How Good is Google Translate to Chinese

GOOGLE CHINESE TRANSLATOR

When people are looking for an urgent translation and don’t have enough time to consult a translation agency, they usually consider Google translate. But how much it is reliable?

Well, Google translate is considered the world’s best translation software among other online translation tools. It supports more than 100 language and 10 thousand language pairs. More and more people are relying on Google translate these days, as it is a great app for people who travel around the world. Google App developers are claiming that its neural system will soon be able to translate audio as well as video files. Therefore, we should expect rapid advances in the development of machine translations. In fact, we have already started seeing the initial effort that there has been an increase in research into developing algorithms for analyzing video and audio recordings.

Google developers introduced Neural Machine Translation System in 2016. It is based on an artificial neural network and was meant to provide good quality translation. Six years have passed since then, but did the translation quality improve?

In this article we’ll specifically discuss how much Google translate is reliable for the Chinese language, does it provide accurate translation or not? So, let’s see much it is effective!

CHINESE LANGUAGES

Chinese languages especially Mandarin and Cantonese are becoming more and more important on international platforms and Chinese nationals are increasingly making their presence felt across the world. People out there are increasingly moving abroad for education, investment, and employment opportunities. Hence the need for effective communication with them is more crucial than ever.

In most multilingual situations, whether it’s traveling, business purposes, or just a simple daily life conversation, people consider Google translate as the most reliable translation app. No doubt Google translate has become a platform for quickly deciphering a phrase, but the viability is it is limited to some extent. In addition, it is highly unreliable for specific language pairs. In the case of the Chinese language, Google translate may not be the best choice, but why? Let’s have a look!

HOW DOES GOOGLE TRANSLATE WORK?

You might be wondering why Google translate is better for some languages than others, right? Well, in order to understand so, first we need to understand what is actually going on behind the scenes, how Google translate app works and all that?

So basically, Google translate uses pair of words between the source language and target language as a base structure to offer a translation. A single word can have multiple pairs in a language, and without only context, it is very hard (almost impossible) for this method to provide an accurate piece of translation. Usually, without the help of a human translator, three will be very clear translation errors, even in common language pairs. English to Spanish, for instance, you will generally find it pretty much accurate but still there will be typically shortfalls; nuances come into play with other language pairs as well, such as English to Chinese and vice versa.

In fact, the advanced Google Neural Machine Translation is unable to resolve these common mistakes. The problem is even larger for uncommon language duo like Chinese to Spanish.

HOW GOOD IS GOOGLE TRANSLATE TO CHINESE?

Unfortunately, Google translate is not an ideal choice for the Chinese language, here are some reasons why:

1. Google Translate is Inaccurate for Medical Translations  

Google translate is too inaccurate when it comes to medical translation. According to research, Google translates made translation mistakes on 8% of the Mandarin Chinese medical instructions. In medical lines, even a minor translation error can lead to inaccurate language interpretation. In Germany, around 47 knee replacement surgeries failed due to inaccurate translation of the prosthesis type. So, it is very risky to rely on Google translate for such important matters.

2. Western Languages Don’t Easily Hold on to the Chinese Languages

Nuance and cultural considerations are very crucial when it comes to the actual meaning behinds the phrase and technical terms in languages such as clichés and idioms. They don’t make sense without their natural context.

Google translate is unable to translate simple phrases with accuracy in Chinese translation. Academic research has shown that machine translation remains only really useful for understanding the gist of what is being said rather than translating word by word; the only way to resolve this is to train enough native speakers of Mandarin to translate every single sentence accurately. Check this blog post to know about Chinese Name Translation.

3. The Wrong Dialect 

When it comes to addressing an international audience, it is very crucial to make sure that you are providing the services in the language of your target audience. A lot of businesses have failed in China just because of not taking into account regional customs properly. The local dialect is an important part of regional customs. There are three to seven major dialects in China, Mandarin and Cantonese are notable among all. So, it is very important to confirm which local dialect to need to address. Even though Mandarin is the national language of China, it will become much more difficult to communicate with locals when you get farther away from the capital.

Google Brain is far away from all these regional differences, for example, English to Chinese Google Translate results in obvious errors and inaccurate translation. So if you want your business a proper name in China, make sure to address the right Chinese version. Do you want to get

4. Privacy Issues 

Google translate app is free, but do you really think that you are using it for free? No, because you are truly paying it with the thing that actually cost more than anything; your Privacy!

You can clearly see their terms of services that you all Google to use, modify, reproduce, host your work. Nobody wants to take risks because privacy matters a lot. Only professional translation companies or translators can promise security and confidentiality.

5. Unable to Transcreate 

The translation is more about art than hard and fast science. Translators often massage and manage all the technical and common terms to make sure that the reader will be able to understand both the meaning and the intention of the phrase. This process of managing the flow of source language in the target language is termed Transcreation.

In order to transcrete a language, a translator needs exceptional linguistic skills and a thorough knowledge of the target audience. Transcreation is often needed when you need to advertise your business. Sales are all about the connection between the customer and a good tagline. Google translate, to the best of its ability, will translate everything literally, but with the help of a translator, you can get transcreated content. So your target audience will understand the core message of the content.

Wrap Up 

Chinese languages are leading all around the world as the country industrializes and Chinese businesses and tourists are becoming ever more popular sight. People are trying to enter the massive Chinese market to avail successful opportunities. If you are considering Google or other machine translation programs to get your content translated and expecting correct translation, better think again!

Google translate may provide accurate single-word translation or some sentences in isolation but you can’t get entirely accurate translations. So, it is always better to go to professional human translators to get accurate quality of translation.