Monthly Archives: February 2012

“I Love Armenians”=”I Love Turkey”… Tell Me Again Why People Think Google Translate is So Amazing?

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Posted by M.E. Simpson on February 22, 2012 – 1:25 pm
Filed under Machine Translation, Translation Discussion, Translation News, Translation Tools, Uncategorized

Google's error in language translation  

 

Google's error in Armenian language translation

Google Translate Screws Up (Again)

Google Translate recently corrected an inaccurate translation from Armenian to English, in which the Armenian language equivalent of  “I love Armenians” was translated to ”I love Turkey.”  The  obvious linguistic inferences that can be drawn from such a mis-translation, regardless of one’s interpretation of the word “Turkey” - are far from what they should have been, and Armenian natives were metaphorically throwing mud-pies at their computer screens upon learning of this linguistic offense.

Maybe it’s the fact that Tomedes specializes in middle Eastern languages like Greek and Turkish and Armenian translation and localization services that caught my attention here - but why the sam hill do people still expect Google Translate to translate everything correctly?  Especially if it is being used for entire web pages of content, or whole documents.  And of course, I’m not singling out just Google Translate here, but any kind of MT (machine translation).   When they are used for a couple words or a short sentence, they can - and I emphasize can - serve their purpose.  Although, in this particular case, someone or someone(s) obviously went out of their way to sabotage the correct translation result.   But - that’s pretty much the point.  If such a tool - no matter how free or accessible - can be so easily undermined, vandalized or tampered with - what’s the point of using it?

Anything more than a few words or a phrase, and any automated translator will make a muddy, slobbery mess out of language - like translating some guy’s muffled mumbling while his face is stuffed with marshmellows.  But users keep going back to it, and then shake their fist at the skies when it mistranslates something. 

Listen y’all - this is exactly what is to be expected, when a machine is consistently used to translate living, breathing human language. 

MT translation inaccuracies occur often, due to the inherent unreliability of the way they acquire the translation results - at the very least, the correct results will often be unavailable, because the translated equivalent does not exist in any form which can be indexed, crawled and produced by Google (or Babylon, or Bing, etc).  As several commentators pointed out in the original article which revealed this mis-translation, The Armenian Weekly, because Google Translate - like Wikipedia - relies upon user contributions and previously translated texts, all it requires to undo the credibility of user-contributed MT - is enough childish, oppugnant contributors.  

Language is, at its core, one of the very basic elements of human essence.  Animals communicate - but only humans have spoken language.  Machines use code, mathmatical formulas and algorithms - language is anything but.  It’s full of exceptions to grammar rules, indigenous idiosyncrasies, euphamisms, slang, cultural references, time-relevant adaptations, and many other elements that cannot be arrived at or produced with formulaic methods.  This is why machine translation will never be an adequate substitute for human translation.

In case I haven’t made this clear yet -  Google Translate does not, and cannot accurately translate anything more than a few words or a very short sentence.  The longer the text is that is used with MT/Google Translate -  the worse and more incomprehensible the results get.  MT often cannot  provide even a general “gist” for more than a couple sentences.  What it SHOULD do - is remind people over and over.. and over and over … why human, professional translation is so necessary.

Yes, I get that not everyone is going to pay for a quick general translation of a few sentences, or even a few paragraphs, if the content is fairly inconsequential.  However, if there is a need for website translation, document translation etc for anything more than a casual read or a few quick words of a news article - it’s asking for trouble to rely upon the chance that Google Translate can index, crawl and produce the translation of the exact piece of content you’ve just input, and in the same pair of languages.  If  “I love Armenians” was too tall a request for Google Translate, can you imagine its translation for “I love Sponge Bob Square Pants?”  

 

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Is Your E-commerce Site Seriously STILL in English Only?

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Posted by M.E. Simpson on February 9, 2012 – 12:12 pm
Filed under Corporate Translation, Language Translation Advice, Translation Services, Web site Translation

 

 Is Your E-commerce Multi-lingual  - or Mono-lingual?

If you’re patting yourself on the back right now for being smart enough to install the Google Translate API on your site - move your hand upwards until it reaches your forehead.  There - it is now placed properly for you to hit yourself with it. 

 

No, Google Translate does not count as professional language translation, or having a multi-lingual site, and it definitely doesn’t do anything for global accessibility.

 

At this point, there should really be no need to “convince” any business that receives online revenue via consumer sales, whether B2C or B2B, that globalization is a smart move. It’s become an imperative in order for any company to truly grow and expand. Those that refuse to acknowledge the rest of the world in regards to business, trade, purchase and sales will simply be over-run by those who have long since taken up measures to internationalize their business outreach. For those who choose to ignore professional translation, localization and overall internationalization of not only their websites, but also product lines, B2B services, and any other pertinent e-commerce materials - well, industry competitors will gladly take your share of eGDP. And the hefty profits that come with it.

 

 For those of you putting off global expansion of your online business, consider this: e-commerce revenue from global sources this year will surpass U.S. consumer revenue by about 70-75%, with U.S. e-commerce revenue projected at around $212 billion, and global revenue projected at $820 billion for 2012. Those numbers will continue to get farther apart by 2013, while global economies flood internationalized markets.

 

 If your web business ignores the need for professional translation  and localized multi-lingual accessibility, and therefore excludes every culture, economy and language other than those that speak English, you might as well be selling only to red-haired people. And that’s a generous analogy.

 

How to Determine Your Global Web Presence and Accessibility 

 What does it take for a website or a brand to have a good global presence, access and availability?   The following criterion are a mix of Common Sense Advisory research on global brands, e-commerce customer behavior, as well as common components of successfully globalized enterprises online.

 

 

  1. Global Availability Factor

There are a couple ways to use this metric as information about who and how many users your site is available to. Typically, it measures the percentage of the total global online user population that your site is available to. If your site is only available in English, your overall Availability Quotient (score) is pretty rotten. The more languages and overall online populations available for each stage of website user experience on your website, the higher your global availability, or “Availability Quotient” will be.

However, according to Common Sense Advisory, a website should be translated and localized into at least 16 languages for it to be established as having an online global presence, and a decent global website score to match. It is easy to think, there’s no way I need to translate and localize my e-commerce into 16 languages. But consider that there are 23 languages in the European Union alone, which doesn’t cover all European languages, nor does it include the world’s largest populations.

 

2. Global Web Presence

While this term is often used generically, in this context it refers to a company, business or e-commerce presence across one single domain or several. For example, very large corporate giants like Coca-Cola and Nike, have websites that spread across many, many international domains. There is Coca-Cola.ru and Nike.au. Some companies may choose to translate and localize all languages on one singular company site - but this creates much, much less global web presence, which affects the overall global web score. 

 

3.  WOW (World Online Wallet) Potential

This measures the total buying potential of a given online audience, or how much of the total global buying potential is represented by a particular country, audience or website. This can be calculated according to country by multiplying the total number of people with online access by the GDP (gross domestic product). Obviously, websites strive to be available to audiences with high WOW factor. For global website scoring, obviously the more WOW potential a site has, the higher its score.

 

4. Consumer Experience in E-commerce 

There are basic components common to all websites that satisfy user or visitor website experience, while also meeting the goals of the website business, owner or blogger. These customer experience components are:

 

  • Website entrance

The better a website visitor can meet his or her user needs upon entering the site - and the less navigation it requires before that is possible - the higher the score of the site.

  • Browsing

    Browsing may be the most critical point of user experience, especially in regards to the global user experience. Are all products and descriptions translated and localized? Is browsing easily navigable to your foreign language audiences? Is language translation and appropriate localization applied to designated landing pages of each individual target audience? Will a Russian user find the Russian translation of all browsing content with relative ease, and with localized navigation experience?

  • Shopping

    E-commerce sites and those with defined conversion goals must have this step in user experience appropriated for each target audience. Shopping carts must be localized, if necessary, monetary conversions available, prices clearly marked with appropriate language translation or localization when applicable, and check-out processes clearly defined and logically set-up in accordance the localized needs of the user.

  • Registering

    Again, registering must have appropriate website translation and localization. All required information from targeted users should feel authentic, and email correspondences should all be appropriately translated and localized, both in their actual content, and insofar as email carriers and domains. In other words, email correspondence that is automated via registration should be available for more than Yahoo, Gmail, Aol, etc.

  • Purchasing

    If all other user components are sufficiently met up to the purchasing point, then targeted users are well on their way to conversion goals, and have already decided upon their purchases. As long as there are no abrupt changes, mistakes or sudden lapses in language translation or localized purchase processes, then this step should be completed easily.

  • Customer Support

    This may be the most complex of all website translation and localization needs, because for the most part, customer service and support cannot be automated with previously translated and localized texts, emails, landing pages, etc. If a business is not equipped with staff to handle foreign language users, then prepare in the best way possible. Set up FAQ sheet translations for targeted languages, and have customer support forms with equal translation and localization available, so that if nothing else, the user can send in his or her concern, question, complaint, etc, and it can be professionally translated from then on.

  • Customer Participation

    Customer participation can be acquired easily enough through the aid of social media. With global social networks, this is even more true. However, it still takes some effort to reach out to your foreign language markets in their native language, via Twitter translation and other similar sites.

    Mobile website optimization can also play a part in obtaining a larger global audience and market. Since many users primarily access the web from their smartphones, companies who do not have mobile optimized websites may be missing some prime opportunities to convert visitors. If your website is hard to navigate and loses a lot of functionality on a mobile web screen, visitors will not stick around, no matter what language they speak.

The diagram below illustrates the various levels of customer experience in e-commerce, and how the various levels are arrived at when proper langauge translation and localization is used at all stages of entry, shopping, buying and customer behavior thereafter.  It also illustrates how global consumers can find your site using tools like social media, Twitter translation services, marketing localization, website language translation, and so on.  However, if your business isn’t successfully searched and found online  in anything but English, nor is it made available to audiences other than native English-speakers - well, let’s just say your piece of the pie is mighty small.

 

So, what would your website score be, on the global availability test?

 

 
 E-commerce with High Global Accessibility
 
E-commerce Language Translation and Localization 
 
E-commerce Language Translation and Localization

 

  

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