To keep myself informed of the industry I work with, I subscribe to quite a few translation and localization groups on LinkedIn. Every so often, someone posts something that resonates with group members so much that people write comments to continue the discussion, even after the original inquiry has been answered satisfactorily.
One recent example was about machine translation. Not surprisingly, many translators denounce machine translation and refuse to work with it in any shape or form. And with good reason: there are unscrupulous agencies out there asking linguists to post-edit machine translations for a pittance, sometimes at rates even lower than proofreading.
As I mentioned before, with low-context languages, machine translation is actually doing an adequate job for the most part. But to make a low-context language's machine translation up to snuff takes more than proofreading skills, and should be compensated accordingly. Any agency equating MT post-editing with mindless work has no respect for this industry or profession, and deserves to be avoided at all costs.
That being said, I'd like to offer my own perspective on machine translation. A few years ago, I really despised it. Look at Google Translate when it came out: what a joke that was! I had no faith in machine translation, and said so to any agencies that asked for my opinion on the matter.
Now that I have worked with machine translation personally, I can honestly say that it does have a place in this industry. One shouldn't depend on machine translation completely, of course. But the convenience it provides is well appreciated by many. Depending on the subject matter and whether it's translating low-context or high-context languages, some machine translation actually can produce usable results.
I haven't been converted yet. But I do think linguistic professionals shouldn't turn up their noses at the mention of "machine translation" alone. If the compensation is reasonable, take the plunge and add a feather in your cap. In my experience, the machine really is an ally worth knowing.
Please translate responsibly.
