Official Languages Committee on April 11th, 2016

[René Arseneault, Liberal, Madawaska—Restigouche, NB]

I have a practical question about this small and wonderful translation engine. I'm sorry, but I am a doubting Thomas, and even he would be an amateur compared to me.

I am trying to draw an analogy with the French checker Antidote. I suppose French may be one of the most difficult western languages to learn. It may not be alone, but with its agreements, genders and whatnot, it is really difficult to learn.

You are familiar with this small and wonderful tool. With the automatic creation of a database of words and phrases, is translation from French to English as quick or effective as translation from English to French? I assume that most of the databases of words and phrases are created from English at the outset, as the majority of Canadian users are anglophones.

[Alan Bernardi]

I want to preface my answer by saying that there is a huge difference between Antidote and this kind of a tool. Antidote makes very little use of statistics; it uses very specific rules. I am quite familiar with the Antidote people. It is easier to make a French checker than an English one. The Antidote people just released an English checker. French is more structured as a language than English. So things are easier for the tool in that sense.

Automated translation software uses statistical models and does not differentiate between two languages. It is loaded with well-translated texts, and that's the base. Using those texts, the software creates a language model. The process is exactly the same regardless of the language.

[René Arseneault, Liberal, Madawaska—Restigouche, NB]

I understand the practical side, the basics. If you enter peanuts, it gives you arachides, and if you enter arachides, it gives you peanuts.

[Voices]

Oh, oh!

[Alan Bernardi]

Exactly.

[René Arseneault, Liberal, Madawaska—Restigouche, NB]

I would like to come back to Antidote. It may be easier for the machine with Antidote, which I use regularly. I am told that it is one of the most sophisticated softwares on the planet.

[Alan Bernardi]

That's true, and it was developed in Montreal.

[René Arseneault, Liberal, Madawaska—Restigouche, NB]

My hat goes off to Montreal, but Antidote is not perfect—far from it. However, that software is the global expert on French grammatical correction.

I am a doubting Thomas. It is difficult for me to imagine translating from English to French and correcting the grammar on top of that. It seems to me that this is an almost impossible mission.

Have you experienced it, have you seen it?

[Alan Bernardi]

I have experienced the same things as you. As this is a statistical instrument, variance is important. For texts with little variation, such as weather reports....

[René Arseneault, Liberal, Madawaska—Restigouche, NB]

Weather reports are too easy.

[Alan Bernardi]

That's true, but there is very little variance in weather reports. So the translation can be of high quality. The more variance increases, the more fields are involved, the more difficult it becomes to maintain the same level of quality.

What do the translation companies that use automatic translation do? The best practices involve limiting the translation tool's learning to the specific field in which the translator is working and to edit texts afterwards.

I will use the example of manuals for military members. Translators would learn from previously translated manuals. Afterwards, when they started translating the manual and revising everything using automatic translation, that information would be put back into the tool every week. So the translation tool would improve its translation of that manual, since the beginning was already understood. That is one example of the best practices.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

Thank you, Mr. Arseneault.

Mr. Vandal, you have four minutes.

[Dan Vandal, Liberal, Saint Boniface—Saint Vital, MB]

In what year did Canada start using translation tools?

[Donald Barabé]

It first started using them in the 1970s to translate weather reports. The automated translation tool Portage started being used very recently. I would say three or four years ago.

[Dan Vandal, Liberal, Saint Boniface—Saint Vital, MB]

Three or four years ago?

[Donald Barabé]

Yes.

[Dan Vandal, Liberal, Saint Boniface—Saint Vital, MB]

Is yours a non-profit organization? Were you consulted before this tool was introduced?

[Alan Bernardi]

No, we were not consulted before the tool was deployed.

[Dan Vandal, Liberal, Saint Boniface—Saint Vital, MB]

Is it a translation tool that may encourage the use of both official languages within the Government of Canada?

[Donald Barabé]

It's a tool that may help unilingual public servants get an idea of a text's meaning in the other official language.

[Dan Vandal, Liberal, Saint Boniface—Saint Vital, MB]

So it may encourage....

[Donald Barabé]

It may encourage the use of both official languages as long as it is limited to understanding and not communication, and as long as it remains limited to personal use. If it went beyond personal use, it would raise the issue of compliance with the Official Languages Act.

[Dan Vandal, Liberal, Saint Boniface—Saint Vital, MB]

That's still an important role.

[Donald Barabé]

In any case, it's already widely used.

Your colleague who was here earlier said that he was already using Google Translate when he was a public servant.

[Dan Vandal, Liberal, Saint Boniface—Saint Vital, MB]

We are not talking about Google Translate. It's not the same thing.

Or is it the same thing?