Google Translate reminds me of Simon & Garfunkel’s classic opening words: “Hello darkness, my old friend…”

The blunt reading would be that I’m comparing Google Translate to darkness: It lacks context, life experience, a clear objective or target audience, source country or author, etc. As such, often you type in an interesting paragraph and it spits mush back at you.

But on a deeper level, what is The Sound of Silence really about?

Paul Simon treats darkness (and its running mate: silence) as a confidant, an ambience that allows him to indulge in a calmer, more pensive state of mind. Darkness is a place where he can work things out, a tool that surely helped him write many a hit single.

But darkness is an inward-facing tool. It is a place where thoughts are mulled over and lines are worked and reworked. Think of it as where you draft an article before publishing it for public consumption. Darkness is where Simon: a) tried to understand the confusing aspects of a busy day; or b) started to create the melodies of a future song.

And that is exactly how Google Translate works.

It is a useful tool for people trying to understand a foreign text. Trying to find more information on some obscure historical figure from another country? Copy and paste their foreign-language biography or obituary and have fun learning while trying to parse together the full meaning behind the words.

And it is a useful tool for translators in their brainstorming phase, as they hunt for the perfect word and then fit said word into a context and structure that is, quite frankly, too complex for Google Translate to recreate. It’s great when looking for synonyms, can be helpful for building full sentences, but is unable to capture the thesis of a text, to summarize the main ideas into an eloquent message in the target language.

Google Translate, like darkness, is an inward-facing tool, something that helps individuals to understand ideas written in a language foreign to them. But if you are creating content for the public to read, to find and trust in your brand, you need an outward-facing tool.

Just as companies employ writers to understand the company’s goals and target audience and create content in line with both, you must apply the same thought process when trying to reach customers in another language.

This requires translators who understand the company and the ideas that make up the backbone of the text, translators who understand the target audience in the target country and can convey those ideas in the manner that will best reach these new readers.