In the era of digital, the way people doing translation is switching from the traditional methods with dictionaries and books to the current method with tools and the internet. The emergence of advanced computer technology and the internet has also created a new era in the translation industry.
The digital translation era is when translators rely on digital technology to do the translation job. It is also when advanced computer technology is used collaboratively to ease the translators when working on difficult translation domains.
Today, almost all translators of any language are familiar with using technology and internet. Two types of digital translation software that are very helpful for most translators are machine translation and CAT tools. Although the combination of both already exists, these two things are still offering different benefits for many translators.
What is the digital translation tool?
Translation has become an important ally of the global economic system. Almost every business relies on translation services for global operations or expansion to specific countries that speak a different language. Many businesses have often blundered in difficult global marketing campaigns or competition without this strategy.
The high volume of translation jobs involving almost all living languages today requires a huge number of translators of various language pairs. Hence, an effective translation strategy is always researched even from a long time ago, and created a result as what we call it digital translation method.
In this second millennium, translation has been shifting, and it is now done with different methods from what our predecessors always did. The rise of digital technology has changed this and the face of translation looks both simpler and more challenging. The digital translation method employs both humans and technology in order to cope with global demands.
Electronic Language Translators
Electronic language translation is a process of translation in which a collaborative approach between human and computer technology can result in an effective, accurate, and quick translation result. The technology in translation has been developed and familiarized since 50 years ago. Its revolutionary development of it is even more visible in recent decades when this industry was no longer overlooked and many people started to seek a more scalable method.
The invention of the CAT tool and machine translation was a recognized milestone in translation. The face of translation is shifting to a more digital style rather than paperwork. Earlier, the CAT tool was the one that got both attention and compliment since it can provide better translation workflow with easiness in terminology recalling, grammar checking, and editing so that it could improve the speed and consistency throughout the entire process.
Later, the improvement was made to make the database of terms shareable among enclosed translator fellows that make a more efficient job when handling a huge translation project. Considering the collaborative working nature, the CAT tool is merged with TMS (Translation Management System) in which many parties can handle bigger projects effectively with all-in-one management features like resource management, time management, and others.
With the more accessible internet services, there are now so many translation companies that employ this TMS to handle a huge number of translators of various language pairs from different countries. The collaboration with technology also allows language service providers to create a more complex crowdsourcing system in which translation jobs can be distributed to many translators and collected anytime.
Moreover, the integration of the internet into the system has given more access to more people so human translation could only take seconds to finish. The TMS is mostly set on clouds and access is from everywhere as long as an internet connection exists. The other benefit is the feature that is even growing. The system also sometimes allows the users to use internet machine translation without moving the tabs and do the internet research at once.
The easiness given to all parties involved in translation has made the scalability of the translation process and provides a lot of benefits for both language agencies and clients. The advancement has also made the translation service position spike in market shares from time to time.
