Since the 1950s, the only way we have been able to cope with the problems of our digitized world is through cooperation with machines. Actually, the point that we want to make is how we can retrace the problems that we face. Does the system create these problems, or have we naturally come to this point in time due to reasons beyond our control? We will try to answer these questions, which also have a slightly philosophical aspect, with more concrete data.
The digitalization that encompasses every part of our lives offers us a service called online translation. In our article, we will attempt to answer the following: What does online translation mean? What are the things not provided by an online translation service? And how does it make our lives easier?
Online Translation Service
Online translation is a service optimized by the collected data and the data provided by internet-based research. In the last two years, algorithms have gained the power to detect the meaning of our texts and even their tone. However, the main issue is most of the machines that provide us with online translation services are based on just one language. For example, Google Translate Robot is an English-based robot that can translate and output the processed data using English as a mediating language. Obviously, among online translation services such as Systran or DeepL, Google Translate is the most well-known. But, do these online translation tools using a mediating language make mistakes? Can we actually be on a dangerous road leading us to language attrition?
What Does Online Translation Service Not Promise?
Fast, powerful, and effective… Online Translation Tools! A bee-like capitalist system deprives us of the things we need to feel alive: different colors, smells, diversity, and change… Online Translation Services may hoodwink us with these abilities, but they cannot go beyond codes when it comes to creating the vast range of a language’s emotions in a different culture. Why is that? Because we need the experience to grasp deeper meaning. It means that even if you teach the machines that offer us online translation services the ability to read, etc., the outputs will always be shallow and cannot go beyond that. Also, they cannot convey the varied grammar structures, sarcasm, and oratory in the source text and cannot transform it into the target. Even if we think about an online translation service’s inability to translate shorter, concise texts such as poetry, we come to a dead end. Perhaps the best way to use an online translation service or other machines is to collect and develop data. Otherwise, through our efforts to connect our languages in shallow harbors, we will dry up and disappear like Butimar from Persian mythology who died from his love for the sea.