Translators and Tools
By DING ZHITAO & CHEN WEN 【期刊名称】北京周报（英文版） 【年(卷),期】2011(000)032 【总页数】1
Technology is not yet advanced enough to capture the nuances of language
It is no surprise Jost Zetzsche, an Englishto-German translator, raised the question of whether machine translation would ever replace the human variety in front of 700 interpreters and translators who gathered in San Francisco to discuss topical issues in the translation industry. Lately, new technology in machine translation —software applications used to translate from one language to another—have been developed and used for translation work. It takes only a second to turn a whole piece of text into a different language, disregarding the quality of translation. People wonder: Will these technologies in the near future replace humans for translation?
Zetzsche’s answer was “No.” Machines and technology to him are tools. Tools will not replace translators, “but translators with tools will,” he said, giving a keynote speech at the 19th World Congress of the International Federation of Translators (FIT), a major event in the global translation community, held in San Francisco from August 1-4.
Translators and Tools
