How Machine Translation is Increasing Accuracy for Asian Markets & Beyond

Over time, the art and science of translation and localization have become more refined, efficient, and accurate with the discovery of new technologies and innovations. Machine Translation (MT) — and one of its more specific methods, Neural Machine Translation (NMT), is one of these new tech avenues that is becoming more widely adopted by the platforms and companies of the localization world. In fact, MT has proven particularly effective for companies that are localizing into languages that are not comprised of traditional Latin characters, such as Asian languages.

In this post of our Machine Translation series, we take a closer look at the recent trends, research, and successful use cases of how the localization world is embracing Machine Translation for localization into Asian markets and beyond.

Marrying human and Machine Translation increases accuracy in Asian localization efforts

Entrepreneur Asia Pacific explains how “[translation] accuracy is in the eye of the beholder,” as proven by how leading companies vary in the way they approach and leverage machine and human translation in their localization efforts in new Asian markets. “In the translation world, it's not the question of whether you can use a machine or not. It’s not a binary decision. It's more of asking where I can use it.”

Human translators more productive when editing Machine Translated content

Recent studies reveal that “humans are more productive when post-editing machine-translated content, rather than translating from scratch.” Based on this, localization researchers optimistically posit that “understanding how human post-editors work could open the door to the design of better interfaces, smarter allocation of human translators to content, and automatic post-editing.”

Baidu productizes speech-to-speech translation through AI and MT

In other localization innovation news, Slator reports that Baidu recently released its “speech-to-speech machine simultaneous interpretation service” — a new localization technology leveraging AI and MT. With this, “the tech giant claims to be able to translate ‘just a few seconds into the speaker’s speech and finish just a few seconds after the speaker finishes, very much like a simultaneous interpreter.’”

The promising state of Neural Machine Translation for Asian Languages

Slator highlights how “research on NLP and NMT for Asian languages is ascendant and promising. It is still in the stage of resource accumulation due to its features. Most Western languages are cognate languages, and their letters are basically Latinized. … However, compared to the West, Asian languages have different sources, and the spectrum is diverse. The characters of Asian languages are complicated.”

Top companies with Asian presence set to attend NMT Revolution Conference

Machine Translation technology is gaining traction and momentum worldwide, especially for companies localizing into Asian markets. Following this trend, top companies active in China will be attending the Neural Machine Translation Revolution Conference this month, which “focuses on the use of Neural Machine Technology (NMT) in the globalization process of Chinese companies.”