Is translation going down the pan?

 

Give an infinite number of monkeys an infinite number of typewriters and they will, eventually - according to the laws of probability - produce the entire works of Shakespeare.

Back in 2003, the Arts Council actually funded a project that sought to put this theory to the test. Unsurprisingly, the group of monkeys in question produced very small amounts of complete gibberish.

In their defence, the monkeys were only given a month, which is hardly an adequate amount of time to re-invent a bardian masterpiece. Also, there were only 6 monkeys (again not sticking to the formula) and, on top of that, they all had to share one typewriter! So the odds were stacked heavily against...

Notably, during the event, it was observed that primates, when left alone with the computer, would end up attacking it, often failing to produce a single word. I am sure many writers will empathise with this approach.

So why are we on about monkeys?
Well, it seems you can now test this theory for yourself by using one of the numerous, free or low-cost translation services out there. OK, OK, we are perhaps being a little facetious; of course we are in no way suggesting that these outfits actually use monkeys to do their translation, but they are paying peanuts, which means they will not be using professional translators.

Petit-déjeuner or dogs dinner?
Here is how it works... You hand over your finely-polished approved English copy to said company, for translation into French. They farm it out globally to the cheapest bidder, it could be a Chinese student who is studying French in Bolivia for instance, they effectively swap the English words for French ones and you will receive something that looks a bit like French, but is in fact so horrendously un-French, it could render a native speaker unconscious after just a few lines.

Rubbish Translation
To illustrate our point, we went undercover posing as a European travel company to test a few of these low-cost translation providers. We can show, by example, that low-quality translation is not worth the peanuts that were paid for it. We took a French paragraph from a resort guide and asked for translations into English. The results, we believe, speak for themselves.

Original French
"En pénétrant à l’intérieur du bâtiment, le regard est immédiatement attiré par la cour intérieure traditionnelle, le cœur même du bâtiment. Mêlant céramique traditionnelle, jeux d'eau au murmure apaisant et végétation exotique, ces cours intérieures créent un environnement propice à la détente et à la relaxation".

Correct translation by a professional translator
"On entering the building, the view leads directly out to its centre piece, a traditional courtyard. With traditional tiles, soothing water features and exotic planting, the courtyard provides a relaxed and cooling environment".

Low cost translation site No1
"While penetrating inside the building, the glance is immediately attracted by the traditional interior court, the heart even of the building. Mixing ceramic traditional, plays d' water with the alleviating murmur and exotic vegetation, these courses interior create an environment favourable with the relaxation and relieving".

Low cost translation site No2
"On entering inside the building, the eye is immediately attracted by the traditional courtyard, the heart of the same building. Combining traditional ceramics, water games in whispers soothing and exotic vegetation, the interior courtyards create an environment conducive to the relaxation and relaxation".

Low cost translation site No3
"On entering in the building the eye is immediately attracted by the traditional courtyard, the real heart of the building. Mixing traditional ceramics with whispering relaxing water works and exotic vegetation, the inner courtyards create an auspicious distracting environment to relax".

The frustration is that all of these websites claim they use real people, and they charge for their translation. We can only assume that real people in these organisations are not linguists and are clearly using free web machine translation to produce results like these.

It's an old cliché but is as relevant now as it ever was, if it sounds too good to be true, it very likely is.