Transcreation and Post-editing: The Future of Translation?

If you’re reading this, there is a high chance that you are interested – as least a little – in translation. But you’ve probably never heard about transcreation or post-editing, which is totally normal at this point. The translation world is big, and there are many aspects to discover. Let me introduce you to two of them.

What Do We Mean by Transcreation?

Transcreation is a mix between translation, localization and creativity. As for translation, it implies adapting a message in another language. The difference is that there’s also a good part of localization involved. Yes, I know, another word that might mean nothing to you. Well, localization consists in adapting the message to the culture of the target language. That is why creativity is needed. In order to translate not only words and their meaning but also cultural references, the translator needs to distance himself from the source text. It can be said that the translator forgets the words to focus on the purpose of the message.

Now you might see why transcreation is more than mere translation. Besides translating and writing skills, a transcreator needs extended knowledge about the target culture and a good amount of creativity.

What about Post-editing?

Post-editing refers to the process whereby a linguist edits a translation generated by a machine translation software. Wait, what? People are paid to correct translations generated automatically? Exactly. Indeed, machine translation includes a pre-editing and a post-editing step. The process isn’t entirely automatic (not yet, anyway).

The task of the post-editor is almost the same as the task of the revisor. The main difference is that one reviews a translation generated automatically by a machine translation software whereas the latter reviews a translation made by a human translator.

Basically, post-editing consists in finding grammatical, syntactic, stylistic or semantic mistakes and errors. It also implies checking and correcting the terminology used in the translation. Moreover, the job of the post-editor is also to ensure the coherence of the translation before submitting it to clients. There must be no inconsistencies whether in terms of vocabulary or style. In a few words, post-editing belongs to the Quality Assurance (QA) process.

Automation of Translation

Since it’s the 21^st century, translation has nothing to do any more with Saint Jerome – the patron saint of translators – and his translation of the Bible. While the purpose remains the same, the methods have evolved considerably. The biggest changes are the technologization and automation of the translation process. From online dictionaries and word processing software to computer-assisted translation (CAT) tools and machine translation, professional translation is closely linked with the latest technical progress. If you hate everything even remotely related to a computer and only live by real paper and pens, I’m afraid it will be complicated for you to be part of the world of professional translation.

Let’s get real here. Translators receive work on their computer, translate on their computer, look up missing information on their computer, communicate with clients on their computer, use time-saving tools on their computer…well, you get it. But there’s no need to be afraid, you don’t need to be really tech savvy in order to master all the tools and software used to translate. With a bit of practice, it will be quite easy.

To go back to the automation of translation, it’s a process that will undoubtedly keep expanding in the next few years. That’s why it is better to start thinking about it in order to adapt as fast as possible.

The Future of Translation

All that being said, what does it mean for the future of translation? Even if nothing can be said for sure, translators and future translators have to take into account the current evolution of translation if they don’t want to be totally lost. Swimming against the tide is not the best idea. And, considering that machine translation has yet more progress to do in fields such as marketing or literature – because of what we said about transcreation – it might be a good idea for future translators to get specialized in this field of work.

The same can be said about post-editing. Even if machine translation is able to produce translations of very good quality for technical and legal documents, these translations need to be checked and edited by a human translator. Can you imagine a contract being signed without having been read by a translator? What if the computer makes a mistake that leads to litigation later on? That would be embarrassing for sure.

That’s why, in my opinion, translators still have good days in front of them. Working habits and the type of work will change – that’s for sure – but it won’t mean that language experts aren’t needed any more. After all, the globalization of the world doesn’t look like it will stop anytime soon, so being able to communicate despite language barriers will be more important than ever.

Poquet Rachel