Turn Machine Translation from Foe to Ally

This course explains how translators, LSPs and project managers can turn machine translation (MT) from a dreaded foe into a powerful ally. By learning the strengths and weaknesses of this much talked about but little understood technology, you will be able to assess if, why and how you could use MT as part of your business, depending on your language pairs, specialization areas and type of clients.
The main approaches to MT system design are presented in a non-technical accessible way, including the well-established rule-based architectures and the increasingly popular statistical and hybrid approaches, which rely on parallel corpora and translation memory databases. You will be alerted to the key factors to consider when assessing the actual potential and the limitations of MT, balancing the pros and cons of introducing it into your own translation workflows, especially with regard to the initial investment and its expected return.

- Translators starting in the industry who want to develop up-to-date professional skills
- Experienced professionals (both freelance and in-house) wishing to explore the potential of MT
- Translation project managers
- LSPs and translation agencies
- Localization vendors

In this course you will:

- understand the principles behind how MT systems work, covering rule-based, statistical and hybrid systems
- learn how to plan the preparation of the resources required to build MT systems using well-established open-source development platforms
- familiarize yourself with the key variables to consider when deciding if/how/why you could use MT, depending on your own language pairs, specialization areas and clients

- Interest in understanding how MT works and how it can play a role in professional translation
- English as one of your working languages (source or target)
- Experience in technical/specialized translation is desirable
- Familiarity with CAT tools (especially translation memory software) is an advantage, but not essential

- Recent evolution and latest developments in MT
- Main approaches to MT system design: rule-based, statistical and hybrid
- Challenging linguistic and translation-related phenomena for MT
- Issues to consider when incorporating MT into your translation workflow
- Integration of MT and CAT tools (in particular translation memory software)
- Current trends and future prospects in MT

Click on the buy button on the right to purchase your seat

Participation fee includes:

• access to webinar session.
• unlimited access to the webinar recording.
• powerpoint slides to remind participants of the key points and lessons learned.
• certificates of attendance.

If I register will I be charged automatically?

No. Registering for the course means that you expressed interest in the training only. ProZ.com training session vacancies are limited, and minimum attendee confirmation is required in order for training sessions to be conducted, so be sure to book your seat as soon as possible.

How do I purchase my spot?

To purchase your seat at this session please click on the "buy" button. Available slots are limited and will be assigned to registered and paid participants as soon as payment is reported. Early payment is advised in order to secure participation. Allow some time for payment processing if you are paying by wire transfer.

After your payment is received, your status will be changed to “registered and paid” and your spot for the session will be secured. An invoice and receipt of payment will be sent to you for your records.

How do I access the online platform?

72 hours before the webinar takes place, you will receive an invitation to join the session. Please, click the registration link or button provided in the invitation email and complete the registration form.

Important: Those that purchase a seat in advance may be able to pay an "early bird" or cheaper price, and those that confirm participation later or last minute, may likely get to pay a higher fee. In some training sessions a price increase based on the number of registrants may also apply, i.e. the first 15 registered pay one price, the next 10 pay a a slightly higher price etc.

Early payment is advised in order to secure participation and help reach the course minimum participation - unfortunately, courses may occasionally be cancelled or rescheduled, if the confirmed participation in advance is very low.

For webinars:
Virtual platform system requirements

For PC-based Users:

• Required: Windows® 8, 7, Vista, XP, 2003 Server or 2000 (Linux is not supported)
• Required: Internet Explorer® 6.0 or newer, or Mozilla® Firefox® 3.0 or newer (JavaScript™ and Java™ enabled) . If needed, download Java here.
• Internet Connection Required: Cable modem, DSL, or better recommended
• Recommended: Minimum of Pentium® class 1GHz CPU with 512 MB of RAM (2 GB of RAM for Windows Vista)

For Mac®-based Users:

• Required: OS X 10.7 Lion, 10.8 Mountain Lion, 10.9 Mavericks and 10.10 Yosemite
• Required: Safari™ 3.0 or newer, Firefox® 2.0 or newer; (JavaScript™ and Java™ enabled)
• Internet Connection Required: Cable modem, DSL or better recommended
• Required: PowerPC G4/G5 or Intel processor, 512 MB of RAM or better

To Use VoIP (microphone and speakers or headset):

• Required: Fast Internet connection (384 kbps or more recommended)
• Required: speakers or headset (USB headset recommended)
• NOT required: Microphone - attendees can communicate with the trainer through incorporated chat.

Recommendations

• For the visual section of the training course, we recommend that you have a 64kbps link. This means using an ISDN line or Broadband. Wireless connection is NOT recommended.
• For the audio section of the training course, we recommend that you have a headset or speakers.
• We recommend that you log in 30 minutes in advance of the start time to prepare for the training course.

Courses will be open half an hour before the start time. Please login before the start time to ensure that everything on your system is working correctly.

Federico Gaspari    View feedback | View all courses

Bio: Federico Gaspari is associate professor of English linguistics and translation studies at the University for Foreigners ‘Dante Alighieri’ of Reggio Calabria (Italy), where he is coordinator of the two-year Masters-level Programme in ‘Interpreting and Cross-Cultural Mediation Studies’ and director of the ‘Dante Alighieri’ University Language Centre. Since 2010 he has been a visiting postdoctoral researcher at Dublin City University (Ireland), where he has worked on 4 European research projects focusing on machine translation evaluation (CoSyne, QTLaunchPad, MLi and currently TraMOOC). After graduating in translation studies from the University of Bologna at Forlì (Italy) he completed an MSc and a PhD in machine translation at the University of Manchester (UK) and has held lecturing and research positions at the Universities of Manchester, Salford, Bologna at Forlì and Macerata. His teaching and research interests include translation technologies (with a special focus on machine translation, post-editing and translation quality evaluation), technical and specialised translation, translation theory, corpus linguistics, corpus-based translation studies and English linguistics. He has published widely on these subjects and is a regular speaker at international conferences on these topics.