Abstract
The article's premise is a critical thinking vis-a-vis machine translation (MT) as technology, service and its products. The author aims to show both its potential and its shortcomings and other, mostly process-related challenges.
In its first part, this article describes a personalised use of translation technology, mainly machine translation and software tools to post-edit machine translation output, in the working procedures of a professional translator. Custom post-editing automation features are outlined, including a list of the most commonly used commands and their functions applied to facilitate the post-editing process.
Further, the article points to the potential of machine translation and its limitations. Among the former, productivity gains and ways of enhancing translation product quality are mentioned.
As regards the latter, the issue of confidentiality, the fluency pitfall, the challenge of choosing the right type of the service as well as change management or ergonomics challenges are outlined. Subsequently, some paradoxes of the uptake of the machine translation technology in the current translation landscape are shown, followed by an outlook to the possible future uses of the technology.
The author sees gainful integration of technology in translation as the answer to the question where the translation profession is headed.