The Pros and Cons of Translation Crowdsourcing

Individuals and businesses are always trying to find ways to cut the cost of translation and wondering whether there is an easier way of getting their translations done effectively enough. When professional translation services seem too expensive and cheaper methods like machine translation do not provide the quality that is needed, then a middle ground translation method like crowdsourcing may be worth considering. So what are the pros and cons of crowdsourcing and why has it become such a popular translation choice over the last few years?

To deal with the negative factors first, these are the types of situation for which crowdsourcing is not good enough:

•  Document translation for official purposes, like immigration, citizenship, employment, education applications. In Australia, most of this sort of translation makes it mandatory to use a NAATI translation service. In fact, most professional translation services in Sydney or any other large Australian city are NAATI accredited, so there is no difficulty in finding an appropriate translator.

•  Where the translation may not be in the category above, but may be technical in nature such as a medical or scientific document or be full of legal terms. For this sort of translation service, you need to pay for professional translation services, preferably with translators who have specific experience with the sort of technical translation you need.

• When consistency or accuracy of translation is particularly important. This is when it makes sense to pay out for professional translation services, perhaps one that uses a computer aided translation (CAT) tool which “remembers” particular words and phrases and ensures that the same words are translated the same way.

Crowdsourcing definitely has some advantages, too. Here are some of them:

• a) It beats using a professional translator cost wise significantly, so for any translation work you want doing which doesn’t fit into one of the categories just mentioned above, then crowdsourcing may be a suitable option.

•  When content has been created by the user, like product reviews or social media content. Crowdsourcing uses real human translation so is infinitely better than machine translation at colloquial expressions and idiomatic speech. At the same time, the benefits of translation may not justify the expense of professional translation.

• For short jobs where translation consistency is not so important, crowdsourcing can provide a translator at short notice and at a very reasonable cost.