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When Should I Use Google Translate [Infographic] Google vs. Human Translations for Affordable Translation
The temptation to use Google Translate as your primary tool when communicating with non-English speaking clients is strong. Believe it or not, you’re in good company. Over 200 million people use Google Translate on a regular basis. Google Translate can be a valuable tool to assist in communication for affordable translation. However, it’s important to know when to use Google Translators and when human translators would be best.
This visual should give you an idea on when to use Google translate.
Knowing when to use human translators and when to use Google translate can be a great way to come up with your communication strategy for your clients…even if your clients are zombies
The temptation to use Google Translate as your primary tool when communicating with non-English speaking clients is strong. Believe it or not, you’re in good company. Over 200 million people use Google Translate on a regular basis. Google Translate can be a valuable tool to assist in communication for affordable translation. However, it’s important to know when to use Google Translators and when human translators would be best.
This visual should give you an idea on when to use Google translate.
As you can see from this infographic,
- Google Translate is great for capturing the “gist” of an online article.
- Use Google Translate to look up common phrases.
- Plug in a sentence from your email or messaging application.
- Use Google Translate to read a menu (have you used the camera feature? It’s cool!)
- If you’re studying a language, Google Translate is great for looking up a quick word or idea
- If you’re booking some travel abroad, you might use Google Translate to figure out location, directions, etc.
- If you need to translate for zombies who primarily grunt and groan, Google Translate will be an adequate tool to communicate!
Knowing when to use Google Translate can help you use it as a powerful tool, but not rely on it for communicating an idea. Machines just don’t communicate like humans do. If you want your tone, ideas, or concepts clearly communicated, you will have to use a professional human translator to get the best results.
Google Translate is continuing to improve, but, knowing the time to use it or when not to use it will make all the difference for you.
Please share this infographic far and wide!
Communicate boldly and broadly with human translators!
Have a fantastic and wonderful week everyone! Thanks for letting me post J
Olesya Zaytseva 
The Open Mic Team 
Braaaaaains! Haha, love the zombie example! Great post, Stacey! I totally agree that Google is great for getting the gist, but when your company reputation is on the line, working with humans is always a smart choice (provided that you’reworking with a qualified linguist and not a zombie-translator) 😉
You’re right, Stacey! I think this is a very smart approach because there’s no way the community is going to stop using Google Translate, so we might as well – I dare say “should”, because we’re in the position to do it at best – educate them on how to use it and hopefully this will have a positive effect on us too.
Great infographic, Stacy. I proposed a simpler, but not as entertaining, way to answer the question on my Linkedin Pulse blog back in September last year. I just republished it on my company blog here and updated with a link to this article: link to pttools.net
Great infographic. I also think that Google translate can be very helpful, especially when you are travelling. I travel a lot and google helped me read a lot of labels when I ‘m buying food in the supermarket. Will take Google translate in consideration when I’m writing for zombies. 😀