@ writeaway 22:38 May 12, 2020
There is nothing "embarrassing" there.
The fundamental problem / nasty trap with machine translation, outdated or latest version, is not that the MT is always wrong, or clumsy. It's not.
You will get more or less often perfectly usable "translations" **of short fragments**- even sometimes exactly what you would use. That doesn't make MT in any way better than or a replacement for a professional translator.
The real problem is that at times MT will get it hopelessly wrong, and if you are unlucky the proposed "translation" will sound perfectly acceptable (in the sense of "nicely said", as opposed to being obvious gibberish)
THEN it can turn really nasty - if you don't have a way of comparing with the ST (you don't have it or you don't understand the language of the ST) - you could easily assume that the "nicely flowing" but wrong and useless part is as good as the "good" parts. And if you are really really unlucky - the hopelessly/farcically/ ... wrong but convincingly sounding "translation" will be the translation of the key point of the whole text! And if that happens, just these few wrong words will make ten / hundred times more damage than any "saving" made by using MT |