我的合作譯者之一今天寫信給我，提到今年ATA(美國譯者協會)年會上的熱門議題。 原文如下： [為協助非英語系譯者，我加註(不負責)譯文] Hi Harry, I just came back from the ATA conference and the big buzz is machine translation coupled with “post-editing”. There are lots of companies that ask their linguists to use a machine translation tool or they send out a machine translated file and just ask for an edit. Agencies feel they can get a translation of somewhat decent quality for a lot less than what normal translation and edit would cost them. Many of the newer TEnTs (Translation Environment Tools, rather than Translation memory tools!) have a plug-in function for MT apps. [哈利你好，我剛參加完ATA大會回來。今年大家都在談所謂的"機械翻譯+後置審稿"。有 許多公司要求譯者使用機械翻譯，或是直接寄一份機械翻譯過的文章，然後要譯者審/潤 稿。翻譯公司認為這樣的成果品質尚可接受，但成本卻可大大低於一般的翻譯>校潤程序 。許多新版的TEnT(不光是翻譯工具，而是"翻譯環境工具"了)都內建可與機械翻譯軟體 相通的插件。] Remember when Trados first came on the market! The uproar, the translation community was like the Luddites! [還記得Trados新上市的時候鬧得多大! 我們翻譯界像盧德分子一樣! (Luddites: 1.盧德分子(19世紀初英國手工業工人中參加搗毀機器的人)，2.(l-)強烈反 對機械化或自動化的人)] The open source community as well as Facebook, Twitter, various web sites and not the least the Linux developers use “crowdsourcing” to have their users translate (for free) and then other users vote on the best translation. These are then added to the huge and growing database of translations that supposedly will increase not just in size but in quality as well. [公開源代碼界、臉書、推特、許多其他網頁、甚至Linux開發商現在都使用所謂的"集體 創作"模式，讓使用者無償翻譯，然後其他使用者投票選出最佳翻譯。這些選出來的翻譯 就會被加進那些日漸龐大的資料庫 - 據說如此作法不僅可增加譯文量，品質也會變得更 好。] Just look at Microsoft – they do not even have any humans translating their software anymore, all these UI terms are so standardized that they can easily plug it into an MT app and then do some “lite editing”. As to all their knowledgebase articles – no human has touched the translations of those – they are totally done by MT we were told at the ATA! [看看微軟 - 現在他們根本不用人做翻譯，他們的用戶介面名詞已完全標準化，可以直接 代入任何機械翻譯軟體，然後大概潤一下就好了。至於微軟的Knowledgebase知識庫文件 ，在ATA大會上他們說裏面的東西從來都沒有活人翻譯過，全部都是機器翻的!] And it is crawling into our industry as well! The only industry so far that can ward off these attacks is medical, technical, legal…. Everyones language for marketing, social media, web sites and such will become so standardized that MT will be all that is needed … [這趨勢現在正在慢慢侵入我們這產業!我們業界現在唯一能不受侵害的就是醫學、技術、 法學等領域。行銷、社交媒體、網頁等未來會制式化到用機器翻譯就夠了...] Beware of the beginning of the war between Craft and Crap! [注意，翻譯界良幣與劣幣的大戰已經開始了!] 感想：以前只有無良譯者在做的事，今年ATA大會拿出來慎重討論。是MT真的進步很多了 嗎? 是翻譯社為降低成本不擇手段嗎? 還是社會大眾對文字的要求越來越低了? 感想2：我是否要趕快學程式語言 XD -- 'Cause it's a bittersweet symphony, this life Trying to make ends meet, You're a slave to money then you die -Bittersweet Symphony, The Verve --

※ 發信站: 批踢踢實業坊(ptt.cc) ◆ From: 70.166.3.190 但是以前譯者(跟翻譯社)都知道這有點是變相壓榨譯者，因為MT譯出來的是屎 譯者可以理直氣壯的不接 而現在則是光明正大的在ATA年會上討論?代表以後這會變成常態?不接的譯者就... 不正常? XD ※ 編輯: tengharold 來自: 70.166.3.190 (11/03 04:41) 問題是雖然現在機器尚未能夠完全取代人類(機器翻完後人類還會校稿) 但人類每校一句話，機器就能將其收入資料庫作為未來比對的根據 而人類每跳過一句話不做更改，機器就知道形成那句話的規則是有效的 而且現在MT的三大工具 (TM，grammar rules，context search)雖然還比不上人類 但隨著運算速度加快，database收納的句數增加 (別忘記Moore's Law跟雲端) 機器取代譯者的日子正逐漸接近，而且是譯者在自掘墳墓，讓MT持續進步 XD 大陸品質有點良莠不齊，而且如果我今天要找一位巴西葡語的譯者應該不會去大陸吧 XD 中進英我寧願在美澳英找。 英進簡中本來就該找大陸譯者，繁體當然找台灣 所以只有那些英進繁中但品質要求(或是價位)不是很高的案子才會流往大陸 做為一位繁中譯者，就得盡量避開這塊 (品質或價位普普) 紅海... ※ 編輯: tengharold 來自: 72.207.38.147 (11/03 14:37)