Al Wadi University participates in celebrating the International Translation Day
On September 30, the University of Martyr Hamou Lakhdar participated in an intellectual symposium on the occasion of the International Translation Day at the Arts Center in Chatt, along with the main library for reading. The university was represented by the Faculty of Arts and Languages and the Intensive Language Education Center with the participation of a group of university professors. The activities were managed by Dr. Ammar Mustafawi, Director of the Intensive Language Education Center, where issues were raised and answered by the participating professors.
The interventions of the honorable professors from the Translation Department of El Oued University were valuable and rich. Dr. Shoshani Obaidi Mohamed began with an intervention entitled “Translator Training in Algeria and the Use of Modern Technologies: Reality and Prospects.” He emphasized the importance of technology and adaptation to translator training programs and training in field aspects through digital supports, exploiting international expertise, enhancing continuing education, and absorbing linguistic and technological competencies to cover the needs of the international market.
This was followed by Dr. Ahmed Ennad’s intervention, “From the human translator to the machine translator, is modern technology a support or an obstacle?” He explained to us the secret behind choosing September 30 as World Translation Day, attributing it to the achievements of Saint Jerome of Italy in translating the Bible from Greek to Latin, and the United Nations’ designation of this day in 2007. He then went on to talk about the history of translations, their types, and their development from grammatical to statistical to neural, and entering the age of artificial intelligence, highlighting the advantages and disadvantages of machine translation. Finally, he emphasized the importance of human presence and the necessity of benefiting from contemporary technology.
**Finally, Dr. Jalal Sultani intervened to talk about the future of human translation in the age of artificial intelligence. Will the human translator turn into a post-editor and verifier of artificial intelligence outputs?
He discussed the history of translation technology from the replacement of words with words in the thirties, through the use of computers in translation and considering the latter a branch of applied linguistics. He showed that translation from Google Translate differs from translation in which Chat GPT is used, especially with regard to political and economic sciences and some legal sciences. As for literature, its translation requires greater effort, and the machine may not succeed in that due to the element of feelings and emotions in poetry, prose and other literary texts.
The professor emphasized on the future element of translation that the relationship between man and machine and the connection between machine and man is complementary and cooperative, not competitive and hostile. Neither can do without the other. He explained through the example of the text “Wedding Party” that artificial intelligence is trained and learns through your dialogue with it, by requesting creative literary translation.
In conclusion, the participating doctors were honored.
