| Pages in topic: < [1 2 3 4] | Do translators have a death wish? Thread poster: Tom in London
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| Previous post | Apr 14, 2023 |
Yaotl Altan wrote:
But why don't they use I's rather than L's?
Michele explained that in her previous post.
| | | | Yaotl Altan 
Mexico
Local time: 07:08
Member (2006)
English to Spanish
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Thomas T. Frost wrote: Yaotl Altan wrote:
But why don't they use I's rather than L's? Michele explained that in her previous post.
Oh, sorry. I see it now, thank you.
| | | | | [OT] Welcome back, Charlie! | Apr 14, 2023 |
Charlie Bavington wrote: It's partly why I thought "why not go back to proz". It's the biggest site of its kind after all. And what is practically the first thread I see talking about? The very thing I came back for 
Hope to see many posts of yours again!
| | | | Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 14:08
Member (2008)
Italian to English
TOPIC STARTER | What's changing and what isn't | Apr 14, 2023 |
Charlie Bavington wrote: Tom in London wrote:
Do you fall into that category?
Yeah, I probably do. Maybe not "disaster" but I think changes are afoot that will probably decrease job satisfaction, for those who enjoy working from a blank page, as it were. I know a handful of experienced people (some names you'd recognise from way back on here, I'm sure) who have recently moved out of translation and who would not, 10 years ago, have expected to have done so. Obviously stuff happens and individual circumstances change and anedoctes are not data, but from where I'm standing, some fundamental changes are definitely happening. [Edited at 2023-04-14 16:54 GMT]
What's changing is that mechanically written texts that can easily be translated by a CAT tool will no longer be done by translators. This has already happened and many agencies are now only looking for translators who are willing to check through those translations and correct any errors they find. Many of those translators have already moved on to something else or will do so, because that type of work is fast disappearing.
What isn't changing is that complex texts written by academics, managers, researchers, etc. will still require the full services of a skilled human translator, who may still use a CAT tool, but only sometimes and only to eliminate the drudgery of having to do the first "dirty" rough translation. Every skilled translator knows that the the first "dirty" rough translation is only step 1 in a long, painstaking process of correction, research, rewriting, and refinement. That type of work will not stop.
[Edited at 2023-04-14 20:03 GMT]
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| A CAT tool... | Apr 14, 2023 |
Tom in London wrote:
What's changing is that mechanically written texts that can easily be translated by a CAT tool will no longer be done by translators.
A CAT can't translate anything out on its own. These texts still need skilled translators.
What isn't changing is that complex texts written by academics, managers, researchers, etc. will still require the full services of a skilled human translator, who may still use a CAT tool but only to eliminate the drudgery of having to do the first "dirty" rough translation.
I understand that you overvalue mentioned persons, but if they would act as you expected them, even then no translator on their level would be required because those AI systems today are nearly perfect to translate consistuently on a linguistic level well-written texts into a foreign language those AI systems are already effectively able doing so. It then needs only people like me to hone these machine-generated texts and for a lower price. Provided, I understand fully what it is about, of course.
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Christel Zipfel wrote: Charlie Bavington wrote: It's partly why I thought "why not go back to proz". It's the biggest site of its kind after all. And what is practically the first thread I see talking about? The very thing I came back for Hope to see many posts of yours again!
Hi
Well, I did lurk from time to time, and haven't stopped working, and I'm hopeless at not joining in discussions, so it seems inevitable. I've only been reactivated a few hours, and now look what's happened
| | | | | Good to see the old guard again... | Apr 15, 2023 |
we are still here!
| | | | David GAY
Local time: 15:08
English to French
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Charlie Bavington wrote:
clues are there.
but only clever people can see them
[Edited at 2023-04-15 12:09 GMT]
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Kay Denney
France
Local time: 15:08
French to English
Tom in London wrote:
What isn't changing is that complex texts written by academics, managers, researchers, etc. will still require the full services of a skilled human translator, who may still use a CAT tool, but only sometimes and only to eliminate the drudgery of having to do the first "dirty" rough translation. Every skilled translator knows that the the first "dirty" rough translation is only step 1 in a long, painstaking process of correction, research, rewriting, and refinement. That type of work will not stop.
[Edited at 2023-04-14 20:03 GMT]
It's true that wading through your draft can seem like drudgery. I see young translators who just automatically use MT to get through it rather than using their brains. OK it might be quicker, and the end result may be better than my first draft. However, when I come back to the text to work on it some more, I easily find ways of translating things that seemed impossible to translate during the first draft. My brain has somehow been working on the translation even while I've been walking the dog, watching a film, cooking and eating and of course sleeping. And I find it much easier to hone my abysmal draft than to proofread even the best of translations produced by MT.
I recently had to dig out an old text I had proofread for a client. They had just sent me the text and asked me to proofread it, and I later realised it had been translated by Google. I told them I didn't do PEMT, and that it would be far better, and even cheaper, if I translated it from scratch. So for their second translation, they asked me to translate from scratch.
They then took both texts and combined them into one, and asked me to proofread the lot one last time, because they and the layout artist had tinkered with the text and weren't sure if the English was still OK.
So I had to compare this new text with what I had delivered previously. Turned out the text I had translated was fine, I only had to correct a couple of bits they'd tinkered with. However the text I had PEMTed was riddled with silly little mistakes that I hadn't (noticed, probably because I had that splitting headache.
All this confirms that I don't do PEMT well at all. And I should probably ask to extend the deadline if I feel a headache coming on, because I was quite horrified at the quality of the PEMT I handed in.
| | | | IrinaN
United States
Local time: 08:08
English to Russian
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| A note from a dinosaur | Apr 15, 2023 |
Ice Scream wrote:
MTPE is very much like flower arranging. Whereas I want to continue to grow a garden full of beautiful flowers from seed.
Ice Scream, you found the best metaphor I was looking for to describe why it was so easy for me to dump translation in my other post:-). Oh well, who would expect anything less from you:-)! I would go as far as extending it on CATs.
That beautiful, shining white, blank page in the beginning that belonged to me and me only to populate has been taken from me forever. Yes, words were my beloved money-makers but there was that "something else" that drove me and made me enjoy it. Mixing business with pleasure for 30 years was great. Not any more.
The very sight of segments and the surrounding mess on the screen makes me sick, entrapped, deprived of my own rights to create. That creativity spark inside me, however small I might have been gifted with, dies out and all I see is hard labor sneering at me.
[Edited at 2023-04-15 13:46 GMT]
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Giovanni Guarnieri MITI, MIL wrote:
we are still here!
So you are!
I had been trying to get involved elsewhere without success. Are we allowed to mention other places now (it was contentious around the time I left)?
Anyway, on one that sounds a bit like blinked bin, everyone is so relentlessly upbeat it's tiring just reading it. Whereas here, it's good to see that no-one really likes anything much
| | | | | I think you can... | Apr 16, 2023 |
Charlie Bavington wrote:
I had been trying to get involved elsewhere without success. Are we allowed to mention other places now (it was contentious around the time I left)?
You are not mentioning agencies or companies you've worked with. And yes, we are a bunch of old grumpies here... 
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| Nail meet head | Apr 16, 2023 |
IrinaN wrote:
The very sight of segments and the surrounding mess on the screen makes me sick, entrapped, deprived of my own rights to create. That creativity spark inside me, however small I might have been gifted with, dies out and all I see is hard labor sneering at me.
Yes!
| | | | Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 14:08
Member (2008)
Italian to English
TOPIC STARTER
I hate segmentation. Which is why I avoid CAT tools unless there is a clear advantage- on an ad hoc basis.
i don't translate from the beginning to the end. I hop all over the place.
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