Machine translation translates source content from one language into one or more other languages. The best example of such a tool is the one that we probably all tried at least once, with varying results – Google Translate. After all the hype surrounding MT, we came to understand that machine translation will never fully replace professional human translators, since no machine is able to comprehend all the nuances of any language. However, machine translation remained a tempting solution for specific types of content.

The hybrid that rightfully appeared after hundreds of people spend their time and effort correcting terrible Google Translate mistakes could be ‘the new black’ of the translation world: the Machine Translation and Human Review approach is more functional and definitely more effective than machine translation and much cheaper and faster than a manual translation. In short, when applying this approach, the content is translated using a machine translation engine and then gets edited by a professional translator to achieve the desired quality level. The question that probably comes to your mind is ‘But is a machine translation and human review approach good enough for my content’? Keep on reading to find out.

What are the Advantages of ‘Machine Translation and Human Review’ Approach Compared to Regular Translation?

The most obvious advantages that I’ve already mentioned are the speed and cost. Let’s not forget that professional translation done from scratch, requires plenty of attention to detail and work to transmit the same message from the source content into the translated version. A professional translator simply has to dedicate a great deal of time and effort to performing full translation of a given content. Note that translators usually charge a fixed fee – per word – so you will have your first translation made at a price without discounts.

With a machine translation + human review approach, you can expect an overall cost reduction of around 40% compared to a professional translation by a human translator. The speed is another major benefit. Of course, it all depends on the language combination of your project, but usually, the projects under 5k to 10k words are translated within 24 hours.

Machine translation itself is the cheapest and the fastest option, but as already mentioned (probably everywhere), its quality will leave you and your customers feeling underwhelmed, if not annoyed or neglected.

So… How Should I Know If ‘Machine Translation with Human Review’ is an Approach Good Enough for My Content?

The answer may be simple and unsurprising, but it simply all depends on the content you want to translate.

For multilingual companies who need to translate e-mails and basic communication, machine translation and human review would be the best solution for quick results. The best example would be Text United Outlook Integration, where e-mails are machine-translated and edited by human translators. It’s the best solution possible for this type of content because e-mails are usually short and straightforward. Of course, machine translation is still not good enough when it comes to quality, that’s why the human review is a crucial part.

Content such as recipes, cooking instructions or technical tutorials on how to use an app, or even FAQs usually doesn’t require professional translation because of their simplicity when it comes to grammar, style, and semantics. They still require the highest quality, but this can be achieved by simply using a machine translation and human review approach.

While it all depends on your business, simple websites and small e-commerce translation projects can be generally be machine translated and reviewed by human translators, too.

Machine Translation and Human Review at TextUnited

We realize that this approach is the new black! That’s why from now on, our system supports a new kind of paid translation services, which are tailored specifically to the needs of good quality translation at a lower price.

How is this achieved? To create a new machine translation with human review project:

#1. Simply upload your files at TextUnited
#2. Choose a new option: Machine & Human Review in the Project Creation Wizard

How Does It Work?

Your content is automatically machine translated and the project managers at TextUnited assign the task of reviewing its segments to professional translators. How come the price point is lower? The translators charge less for the translation since the content that they review, edit and rephrase has been already pre-translated.

While the quality of machine translated content often lacks the overall message and consistency of the source text, with the help of a human translator, the content greatly improves in quality and consistency. After the translation project is finished, you’ll receive a notification and you will be able to download the translated content in Text United, from your dashboard.

Oh, and since machine translation is not perfect, we never save machine translated segments to the Translation Memory. Only segments that are reviewed and confirmed by a translator will be saved to your Translation Memory and these will be available for future translation projects – in this way, you manage to maintain language accuracy and coherence.

Do you think machine translation and human review is good enough for your content? If yes…

You should start benefiting from it straight away!