You might even think that communication between two people is something of a miracle and that language itself is the most dangerous wonder of the brain. As an amateur linguist who speaks some five languages and reads another six or seven, I assure you I understand the difficulties involved in translation or interpretation, be it by a human or machine. Let's keep in mind one basic fact. Most of what people are saying and writing is not high literature destined for Nobel or Pulitzer prizes. Rather it is simply an expression of someone's ideas or beliefs on a particular subject.
Most communication is just information, with a minimum of style or literary content.
Therefore, while I don't propose that a machine translation system will produce a brilliant rendering of the Mahabarat or the writings of Chuang Tsu, such systems won't have to. Machines will eventually try their hand at this rarified field, but they will enter the business of translation far sooner. Written material cannot rely on intonation or body language. Moreover, context either has to be made clear in the document or the target audience has to be aware of it ahead of time. And, most importantly, the computer does not have to understand what it is translating.