Online translation tools are great because they eliminate or seriously reduce the costs related to translation and give you a translation almost immediately.
There are two main reasons behind the success of the free online translation tools.
- Translators do not have the time to keep up with all of the translations requested
- Translating many pages is simply too expensive
Professionally completed translations take a lot of time and online translations tools are almost instantaneous. It is possible to translate the 179 page ebook "What is Man? and Other Essays of Mark Twain (Samuel Langhorne Clemens, 1835-1910)" from English to French in 30 seconds.
Reading the two versions of Twain's work, it is obvious that the translation is not prefect. This lack of perfection is the main reason people will say to not use an online translation tool. Even the best translations are often debated and called incorrect by other translators. This does not mean that the translation is without merit. This does not mean that the translation didn't get across the biggest part of the message.
There are many translators that use electronic translation tools and then correct the already edited version. Others work from scratch and only translate after reading all the information that they receive, so they can translate the idea, as well as the words. Using an electronic tool helps translator's complete easy pieces done in no time, and brings out the parts that can not be easily translated.
Keep in mind that there are two distinct type of translations to consider. To translate the 179 page book from Mark Twain results in a book that is static and does not need update. Translate a website or sales document and it will need constant updating, because these are not static products.
Most companies are hesitant to spend money translating all of their content because of the cost. There is a standard practice among translators to charge by the word from the language of origin. Prices range from US $0.20 per source word and up. That Mark Twain book does have 95,000 words and would cost about $19,000 to translate. It is very easy for a translation budget to be huge, possibly difficult to guarantee the return on investment in an acceptable time.
When looking at a competitor's site in a foreign language. Copy the text you are interesting in and translate it using the tool at http://translate.google.com or copy the URL and translate the entire page. If you can read the translated results, you will have an idea of the translation ability into the other language as well.
At present the Google translate site does 15 languages into English and English into those 15 languages. If you speak one of the languages, read the resulting translation and you will have an idea of the overall quality of translation that you will have going into that foreign language. Be careful with names - from German to English 'Schwarzenegger' becomes 'black' and when translating from English to German. The American poet June Jordan becomes 'Juni Jordanien', a translation of the month and county of the same name.
Translation tools have come a long way since the original word for word translators but they do remain imperfect. One of the big factors keeping some businesses from doing translations is the restrictive cost and time to get the translations completed. Free, online translation tools are offering
The advantages of online translation tools are the reduced translation costs and having a nearly immediate translation. These two advantages give reason for companies to use the online tools to translate
Are you committed to speeding up your international sales cycles? Learn how to combine cross-cultural marketing tools and international sales strategies for faster sales. Join us on the International Sales Road Map. Would you like to develop your international business? Cindy King is a Cross-Cultural eMarketer & International Sales Specialist, aligning businesses with different cultures. She has over 25 years field experience in international business development and helps mid-sized business owners create international business development strategies that shorten time to profitability. |
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