CRIV CONNECTION

Author: Deanna Barmakian, Research Librarian, Harvard Law School Library

Attorneys and students are increasingly working with foreign legal materials, causing librarians to license and troubleshoot foreign legal databases and add foreign titles to collections without fluency. Like it or not, machine translation is a necessary crutch. There were already good free/freemium tools and now GenAI is pitching in. Here is a round up.

Proceed with Caution

Legal documents are particularly problematic for machine translation given the exacting, unique meanings ascribed basic terms, e.g., reasonable, consideration, service. Though I’m a heavy user of translation tools, I have no meaningful way to determine comparative accuracy. I use these solely to “get the gist” and if that gist is important, I use at least two or three for the same task.

Microsoft Translate

Translate pasted text or convert full files in Microsoft (MS) Word. It handles 131 languages (if you count Klingon). In Word, the Translate function is in the Review menu. MS Translate is embedded throughout MS Office and Edge. While using Outlook, if a foreign language is detected, a pop-up will prompt you to translate. If not, adjust your Mail settings, then View options. In Edge, if you don’t see the Translate icon near the address bar or receive a translation prompt, you can find Translate in the context menu. You may need to adjust your Edge language settings.

Google Translate

Google Translate handles 249 languages, see list in the language pull down above the search bar or on Wikipedia. Translate will paste text or full documents.

This tool is embedded throughout Google Workspace and Chrome. In Google Docs, you can find Translate in the Tools menu. In Gmail, it can be accessed via the three-dot menu. In Chrome, a Translate icon may appear near the address bar, or a translation prompt pop-up may appear automatically. If not, you can access it through the right-click context menu. If Chrome doesn’t display these options, check Settings, then Languages.

Both Microsoft and Google offer apps that support real-time audio and speech translation. Of particular interest to librarians, these apps allow you to hover over a document (or book cover) so foreign-language text appears in English on screen. My preference is Google Translate over Microsoft Translator, as I find it more intuitive and more reliable.

DeepL

A freemium standout, DeepL handles 114 languages. See the list and more information. The free version allows one file or 50K characters per month (see pricing). Anecdotal conversations with internationally trained lawyers indicate DeepL is preferred over other tools. The Redditsphere seems to agree. I can’t intelligently weigh in, but it’s a tool mentioned as being superior to Google or Microsoft translation for certain languages. Read an in-depth review by FCIL-SIS member Loren Turner.

Non-Latin Scripts

Based on ad-hoc conversations with international JD and undergrad students at Harvard, GenAI tools like ChatGPT are valued over other machine translation tools for non-Latin script languages. Native speaker sentiment is that the translations sound more natural. The caveat is that GenAI tools tend to summarize, not strictly translate, so users should prompt carefully according to their needs.

After giving GenAI tools a try, you might also want to explore these specialized tools for non-Roman language translation:

• Tarjama – Arabic
• Papago – Korean, Chinese, and Japanese
• Baidu – Chinese (better for versions of Chinese to others; interface is Chinese)
• Yandex – Russian
• Abyssinica – Amharic (Ethiopian)

Final Words

The irony in using machine translation tools? If you’re fluent you don’t need them and if you’re not fluent, you can’t evaluate their results. While they cover more languages with improving accuracy, enjoy their breadth but stay cautious.