In this age of Machine Translation (MT) and the resultant Post-Editing Machine Translation (PEMT), we, as translators, wonder whether indeed the machine is the fastest tool for translation of voluminous tasks, especially the not-so-technical texts. I have realized, to some extent, that the machine can be much slower than man. That does not sound true in the ears of the lovers of machine translation. However, it is the bitter pill that we all need to swallow. Have you ever had to edit a very bad machine translation? Have you ever had to painstakingly proofread every word and unpleasantly retranslate every letter and word? I am sure you are nodding your head and can relate very well. No doubt! You will confess that you spent more time post-editing than you would have spent if you had translated the text yourself or had been engaged by the client to do the translation (in case the machine translation was sent by the Client). Machines are technical elements and are good when they have to handle technical texts. Generally and indisputably, machines are devoid of emotions and creativity (unless man attempted to programme them to be quite creative) and cannot be trusted to handle certain documents.
Probably, machines will work much better in future. Notwithstanding, today, a good human translator should be the preferred choice as Man can be
and is faster than the Machine, in some important cases. Probably, as some translation scholars have rightly observed, Man and Machine should be seen as partners and not competitors as they need each other to deliver efficiently. However, that is another issue for future discussion.
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