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Here’s something to think about: how often do we have to wait for service these days?

Alternatively, when do we not mind waiting for service these days?

We’re a fast-paced society, fast to an extent that in certain cases, wait times of a few moments only are notable, and perceived as unacceptable. What’s the longest time you’re willing to wait at a restaurant’s drive-up window, before the temptation to lean on your horn becomes irresistible? How long can you stand in line for a bank teller without becoming seriously annoyed? Why is having slow Internet access so much more infuriating than having no Internet access? On the other hand, when you take your car for servicing, you probably take a book and resign yourself to a long wait. The same goes for a visit to the doctor’s office.

A fast-concept experience doesn’t breed confidence in some situations. What about instant translation services?

Language needs often come up at the last minute. In the case of translation, this may be because foreign language documentation has not been prioritized, even if there’s a budget for it. When the need arises, or that long-planned project is finally approved to go forward, the eleventh hour may be at hand. This is when the idea of instant translation becomes quite attractive. But how advisable is it?

One obvious solution is translation by machine. We’ve written about this before, and the same pros and cons still apply. Yes, a machine translation can be executed very quickly… and yet, what are the savings, really? By relying on a machine, you may have slashed your turn-around time and lowered your translation cost, but by removing the human element from the equation, you have almost inevitably made a sacrifice in terms of quality. A machine cannot have a feel for language, the way a human translator can – they’re coming closer every year, true, but a flawless machine translator is still a thing of the future.

Example: here’s a phrase from French Wikipedia’s entry on Brachypelma smithi, the red-kneed tarantula (because your TrueLanguage blogger is English-French bilingual, and thinks tarantulas are neat): Si l’araignée se sent attaquée ou simplement excitée, elle détache avec les pattes de derrière les poils urticants fixés sur son abdomen et les lance contre l’agresseur.

First, here’s my translation of that phrase: If the spider feels attacked, or even just agitated, it detaches urticating hairs from its abdomen with its hind legs, and throws these at the attacker.

Now, I have taken the liberty of running the same phrase through a certainly highly popular, widely available Internet translation engine, one that gets better as it’s used – here’s what it came up with: If the spider feels attacked or simply excited, she removed with the hind legs stinging hairs fixed on his abdomen and lance against the aggressor.

You can see the problem, yes? A human translation that took a few minutes, and that reads naturally and accurately, vs. a machine translation, generated in less than a second, that’s a mechanical mess. And that’s just one line of text. Imagine that effect extended throughout a whole translated document, and reconsider the wisdom of those instant translation savings.

Some companies out there are using machine translation to good effect. This is because when the translation is generated, it goes to human linguists who whip it into shape. Depending on the accuracy of the machine used, this could cancel out your saved time entirely. Machine translation entails human clean-up. This may change in the years to come, but for now, that’s the way it is.

What about human solutions like the ones mentioned in the blog linked above? The ones where you share or tweet the text you need translated to a roster of available translators, and the translation comes back to you in minutes? As we wrote then, provided that the text is short and simple, this can be just what you need in some cases (where are the bathrooms? what does this label mean? does this packaged food contain peanuts or tree nuts?)… but you can’t be sure of your translator’s credentials. Rapid translation of this kind carries the same potential pitfalls as any kind of crowdsourced information. You have to take it with a grain of salt. Several large grains of salt. Not of definite quality, and not a solid basis for your multilingual outreach.

So, instant translation? Basically, no.

Instant interpretation? That’s another matter.

A need for time and reflection is baked into the act of translation. Interpretation, however, exists in the moment. It is a high-speed, high-stakes activity. You can’t extend the deadline, because there’s no deadline to extend – the “instant” in this case can only refer to how quickly you can connect with an interpreter. And fortunately, you can connect with an interpreter instantly.

Well, maybe not instantly… does a wait of 12-20 seconds sound reasonable?

The key to instant interpretation: the telephone. I’ll refer you to yesterday’s How-To Tuesday post to learn how to go about it, and to this earlier post as well. In short, interpretation is already instantaneous, if you think about it. Getting your interpretation right and getting it right now is just a matter of hooking up with a professional interpreter whenever and wherever you need one. And that is eminently possible!