Machine vs. Human: Translators put to the test

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Jeff Whittaker
Jeff Whittaker  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 16:11
Member (2002)
Spanish to English
+ ...
Very nice Mar 2, 2015

I've been thinking about doing this with fiverr.com - create a passage and have it translated by ten of the many $5.00 translators for comparison purposes. https://www.fiverr.com/categories/writing-translation/quality-translation-services/#layout=auto&page=1

[Edited at 2015-03-02 20:15 GMT]


 
Alex Lago
Alex Lago  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 22:11
English to Spanish
+ ...
Outcome was obvious Mar 2, 2015

In this case I think most of us will agree the outcome of any such test was obvious, problem is a lot of people think computers are catching up with all human activities and that's just not the case.

 
Samuel Murray
Samuel Murray  Identity Verified
Netherlands
Local time: 22:11
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
+ ...
Just a Verbalink advert Mar 3, 2015

This "news" article is basically an advertisement for Verbalink.

 
Samuel Murray
Samuel Murray  Identity Verified
Netherlands
Local time: 22:11
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
+ ...
I've been thinking, too Mar 3, 2015

Jeff Whittaker wrote:
I've been thinking about doing [something related] with fiverr.com - create a passage and have it translated by ten of the many $5.00 translators for comparison purposes.


I've also wondered about something like that, except that I would not use fiverrr but instead I'd use professional translators listed in a directory. Not sure how ethical that would be, i.e. telling these colleagues that the translation is a free test or a $5 test, with potential future collaboration, to get them to do the translations cheaply.


 
Kuochoe Nikoi-Kotei
Kuochoe Nikoi-Kotei  Identity Verified
Ghana
Local time: 20:11
Japanese to English
Not much to choose between Mar 3, 2015

I read the whole article. The Google Translate version of the Spanish text was bad, but the human version wasn't all that great either. Umm... I'm going to be lynched for saying this, aren't I?

 
Phil Hand
Phil Hand  Identity Verified
China
Local time: 04:11
Chinese to English
Lynch mob Mar 3, 2015

Kuochoe Nikoi-Kotei wrote:

I read the whole article. The Google Translate version of the Spanish text was bad, but the human version wasn't all that great either. Umm... I'm going to be lynched for saying this, aren't I?

I'll string you up, Kuochoe!

I agree that the human version wasn't great, but I still think there was a significant difference between the two - if you read the Google version only, you really wouldn't know what the text was or what it was about. If you read the human version, you'd know exactly what it was, you'd just want to murder the copywriter.


 


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Machine vs. Human: Translators put to the test







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