Man beats computer in translation contest

Professional translators easily beat a computer translation software in a rare contest held at the Korea Press Center, Tuesday.

The professional translators of Japanese language overpowered the ``easytrans`` software developed by Changshin Soft in terms of accuracy and understanding.

They contested in translating an editorial of Japan`s Nikkei Shimbun`s Apr. 17 edition titled, ``NTT chose employment over the principle of competition.`` Easytrans was faster than the two experts by translating it in 3.1 seconds, but it could not rival the seasoned translators in terms of accuracy and understanding.

Prof. Lee Dok-Bong of Dongguk University, who headed the panel of judges, said that there was little difference between the software and the translator in terms of accuracy, but the software was behind the experts in interpreting the meaning of delicate sentences. However, he said that he was surprised at the translating ability of the software because there was little problem for the people who do not understand the Japanese language.

Moon Kwon-Mo africa7@donga.com