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Poll: Do you use Google Translate in your everyday work?
Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
ProZ.com Staff
ProZ.com Staff
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Apr 3, 2019

This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "Do you use Google Translate in your everyday work?".

This poll was originally submitted by Igor Volosyanoy. View the poll results »



 
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida  Identity Verified
Portugal
Local time: 17:21
Member (2007)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
NO Apr 3, 2019

The only use I give to Google Translate is when I receive messages from a client in a language I don’t master: I have a German client who keeps forgetting that my German is extremely limited. Otherwise, I wouldn’t dream of using Google Translate.

Christopher Schröder
 
Ricki Farn
Ricki Farn
Germany
Local time: 18:21
English to German
No Apr 3, 2019

I have recently learned from someone around here to use Deepl as a thesaurus - it certainly doesn't make my translations faster (au contraire!), but I think it makes them prettier because I sometimes take more different words into consideration.

The only time I've ever used Google Translate was to buy something from an online shop in Sweden, and that was surprisingly easy, probably because online shops have a very standardised user interface. It was all stuff like "enter credit-car
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I have recently learned from someone around here to use Deepl as a thesaurus - it certainly doesn't make my translations faster (au contraire!), but I think it makes them prettier because I sometimes take more different words into consideration.

The only time I've ever used Google Translate was to buy something from an online shop in Sweden, and that was surprisingly easy, probably because online shops have a very standardised user interface. It was all stuff like "enter credit-card number here", and Google Translate has picked up those strings alright.
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Elena Mordenti
Jan Truper
 
DZiW (X)
DZiW (X)
Ukraine
English to Russian
+ ...
not mere Google Apr 3, 2019

While I did help to implement prioritizing info/jobs via MT, for the real translation we use CAT with glossaries and specialized rule-based MT as prompts.

 
Rabie El Magdouli
Rabie El Magdouli  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 18:21
Member (2012)
Spanish to Arabic
+ ...
Who does not? Apr 3, 2019

Nowadays everyone uses Google Translate to translate, be it a word, phrase, paragraph or whole text. Let's not fool ourselves.

Someday we will be out of work thanks to automatic translation tools.


neilmac
Natalia Pedrosa
Klára Kalamár
 
Angus Stewart
Angus Stewart  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 17:21
Member (2011)
French to English
+ ...
No, but I suspect some of my clients do Apr 3, 2019

No, I don't use it myself, but I suspect that some of my clients use it for the post-editing tasks I receive due to the quality issues I encounter with the output of the machine translation.

Mr.Q
 
Thayenga
Thayenga  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 18:21
Member (2009)
English to German
+ ...
Definitely not Apr 3, 2019

Why would I use anything related to Google, let alone their "translation" feature? To support their way of doing business or respect their users' privacy? Not in this life.

Angie Garbarino
 
neilmac
neilmac
Spain
Local time: 18:21
Spanish to English
+ ...
Definitely yes Apr 3, 2019

Thayenga wrote:

Why would I use anything related to Google, let alone their "translation" feature? To support their way of doing business or respect their users' privacy? Not in this life.


I'm afraid I'll never quite get my head round this attitude. It's simply another tool translators can add to their arsenal if they like. Obviously, I'd never use it to translate whole screeds of text willy-nilly, but judiciously used, it can be useful.

I have also yet to fathom what the issue is with Google's business model, apart from the fact that they manage to get away without paying taxes in several countries, but surely that's up to the tax authorities of the countries in question to do something about?

As for privacy concerns in this day and age, I think the relinquishing to a certain extent of one's personal information is simply the quid pro quo of using this type of service. Nobody obliges you to enter the deal.



[Edited at 2019-04-03 16:33 GMT]


R. Alex Jenkins
Christopher Schröder
Rabie El Magdouli
Natalia Pedrosa
Philip Lees
Klára Kalamár
 
Barbara Cochran, MFA
Barbara Cochran, MFA  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 13:21
Spanish to English
+ ...
How Can Google Translate Be An Adequate Resource When...? Apr 3, 2019

...it doesn't take comprehensive context into account.

[Edited at 2019-04-03 18:32 GMT]


Angus Stewart
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
 
Christine Andersen
Christine Andersen  Identity Verified
Denmark
Local time: 18:21
Member (2003)
Danish to English
+ ...
I aim for a different segment of the market Apr 3, 2019

Google Translate is a lot better than i it used to be, but it simply does not get it right in my language pairs. It is not entirely wrong either, as a rule, but I hate PEMT. I sit there with a block, and can´t think of the right way to put it. The syntax is completely wrong - very often I turn sentences around or at least move the time phrase to make them sound English.

So no, I never use Google, and I am not fooling anyone. I am also lucky in that there are lots of other resources
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Google Translate is a lot better than i it used to be, but it simply does not get it right in my language pairs. It is not entirely wrong either, as a rule, but I hate PEMT. I sit there with a block, and can´t think of the right way to put it. The syntax is completely wrong - very often I turn sentences around or at least move the time phrase to make them sound English.

So no, I never use Google, and I am not fooling anyone. I am also lucky in that there are lots of other resources - dictionaries, grammars, books on usage and comparative language - that I can refer to. If people are going to pay my rates, I have to give them value for money, and my clients obviously think I do - they come again!
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Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
 
R. Alex Jenkins
R. Alex Jenkins  Identity Verified
Brazil
Local time: 14:21
Member (2006)
Portuguese to English
+ ...
Don't believe the hype! Apr 3, 2019

The fact is, a good translator shouldn't need a basic tool like GT, which acts as a rough outlier for what a good translation should actually be, but never a definitive response. People who depend on GT too much could eventually fall foul if they believe it to be better than it actually is. It's an automated, database-driven opinion which can sometimes be very good, but should always be taken with a pinch of salt, if that's the right expression to use?

[Edited at 2019-04-03 19:03 GMT]


Manuela Grün
 
Vanda Nissen
Vanda Nissen  Identity Verified
Australia
Local time: 03:21
Member (2008)
English to Russian
+ ...
No Apr 3, 2019

First of all, there are other, more reliable resources: online dictionaries, glossaries etc., secondly, the more information we feed to the Google tool, the more it learns. Do we need it?

Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
Manuela Grün
 
Katherine Rucker
Katherine Rucker
United States
Local time: 13:21
Spanish to English
+ ...
Beneficial if you use it correctly Apr 3, 2019

I use MT, but I basically refuse to post edit, which is what most people jump to when they think of MT, and that's unfair and oversimplifies something very complex. This is often based on a lack of understanding or experience with the tools.

I helped develop MT processes for an LSP in a previous job. Rather than falling in the usual "testing" trap of "let's see which engine is best and then apply it blindly to all our translations", we looked at which process was best and most effic
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I use MT, but I basically refuse to post edit, which is what most people jump to when they think of MT, and that's unfair and oversimplifies something very complex. This is often based on a lack of understanding or experience with the tools.

I helped develop MT processes for an LSP in a previous job. Rather than falling in the usual "testing" trap of "let's see which engine is best and then apply it blindly to all our translations", we looked at which process was best and most efficient while maintaining quality levels... and that's what we used (and what I still use now that I'm translating).

I created my own API powered by Google MT (not hard to do, costs a couple dollars a month depending on use), and I add it to almost every project I work on in Studio--but I almost never insert an AT segment as is or do anything resembling post editing...because MT is extremely useful for autosuggest and mediocre for most all else. I don't start from the provided MT result; I start typing my translation and only accept the resulting autosuggestions when they are the same as the phrase I was in the middle of typing anyway (fairly often).

If you use Gmail, you've seen how they started completing your emails based on how you usually respond. 9/10 times it's exactly what I was going to type. Most of language is predictable and standard. We can't rely on that all time time, but we can rely on it as a shortcut for the boring parts and spend more time on the nuance needed in other parts.

I don't look every unfamiliar word up in my huge copy of the RAE. I use WordReference, because it's efficient and 99% as good. So why would I type a whole sentence when it's sitting right in front of me and all I have to do is press enter?

In short, we need to stop dismissing MT as an ineffective solution and accept that it's a useful tool when you know how to use it.
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Philip Lees
 
Mario Freitas
Mario Freitas  Identity Verified
Brazil
Local time: 14:21
Member (2014)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
GT is NOT a tool for translators Apr 3, 2019

The purpose of GT is certainly NOT for translators. It's meant for people to get an idea of something in a language they don't speak well.
Translators who use GT for professional purposes will be caught. The quality of their jobs is "marked" by GT in a practically irremediable manner. If you insist in using GT to translate, you will eventually be caught and dismissed from any team. No matter how hard you revise it and fix it, the GT marks remain.
If you don't agree, make a very simp
... See more
The purpose of GT is certainly NOT for translators. It's meant for people to get an idea of something in a language they don't speak well.
Translators who use GT for professional purposes will be caught. The quality of their jobs is "marked" by GT in a practically irremediable manner. If you insist in using GT to translate, you will eventually be caught and dismissed from any team. No matter how hard you revise it and fix it, the GT marks remain.
If you don't agree, make a very simple test: translate two similar documents (not the same), one using GT and one not using it. Revise them and save them for a week. Then read both translations (forget the original), and check the quality of the two texts. You will never use GT again to translate professionally.
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Manuela Grün
Eoghan McMonagle
 
Philip Lees
Philip Lees  Identity Verified
Greece
Local time: 19:21
Greek to English
In my work, yes Apr 4, 2019

Of course, I would never use use Google translate to generate a target text to send to a client, or even to produce a preliminary draft for editing. However, I do use MT in my work in various ways:

1. As my email client doesn't have a spell checker in Greek, I run any Greek business emails I write through Google translate as I've found it's a good way of detecting typos.

2. In my medical translations, I use MT suggestions to save time typing long names of drugs, bacteri
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Of course, I would never use use Google translate to generate a target text to send to a client, or even to produce a preliminary draft for editing. However, I do use MT in my work in various ways:

1. As my email client doesn't have a spell checker in Greek, I run any Greek business emails I write through Google translate as I've found it's a good way of detecting typos.

2. In my medical translations, I use MT suggestions to save time typing long names of drugs, bacteria, etc. (Of course, I check any that are unfamiliar.)

3. Like another poster (who oddly answered "No"), if I receive a business email in a language I don't understand, I'll use GT to give me the gist.

There are probably other applications, too, but that'll do for now.
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Mario Freitas
 
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Poll: Do you use Google Translate in your everyday work?






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