🚀 go-pugleaf

> Sender: Robert Bononno <bononno@acf2.NYU.EDU>
> Subject: Re: Automated Translation [was: Re: I Need i18n Help]
>
> Glenn are you a translator by any chance? This discussion has been (and is
> still) bantered back and forth in the translation community for years.
> Moreover, it has caused a significant rift within the translation
> community itself between MT proponents (the recently formed AMTA) and
> those who realize that "human" translation is the only way to ensure
> accuracy and stylistic integrity.
>
> I'm sure you saw the recent Byte magazine issue on MT (I believe it was in
> February or March). It was a typical example of the doubletalk concerning
> MT--a fancy game of smoke and mirrors, which obscured many of the facts.
> Indeed, the information presented in those articles could have been
> written 20 years ago (with the exception of the PC-based software packages
> of course). There really has been little advance in the field here. And
> anyone who is familiar with the process of translation understands the
> impossibility of "fully" automating the process. Sure, METEO works up in
> Canada, but look at the context.

Robert,

The context IS the whole point. Would you like to spend your life translating
weather bulletins? Would you inflict that on a fellow translator? Be
thankful some of this stuff can be "automated."


		-- Colin Brace