based CAT Tools

Web-Based CAT tools feature all of the key technologies found in client/server CAT tools, while addressing many of their pain points:

• Cross-platform: Web-based CAT tools support Windows, Mac, Linux, and other operating systems.
• Native mobile support: They support use on mobile devices through native mobile applications or HTML5/JavaScript (Java is an excellent language for building powerful cross-platform applications).
• Agile development: Web-based CAT tools support the agile development process, and continuously improve the server-side software without forcibly upgrading the labor-intensive client-side software.
• Cloud-based: Cloud-based asset management, translation memory, and other centralized project management functions enable users to work on different devices at different times without losing completed tasks.
• SaaS business model: With flexible licensing, customers can increase or decrease the number of users or their usage quota according to their needs. Mixed-type – This integrates client/server tools and web tools. The project management of these tools is still carried out in the cloud, but the translation work can be carried out either locally by translators or on the web.

Mobile Translation Tools

• Mobile translation tools are comparatively new in the computer-aided translation industry, but will grow in demand in most translation management systems because many translators (especially in developing countries) access the internet primarily through their mobile phones.
• If the tool does not support mobile access (whether through HTML5/JavaScript or a native iOS/Android application), it will be more difficult to find someone willing to do translation work. One example is OneSky in Hong Kong, which provides translation through mobile devices.
• Their service is dedicated to the localization of mobile applications, so it is a good mobile translation editing tool. The main challenge in making the CAT environment accessible through mobile devices is how to make them work on a limited display and user input interface.
• Typically, this restricts the type of work that mobile translators can do. For example, they can only translate shorter texts and documents. This limitation will not be a big problem for tablet devices, because the display size of tablet devices is similar to the display size and resolution of PC or notebook computers.

So what does all of that mean for your company in 2021?
We explored some of the backend technologies used to translate and update web pages. However, choosing the right tools is just the beginning. For a translated web page to be useful, the translations themselves must be accurate and sound professional. This is where the value of experienced human translators and proofreaders becomes clear.

Need a professional website translation? Check our website translation and localization services!

Learn how HI-COM´s “Human Translation-Native Proofreading” model can deliver the best translations for your website.

Want to translate a website to Chinese? Read our guide “Translate a Website to Chinese: All You Need to Know.”

HI-COM is a professional translation and localization agency that serves multinational companies as well as startups. Our team of professionals is always ready to provide a free consultation and a no-obligation quotation! Contact us if you have any questions!

Is it necessary to use a translation agency? As the world becomes increasingly more globalized, we believe that it is more important than ever to be able to communicate in more than one language.

For example, are you a European brand but would like to set up in Asia? If so, it is important for your brand to localise its products and the content it shares so as to increase brand awareness. If chosen, translation agency HI-COM, will ensure that your business receives high quality translations and effective localisation.

 CALLING ON ITS EMPLOYEES

Translation is a real profession, therefore, it is not enough to simply be bilingual and refer to yourself as a translator.

In other words, it means that someone without the adequate training is unlikely to be able provide a perfect translation and convey the full meaning, message, and tone of a document.

However, lots of companies use their own employees to carry out translations – this can be a very counterproductive move as it will prevent employees from concentrating on their own tasks and may instead risk making mistakes in the translation. Furthermore, even if the translation is carried out by an employee in his native language, it will be unlikely that the employee will be able to perfectly master the nuances, grammar, spelling and structures of the language.

MACHINE TRANSLATION

Machine translation is currently undergoing major expansion.  It is used because it is a fast process that is easy to access, and readily available in several languages. However, machine translation can still generate mistakes and consistency errors which may have a negative impact on your brand or company.

Machine translation is also unable to localise content, meaning that it is unable to adapt to the target audience and culture in order to use the right terms and avoid ambiguities and misunderstandings. Only human resources can perform such localization tasks.

Check out our infographics and the advantages and disadvantages of using machine translation VS a human translator.

Using your employees to translate or translating via machine translation is not recommended if you are looking to expand your business overseas or communicate your brand, products, or services, in another language. This is why using professional translators is important.

However, there are still major differences between using freelance translators and using a translation agency.

FREELANCE TRANSLATORS

• Support for your projects

A translation agency will be able to support your translation projects by providing your business with an experienced translator who specialises in the field of the project.

• Qualifications required

At HI-COM, all of our translators have at least 5 years’ experience and are all specialised in one or more industries. We have a great deal of experience, particularly in the Chinese and European markets, which enables us to offer high-quality translations as well as other services such as interpreting, content writing and localization.

Furthermore, our translators, interpreters, and copywriters are all university educated and are able to adapt quickly in order to offer a high-quality service, whereas freelance translators may not have had any training.

Moreover, at HI-COM, there will only be one direct contact in order to simplify your requests.

• Wide range of services and languages

As previously mentioned, translation agencies offer a wider range of services and languages. A freelance translator is normally unable to translate into several languages.

For example, let’s imagine that you want to translate a user manual into more than 15 languages, so you call a translation agency to take care of all the languages necessary for the project. Or instead, you could call several freelance translators to receive the necessary translations but it will prove to be very time consuming and expensive.

As a multilingual translation agency, HI-COM specializes in more than 40 languages, click here to find out more!

• Get a quality translation

Working with a translation agency also means that you are much more likely to get a high- quality translation.  Each project will be carried out by a translator chosen from within the agency to best meet your business needs, while also offering a proofreader to ensure that errors or misinterpretings are minimized, where possible.

A freelance translator will be the only one to proofread his/her work, which makes it more unlikely that he/she will spot potential errors.

• Saving time and money

Deadlines are always respected because if the deadline is too tight, the agency will allocate more translators to the project in order to respect the arranged timeframe for each translation.

Furthermore, using a translation agency as opposed to a freelance translator will help to save money due to the inclusion of professional design software that is often expensive to buy.

HI-COM uses Trados, which not only locates repeated words, but also keeps them in a translation memory bank for future translation projects.

HI-COM is a multilingual translation agency dedicated to providing professional translation and interpreting services to companies around the world. Working with over 40 languages, HI-COM is the localization partner for hundreds of companies and brands.

Contact us today for a free consultation!

HI-COM tested the new Xiaomi MI-Aiteacher to check the accuracy of its translation function.

HI-COM did a test with the new Xiaomi MI-Aiteacher to check the accuracy of its translation function.

As a conclusion it seems that the device can translate in a better way from Chinese into English and have some major gaps translating from English to Chinese.

Advantages :
1. It can display translation results in test
2. Can play back translation results
3. Accurate translation results

Disadvantages :
1. Speech recognition accuracy is not high
2. Unable to intelligently identify the same object between conversations.
3. Need to hold down the  button to speak

HI-COM advice you to buy this device for study and not for business. There is no substitute for the involvement of expert human translators; multi-linguists who are familiar with the cultural contexts of both the source language and the target language. Machines, as advanced as they may get, will never quite measure up to the complex and evolving circuitry of the human brain.

Watch our video to see the complete test !

It is fair to say that the quality of translations generated by the free Google Translate machine translation service has come a long way in the last few years, so much so that many professional translators and freelancers consider it as a useful and even reliable resource when working on their translation projects. But to what extent can it be used with great confidence? This article will highlight some of the benefits and the limitations of using Google Translate for both personal and professional use, and the situations in which using the tool should be either avoided or at least approached with great caution.

Analysis of the quality of Google Translate for technical documents, journalistic material, and creative marketing text

It is fair to say that the quality of translations generated by the free Google Translate machine translation service has come a long way in the last few years, so much so that many professional translators and freelancers consider it as a useful and even reliable resource when working on their translation projects. But to what extent can it be used with great confidence? This article will highlight some of the benefits and the limitations of using Google Translate for both personal and professional use, and the situations in which using the tool should be either avoided or at least approached with great caution.

To find out the extent to which Google Translate can be used in a business environment, HI-COM’s translation team ran a few experiments, focusing on the tool’s ability to translate a range of documents with varied content and differing degrees of complexity from French to English. Each document contained around 500 words.

DOCUMENT 1 –Translation of Basic Technical instructions

The first test for the tool was a technical document consisting of basic instructions on how to assemble a self-service payment terminal.

Here is what we observed after running the text through Google Translate:

• In general, the automatic translation did a good job in terms of general accuracy and readability when translating very basic sentences. In the example below, we felt that only one small preferential change was necessary.

• We observed that the automatic translation mostly chose suitable vocabulary. However there were occasional problems with consistency. Somewhat bizarrely, some French terms were not always translated into English in the same way, even when the source sentence was identical, as shown in the examples below:

• Despite providing impressively localized suggestions on some occasions, a few unnatural word-for-word translations still remained:

• Below is another example of inconsistent use of vocabulary (‘embossed’ does not feature this time, even though the source term ‘cache enjoliveur’ is the same in both sentences!), and also note the rather muddled order of the three nouns in red:

• Here’s one more example of the machine translation not quite picking up on the context of the document. The foot in the document is not a human foot!

So, do we recommend using Google Translate for technical documents consisting of basic sets of instructions?

Yes, if:

• You just need to get the general gist of the document, and only need an approximate translation, which will not be used for professional use.
• You are using the translation for professional use, but only if you have the file proofread and edited thoroughly by a professional native translator.

No, if:

• You intend to use the translation for professional use and don’t have the time or resources to get it checked. This could lead to major issues with users following incorrect instructions!

• The end user of the translation has special requirements in terms of the vocabulary and terminology to be used, which must be strictly adhered to.

DOCUMENT 2 – Translation of an environmental publication – journalistic material

For Google Translate’s next test, we decided to give it a slightly trickier challenge. We fed through the content of an environmental publication, consisting of various articles written by journalists on current environmental issues in France.

Here’s what we observed after running 500 words through the machine translation:

• In general, sentences were mostly translated accurately, but the writing style and sentence structure left a bit to be desired, as shown in the example below:

• Once again, in the example below, we can see some style issues, but also some very rigid word-for-word translation, especially the question at the end of this segment:

• We found a few instances where ‘false friends’ were mistranslated. For example, the French for ‘occasions’ does not mean ‘opportunities’ in this context:

So, do we recommend using Google Translate for publications / journalistic material?

Yes, if:

• You just need to get the general gist of the document, and only need an approximate translation, which will not be used for professional use.
• You are using it for professional use, but only if you have the file proofread and edited thoroughly by a professional native translator, and please note that for this to be done correctly, it could take almost as long as translating the document from scratch.

No, if:

• You intend to use the translation for professional use and don’t have the time or resources to get it checked. This will lead to mistranslations remaining in the document, as well as frustrations and gritting of teeth from certain readers due to the lack of fluidity, unnatural style, and poor structure of the sentences.
• The end user of the translation has high standards in terms of quality and accuracy. In this situation we strongly recommend foregoing Google Translate completely, and instead calling upon a professional translator with rich experience in this field.

DOCUMENT 3 – Translation of a descriptive, creative marketing text

And so to Google Translate’s final and arguably toughest challenge.

The third document to be translated is an introduction to a cosmetics brand, meticulously written with love and affection by its proud CEO*.

Here’s what we found:

• One disadvantage of machine translation, is that it is not possible to keep bold, italicized, or underlined text. If you have a large document to translate containing text with various colors, font sizes, and other such characteristics, using machine translation would require lots of time-consuming alterations afterwards. Note also the rather literal translation, which would most likely struggle to impress potential customers.

• In the example below, the machine translation has rather awkwardly left ‘cosmetic’ in its singular form:

• To fully convey the author’s message in another language, translating documents such as this one requires a great deal of tender loving care. The machine translation gives us something we can read and understand, but not much more. To move to the next level and really bring out the original text in its fullest form, calling upon the services of a copy writer or marketing expert is an essential step, as we can see in the example below:

• As shown in the example below, Google Translate offers up some rather odd word-for-word suggestions.

So to conclude the third test, do we recommend using Google Translate for creative, descriptive marketing material?

Yes, if:

• You just need to get the general gist of the document, and only need an approximate translation, which will not be used for professional use.

No, if:

• You intend to use the translation for anything other than non-professional use. For us, using machine translation for this type of document with the intention of exposing it to potential customers is an absolute no-no. Calling upon the services of an experienced translator and a native copy writer right from the beginning would be by far the most straightforward and successful approach.

So there we have it! As we have seen in the 3 documents we tested, machine translation certainly has its uses, especially in social situations, or if you are just looking to get familiar with a text written in an unfamiliar language. However, as seen in some of the examples above, we strongly recommend using it with caution in professional situations. You never know, it could cost you a key account or two if you’re not careful!

Google translate here

Interested about our services, have a look here

*Names of CEO and brand have been changed

The inability of Google Translate, Bing Translator, Baidu Fanyi, and other translation services to correctly convert jī nián dàjí 鸡年大吉 (“may the / your year of the chicken be greatly auspicious!”) into various languages raises a vital point that we have long wanted to make, and now seems the perfect moment to do so. Chinese characters for machine translation, how does it work?

The inability of Google Translate, Bing Translator, Baidu Fanyi, and other translation services to correctly convert jī nián dàjí 鸡年大吉 (“may the / your year of the chicken be greatly auspicious!”) into various languages raises a vital point that we have long wanted to make, and now seems the perfect moment to do so.

This is that you could not expect these translation services to deal with Cantonese, Shanghainese, Taiwanese, etc. (unless they were specifically and separately programmed to do so), therefore we should not expect them to be able to handle variations such as Literary Sinitic* / Classical Chinese** (LS / CC), etc.

These are all different languages, and electronic translation software, just like the human brain, cannot be programmed and trained in such a way that it can simultaneously translate material originating from different languages.

The only exception is when fragments of these other languages have been embedded here and there into Modern Standard Mandarin*** (MSM) and regularized in such a way that they have for all intents and purposes been borrowed as part of MSM vocabulary, e.g., mǎidān 买单 / máidān 埋单 / màidān 卖单 (“pay the bill”) from Cantonese maai4daan1 埋单 (“call for the bill / check”).

Note that, even though MSM mǎidān 买单 / máidān 埋单 / màidān 卖单 (“pay the bill”) is written in three different ways with three separate pronunciations, translation software can deal with all of them because they occur in MSM with sufficiently high frequency to be recognized as an integral, naturalized part of MSM vocabulary.

Machine translation also continues to advance when converting simplified Chinese characters to traditional Chinese characters. It is now possible to convert a simplified Chinese text into traditional Chinese at the touch of a button, with various Microsoft Word add-ons which are widely available. However, it is strongly recommended to have the text checked by a native of the target variation. The technology may detect and convert the characters correctly, but the sentence structure and vocabulary used may not be suitable for the target audience, and changes to make the text more culturally relevant will no doubt be required.

Definitions:

*The Sinitic languages are often synonymous with the group of Chinese varieties, are a family of Sino-Tibetan languages.

**Classical Chinese, also known as Literary Chinese,[a] is the language of the classic literature from the end of the Spring and Autumn period through to the end of the Han Dynasty, a written form of Old Chinese. Classical Chinese is a traditional style of written Chinese that evolved from the classical language, making it different from any modern spoken form of Chinese.

***Standard Chinese, also known as Modern Standard Mandarin, Standard Mandarin, or simply Mandarin, is a standard variety of Chinese that is the sole official language of both China and Taiwan, and also one of the four official languages of Singapore. Its pronunciation is based on the Beijing dialect, its vocabulary on the Mandarin dialects, and its grammar is based on written vernacular Chinese.

We tested out the “iFLYTEK” Translation machine (English – Chinese). Here is what happened during both casual & business conversations.

We tested out the “iFLYTEK” Translation machine (English – Chinese). Here is what happened during both casual & business conversations.

More about History and Principal of Machine Translation in our new post!

Want to have your documents, WhitePaper or website translated? Shoot us an email!

The last decade has seen an explosion of AI-powered translation software, with the likes of Google Translate, Microsoft Bing Translator and Baidu Translate well-integrated into various operating systems and applications. However, recent events in the world of translation have reminded us that machine powered translations are not foolproof.

The last decade has seen an explosion of AI-powered translation software, with the likes of Google Translate, Microsoft Bing Translator and Baidu Translate well-integrated into various operating systems and applications. However, recent events in the world of translation have reminded us that machine powered translations are not foolproof.

Last month, on the West Bank settlement of Beitar Illit, near Jerusalem, a construction worker posted on Facebook a picture of himself leaning against a bulldozer with the caption “يصبحهم”, or “yusbihuhum”. While this translates to a friendly “good morning” in Arabic, Facebook’s AI-powered machine translation service mistranslated the post into “hurt them” or “attack them” in Hebrew. Israeli news reported that the man was detained in custody and questioned for several hours before finally being released and receiving an apology.

Meanwhile, closer to home here in China the messaging app WeChat got into some hot water after its in-built translator was translating “hei laowei / 黑老外” which means “black foreigner” into the n-word. Local news reported that when questioned on how the racial slur even got into its translation database, WeChat explained that its service was powered by neural machine translation, deriving its content from big data sets and multiple networks of information, without a human filter.

These are fairly extreme cross-cultural gaffes caused by machine translation software. More often, we encounter machine mistranslations which are more subtle. Common machine mistranslations we see are cultural nuances being missed, language coming across too direct, too little or too much emphasis, homophones being misused or phrases being translated too literally.

When considering the place of AI in the realm of translation, it is important to remember exactly what it is we are trying to achieve with translation. Translation is about communicating from one language to another, whilst retaining the same meaning, impact and intention as the source. However, language isn’t one-dimensional.  It is deeply entrenched in cultural, historical and current socio-political contexts. Without a ‘human filter’ to address these nuances, we risk conveying the wrong meaning (as was the case for the hapless Palestinian construction worker arrested for saying “good morning”) or can cause cultural offence (as WeChat’s algorithms inadvertently did in their mistranslations).

Machine translations have certainly paved the way for speedier cross-cultural communication, and advances in translation software can aid with accuracy and consistency of translations. However, there is no substitute for the involvement of expert human translators; multi-linguists who are familiar with the cultural contexts of both the source language and the target language. After all, language is all about communication and cultural context, and these are constantly evolving. Machines, as advanced as they may get, will never quite measure up to the complex and evolving circuitry of the human brain.

What are your thoughts on AI and machine translation?  Shoot us an email!  We would love to hear from you.

Ever wonder how machine translation works? Ted Ed has come up with this educational video explaining how it works and the problems it is currently encountering:

Ever wonder how machine translation works? Ted Ed has come up with this educational video explaining how it works and the problems it is currently encountering:

If you want to watch on youtube, go here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4BmV2t83SM

Simply speaking, because of the many differences in how each language works (suffix, sentence structure, grammar etc), translating an individual word or a short phrase may still work fine, however there will be problems if you translate a whole sentence or a paragraph all together.

Machine translation maybe proficient enough to help us understand a word or sometimes phrases, but to translate an article, paragraph, website etc. it would still be wise to turn to your translation service provider.

It is almost certain that one day machine translations will fully replace human translations, as most translation machines now can learn new techniques based on repetition and information fed to them by human translators, and given our technological advancement, the day when human translators are not needed may come sooner than we think.

For other lessons from Ted Ed:

http://ed.ted.com/