There are many instant language translators available online, but now email users are being offered the chance to have their emails instantly translated to be more easily read by those abroad.
For businesses, this may seem very appealing, allowing them to more easily communicate with foreign clients, but, in reality, such an approach can be a costly one for any company.
Paying for French to English translation from a professional company may seem pointless now such a free service is on offer, but the difference between professional translation and an automated tool is very much like the difference between eating an apple and eating a picture of an apple, and the latter will never be particularly tasty.
The automated translation will be nothing more than an educated guess using similar translations already in the database. The program will look for patterns or recognised sentences and simply serve up a best guess about what is trying to be put across. Of course, these cannot take context or culture into account and therefore whilst many of the words may be accurately translated, the sense of what is being communicated can be totally obscured or lost.
Whilst automatic email translation may work for someone who needs to communicate a simple message to a friend or even when dealing with a very short and simple set of words, for businesses needing to communicate internationally, a translation agency will almost always be needed. The small cost of having professional translation will almost certainly be covered by more streamlined processes and far more successfully converted business.
So whilst it may be a great thing for those with friends abroad who want an easier time when writing or reading emails, for businesses, the ability to get free translations is still going to be a very long way off.
