Language Translation Services--- are We Asking Too Much?

A couple of days ago, a generic term of a contract peeved me while I was engaged in translating it into Chinese for there was not a counterpart in Chinese vocabulary as far as I know. Therefore I put it into the search engine of a language translation service which immediately stepped out several lexical items and I chose the closest according to the context. It is something I try not to do too much thinking if there is a valuable resource available and language translation services just play this role.

Once click the mouse to search the services or applications of language translation, one may find thousands of relative items. Baidu, google, yahoo, etc. are big names of <a onClick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/article_exit_link');" href=”http://www.transhorsa.org/translation_management.htm” target=”_blank”>translation </a> services. Chinese to English, Chinese to German, Chinese to Spanish or vice versa, you name it, they have it. The information they provide is amazing, too. One can find the original meaning of a word as well as its derivative meanings in a few seconds which just like an encyclopedia. One thing I appreciate very much is the function of prompting words. People like me, are apt to forget the complete spelling of words if they are not occasionally used. What I need is to input the beginning alphabets and select the right one. It is really helpful.

However, there is not always good news; just every coin has two side language translation services have shortcomings as well. Mostly, I enjoy the convenience and pleasure they bring to me. From a single word to a sentence, even the whole article, just waiting a few seconds, the result is appeared. It sounds amazing, right? However, when I look into the corresponding translation, it really depresses me because the translation of the whole sentence looks like a sequence of haphazard codes without logic, not to mention the translation of a paragraph.

This reminds me of the period when nearly everyone was annoyed by the 8000 words graduation thesis and its fussy format. The first step of us to do was to collect useful information through the internet. Inevitably, some of the information was written in Chinese and this was the golden opportunity of the application of language translation services. A classmate of mine even adopted the total corresponding translation without doing a little readjustment and handed it to his tutor. It would surely save time and energy for at least he didn’t need to type the thesis letter by letter. Just imagine the result! He was forced to rewrite his thesis from the very beginning and had to say a lot of good words to beg his tutor to give him another chance.

I do not think this phenomenon only exists in such a small sphere. Walking in the street, one can find various logos and signboards written in English while some of them make me both annoying and funny occasionally which are idiomatical Chinglish. The inaccuracy can be found in grammar, syntax, collocation, etc and the trace of copying directly from the language translation services is obvious. Of course, no one has rights to ask the others not to make mistakes. But it is the responsibility of everyone to make things which are showed to the public correctly.

Here are my guidelines to language translation services: take them just as information providers and do not let them overwhelm my own thinking. A passage or a translation is the creation of one’s hardworking. I am seeking delights by writing something, in other words, it fulfils some of my pursuits in the process of writing. I do appreciate the good points that language translation services provide. Since <a onClick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/article_exit_link');" href=”http://www.transhorsa.org/translation_management.htm” target=”_blank”>translation </a> is viewed as recreation, just use our own mind to decide how to compose it rather than mechanically copying.