Many clients are positively drooling over the prospect of a machine that will replace us. I’ve had people at client companies say to my face, “Oh, you’re a translator? Huh – well, in a few years, computers will be doing your job for you!” And then – I love this – they laugh.
Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Real funny.
Ask these people whether machines churn out their press releases, and they look at you blankly. Is their software automatically generated? A shake of the head. But their design process is fully automated, right? Well, no.
But translation, of course, is simple, right? I mean, you already have the text. You just have to, you know, transfer it to another language. It can’t be that hard, can it?
This is the point where I have to physically restrain myself from STABBING THEM THROUGH THE EAR IN THE BRAIN WITH A BIC PEN. I haven’t killed anyone so far. But keep your eye on the headlines. You never know.
4 comments:
The most irritating instance of this I remember is the speech of the mayor of Erlangen at the 50th anniversary of the translation and foreign-language college where I was teaching. He began his speech by saying he was glad he was here today, because our school wouldn't have a 100th anniversary, since translation was going to be done by machine. In fact, mayors' speeches will be computer-writable before translations are. This man managed to combine rudeness - if this were true, was this the time to say it? - with ignorance and arrogance.
And of course, everyone knows what translation is, don't they?
Margaret
www.margaret-marks.com/Transblawg
Extra! Extra! Read all about it!
"Students Storm Stage, Torch Talker's Toupee
'I had it comin',' mumbles mayor."
Yesterday I saw a documentary on TV about the 50th anniversary of Lufthansa. At one point they mentioned the introduction of the autopilot technology. Thinking about it, I don't think that anyone ever considered this a major breakthrough towards replacing human pilots. On the contrary. I think we all agree that this is a great tool that can only assist pilots during their work. The same goes for machine translation. I don't know why people think it is going to be different.
I teach Adult Learners of English at a university. I'm regularly informed that it's piss easy to teach ignorant, bewildered teenagers to speak a foreign language and attend university in a culture vastly different from their own.
I find that one of those really fine point biros is best for stabbing purposes.
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