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feature © 2005 Sarah Yates I Need EnglishThis in Web translators are useful k heb dit in het Engels nodig. J’ai tools to find context, but besoin de ceci en anglais. Ich benötige Idieses auf englisch. Ho bisogno di not precise questo in inglese. Eu necessito este em ingles. Necesito esto en ingles. by Sarah Yates In today’s global environment, lawyers, law students, and others in the legal community have a greater need than ever for international legal information. Users’ expectations about the ease of accessing foreign that they do not such information are sometimes unrealistic. understand? Professional translations are It is a truism among librarians that users costly and may take a long time. Amateur expect everything to be available online. translations by librarians or patrons are Librarians who deal extensively with foreign difficult and take time away from other materials notice an extension to this trend: important work; also, the reliability of users expect everything to be available amateur translations varies widely according online in English. to the translator’s skills. For many translator at Systran’s Web site (www. These users, however, are often needs, users and librarians alike soft.com), Google’s translator on its disappointed because while English is are turning to Web-based translators as an Language Tools page (www.google.com/ becoming an increasingly global language, alternative. language_tools?hl=en), FreeTranslation.com countries still publish their laws, court Computer programs have been used (http://www.freetranslation.com), and decisions, and other official information to translate one language to another for WorldLingo’s free online translator (www. in their own . Professional decades. However, not until such programs worldlingo.com/en/products_services/worldl translations of some of these documents began to appear without charge on the ingo_translator.html). Short texts and even are available, but by no means can all such Web in the 1990s did the general public whole Web pages can be translated from information be found in English, online gain ready access to “machine translation.” Chinese, Dutch, French, German, Greek, or otherwise. AltaVista’s Babel Fish (http://babelfish. Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, What, then, can be done for users who .com) is the most well known of the Russian, or Spanish into English—and need information that is only available in a free Web translators. Others include the free vice versa. Fast and Cheap Machine translation has two distinct [I use Web advantages over professional translation. translators] to get First, it is much cheaper—an under- statement when it comes to the free a general sense of versions. Second, it is much quicker. Babel the meaning of titles and Fish, for example, can translate a 150-word words and to help with block of text nearly instantaneously and “ most Web pages in a matter of seconds. generating online search Is free Web translation a case of getting terms. They are definitely what you pay for? The answer depends upon what you want to use it for. Clearly, not suitable for a rudimentary machine translation program interpretation of cannot provide the same level of quality research. that a trained professional translator can. But while Web translators do have — Annette Demers, reference librarian for problems, they also have value in many international, foreign, and comparative law, library-related situations. Harvard Law School Library ” One reason Web translators can be so useful in a library setting is that hiring a

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Law librarians’ use of Web translators varies widely, from several times a week to a few times a year. The texts they translate include statutes and case law, government Web sites, news articles, and publishers’ information. Librarians who use Babel Fish and similar services generally use them for “gisting,” that is, to get a general idea of the content of a text. Annette Demers, reference librarian for international, foreign, and comparative law at Harvard Law School Library, is a frequent user of Web translators. She uses them “to get a general Language is sense of the meaning of titles and words and to help with generating online search very important terms,” she says. “They are definitely not to lawyers, and suitable for interpretation of research.” Kelly Vinopal, manager of library I want to get the point and information services at the American across to my students Society of International Law, echoes the “ that you cannot rely on sentiment. “I have used Babel Fish to get a sense of the content of an article but these programs for a do not suggest that a researcher rely on it translation that you entirely,” she says. plan to use in the actual According to Katherine Topulos, foreign and international law librarian and practice of law. They professional translator is often impractical, lecturing fellow at Duke University School might be useful for particularly when the goal is simply to of Law Library, Web translators are fine context, but it would be determine whether a particular resource for getting a general idea of what a contains the information a patron needs. document is about, but “especially for foolish to rely on them In these cases, the choice is usually between legal texts, you need an actual person who in analyzing online translation and do-it-yourself knows something about the law” to provide translation with a . reliable translations. legal problems. Manual dictionary lookup only works for Marci Hoffman, lecturer in residence —Lee Peoples, head of reference services, users with some knowledge of a particular and foreign and international law librarian Oklahoma City University of Law language, since words in texts do not at the University of California-Berkeley necessarily appear in their dictionary Law Library, cautions fellow law librarians forms. Verbs are conjugated and nouns are about Web translators. “I think they are ” declined—irregular forms may appear in getting better,” she says, “but I still would any good dictionary,” says Mary Sexton, good dictionaries, but for the most part, not rely upon them for translating a legal foreign, comparative, and international law users need to be able to figure out document, except for basic information.” librarian at the University of Iowa Law Library. infinitives, nominatives, and other basic “Babel Fish does that selection for me.” word forms. Even for users or librarians Is it Adhesion or Liability? A related issue is technical terminology, who do know enough of a foreign language In addition to general reservations about or “terms of art.” Many words have both an to be able to provide a rough translation, the reliability of Web translators, the ordinary meaning in general contexts and Web translators are much faster and may be librarians I interviewed noted some specific a specific, slightly different meaning in good enough, depending on how precise the shortcomings. Homographs—words legal contexts. The phenomenon occurs translation needs to be. that are spelled alike but have different in many languages; some examples from meanings—present a serious problem. English are agency, consideration, and interest. Advice from Law Librarian Users Several librarians remarked on the inability Mary Rumsey, foreign, comparative, and I interviewed several foreign, comparative, of translation programs to select one of international law librarian at the University and international law librarians about their several possible translations based on of Minnesota Law School, notes that Web use of Web-based translation programs and context. For example, the German word translators “are not designed to incorporate the extent to which they would recommend Haftung can mean adhesion or liability, legal meanings of terms. In other words, if them. The responses ranged from enthusiastic among other possible translations. In legal a document contains a word for which there to highly skeptical. While everyone I spoke contexts it almost always means liability, but is both a common usage and a less common, with agreed that such programs are useful Babel Fish translates it as adhesion regardless legal usage, the translation software will in some situations, no one found them of the context. “Sometimes [manual] word- provide the common usage.” reliable enough for all their translation needs, by-word translation is more useful, because Mary Strouse, associate director and especially for complex or sensitive legal texts. I can select from several meanings listed in head of technical services at Catholic

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University of America’s Judge Kathryn J. consuming a good translation is,” she says. DuFour Law Library, performed some test “I have noticed this especially with patrons translations from a Russian legal dictionary who do not know a second language. and saw this problem firsthand. “Terms of Lawyers with clients doing business in art are likely to give the most problems,” foreign countries have begun to demand she says. “Babel Fish did very well with the legal translations, and at some point they’ll Russian dictionary when there was a one- try using free translators. But I would hate to to-one correspondence between phrases. think anyone would advise a client based on For example, it correctly translated the terms information from these software programs.” for mortgage, tax, law (i.e., a statute), fraud, Rumsey’s fears are not that far-fetched. and legal person. On the other hand, it had Hoffman reports, “I once had a practicing trouble with pledge, preferring the more lawyer in my office who wanted to rely on general ‘guarantee.’” I warn my students a translation (of a law) from one of these that a translation programs, and he did not understand why Creative Reading tool cannot be I was horrified.” The translation of individual words is not One job of law librarians is to educate the only problem; sentence structure is a relied upon as completely patrons about the appropriate use of Web major difficulty for Web translators as well. accurate or as the ‘official’ translators, making users aware of the “It is not difficult to tell that the translation “version of the text and, in benefits of such programs, as well as the is automated,” says Gail Partin, associate potential pitfalls. Librarians who teach legal law librarian at Dickinson School of Law practice, they might have research classes are in a unique position to Library of the Pennsylvania State University. to hire a professional provide instruction on translation programs. “Some of the syntax is clunky, and some translator for large “I teach Babel Fish in my International ALR sentences are unintelligible.” course as a good translation tool for foreign Rumsey explains the phenomenon. documents (for a legal research when it’s difficult to find “Because the software generally does a word- fee, of course). English translations of foreign legal material, for-word substitution rather than a more such as case law, legislation, and regulations,” sophisticated ‘intelligent’ translation, even —Heidi Kuehl, reference/instructional Kuehl says. “I warn my students that a fairly simple text often gets garbled,” she says. services law librarian, Marquette Law Library translation tool cannot be relied upon as Companies that produce machine translation ” completely accurate or as the ‘official’ version software often recommend pre-editing— of the text and, in practice, they might have rendering the text to be translated as simple to hire a professional translator for large and machine-translation friendly as possible documents (for a fee, of course).” before having it translated—and post- Non-Roman scripts can present a For Lee Peoples, head of reference editing—cleaning up the translated text to particular challenge; even diacritics, such as services at Oklahoma City University of make it more readable. accent marks and umlauts, can present Law, the main purpose of discussing Web Pre-editing is not an option in a library problems when a user types in text rather translators in his legal research class is to setting, since neither librarians nor patrons than pasting or translating an entire Web demonstrate their shortcomings to students. generally have any control over the text they page. Some sites, such as WorldLingo “Language is very important to lawyers, need to have translated. However, some (www.worldlingo.com/products_services/ and I want to get the point across to my degree of post-editing—or as Annette worldlingo_translator.html) and Free students that you cannot rely on these Demers puts it, “creative reading on the part Translation.com (www.freetranslation.com) programs for a translation that you plan of the user”—may help. have drop-down menus for entering to use in the actual practice of law,” Peoples Web-based translation programs not accented characters but no way to type in says. “They might be useful for context, only have linguistic glitches, but they have other scripts. Babel Fish has a link to a but it would be foolish to rely on them in some technical ones as well. “Sometimes, “World Keyboard” that allows users to type analyzing legal problems.” when translating the full URLs in Babel in Cyrillic characters as well as Roman Web translators are clearly not Fish, it won’t keep translating within the characters with diacritics; however, this appropriate for all translation needs. They embedded links and the system breaks down feature experiences frequent glitches that are not reliable enough when precision is at some point,” says Heidi Kuehl, adjunct make it often unavailable. important, such as for translating the texts professor of law and reference/instructional of statutes. However, when the general services librarian at Marquette Law Library. User Instruction meaning of a text is all that is required, “Then you need to retranslate the new page Some law librarians worry that users may they can be very useful. As long as they that you want.” not be aware of the shortcomings of Web are used with their shortcomings in mind, Anne Burnett, reference/foreign and translators. Rumsey expresses concern Web translators deserve a place in every law international law librarian at the University about potential overreliance on translation librarian’s tool bag. of Georgia Law Library, notes the less programs. “When I listen to students and Sarah Yates ([email protected]) is obvious problem that “much text is now other library patrons who want translations foreign law and rare book cataloger at the embedded within graphics, and the of foreign legal materials, I am struck by University of Minnesota Law Library in programs don’t translate that text.” their naïveté about how difficult and time- Minneapolis.

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Web Translators and Their Features

Babel Fish • Also available as a “Translate this http://babelfish.altavista.com Page” link next to certain foreign- language search results on Google Language pairs available: • No statement as to what company To and from English: Chinese provides the translation, but (traditional and simplified), Dutch, translation results are almost French, German, Greek, Italian, always identical with those Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, performed by Systran Russian, Spanish To and from French: Dutch, German, Greek, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish Systran www.systransoft.com Comments: • Translates Web pages or manually Language pairs available: input text To and from English: Arabic, Chinese • Also available as a “Translate” link (traditional and simplified), Dutch, next to certain foreign-language French, German, Italian, Japanese, search results on AltaVista Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, • Powered by Systran Swedish To and from French: Dutch, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish FreeTranslation.com www.freetranslation.com Comments: • Translates Web pages or manually Language pairs available: input text To and from English: Dutch, French, • Requires registration for extended German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, use Spanish • Systran was an early pioneer in From (but not to) English: Chinese machine translation and continues (simplified and traditional), to be one of the leading companies Norwegian in the field

Comments: • Translates Web pages or manually WorldLingo input text www.worldlingo.com/wl/translate • Russian translation provided by Promt Translation Engine Language pairs available: (www.promt.ru); other languages To and from any combination of the by Enterprise Translation Server following: Chinese (traditional or (www.sdl.com/enterprise- simplified), Dutch, English, French, translation-server) German, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese (Brazil), Russian, Spanish. Google Language Tools www.google.com/language_tools? Comments: hl=en • Translates Web pages or manually input text Language pairs available: • Allows users to specify the subject To and from English: French, German, area of the text from a drop-down Italian, Portuguese, Spanish menu; however, differences between To and from English (BETA): Chinese “legal” and “general” translations, (simplified), Japanese, Korean when they exist at all, tend to be To and from French: German very minor • No statement as to what company Comments: provides the translation, but • Translates Web pages or manually translation results are almost always input text identical with those performed by Systran

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