This column has two goals: to inform the community about technological advances and at the same time encourage the use and appreciation of听technology among translation professionals.
I听found myself in an interesting position earlier this year when I was asked to speak at InterpretAmerica. This is a leading interpreting event that aims not only to bring together the different facets of the听interpreting world, but also to act as a catalyst for new developments in the field, including technology.
My position was interesting because I鈥檓 not an interpreter, and the truth is that I really know very little about the field. But my interpreting expertise鈥攐r lack thereof鈥攚asn鈥檛 the reason why conference听organizers Barry Slaughter Olsen and Katharine Allen invited me. Instead, they wanted an outside perspective on a separate but related world鈥攖ranslation鈥攖hat would provide insights into the successes听and failures translators have had in encountering new developments, especially technology.
Collectively speaking, of course, we translators have been very slow to accept technology as a positive and productive part of our lives, which in turn has had some negative impact on the development of听new technologies. You know what I鈥檓 talking about. For the longest time, tools like termbase systems were really not built for our needs鈥攂ecause we neither showed interest as consumers nor were we听willing to engage in the development process. Other technologies virtually disappeared because we didn鈥檛 show the interest that was necessary to justify ongoing development.
So, I retold some of those and other stories as examples of what happens if you do (or don鈥檛) engage with technology. I also tried to put together a timeline from a translator鈥檚 perspective of translation听technology development. I came up with the graphic above. (Naturally, this would look different from the viewpoint of a translation company or academia.)
The dates in my graphic don鈥檛 refer to when the respective technologies were made available, but when they began to be used鈥攏ot only by single translators here and there, but by reasonably large听numbers. (And since 鈥渞easonably鈥 should never be used in a serious historical overview, the dates could just as well be reasonably far off.)
What strikes me in this overview is that despite our initial (and ongoing) hesitation in employing translation technologies, we鈥檝e come a relatively long way in a relatively short time. While it鈥檚 also likely听true that we could have come further if we had participated more actively in the process, I鈥檓 still happy with where we are. Translation technology today can become a straitjacket for the dependent听translator. However, the independent translator has more opportunities at her fingertips than any time before to harness what machines do well to produce something that people do well.
Jost Zetzsche听is the co-author of听Found in Translation: How Language Shapes Our Lives and Transforms the World, a robust source for replenishing your arsenal of information about how human translation and听machine translation each play an important part in the broader world of translation. Contact:听jzetzsche@internationalwriters.com.