Technology arrived late in the translation services sector. Now it has arrived, it is bound to change everything. In the not-too-distant future everyone in the world will be able to speak his or her own language and everyone else will understand. We are entering the Convergence era: translation will be a utility embedded in every app, device, sign board and screen.

Businesses will prosper by finding new customers in new markets. Governments and citizens will connect and communicate easily. Consumers will become world-wise, talking to everyone everywhere as if language barriers never existed.

Don’t get me wrong. It will not be perfect, but it will open doors and break down barriers. And it will give a boost to the translation industry, which will be chartered to constantly improve the technology and fill the gaps in global communications.

Is this picture too rosy? Not if you believe in the power of translation data, like we do. Translation data is the fuel of machine translation technology. Data powers the engines. The engines may never emulate the human language competence, but they will be good enough to help us converse as we see fit in languages we never spoke before or will ever speak. Machine translation, according to Nicholas Ostler, will be the new lingua franca. More.

See: TAUS