{"id":9821,"date":"2016-09-13T10:59:00","date_gmt":"2016-09-13T10:59:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/musik.a-z-translation.com\/you-cannot-boil-water-in-toaster\/"},"modified":"2020-01-03T11:36:46","modified_gmt":"2020-01-03T11:36:46","slug":"you-cannot-boil-water-in-toaster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.a-z-translations.com\/en\/you-cannot-boil-water-in-toaster\/","title":{"rendered":"You cannot boil water in a toaster!"},"content":{"rendered":"

As you know, school has started again here in Bavaria, meaning I get to tell future translators all about the tools of the trade they can and should use. And as I’m sure you also know, I am a great fan of memoQ (although I do use other tools occasionally, as well, mainly because certain customers require it). Recently, Szabolcs Kincse wrote a post in the Kilgray blog<\/a> about what a CAT tool can and cannot do. Basic stuff for us old hands, but for my students, it’s new every year. Plus, it is written so well (and funny) that I want to share it with you here. So, enjoy!<\/p>\n

\nTomato, potato: what you cannot do with a translation memory<\/h1>\n
\n\"Tomato,<\/div>\n
\nNo, no, no! You cannot boil water in a toaster! <\/div>\n

Ok, I understand this post will be slightly elementary for many of
\nour kind and learned readers but\u2026 you know what? It will still be
\nentertaining. For the question has arisen again: is a translation memory
\n a tool for automatic translation?<\/span><\/p>\n

What exactly happened is that my good friend Josh downloaded a memoQ
\nfree trial version because his boss entrusted him with a task. The task
\naccidentally involved some reading in Italian. Needless to say, my
\nfriend spoke no Italian whatsoever, and his native English and the
\nacquired highschool German provided not much of a clue as to what the
\ntext contained. <\/span>
\nMy good friend said translating this stuff with Google Translate
\nwould have been not too sexy so he opted for the sexy thing, memoQ.
\nWhile we are rather flattered by our flagship product being the sexy
\nthing in the market, we must make some things clear on behalf of the
\nentire market (even on behalf of those on the not-too-sexy side): a
\ntranslation memory is NOT a machine translation tool. That practically
\nmeans that you will not translate anything automatically just by
\ndownloading a translation memory tool. <\/span> <\/span>
\nLet me shed some light on the problem. Translation memories are tools that behave (surprise, surprise!) like a <\/span>memory<\/em>: they will <\/span>remember <\/em>certain
\n things for you. In our case they will remember how pieces of text were
\ntranslated into another language, and, in better (and, I might add,
\nsexier) cases they even provide you with various other services if your
\njob is to <\/span>translate <\/em>stuff.
\n Translation memories (again: in sexier cases) are oftentimes just one
\nelement in a row of other tools weaved together to make up a <\/span>translation environment<\/em>:
\n a range of amazing and useful tools that will make you translate things
\n faster and better. One (and, of course, the sexiest) of these tools
\navailable on the market is memoQ. (And of course we are proud to state
\nthe obvious: memoQ is the most comprehensive of those \u2013 it contains by
\nfar the most of these gadgets!<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\"\"<\/div>\n

However, in order to make things
\nwork in a translation memory, you will need to provide it with data:
\nthis data is previously translated text in both languages \u2013 the language
\n you are translating <\/span>from<\/em> and <\/span>to<\/em>.
\n Without prior data an empty translation memory will just not remember
\nthings for you. Easy: you will never remember running the Boston
\nMarathon if you have actually never run the Boston Marathon (how much I
\nwish I did!).<\/span><\/p>\n

Machine translation<\/em> tools however are an entirely different cup of tea. No, no, no! They <\/span>really<\/em> are not in a tomato-tomato relationship with translation memories. They were originally created to <\/span>translate <\/em>things for people who wish to <\/span>read <\/em>things in a language they do not speak.<\/span><\/p>\n

Historically, MT tools operate in
\n two ways: based primarily on algorithms or primarily on a statistical
\napproach. Algorithm- (or rule-) based tools use giant dictionaries and a
\n set of rules to translate text from one language to the other (you will
\n find much of the iTranslate4.eu project to be algorithm-based),
\nstatistical tools in turn examine gigantic (really gigantic: billions
\nand billions of pages) of text and create your translation based on
\nstatistical khm\u2026 how shall I put it\u2026 guessing. This approach works very
\nsuccessfully for languages with a lot of pages on the internet, and you
\nwill see it clicking very successfully away in Google Translate, for
\nexample.<\/span><\/p>\n

Allow me to further confuse things for you, dear Josh!<\/span><\/p>\n

While you cannot really translate
\n with an empty translation memory, you can still do that in a
\ntranslation environment. memoQ (and some of the less sexy tools of the
\nmarket, too) offer integration with providers of machine translation.
\nWhy? (Here comes a thing I find translators do not often know either!)
\nBecause some of these tools are now so sophisticated that they can prove
\n to be helpful in the translation process.<\/span><\/p>\n

They can help create better <\/span>memories<\/em>
\n in the translation memory enabling the translator to do his job faster \u2013
\n hence to earn more money in a shorter time. They still do not do the
\njob of a translator, but they can, say, grab two or three <\/span>memories<\/em> and create a close enough translation for the translator, so they can create the translation in a shorter time.<\/span><\/p>\n

I hope this explains it. And I
\nsuggest that you make your toast in a toaster, do not use the kettle for
\n the purpose \u2013 even though both tools can be found (in most cases) in
\nthe kitchen. Tomato-p<\/span>otato!<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As you know, school has started again here in Bavaria, meaning I get to tell future translators all about the tools of the trade they can and should use. And as I’m sure you also know, I am a great fan of memoQ (although I do use other tools occasionally, as well, mainly because certain […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[507,301,90,197,198,508],"class_list":["post-9821","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-unkategorisiert","tag-automated-translation","tag-cat-tools","tag-english","tag-kilgray","tag-memoq","tag-translation-memory","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t