| Pages in topic: < [1 2 3] | Does this world still need "good" quality-oriented linguists (translators, post-editors, reviewers)? Thread poster: Inge Schumacher
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| They can't really control quality | Jan 11 |
Samuel Murray wrote:
There are fields in which most texts are actually read by consumers, and in which quality is paramount.
I encountered in 2021 a tech company, which preferred chatty language with very long, run-on sentences. Why? Because they had a Greek guy on staff who said it sounded to have a better flow (compared to shorter, concise sentences). The funny part: the long sample was from Google Trans, and they had specifically said that they avoided a large agency because of their use of MT.
Agencies tend to hire the "second" rate translator or the trainee in the role of editor (and pay them a lot less), but then they tend to believe the editor (?).
I'm not saying it always happens (in these forums people love to argue for the sake of argument). I'm just saying that the way things are, quality is not judged objectively in far too many cases. Translation is not a solid product like a CD Player, invites many subjective factors and flawed processes.
| | | | | The customer will decide | Jan 11 |
I think at the end of the day it's the customer who decides what they want. I've worked most of my professional life as an in-house translator. In my last job, I had 8 or 9 colleagues. I left the company over two years ago but was shocked to find out just a few months later that the entire translation department had been let go as the employer had decided it was cheaper to use DeepL. I think translators forget sometimes that customers (or employers of translators) have concerns other than just q... See more I think at the end of the day it's the customer who decides what they want. I've worked most of my professional life as an in-house translator. In my last job, I had 8 or 9 colleagues. I left the company over two years ago but was shocked to find out just a few months later that the entire translation department had been let go as the employer had decided it was cheaper to use DeepL. I think translators forget sometimes that customers (or employers of translators) have concerns other than just quality. Speed and cost are important too. I also think many translators (like to) forget that machine translation is not always worse than a translation produced by a human being. Provided a source text is well written without too many ambiguities, I think DeepL does a pretty good job of the translation, sometimes maybe even better than what a (not so good) human translator would produce. I personally don't think translation has much of a future as a profession and I think this needs to be communciated to younger people thinking of becoming translators. They can try it by all means but they need to go into it with their eyes wide open. In my current job, we have loads of interns working with us who are studying (or have studied) languages and/or translation. It bothers me that the universities are still churning out relatively lagre number sof graduates into an employment field with such an unclear future. ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Absolutely correct | Jan 11 |
Fully agree with Gerard. And you should also see cases where we find 8-10 inconsistencies in key terms and the client says "if it's not wrong, leave it alone".
And the rise of "MT lite" - so-called superficial editing. The client says "if it's not a disaster leave it alone". Considering cost-cutting, more and more clients either MT themselves the content or ask for "minimum acceptable".
And then the client says "this one word could probably use a comma... or not... but the ... See more Fully agree with Gerard. And you should also see cases where we find 8-10 inconsistencies in key terms and the client says "if it's not wrong, leave it alone".
And the rise of "MT lite" - so-called superficial editing. The client says "if it's not a disaster leave it alone". Considering cost-cutting, more and more clients either MT themselves the content or ask for "minimum acceptable".
And then the client says "this one word could probably use a comma... or not... but the remaining 20,000 words are fine", and here is how the PM transfers the message to the translator: "client says the translation is terrible". ▲ Collapse
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Lefteris Kritikakis wrote:
Fully agree with Gerard. And you should also see cases where we find 8-10 inconsistencies in key terms and the client says "if it's not wrong, leave it alone".
And the rise of "MT lite" - so-called superficial editing. The client says "if it's not a disaster leave it alone". Considering cost-cutting, more and more clients either MT themselves the content or ask for "minimum acceptable".
And then the client says "this one word could probably use a comma... or not... but the remaining 20,000 words are fine", and here is how the PM transfers the message to the translator: "client says the translation is terrible".
Yep, you need new clients. They’re not all like that.
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Christopher Schröder wrote:
Yep, you need new clients. They’re not all like that.
I know they're not all like that. My language pair is pretty much monopolized by 3-4 players, and the translators in the home country believe that 0.03/word is "normal" or "good enough".
The good clients don't have enough volume (thank God for the occasional direct clients).
Different language pairs were not a big deal 20 years ago. Now they are like a different market all together.
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