The art of translation: should we leave it to the machines?

December 4, 2024

When Google Translate arrived on the scene in 2006, it was a game-changer for those of us who work with multiple languages (but may only be proficient in one). It was pretty magical to be able to get a couple of words translated without a dictionary. Back then, Google only took you so far though—when trying to translate anything more than a couple of words, it was often hilariously wrong. It has come a long way and other translations sites such as Deepl are even better, but have we reached the point where humans are no longer needed?

In a recent CarriersEdge webinar, we spoke with Kristen Hernandez, owner of Ally Translation and CarriersEdge Translation Specialist Marie-France Dunn about the art of translation and the role that technology plays. We wanted to explore why culture matters so much, the challenges of translating material for the trucking industry, and why AI and machine translation are tools, rather than solutions for multi-lingual content.

The cultural context

The English language has an advantage over Spanish and French because it has “better economy,” according to Hernandez, which makes it easier to play with and invent new words. English-speakers make up words all the time—think of emoji, helicopter parent, frenemy, air quotes, or humblebrag. French and Spanish are much less flexible. When we invent words so easily in English, we don’t think about how other languages have to cope: usually with multiple words to convey the same meaning. For example, the term “results-oriented” ends up as “un enfoque orientado a los resultados” in Spanish, making it much more awkward in a translation. In many cases, other languages don’t bother trying and just adopt the English word (bromance, autotune, and facepalm, for example).

Culture and geography are both incredibly important in translation. Just as the British have different words for truck (a “lorry”) and the “trunk” of a car (a “boot”), the dialects of French and Spanish spoken throughout the world are very different—French in the French Quarter of New Orleans is different than what’s spoken in downtown Montréal. In fact, there are 21 different countries with Spanish as their official language, and that can make it tricky for a translator to decide which terms to use.

Hernandez uses the Google Books Ngram Viewer to see popularity trends of specific terminology when she’s deciding between words, but there are other considerations: Mexico produces the most Spanish-language entertainment, so that dialect is the most familiar to most. In Texas, there is a “Tex-Mex” dialect that sometimes is closer to English and may be more appropriate in certain circumstances. And when you start looking at industry-specific terms, it gets even more complex, because geography may start playing a larger role.

Hernandez considers the eLearning audience as well: “This person's work environment is in English, so I want to make the terminology and the safety regulations understandable. When it comes to picking between purest language and practical language, I'm going to stick with practical and stray from purism.”

Literal French and Spanish translations may also just have the wrong meaning. For example, “vehicle inspection” translates directly to “inspection du véhicule” in French, but that’s not how it is referred to by the enforcement agency in the province of Quebec. Quebec regulations refer to an inspection as a “circle check” – in both English and French. When creating vehicle inspection training for drivers, references to the “Vehicle Inspection Report” have to be changed to the “Circle Check Report”.

Trucking terminology will get mis-translated by machines or AI because other languages use different completely different words to describe a concept. For example, a straight machine translation of the term “glad hands” gives you “happy hands” in French. The correct term in French actually translates to “coupling heads” in English. In Spanish, “road rage” becomes “fury at the steering wheel”. “Truck driver” can be “chauffeur”, “conducteur” or “camionneur” in French and “camionero”, “conductor de camiones”, or “conductor” in Spanish. Human translators make sure the word fits the context.

The word “jackknife” posed a particular challenge for both Dunn and Hernandez. In French, the term translates to “walleting” – describing the movement of opening and closing a wallet. In Spanish, the word literally translates to a physical knife. According to Hernandez, it was difficult to come up with a Spanish equivalent that was consistently used for the CarriersEdge Defensive Driving courses. In cases like these, Hernandez describes the situation and then use the English term in brackets. Dunn agreed, explaining that she had a hard time with the translation for “jerrican”. In French, the word for “jerrican” is the same as “nanny”. It looked odd in a course about managing fuel for professional drivers, so she ended up using the term (and adding the English in brackets afterwards).

Finding the feeling

According to Dunn and Hernandez, one of the most important parts of being a translator is the desire to express yourself in writing – as Dunn explains, “The joy of translation is that you never get writer’s block.” Both Dunn and Hernandez agree that as translators, it’s crucial to love your first language. On top of that, it’s important to have a strong command of grammar and spelling in both languages you work with.

When approaching English text, they both stress the importance of formality in translation How you write a message to your mother will be different than how you write a complaint to the owner of a restaurant. The issue of formality is also important in training, especially when talking about regulations or providing instructions, which tend to be more formal. Scenarios and examples are more informal. In English, there is no special pronoun to indicate formality: the word “you” is used universally. However, in French and Spanish, formality is communicated through pronouns – in Spanish, “tú” is the informal version of “you”, and “usted” is the formal. Knowing when to switch from one to the other is important in a good translation. AI translations tend to flip back and forth without warning.

So why is wanting to be a writer important for good translation? It’s all about communicating with your audience. When you explain a concept badly, it’s hard for people to understand. When it’s translated badly, it has the same effect. Now the learner has to both compensate for bad translation and learn the material at the same time. Dunn explains that for the language you’re translating, “you have to understand the syntax, the grammar, how it is said, and the emphasis… your reader has to connect with the material…You have to provide the same experience that the English provides to the reader”.

Sometimes an English word has power that doesn’t match the French or Spanish equivalents – what Dunn refers to as “faux amis” or false friends. In these cases, the translator’s job is to find some way of expressing the same sentiment with different terms.

An example of this can be seen in the term “level up” which indicates progression through a video game. In English, it also refers to some kind of improvement. But in French and Spanish, there is no simple term that gives you the same impact. When this happens, translators experiment with changing the term – so “level up” becomes “transform” to give it the same oomph. (Google translate tells me that “oomph” translates to “sex appeal” in Spanish. A perfect example of machines not understanding context.)

What about AI and machine translation?

The translation industry will mostly likely change with the introduction of AI. Google Translate is a lot more accurate than it was in 2006, although neither Dunn nor Hernandez believe that AI is going to replace the human translator anytime soon.

Hernandez points out that “I see a lot of wringing of hands among fellow translators because of AI, and I love what a fellow translator always says. He says, ‘mathematicians did not panic with the invention of the calculator or the Excel spreadsheet.’ So, we will always be needed, but the AI will allow us to take on more volume, be more efficient and probably more precise.”

In the trucking industry, language and terminology are key to understanding the equipment, the regulations and the transportation process. Even in English it’s sometimes difficult to land on one word: is it a 34-hour restart or reset? Is it a fleet manager or dispatcher? Is it a Jake brake or an engine brake? These are all decisions you need to make during eLearning development to be consistent and understandable.

One of the biggest issues with translation not easily picked up with AI or machine learning is the fact that French and Spanish just take up more physical space than English. For an eLearning course, this is a showstopper. A page of English may be a page and a half of Spanish, and it will be even longer in French. Most translated online courses have separate versions. However, CarriersEdge courses have a 1:1 ratio of English pages and non-English pages and allow the user to flip languages at any time because each page has the same content. The learner has the same experience in either language.

This is why translation is an art – translators don’t just take a list of words and flip them into corresponding words in a second language. They think about the cultural context, whether concepts still make sense, and how much physical space they have for their text. In addition, they try to connect with the audience the same way that the original text does. Dunn points out that AI can do a lot, but “You know, we're translating for humans, so there has to be a human heart and soul in the writing and in what we do.”