Have you ever heard of a work called'Post-Editing'? This may be a familiar word to those working in the translationindustry, but I think it may still be unfamiliar to the general public. So,before working on the LETR WORKS, I would like to first explain theterminology. Post-Editing (PE) refers to editing that takes place later, thatis, revision or editing. When you connect with translation, the work ofreviewing and modifying the resulting value after machine translation is called'Post-Editing'. It is also known as ‘MTPE (Machine Translation Post-Editing)’,because it is based on machine translation results. And the translator incharge of this work is called a ‘Post-editor’. As the role of machinetranslation in translation has grown recently, so has the role of thepost-editor.
Representative MTPE work includes corpusprojects and translator's review and revision of the results of the firsttranslation through a machine translation program is also a representative MTPEwork. The time required for this post-editing process varies depending on thequality of the machine translation result. Of course, if the quality of machinetranslation is good, the time spent on MTPE work will be reduced, and in theopposite case, it will increase. It's a necessary part of today's translation trends,but it's not always a pleasant work for translators. This is because itstrangely gives the impression for translators that they are assisting machinetranslation, and there is also a vague fear that it may one day replace humantranslators if accuracy increases as the data accumulates. Of course, Imentioned in a previous post that this is not something that can be doneimmediately.
However, these days, with the recognitionthat MTPE is a necessary task, the perspective itself appears to be changing.Machine translation has never been better, and translators are starting to seeit as a tool to work with and use it to its fullest potential. There are also alot of translators who are actively engaged in this work because they feel thatthey are contributing to the advancement of machine translation as atechnology. Machine translation development companies also know thattranslators' MTPE work is critical to program performance, so they spend a lot of time on it.
I think it's great news for the translationworld that MTPE work is being recognized for its importance. After all,starting with this recognition, if companies spend time and money on that work,it will naturally lead to better quality translations and less time. This isimportant for translation companies because less time spent on translationdirectly relates to less money.
The development of machine translation andMTPE ultimately go hand in hand. It is an area that must be developed to enablebetter translation results in a faster time. The translation industryrecognizes its importance, so this work has been ongoing and I think it willcontinue to be researched and discussed. Then, the next question is whereshould translators, translation companies, and machine translation sit in theevolution of MTPE? It's something we need to keep thinking about. We LETR WORKSwill continue to think about this and work to deliver better translations. Ihope you've enjoyed today's note, and I'll be back with the next one.
Editor / Lee inhye
inhye.lee@twigfarm.net
