JUST HOW GOOD IS AI TRANSLATION?

By Carlos de Paula

 

I have been exposed to machine translation from the very beginning, so in the 90s I had already tried computer software in a few language pairs. To tell you the truth, they were all very bad back then.

 

However, time flies when you are having fun, and it does the same when you are not. With time translation software has become better, I must admit. However, most AI translations still sound like AI text, devoid of style and life, incapable of understanding figures of speech, cynicism, irony, humor, nuances, and the proverbial text between the lines.

 

However, I knew that sooner or later it would be widely adopted as a tool, so in the last couple of decades I continued to study several software titles in myriad languages.

 

As it stands, AI produced translation still has a major problem: it reads context very poorly. That, in certain languages, can have disastrous consequences, for the same word can have different meanings in the same language, for instance, “recurso” can have several meanings in Portuguese. This can cause all types of nasty havoc. Embarrassment is one such problem. Legal issues are more serious, for, to this day, the most popular AI translation tools around make positive negative, and negative positive, with disturbing frequency. This in a contract can lead to litigation, great expense and loss of face.

 

Not only that, AI frequently picks up the wrong translation for a given term, often leading to hilarious renderings. Again, translation software fails to connect the dots where the dots are often very important.

 

Another problem is that AI translation works reasonably when text is well written. As writing skills are in short order these days, AI is often used to make sense of the senseless, haphazardly put together, ghastly collections of words. A badly written text will sound wacky, bizarre, after being put through translation software.

 

In short, commercial planes are flown by automatic pilot for the longest part of a trip, but qualified pilots have to take-off and land the darn things. It is no different with translations.

 

Let us face it, one cannot stop the wheels of commerce. Businesses penny-pinch as much as possible when it comes to translation work, it has always been so, for it is often seen as nuisance.  Now that it is available a few clicks away, for free, the perception is that we translators have been highway robbers all along.

 

I saw the writing on the wall and specialized in editing AI produced translations, for it is the future of the written translation industry, whether we like it or not. I have been able to turn atrocities and inaccuracies into good and precise text,  even making them enjoyable. When a client comes to me with “a translation he did”, I already know what that means. I only draw the line on certified document translations: I do not accept AI done translations prepared by clients, after all, I have to certify that I did it. Those are done from scratch.

 

Whether AI will ever reach perfection is debatable. Brazilians, for one, like to be witty, and AI fails to handle wittiness all that well, so that a culturally competent editor will always be necessary. In other words, rather than making it my number one enemy, I decided to coexist with it. We translators have no choice. I am not that handsome to become an influencer.

 

Carlos de Paula is one of the top Brazilian Portuguese translators in the USA since 1982. And now a top Portuguese AI Translation editor as well. 

Tourists staying away from Miami Beach in droves - one the reasons why

This Saturday, I decided to eat at Lincoln Road. I know most locals think of eateries there as expensive tourist traps of questionable quality, but there are a few good places, such as Cafe Nexxt, where my wife and I planned to have an inexpensive, honest and nourishing lunch.

So we drove to the nearest South Beach  parking lot, the large public parking across from City Hall in 17th Street. Until recently, the rate was US$ 1.00 an hour. They boosted it up to US$ 2.00 an hour a few months ago. Still not bad, considering there are places that charge as much as US$50 for all day parking. When we got there, although the lit sign said OPEN, there were two orange cones blocking the entrance.

I found that peculiar, because the city has been quite empty the last few weeks. The other day I found parking in the 7th Street Lot without any problems, in one of the first levels, on a weekend, too.

The 17th Street lot has two peculiarities. Tons of spaces are taken up by City Government vehicles. Not too sure that there is no other place for city vehicles to be parked by the dozen, they certainly might be more inconvenient for city workers. The fact is, dozen of places are taken up by them every day, not bad when the city is empty, very annoying when it is full.

The other peculiarity is that elevators are often not working. Al least the ones facing Lincoln Road. Wonder if the ones facing town hall are out of order - the only time I try to use them because the ones  facing Lincoln Road were all broken, they worked fine. Just a coincidence, I reckon...

So it seems that the lot is managed not for tourist and resident convenience, rather, for city workers' convenience. 

As there was no one around to explain the orange cones, I decided to park in the New Symphony Parking Lot, which is just across from the street, and have used in the past. Tons of spaces. No problem.

When I came back, after a two-hour lunch, problem, BIG PROBLEM. I found out that the rate for that day was a flat US$ 15.00...Then I found out the information posted in a barely legible and small sign, with a very light green background and white letters. Anybody that knows a little bit about graphics, will come to the conclusion that the signage was designed with  the intent not to be seen, specially under the sun. Red colors or a darker background, plus a better position would ensure the prospective client was better informed.

New World Symphony - Public Parking with a difference

So, my inexpensive lunch suddenly became US$ 11.00 more expensive.

Parking woes in Miami Beach, involving private tow companies Beach Towing and Tremont Towing are reported by the hundreds. However, when the city government seems to be playing numbers games with parking figures and signs, you realize that tourists might be getting tired of getting the shaft from a city that is treating tourists (and residents) badly.

Incidentally, there was no major event in Miami Beach at all to warrant such "Flat Rate" all day, and Lincoln Road was quite empty. So that a huge convention center might not be the answer, after all.   

The plight of the foreign Physical Therapist in the United States

It is a known fact that the U.S. population is getting older, and the demand for services to an aging population is increasing with every passing year in the country. Physical Therapy is among such services, meaning that the demand for these professionals is increasing all over the country. Job surveys and lists of future good careers generally include physical therapy, for the very same reasons stated. However, U.S. physical therapy graduates are not keeping up with the demand, which means that foreign physical therapists are being called to fill the gap.

The first step for a foreign physical therapist is getting a degree validation from specialized agencies such as FCCPT and ICA, which analyze the transcripts, degrees and syllabi and issue opinions which are widely recognized as authoritative. From that point on, it is up to individual state regulatory and licensing agencies to approve the applications or require the applicant to obtain more credits. So it is a good idea for the foreign physical therapist to find out which agencies are acceptable to the regulatory agency of the state where he or she lives, or intends to live in. NACES members, for instance, might be accepted in one state, not the other.

 

For physical therapists from countries such as Great Britain, Australia, New Zealand and India, and countries that issue syllabus in English, things can be easier, for their academic documentation does not require translation. That is not the case of documentation of physical therapists from other countries. While translating transcripts, diplomas and certificates is not very expensive, course outlines, or syllabus are long documents that can run from a few dozen pages to over 400.

U.S. university syllabus are generally very concise documents, in fact, sometimes each subject can be summarized in a single paragraph in the most extreme situations. That is not the case of syllabi from a number of countries, where even a single subject can run over 10 pages.

A quick search for translations on the internet returns a number of companies with flashy and modern looking websites that provide “per page” pricing that, at first, seem to be a good deal. A lot of these companies are Silicon Valley startups which are, in general, unfamiliar with the specifics of translation work, in spite of their claims, and are based on marketing strategies and technological platforms which not always favor the client. These “per page” prices can range anywhere from US$ 19.95 to US$ 33.00 a page.

However, before even considering hiring such companies, one must look closely into such price structures for a very long document. The per page price does not mean pages with unlimited number of words, you will soon find out. In fact, the advertiser that charges US$ 19.95 a page defines a page, in very small print, as having 100 words. However, most document pages have way more than 100 words, and many syllabus pages have more than 500 words. Other companies define a page as having 250 words, and change pricing to per word after the threshold is met. This means that a lot of the syllabus pages do not even qualify for the seemingly low “per page” price. When the maximum threshold is exceeded, these companies normally charge between US$0.10 to US$0.12 a word. Yet, they still charge the “per page” price for pages with little text. So, a 400 page course outline, not uncommon, can cost a very hefty US$12,000.00 or even more.

The fact is that the vast majority of translation companies and individual translators in the U.S.A. are not familiar with the validation and evaluation process, so they price the entire document, which is a waste of your time and money, and makes the evaluator’s job much more difficult.  Far from the author suggesting these companies do this because they want to deceive and overcharge - I would say it is sheer ignorance.

So the best  alternative is seeking a specialist, such as Legal Translation Systems, which is located in the Miami area and has been doing this specific work since the 80’s. “Evaluators seek specific information on a syllabus, and a lot of it can be omitted. When we price a job, we only include the information required by the evaluators, who appreciate our effort. Recently, a client was quoted US$8,000.00 by a major Miami translation company, we did it for only US$3,200.00,” says Celia Pieroni, a manager. Pieroni also says that “physical therapy syllabi translations have to be prepared by an experienced translator, because the originals often have dozens to hundreds of mistakes, so the translator has to be very familiar with the specific terminology and make adjustments.”

The downside is Legal Translation Systems is a boutique company, which does all work in-house so it is limited to translating documents from Spanish, Portuguese, French and Italian. If your document is written in a different language, such as German and Dutch, you have a long process ahead of you. I suggest you visit the American Translators Association website for translators of other languages. Look for science or medical translation specialists.

In regards to the closing of Surfmed Pharmacy in Miami Beach

I am not a fan of large chain stores. Take, for instance, office supply stores. The other day I went to buy a bona fide stationary item at Office Max, and guess what, they did not have it. Not a very uncommon item, I might add. However, should I be inclined to stock up on popcorn, candy, Coca-Cola or toilet paper, I could buy loads upon loads of it.

Back in the old days, you could walk into a stationary store, and pretty much find thousands of stationary articles. Sometimes I wondered where they found room to stock everything, but they did. They were really specialized stores. Then Office Max, Office Depot and Staples came along and simply decimated the stationary business. We are stuck with them, really, them and their popcorn, candy and Coke.

The trouble with this is that you can find popcorn, candy and Coke in thousands of other stores, but how about some stationary guys??? Who run these stores, by the way? Probably some 21-year old high school graduate, not very well versed in office goods, who is glad to be called manager to impress girls and makes $ 8.23 an hour.

Pharmacies pretty much follow the same pattern. The other day I read an article in Forbes magazine that provided the number of CVS stores in the USA. I almost fainted. Actually, in this neighborhood there are Walgreen stores almost every 1000 feet, it seems .

Do I shop in these pharmacies? Sure I do. For one, insurance companies cut deals with the chain pharmacies, and I suppose, leave out the few independents out there sucking their thumbs. I am stuck with CVS, in that regard, cannot really buy prescriptions anywhere else.

CVS and Walgreens, like the office supplies stores, are well stocked up in items such as high sugared drinks and candy/food, alcoholic beverages, and tons on non pharmaceutical or medical items. And they simply drove Miami Beach's Surfmed out of business.

"Joans, business is a Darwinian thing, the survival of the fittest". Here is the trouble, CVS and Walgreens, with all their junk food, booze, and in Walgreens' case, cigarettes (at least CVS dropped that product from their offerings), fail to provide surgical items, or specialty medical goods, which Surfmed sold. These are more related to their supposed core business, Pharmacy. But no, they drove the one store that sold this product in an area with a large elderly population, but are obviously not intent on selling this type of product.

So, you see, large is not always best.

Congratulations Miami Beach Government

Sometimes I tend to be overly critical, so let us give kudos where kudos are due.

Today, I saw that MB government can be very efficient indeed! I was parked at the public parking lot at 72nd and Collins, with a validated sticker until 3:55 PM. I kinda forgot about time, and when I returned to my car, there was one of those US$18.00 parking tickets. Well deserved, after all, I was paid in until 3:55 PM. My surprise was finding that the ticket had been written at 4:05, only ten minutes after my validated time!!!

I was dumbfounded by such efficiency. It took the zealous parking guy (or gal) only ten times to find my violation!!!

On the other side of the story, the same parking lot is full of ticket dispensing machines that work whenever they want, sometimes, never. Apparently, the city is very careful about sending employees to find cars that bypassed the allowed time by a mere ten minutes (having paid for six hours, by the way), yet, nobody obviously checks those dispensing machines, which would not be a difficult thing to do. Placing an OUT OF ORDER sign would be a nice thing, for, at times, I have had to try four different machines to get a ticket, walking around the lot like a zombie.

The non-working machines also sprung up a new industry. Every once in a while one can find a few folks of questionable pedigree hanging around in the parking lot, offering "help" with the machines. After "help" is provided (often telling tourists the machines are not working, duh!), they ask for money. This is obviously adding insult to injury. Plus people that openly solicit right on the parking lot, with open liquor containers, without any police intervention whatsoever.

How about the corner of 71st and Harding? I have seen MB crews working on the storm drainage system there, on and off, and they never get it right! In fact, once somebody hit a sewer line that literally spread feces all over the place. A recent heavy rain caused the whole area to be seriously flooded.

I know. Giving out parking tickets means revenue for the city. Checking out on broker dispensing machines, loitering on parking lots and storm drainage does not. I get it.

Let me rephrase. No congratulations, MB. Shame on you.

Miami New Times, where hipocrisy never stops

A recent edition of the Miami New Times had an article signed by Michel E. Miller, entitled "Porky`s Revenge". This was a follow-up to an article published in 2012, concerning an American who had been jailed in Panama.

In the third paragraph, the author says "Galeota admits he's done bad things, such as running Miami`s most infamous strip club, Porky`s, for years before moving to Panama and opening a brothel".

So, while the article says that strip clubs and brothels are "bad things", the New Miami Times is undoubtedly the largest promoter or smut in Miami EVER! The last pages of the paper are filled with ads of "bad" strip clubs plus tons of smaller ads for Oriental Massage spas, which a lot of people say, are nothing more than mini-brothels. Thus, we assume that the paper cares very little about bad things in the community, in fact, it might be highly responsible for a large share of condom sales and STDs in Miami!!!

The problem is that the NMT spends tons upon tons of paper uncovering all types of corruption that happens in this area. Maybe, by taking paying ads from "bad things", the paper lacks moral standing, if I dare say it, to criticize corruption, another bad thing, at all levels. After all, even the most stringent protector of civil liberties will not say tons of strip clubs and massage parlors are good for a community!

I do not at all recall the paper running an expose on such massage parlors or even the activities of such strip clubs, although it takes direct hits on political corruption, business in general, not for profits, religion, card readers, car dealerships, gambling, universities, criminals, sports franchises, artists, celebrities, real estate developers, police, etc.  

Sure, the paper and the author might actually say that Galeota was the one referring to brothels and strip clubs as bad things, that this did not reflect the paper's view. Or they might say running strip clubs and massage place advertisements does not mean they condone or support these businesses, that they will take an ad from any legit business. I wonder what would happen if a church attempted to place an ad in the NMT....

Shame on you Experian

Nothing against credit reporting agencies. I believe they serve a noble purpose in society. Not to say that I did not have problems with them. A couple of years back, I found that my credit report contained a couple of issues (fully resolved, not a cent due for many years) dating back almost 20 years ago,  plus a tax lien that should not have been there, for it was also mistakenly filed by the tax authority, which by the way, was not even federal. Beats me how much communication there is between creditors and bureaus, once matters do get solved. Apparently, not much.

Notwithstanding this contretemps, I do not loathe them as enemies. They help  a smoother running society, I always thought.

The other day, I decided to get my free copy of a credit report, which I am entitled to once a year. I kept on getting calls from a collection agency, calling my name, however, the last four digits of the SS were different. Just in case, I thought I should check.

That site run by the three major agencies was of no help. It kept on asking questions that made no sense, and when I replied them in the negative, I was told I needed to provide more identification for security reasons. That raised a flag, so I went to the Experian site.

On that site, I was told I could get a US$1 Credit Report immediately. Hey, almost for free, good deal. I just went for it. Of course, there was a catch. I would be charged 1 buck for that report, however, that meant I would agree to subscribing to a service they offer for 17 bucks and change a month. I could cancel the subscription within 7 days, though, and nothing would additional be charged.

So I decided to do it. These are the folks that oversee credit in the USA, they would not play hooky, would they? I signed up for everything online. Easy as a breeze, and my credit report was clean, good credit rating so I was happy as Madonna when she says something stupid. All I would need was remembering that I had seven days to cancel the US$204.00 annual additional expense I can do without - yes, 17 bucks a month adds up to about 204 dollars annually.

My memory has not gone to the dumps as much as I thought, and seven days after I signed up, I remembered that I needed to cancel the unwanted subscription.

Then, the first surprise.

As with most companies, signing up for things is easy. 1-2-3, everything on-line no problem. To cancel, though, it is an altogether different story. I needed to call a number, and you know what that means. Waiting on the line for quite a few minutes.

I decided that there was no way I would get stuck with the US$204.00 expense that would probably go on forever, or at least until my credit card expires. So I waited, and waited, then I got this cheerful female voice on the phone.

I explained my intent. Then she started telling me about the advantages, blah, blah, blah, blah. She was very pleasant, so I reconfirmed my intent, once again, and she continued babbling about how my life would be so much better with their service. Once I rejected the offer one more time, then she hit me. "Well, today we are offering nice subscribers such as you at 50 % off, with the same benefits".

That totally outraged me. These are, after all, the sparkling clean folks who are supposed to protect uf from crooks, yet, their flip flop tactic, although not illegal, is a bit immoral if you ask me. If they can make money running this "program", which is not really a program, the information is just sitting there, for 8 dollars and change, why offer it for 17? I do not dream of doing this in my business. I have my price, and I will just negotiate up to a certain extent if the client is extremely pushy, but I never do a switch and bait. This is the stuff of dishonest lemon-car salesmen, not a reputable credit reporting agency.

The one thing that really annoyed me was that she was trying to convince me that I was lucky enough that the offer was available TODAY! She was trying to convince me what a lucky human being I was, right day to call and cancel! Maybe I should recheck my lotto tickets!!!!

Well, the end of story is, I still rejected the offer, and gave the pleasant lady a pleasant piece of my mind, saying this was a despicable marketing technique, blah blah blah.

Is this the stuff MBA's are learning at Harvard?