Office 2003 in Albanian full of grammar & spelling mistakes Thread poster: Monika Coulson
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Monika Coulson 
Local time: 15:24
Member (2001)
English to Albanian
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SITE LOCALIZER
This was discussed today in the Albanian forum. Myself and some other Albanian colleagues find it appalling that Office 2003 in Albanian is full of mistakes (not one or two, and not some spelling mistakes, but grammar mistakes too.)
Isn't that a classic example of what kind of results you get when you try to hire cheap translators?
Hope Microsoft will learn it in a hard way.
Monika
| | | | Eva T
English to Albanian
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Monika,
I already sent my complaint to Microsoft. Also, as I also wrote in the Albanian forum, how can we use their spellcheck when they have visible mistakes/errors there?
I am speechless and upset,
Eva
Monika Coulson wrote:
This was discussed today in the Albanian forum. Myself and some other Albanian colleagues find it appalling that Office 2003 in Albanian is full of mistakes (not one or two, and not some spelling mistakes, but grammar mistakes too.)
Isn't that a classic example of what kind of results you get when you try to hire cheap translators?
Hope Microsoft will learn it in a hard way.
Monika
| | | | Henry Hinds
United States
Local time: 15:24
English to Spanish
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In memoriam | Give it a try | May 26, 2006 |
You could always write Microsoft and offer to fix it for a price, probably no one else would be better qualified. Of course knowing large organizations you may be ignored because no one gives a damn.
Then again, if they found it worthwhile to do it in Albanian, which would represent such a small market, then why not do it right?
That would be a good point to emphasize.
| | | | Monika Coulson
Local time: 15:24
Member (2001)
English to Albanian
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TOPIC STARTER SITE LOCALIZER
Dear Henry,
Funny that you mentioned that in your posting.
You could always write Microsoft and offer to fix it for a price
A couple of years ago I was involved (briefly) on another Microsoft translation project. My task was to perform a quality control check. The quality of the translation that I checked at that time was not any better than the one I saw today on Office 2003 in Albanian and I pointed to them (in details) all the errors that the translators had made (most of the errors were grammar mistakes and a lot of them were spelling mistakes.)
I heard later from another company employee that the Project Manager who was directing that particular translation got furious at me, since based on my findings, the translation did not pass.
Shortly after my findings, they sent me some guidelines and a glossary that was created by the translators, a glossary which was also full of grammar and spelling mistakes. (I am referring to "translators"; however, I am not sure if it was one or more than one translator involved there.)
I did not work for that company anymore. (I did get paid for the task that I performed.)
I am not sure if the same team of translators was involved in the translation that I saw today, but I feel that it is a pity that a giant like Microsoft ends up like this. I am sure Microsoft is willing to pay good money for good services.
On the other hand, this is not the first time that has happened with translations. Other "giants" have made similar mistakes.
Monika
Henry Hinds wrote:
You could always write Microsoft and offer to fix it for a price, probably no one else would be better qualified. Of course knowing large organizations you may be ignored because no one gives a damn.
Then again, if they found it worthwhile to do it in Albanian, which would represent such a small market, then why not do it right?
That would be a good point to emphasize.
[Edited at 2006-05-26 18:05]
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Henry Hinds
United States
Local time: 15:24
English to Spanish
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In memoriam
Politics often prevent good work from floating to the top and instead all the trash floats to the top... and stays there!
But your language deserves just as much respect as any other, so don't give up.
Even in 'big" languages like English and Spanish, with all our numbers, we still have to fight all the time.
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Monika Coulson wrote:
I feel that it is a pity that a giant like Microsoft ends up like this. I am sure Microsoft is willing to pay good money for good services.
Hi Monika,
So often I get to check and correct bad translations or get offered a rush translation job under a silly rate for a 'big' company! I do not receive these jobs from those biggies directly, but through so many agencies around the world! Those big names trust some agency, which then distributes the work, which gets re-distributed.... who knows through how many hands those can pass! The end client does not understand the target language so the agency can deliver whatever there is to deliver.
I am always amazed that companies which sell/work world-wide do not have their own department or something like that to take care of quality translations of their software, manuals, etc.
Oh, well...
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