WHAT IS THE PRICE YOU'VE BEEN PAYING FOR FREE CONTENT?
"THERE'S NO SUCH THING AS FREE LUNCH"
Dating back to 1943, this popular American saying can be translated into Portuguese as "não há essa coisa de almoço gratuito" or, as the good folks of Minas Gerais would say, "não há esse negócio de almoço gratuito". In other words, everything has a price – either you pay or someone else pays for you! But what does this have to do with translations?
Well, let's talk about FREE CONTENT. What is it?
It's nothing more than an effective strategy – very well thought out, by the way – aimed at attracting users who become so accustomed to not paying for any type of content that's easily and freely available by using search engines that they can't imagine paying for it or think of a good reason why they should.
This kind of reasoning can lull you into a false sense of security and lead you astray without you being aware of it! In the case of translators, they often end up paying a price that can cost them their reputation, their clients, and income! How does this work in practice?
No one pays to use search engines such as DuckDuckGo, Yahoo, or Google. Using the resources of equally free browsers such as Firefox, Edge, Chrome, Opera, and Slimjet, these engines' digital robots visit ALL websites on the World Wide Web looking for "any kind of information" like bees going from flower to flower looking for pollen and nectar.
They put together an indexed database using this information and, as soon as you open your browser and type a single term, phrase, or idiom in the search field, the browser spits out tens, hundreds, or thousands of equivalents. None of this information, however, was PRODUCED by the search engine − it's merely a COMPILATION of data collected by robots. So, what does this mean?
Considering that the content wasn't specifically produced to serve a given segment and at such a cost that someone would have to pay for it, most of the information the search engine makes available is THIRD PARTY DATA.
This means that, if you are looking for the translation of a particular word or phrase, you're going to get both the possibly good and the dangerously bad because there's no screening as to the reliability or accuracy of the information.
Everything the robots found will appear on the screen, including inferior, misleading translations, typos, and spelling mistakes! And now? What do you do with this free content?
We'll let you answer that question for yourself, but just for the heck of it, let's give it a go anyway.
Let's say you're looking for the English translation of "TUBULÃO" – a term used in civil engineering. Almost invariably, the search engine will come back with 'CAISSON' as the translation of "TUBULÃO", because that's what their robots found in several online dictionaries and websites – ALL free.
Now, let's see what happens when we look at the content provided by AVRO dx. Check out the screenshots below and draw your conclusions.
Below is the definition AVRO dx gives for the English term 'CAISSON'.
(omq box caisson) Fundação em caixão | caixão | tubulão subaquático | tubulão a ar comprimido | tubulão submerso (câmara estanque pré-fabricada com topo aberto, mas fundo fechado, que é usada para construções subaquáticas ou como fundação = a pre-fabricated watertight chamber open at the top but closed at the bottom used in construction work under water or as a foundation). Open caisson: Caixão aberto | caixão oco (similar a um caixão, a não ser pelo fato que seu fundo também é aberto = similar to a box caisson except that its bottom is also open).
Now take a look at the search result for 'TUBULÃO' in AVRO dx.
Foundation hole: Tubulão (excavado manual ou mecanicamente).
Excavated pile (omq excavated pile hole): Tubulão (furado manualmente).
Bore pile (omq bored pile | bore pile foundation | drilled shaft): Tubulão (furado com perfuratriz).
Now do you understand the difference between a pseudo-translation (the letter that kills) and a reliable, well-thought-out translation (the spirit that gives life)? So what is the price you've been paying for free content?
AVRO dx is a comprehensive (English-Portuguese-English) reliable database containing over 250,000 primary entries, thousands of technical terms from all segments, over 3,700 pictures, plus helpful example sentences and explanations.
Watch the video below to learn more about AVRO dx and what it can do to help you and your career!