Rather than simply highlighting the silly mistakes that machine translation makes, some translation and localisation providers are embracing its ability to cope with exponential growth in demand -- and basking in reflected glory as the PR machines of Google and Asia Online thunder on.
If you ever need to explain the difference between these systems and what bio-translators do for a living, Fire Ant & Worker Bee recommend the chain saw analogy. It's hilarious. "Translation software is like a chain saw," ATA's media spokesman Kevin Hendzel is quoted as saying in a letter to President Obama. "It's an invaluable tool when you have to chop a lot of wood in a hurry, but you need skill to use it safely -- and it's not recommended for surgery."
Nor will a chain saw get you far if you want to cut boards, paper, textiles, a roast turkey, your fingernails, or a steak at a business lunch, says Fire Ant. At the same time, why use human translators to gist huge quantities of random content? "Surgeons could also saw logs with their scalpels, but it would be an absurd waste of their talent and capabilities."
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