If it weren't for Google Translate...

Imagine that...

Imagine that you are condemned to an endless fierce competition. 

Imagine that you have to compete on a daily basis with a giant ferocious merciless senseless beast to earn one’s bread. What would your life be like?

Imagine that what you do for a living in return for peanuts is what someone else does for no return ‘for the sake of humanity.’ What competitive advantage would you have?

That is when you are stuck with a profession dominated by google translate.

Google translate English to Arabic: Is it Good at it?

Google translate may be good at translating between some language pairs (French/English, Spanish/English, etc…). I am not sure.

But google translate English to Arabic is not good at it at all.

You even have the right to wonder whether this is the best shot of Google, the multi-billion search giant.

May be this is the best translation service Google can offer for free.

You know everyone keeps his best service for his best money.

Just use google translate English to Arabic to find out that google translate English to Arabic translates the phrase ‘a plot for sale’ as ‘a conspiracy for sale,' As the following signboard says: 

Of course, this is done by google translate english to arabic: 

Free Tip: Any word that has more than one meaning may render google translate useless.

In fact, Bing translator does a much better job: 

Or have a look at this signboard next to the electricity box of the building. An electric cabinet becomes an electical cabinet of ministers. 

How much did they pay to design it? It looks pretty expensive. 

Don't ask. Yes, they used google translate.

you may like to read English to Arabic translation services in Dubai

It is your right to wonder why Google doesn't use on their google translate website any warning to avoid product liability. 

It may be like this: "You use this product at your peril," or "By using this application, you risk looking like a joke." 

Of course, the damage is way worse. 

As far as I know, there are no studies or researches investigating the damage suffered by the Arabic language thanks to google translate English to Arabic.

You may also consider the impact google translate English to Arabic has on English Arabic translation, in terms of low quality Arabic content not only all over the virtual but also the real world.

You may ask: isn’t there a bright side of google translate?

In fact, there is.

You may be in favor of the argument that is based on the talk of ‘breaking down language barriers,’ or ‘connecting the people.’

So what is the final purpose?

This call would continue like this: breaking down language barriers encourages the spread of ‘international love’ and understanding, and promotes world peace, blah blah blah.

But do you see fewer conflicts in the world?

Love/Hate Relationship: Google translate and translators

On the love side, you should be surprised if you find a translator who doesn’t use google translate.

No one argues that this translation application doesn't offer translators a useful tool where they can initiate a translation.

As a translator, you may use google translate English to Arabic to find keywords in the original text. That would be an easier and faster translation technique than looking a word down in a dictionary.

It may show you the way to tackle a widely known sentence that you are not aware of.

Even when google translate English to Arabic ushers you the wrong way to tackle a phrase, you can find a benefit as it urges you to discover new ways of rendering such phrase.

As it goes, every cloud has its silver line, like their story about the Syrian family: 

But come on! Why not an interpreter?  

Anyway, I will spare exploring this silver line to another blog post.

As far as this post is concerned, the dark side of google translate English to Arabic is our subject.

And it has a lot of darkness worth exploring. 

So why is google translate so popular?

To state the obvious, it is the selling power of ‘freeness.’

Translators! Please Help Me Starve You

Google translate asks translators to play into its hands.

Free Tip: Mistrust Google translate english to arabic when you translate idioms and idiomatic expressions. It will fail for sure. 

As a translator, you may have come across Google Translate Community where google translate asks you to help it get better at translation, “Your help will enhance translations for millions of users.”

May be they are right.

But Google here is silent on how your help would reduce the size of your already tiny slice of the translation pie.

In other words, google translate asks you to help it starve you.

It is no rocket science and doesn't need a strategist. 

The better the translational performance of google translate, the fewer jobs the translators will find available.

Please don’t misunderstand me.

I don’t ask you not to contribute. It’s your call to help it or not.

I did contribute myself.

Simply, Google asks you to forsake yourself ‘for the sake of humanity.’

Would you do it? 

Google Translate: Googol Numbers In Translation

Google translate now boasts 500 million monthly users.

They claim that google translate produces in translation over 100 billion words a day, an output which takes a year (Google speculates) if you use the services of all professional human living translators around the globe.

 

Their numbers don't seem to be OK. 

If it is 100 billion words per day, this can be produced by 1 million translators in only a month (not a year). There should be only 100 thousand translators in the whole world for this statement to be reasonable. 

And if google translate has 500 million monthly users (And we have no reason not to believe Google), then it has at least 17 millions of distinct daily users. With 100 billion words translated per day, each one of those 17 million daily users translates 6000 words, i.e. 24 pages.

How much time do you need to copy and paste 24 pages in google translate, let alone to type them?

Do you know someone who uses google translate to translate 3 books monthly?

I am a translator and never used Google's service for over 2 or 3 pages daily. 

A little bit of humility, please!

Imagine that Netherlands spends this time on the land of google translate, each and every day.

Forget the population of google translate state.

Let's now get to what matters for translators. 

Due to the lack of statistics related to translation industry, the number of human translators (taking Google's statement as true) would be 100 thousand translators.

This is calculated given that a translator’s daily translation output would be 3000 words, giving all translators a month as annual leave. Their right. Right?

If for any reason google translate ceases to exist, each translator among the living would find daily translation jobs of 1 million words. Easy. Google translate translation production 100 billion words divided by the number of all translators 100 thousand. 

As you know, before this beast was created, human translators (contrast human and beast, not intended) were the only providers of translation service.

If only 1% (one percent) of this translation volume has to be translated, every translator on the planet Earth would have daily translation jobs of 10000 words, that is $ 1000, given that a translator charges $ 0.1 per word.

If you happen to be a translator and you don’t find translation jobs to earn one’s bread, you now know who to blame. 

How about a translators' manifesto with the slogan "Translators of the world, unite!"?

Selfish perspective? 

May be. 

But it is alarming, at least for the translators worldwide.

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