The rise of technology in recent times has seen various fundamental changes in many sectors. It has also brought some huge changes in the vast field of translation. The job of a translator is to render the translated version with perfection. It is not an easy job, and it requires experience and holds over the language. Although, even a well-experienced human translator is vulnerable to mistakes. Thus, CAT tools were made to help fellow human translators deliver top-quality translations. In this insightful webinar, Mr. Ravi Kumar along with his team has discussed translation technology in today’s world as well as the pros and cons of CAT tools along with a small demo in the latter part of the video which sheds light on the basics of using a CAT tool.
Human translators discern and translate meaning, while CAT tools do what they do best: compare, store, and retrieve data. But many confuse it with Machine Translations. They both are both different from each other. MT works on its own, while CAT tools require human intervention. In this video, the following core components of CAT tools are discussed – Translation Memory Term Base (Stores words or expressions) Dictionary Machine Translation Desktop Publishing Spell Check Connecting Furthermore, there are various types of CAT tools, too: Translation memory software like SDL Trados Studio, Similis; Multilingual dictionaries like Linguee, Contexto; Terminology management services like Logiterm, and alignment software like You Align. CAT tools are really helpful, but like every machine, these tools also have a fair share of pros and cons which are discussed in this webinar.
There three key benefits of CAT tools – Cost Savings, Speed, and quality. It also increases productivity and efficiency and is recommended for technical documents’ translations. But there are also various cons such as Context-based choices have to be made by human translators, literary translation poses a challenge, security issues.
The most asked question “ Will AI take over the translation industry totally?” has also been discussed in this video. Although machine translation cannot replace human translators, the improvement of the translation process with AI and CAT tools is very much a necessity and a reality today. But the truth is that neither can be fully capable of translating perfectly. There has to be a blend of both to deliver quality translation services. As machines cannot decipher emotions, morals, ethics of the source text, and its author, human intervention will always have importance; while CAT tools will lead to great improvements in translator efficiency and accuracy and in cost savings which can provide benefits to the client. Despite the growing importance of AI-assisted translator tools, human translators remain the foundation of a quality translation process. Thus, in this video, Mr. Ravi Kumar and the webinar team thoroughly discuss and highlight all the above points and provide very helpful insights about the translation technology and CAT tools in today’s world.
