The document discusses the limitations of machine translation compared to human translation, emphasizing the importance of cultural and semantic understanding that machines lack. While machine translation can be useful, especially for technical texts, human translators are necessary for accurate academic translations that require precise language and style. The need for domain knowledge and the risks associated with poor translations highlight the irreplaceable role of human translators in conveying meaning and maintaining the integrity of academic work.

1. Spotting The Difference–Machine
Versus Human Translation

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The Current Trend In Translation
 Efforts to improve machine translation services have marked the
last decades, since the first patents were registered in the 1930s.
However, regardless of how much these systems have improved
and made worldwide communication easier, they still cannot
replace human translation in many ways.
 There is a deep language understanding, not only grammatically but
also semantically, linguistically, and culturally, that belongs to
human speakers and can be hardly achieved by a machine’s binary
system. However, why is that?

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A Support Tool
 There are no doubts about the fact that machine translation is a
useful tool for translators, who should, however, use it at a proper
time and be able to recognize its limitations to make up for their
mistakes or omissions.
 Let us consider, for example, the role of machine translation in the
technical translation domain. Technical texts usually have
everything that they need to have to get correctly translated by
machines: they are clear, precise, and direct and have plenty of
words that are used worldwide.
 It is easy for machine translator systems that have databases to
connect meanings and translate these texts, thereby ensuring that
they are (at least) correctly understood.

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Domain Knowledge (1/2)
 But do these machines have knowledge pertaining to this domain?
Can they conduct a research to clear possible doubts? Human
intervention is still needed to ensure translation accuracy.
 In particular, when it comes to academic translations that require a
high proofreading level of both content and style, human
translation guarantees that every idea is well organized and every
sentence is correctly formulated.
 Let us now imagine a situation in which machine translators are
used to translate two languages that are slightly close to each other,
e.g., English and Spanish. Both are occidental languages that share
some common vocabulary and grammatical structure.

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Domain Knowledge (2/2)
 Indeed translator machine softwares are quite developed these
days when it comes to accuracy, especially if the original texts are
clear and well written, without any ambiguities.
 However, only a human translator could give the new text a proper
style and meaning. For instance, when translating a text from
English to Spanish, a greater number of subordinated sentences
should be used to achieve fluency.

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Human Translation: Irreplaceable In The
Academic Domain (1/2)
 Writing an academic paper requires research and a vast knowledge
in the respective field. Therefore, academic translations must imply
a high level of professionalism as well as quality.
 To correctly translate, they should include cultural references
wherever needed and use correct and precise language. That is why
the role of human translation in academic papers is undeniable.
Translators must have certain knowledge in the field, be able to
research instances when in doubt, guarantee accuracy, and transmit
the message in the best possible way in the new language.

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Human Translation: Irreplaceable In The
Academic Domain (2/2)
 Besides, they must recognize the article or thesis writers’ merits.
Both academic articles and theses require huge amount of work
that should not be wasted because of a bad or imprecise
translation. Theses or academic papers are not dissemination
articles; they are written using cultured and specialized vocabulary
and often handle complex ideas.
 If researchers trust machine translators when translating a
manuscript, there is a risk of delivering a lack of style, vocabulary,
richness, or personality. In the worst case, a bad translation could
mean that the manuscript never gets published in the target
scientific or academic journal.

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Last Word
Our way of understanding and transmitting our culture is deeply
connected to our language and the way we express our ideas and
feelings. These differences are what really make languages different
from each other in addition to vocabulary and grammar.
Understanding and translating one language into another are still
among professional translators’ main challenges and are, till date,
difficult for machines to overcome.

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