Article by ICG advertiser, The Language Factory.
It’s tempting to ignore the value of humans in a world that increasingly relies on AI. Indeed, everywhere you turn, you’re invited to streamline, enhance and in some cases replace previously human tasks and processes with AI. But when it comes to one of the most human of experiences, communication, would you really completely trust AI to get it spot on?
With AI translation in the mix, human expertise is more essential than ever to ensure high-quality, accurate, culturally-sensitive translations that are genuinely authentic and impactful.
What is machine post-editing for translation?
Machine translation post-editing services (MTPE) use expert, and crucially human, mother-tongue linguists to refine your AI-generated content to deliver a top-quality, culturally-nuanced final translation. This involves careful review of the materials for accuracy, tone and cultural sensitivity, along with the correct terminology and phrasing to ensure that your message resonates with your target audience.
Machine translation post-editing is particularly crucial for highly-specialised fields such as market research, healthcare, legal and other technical sectors, where every word counts.
The power of human insight
The role of an experienced human linguist in post-editing is more than simply correcting errors from an AI translation. Human insight is indispensable to achieving a precise and culturally-attuned final translation, including:
- Cultural insight: expert native translators understand regional sensitivities, idioms and humour, ensuring that every translation resonates with a local audience.
- Emotional intelligence: specialist translators capture tone and intent – not just words – adapting content to evoke the same emotional response, whatever the language.
- Ethical and brand integrity: human translators can identify bias, preserve brand voice and ensure that translations align with your brand values and sensitivities, something automated systems can’t replace.
- Contextual decision-making: professional linguists interpret meaning beyond just the literal and recognise how context shapes meaning, especially when translating complex or creative text.
- Source-text ambiguities: human linguists can identify and rectify ambiguities and errors in the source text that AI translation would simply replicate.
Best practice for machine post-editing
- Understand the project: clarify the purpose of the material – is it intended to inform employees, educate on technical issues or promote a new product? Understanding the project goal ensures that the tone, style and terminology resonates with the target audience.
- Use reference materials: leverage supporting documents to help translators understand industry-specific terminology or complicated concepts, especially for technical or highly specialised content.
- Assess the quality of the machine translation: check for errors in syntax and style, mistranslations, omissions and structural issues. Make sure that the translated text flows naturally, the sentence structures are grammatically correct and that you review overall readability.
- Ensure consistency: make use of existing tools, technology and techniques to maintain consistent terminology and phrasing and verify key terms are translated uniformly to provide a cohesive final translation.
- Adapt for cultural relevance: go beyond literal translation, recognise idiomatic expressions, cultural references and adapt them appropriately so that the content feels natural and connects with the target audience.
- Conduct ongoing evaluation of MTPE performance: collect feedback from stakeholders and users of the translated content to drive continuous improvement.
Partner with an expert in machine post-editing
At TLF, we combine a team of expert mother-tongue translators with specialist Project Managers. All our linguists have a minimum of 5 years of professional experience, hold a Diploma, BA or MA in translation and are professional members of a recognised translation body. We provide a smooth and straightforward, end-to-end post-editing service to ensure your projects are completed on time, within budget and to the highest possible standard. This has earned us a high client satisfaction rating for our post-editing projects.
Talk to the TLF team to find out how our expert human translators can help you with your next post-editing project.
Specialist B2B Translation Agency – The Language Factory