Getting started
When I go to work, I sometimes have to check and fill out English documents or emails. This morning, too, I suddenly had to write a long email in English. I thought about sentences I had written frequently, and looked for expressions suitable for business situations, but in the end, I got my hands on the translator. I went to Google Translator, went to Papago, tried it like this, then tried it like that... Why is it so difficult to have confidence when it comes to English even though it's not the first time I'm doing it? When I finished shipping by tapping on the text I had written myself as well as the results from the translator one more time at a time, it was after the morning business hours disappeared.
Although it is a machine translator that boasts remarkable quality compared to a few years ago, it has evolved based on different algorithms and data, and often shows different results from translator to translator. Even with the same original text, depending on the language or field, some translations are good enough to be admired, and others have erratic results.
This is a simple comparative translation experiment. I tried translating the short poem “Grass Flower” (Nathae-joo), which consists of only three verses, using various translators.
The four translators seem to have produced similar results, but if you look closely, you can see that the words or expressions used are different. Since poetry is a creative work, it is difficult to determine which translation is more accurate and natural, but what is certain is that there is not a small difference even in simple translations.
As a result, most of them collect and edit multiple translation results and use them. Even if you go through only 2 or 3 translators, it's not only cumbersome, but it also wastes a lot of time. Just like I did this morning, even when I was just writing an email.
If I could collect comparative translations in one place
Collect, compare, and select various machine translation results at onceWhat if you could do it? Things and people are the same, but when you look at words and expressions separately, you can't really see the difference. It becomes clear when we compare them together. From 'you too' to 'just like you', 'so do you', and 'so are you'. The results of the selection may vary depending on the purpose and inclination of the article, but it's much easier to choose an expression that you think would be a better translation.
The image above is the LetterWorks editor window. I was able to compare multiple translations in one window and immediately select a sentence that fits the context of the article, so I was able to express what I wanted to convey more appropriately. If I had known in advance, I think I could have done one more thing even if I hadn't been able to do it in the morning. In the future, instead of having to go back and forth between translators, why not use the ability to compare multiple translations at a glance? You'll be able to noticeably reduce unnecessary time. I hope today's letter was helpful, and I'll be back with the next one.
Editor l Lee In Hye
inhye.lee@twigfarm.net
