is Google Translate An Accurate Translator Than Human Translator?

Humans cannot survive without communication and now, when we have avant-garde technologies, like Google translate to support cross-cultural communication, why stop socializing and communicating with people!! Right? Yes, obviously Google translate is a wonderful service that helps people communicate in multiple languages spoken around the world. But is that really effective? Scroll down to read the article and find out.

What Is Google Translate?

A popular Google service, Google translate, is a unique way to translate as well as learn new languages. Since 2006, this service has been helping people and even businesses transcend language boundaries and convey their thoughts in endless variety of languages. Hence, many people, travellers, language learners and business owners launched the app and used the same on-the-go.

Today, the app is used by almost 500 million people across the world, translating around 103 different languages within a fraction of seconds. Hence, it is quite evident why Google translate attracts a lot of appreciation on a worldwide scale.

Google Translate’s Accuracy Test

To analyze the accuracy quotient of Google translate, a test of accuracy was conducted, which found mixed reviews for the translation quality.

As per the Google’s test of accuracy –

☞ The app (Google translate) scored 5.43 rating on a scale of 6 for the world’s largest and most spoken languages in the world. For instance, Chinese to English translation scored 4.3, while English to Spanish translation scored a decent 5.43.

☞ Across the three languages – English, Spanish and Chinese – the new version of Google translate is found to be 60% accurate than ‘phrase-based machine translation’, which is the old version of Google translate.

If you are a business owner, you must clearly note that an accuracy level above 95% is essential to conduct smooth business conversations. 60% accuracy won’t work for you. It can thus, be rightly assumed that despite being an intelligent tool, Google translate can not always be accurate. So, do not simply rely on the translations offered by the said app.

Is Google Translate Perfect For All Language Combinations?

In the recent years, as Google translate has considerably improved its services and accuracy level (60% accuracy), the demand for machine translation has also increased, increasing the number of language combinations. Particularly, the app is considered to be an ‘okay’ choice for most spoken language pairs, specifically the ones whose target language is English.

However, when it comes to not-so-popular languages or the languages having complex syntax and grammar rules, Google translate or any machine translation is a strict no-no. In most of the languages, you may find that a single word has multiple meanings, which change depending on the context and syntax of the sentence. A human can very well understand this fact, but not a machine/computer. Hence, certified translation by human translators is the only viable solution to your complex translation requirements.

Use Of Google Translate Can Be Perilous

As already mentioned above, a computer or Google translate does not understand the changing contexts, style, tone and meaning of different sentences. Hence, in texts that require attention, automatic translation can be very perilous. For example, in medical-related texts, even a slight mistake in translation can put a patient’s life to risk. Hence, in such cases, it is highly recommended to hire only and only human translators specialized in medical and other specific industries.

Does Google Translate Assures Confidentiality?

This is one of the biggest issues of google translate. While a human translator commits 100% privacy, google translate does not. Data collected while downloading or sharing the content of a specific file is kept by google and has all the right to use as well as reproduce the text. Hence, if you wish to translate business document, you cannot rely on the said translation service for privacy.

Conclusion

When it is about business, you cannot afford to risk a single minute factor. Hence, google translate may not be the right fit for you, if you are using it for business translation. If you are a language learner or an aspiring translator, google translate can be very helpful to you as a dictionary. You can use it to learn specific words in different languages. Having said that, do not forget the quality and importance of human translation for business. In case, you need any help related to human translation, TridIndia is always there to help.

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