ANGELO ESPINOSA CASTILLO TMA 04 L-161 G-1858611

self-assessment Part1

The comments made by the tutor on my previous TMA were very helpful,
especially in the linguistic field (improving my level of written English,
vocabulary and reading as well as the use of formal registration in the essays)
although it is true that my essays are far from being considered perfect, during
this course I have developed a higher level of reading comprehension in subjects
of greater complexity, however one of my many weaknesses is not knowing how
to choose my ideas due to the excess of them and to stay at the end with the less
important ones as well as the use of evidence that supports my arguments,
resulting in a poor and meaningless essay
For this TMA, I am trying to choose my arguments better, giving support to the
book with internet themes and more accurate evidence. Avoiding informal
registration as much as possible and giving more precision to language and
punctuation.
This subject has made me realize that a language is not only grammar and
communication, it is a broad world full of diversity that defines us and makes us
unique.

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Online translation tools will render translation by humans obsolete. To what

extent do you agree with this prediction? Part2

Over the years, technology has experienced great technological advances, so it

can be said that the human being lives in the era of the technological revolution.
The latest discoveries in the field of computer industry and telecommunications
have been factors of change in the workplace and in the daily life of today's
society, positive on the one hand (saving time and communication without
borders between people through smartphones and other digital tools) and
negatives (replacement of the human being by a machine, business closures and
an increasing dependence on these technologies as a syndrome of the 21st
century.
In the field of translation and interpretation, digital tools capable of translating
texts in a matter of seconds have been introduced, this being positive to the work
of the translator as a support to their work but at the same time negative as it is
increasingly replaced by a digital translation tool.
A professional translator is like an artisan whose education received not only
covers the language and grammatical aspects, but also cultural, dialectic, religious
and customs aspects of each country, important to take into account when
translating without offending sensitivity of the public in countries whose point of
view is not equivalent. for Example: The use of formal and informal registration
as well as personal treatments are different in each country, so a text translated
into Spanish from Spain with the use of informal registration such as tu instead
of usted (you in an informal way) to an elderly person, may be offensive and
unacceptable to readers in Latin American countries.
Many translators have opted for processes of transcreation in order to adapt to
cultural norms and tastes. for example: the transcreation of the comic Spiderman
in India, recreated in a Hindu context and whose elements were completely
changed, reflect certain tasks of professional translators that machines still cannot
achieve.
For the development of a translation, a professional uses glossaries and
specialized document sources for their documentation and context, immediately
afterwards, it is translated and finally the review and delivery of the work, despite
being a task of days, It is more reliable than digital translators especially in the
legal, political and economic field.
Currently, it is increasingly common for companies to demand their translations
with very tight dates, which has caused translators to develop them in record time,
thanks to digital technologies, a number of assisted translation tools have been
developed as a support to the work of translators, being speed one of its best
advantages, for example if an average translator can translate 20 pages a day, a
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digital program is able to do it in 5 seconds, besides having the option of perform

translation by segments and its subsequent storage if it is reused for repetitive
texts.
Another of its advantages is to be free and accessible to the whole world, taking
into account that not all texts require human translation, the automatic translators
have provided great autonomy and comfort not only to professional translators,
but also to people without any knowledge in foreign languages because it is easy
to use and highly versatile due to the fact that it can be translated into a large
number of languages, it is undoubtedly flexible and adaptable tools.
For Example: google translate, capable of translating more than 100,000 million
words a day, the British national corpus as help tools for translators that gather
information from various sources, there are also electronic translators such as
PILOT, able to translate up to 4 languages in real time without the need of the
internet, an indispensable tool for tourism purposes.
the digital dictionaries, for their portability and easy handling have gained ground
to the classic printed dictionary, just typing the word and in a matter of seconds
its meaning appears as well as synonyms and antonyms, many digital dictionaries
have the option of pronunciation which has been very helpful in the work of the
translator and the common user, improving their linguistic skills, for example: the
English dictionary Oxford available to those who subscribe, or the Wordreference
without subscription and with the option of pronunciation.
In the field of language teaching, computer programs have been developed, as
well as applications for mobile telephones and social networks oriented to
language exchanges, for example: duolingo, which besides being a website for
learning languages for free, is also a crowdsourcing platform for text translation,
on a smaller scale is wesspeeke.com or livemocha.com for free, as well as
YouTube, with its tutorials and language courses increasingly used worldwide
But not all are advantages, although automatic translation is cheaper, faster and
its accuracy is acceptable, the reality is that it is far from achieving results in
terms of linguistic constructions, meaning, approach, context and interpretation
that professional translators , being thus better seen as a complementary option to
the work of translation and interpretation, a machine will always be a machine,
through this statement it is implied that our work is irreplaceable.
Example: the regulation and tourist guide given by the national administration of
Chinese tourism in 2006 translated by google translate in English, although it
provides the tourist information on the behaviour and discipline that must be
carried in that country, a clumsy literal translation, lacking of sense and
unacceptable in many cases to the public.
Many translations made by the automatic translators are unacceptable to the
public, since the automatic translators do not take into account the
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codes of ethics and general principles of translation that govern the profession of
translator and interpreter, this being a problem in countries with different beliefs.
As for online dictionaries, they end as soon as the subscription is not renewed,
being only temporary as well as digital books, which has given place to piracy
activities as happened with music and movies.
In most dictionaries and digital translators advertising interrupts searches to the
point of becoming annoying as well as cookies and viruses being dangerous to
computers.
In the field of language teaching, although it is true that these courses and
language applications are useful for introducing the user with the language,
thereby creating the basis of the language of learning, they cannot replace real
practice, since learning a language is not just about memorizing words and
grammar rules, being the cultural field of the target language one of the most
important thing in a language learning.
Another factor to consider is the motivation that digital tools cannot provide to
the user, resulting in lack of commitment and consequent abandonment to
learning
In the field of professional interpretation, the substitution of a human being for a
machine is impossible, especially in matters related to justice, medicine or
business.
For example. The work of an interpreter in a trial is very important, since the
sentence will depend on the testimony made by the client and to a large extent the
way in which he interprets it in the trial, since a simple word can change the
meaning of the message that is meant to be understood.

It is worth mentioning the possible consequences of the excessive use of digital

tools, among the most frequent are: social isolation, linguistic blockages and the
fear of making a fool of either speaking a language or socializing with someone.

For the moment, as long as the automatic translation does not reach a high level
of development, the translator’s work will be safe, these machines will always
need a human helping hand (the final correction) no matter if they can translate
documents in record time, but it is not just that, but there are several factors that
make impossible a total replacement of the human being, among which stand out:
-the tone of voice and nuances, the machine cannot interpret the mood of the
people or if it is loud or soft.
-The gestuality as well as the emphasis, in many languages and cultures the
gestuality plays a very important role.
-The sayings and phrases made very common in society, to be translated literally
lose their meaning in other languages.
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Translation requires skill, experience, and, in many cases, specific knowledge

about a particular topic. For this reason, it is always better to use a professional
translation service and let the machine translate on those occasions when time is
a problem.

CONCLUSION

While it is true that technologies have been developed to the point of making the
work of human beings easier, it is very early to think of a total replacement of the
human hand, in a certain sense the technologies are developed precisely by the
human being , so there will always be flaws and weaknesses that will make their
presence mandatory in the process of technological development, whether in the
linguistic, spatial or scientific field. The human being is not perfect and therefore
their inventions either, through this statement it is concluded that until an
incredible discovery occurs, the machines will not be able to replace humans but
rather, they will make their life more comfortable and unfortunately in many
cases less social.

NUMBER OF WORDS: 1498

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REFERENCE LIST

Website references
Most of these website references were used as support of the module materials
and as a brief introduction of the topic

-Alan Henry. 2014. https://lifehacker.com/five-best-language-translation-tools-

1634228212. [ONLINE] Available at: https://lifehacker.com/five-best-language-
translation-tools-1634228212. [Accessed 14 September 2014].

-Sage Lazzaro. 2017. Google Is Using Artificial Intelligence to Make a Huge

Change to Its Translate Tool. [ONLINE] Available at:
http://observer.com/2017/03/google-translate-neural-update/. [Accessed 3 June
2017].

-Hayley. 2013. IS MACHINE TRANSLATION THE INDUSTRY’S BIGGEST

THREAT?. [ONLINE] Available at:
https://www.languageinsight.com/blog/2013/is-machine-translation-the-
industrys-biggest-threat/. [Accessed 1 July 2013].

-Alison Kroulek. 2017. A Translation Showdown: Man vs Machine Translation.

[ONLINE] Available at: http://www.k-international.com/blog/human-
translation-vs-machine-translation-contest/. [Accessed 28 February 2017].

Module material references

-the open university (2012) greeting people , UK: the Open University . pag 45
book 1
(reference used to highlight how a simple greeting or a form of address can
change across cultures, either in a positive or negative acceptance )

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Bass, S. (2013) ‘Transcreation for marketing: why you need it more than
translation!, UK: 2013. Pag 131 book 3
( reference used as an example of the work done by a professional
translator that the machines still cannot)

-Julie-Ann Amos (4 Dec 2012) Body Language Across Cultures, UK: Body
language expert. Pag 202 book 3
(reference used to highlight the body language and its importance when we
speak a language across cultures)

AUSITOT (2012) Code of Ethics, AUSTRALIA: pag 141 book 3

(reference used to highlight the codes of ethics that govern the profession of
the translator and interpreter)

-Cory Doctorow , Oxford English Dictionary- the future, ed. by The Guardian
(UK: , 2013), p. pag 151. Book 4
(reference used to highlight the importance of the new digital dictionaries as
well as its new features)

-Cory Doctorow. 2013. Oxford English Dictionary – the future. [ONLINE]

Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/aug/23/oxford-
english-dictionary-future-digitally. [Accessed 23 August 2013]. (Website
referenced to support the module material reference, stated above)

-David Thomas, Why can't we all just stop texting and have an actual face-to-face
conversation for once?, ed. by Daily mail ([n.p.]: David Thomas, 2012), p. 69
book 4
(reference used as an evidence of in what the humans are becoming due the
excessive use of new technologies)

-Barbara Ann Kipfer, 9 reasons why print dictionaries are better than online
dictionaries, ed. by the WEEK (Uk: Barbara Ann Kipfer, 2013), p. 145. Book 4
(reference used to make a comparison between the digital dictionaries and
printed ones as well as its advantages and disadvantages)

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Wiktionary (2014) Talk:crowdsourcing, UK: wiktionary . pag:148 book 4

(reference used to highlight the use of crowdsourcing in some pages and
app in order to translate and learn a language)