Communication across the world’s many spoken languages is a problem. The technology that can help solve this problem is getting better and better. But the professionals, needed to use and improve the technology – at least the vast majority of them – reject the technology and deny its advancements because they fear for their jobs.
A good Dutch expression jumps to mind: “Een mens lijdt dikwijls het meest aan het lijden dat hij vreest, maar dat nimmer op komt dagen” / “Man suffers most from the suffering he fears, but never appears.”
The translation industry is caught in a dilemma: to automate or not to automate. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t. Using machine translation technology feels like a curse to everyone who spent years studying languages to become professional translators. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>