| Pages in topic: [1 2] > | Job offer involving the proof-reading of machine translation Thread poster: Narasimhan Raghavan
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Given below is a job posting in one of the translation portals I saw (not proz.com).
// We have a huge, urgent and important post-editing project (meaning that the original documents have been pre-translated with a translation machine and the post-editors will have to correct the pre-translated documents and deliver us clear documents).
The total amount of pages to be post-edited from German to English is 1485 pages and the deadline is Thursday 1/3/2007 morning.
A... See more Given below is a job posting in one of the translation portals I saw (not proz.com).
// We have a huge, urgent and important post-editing project (meaning that the original documents have been pre-translated with a translation machine and the post-editors will have to correct the pre-translated documents and deliver us clear documents).
The total amount of pages to be post-edited from German to English is 1485 pages and the deadline is Thursday 1/3/2007 morning.
All files are uploaded on our portal (http://xxxxxxxxx.com) for your reference. These EU documents are of the agricultural field.
If you are interested, please send an e-mail to [email protected] along with an updated copy of your CV stating your availability, the maximum amount of pages you could handle by the deadline and your rates per standard page (1500 characters excluding spaces).
Please, note that our EU contract rates are quite low, so we would appreciate it if you took that into account.
Thank you in advance for your prompt reply.
Deadline: March 1 at 9 AM //
Now I ask you. 1485 pages, deadline just one week. The mind boggles at the possible total number of words involved. That too machine translation! I ask you.
Adding one last insult to injury, the agency pleads that they cannot pay much. I am intrigued by all this.
I am reminded of the following sentence by the American lawyer-author Louis Nizer about one of his libel cases, where he represented the plaintiff and the defense lost. Now, one of the defendants was a businessman and he died at the time of passing judgment. His estate was inadequate to pay the awarded damage and a settlement was arrived at and paid. It was the other two defendants, who themselves were almost bankrupt. Yet they went on to appeal. Here, comes the observation by Louis Nizer, containing among other things the abovementioned sentence.
"The defense went on appealing from court to court. For them, it was not a question of money. (They had none).
Sorry for the small digression. This seems to be the attitude of many an agency.
They want the best of everything, namely:
1. Best translator with the perfect knowledge of the subject matter of the translation, preferably a Master's degree in the subject as well an M.A. in the language concerned. Volume is huge and there must be volume discount but the deadline is yesterday!
2. The translator should offer his best rates!
Regards,
N.Raghavan
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| | | | Monika Coulson 
Local time: 17:33
Member (2001)
English to Albanian
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SITE LOCALIZER | Easy decision Narasimhan | Feb 21, 2007 |
Don't bother!
Monika
| | | | Clara Duarte
Portugal
Local time: 00:33
English to Portuguese
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| I agree with Monika | Feb 21, 2007 |
The deadline is a joke.
It seems as this company didn't want to pay a translator to do the translation in the first place, so now they are asking for a proofreader who will end up doing the translation anyway at a much lower rate.
| | | | | Of course, easy decision, but.. | Feb 21, 2007 |
This job offer takes the cake. I am reminded of another job offer in Proz, where the outsourcer claimed to be a non-profit organization and frankly said he expected the translation to be free of cost.
But he had the gall to restrict the job offer to Platinum Members only. No thank you sir was the refrain of the topic I initiated for this. After all I do not want to be a platinum member just for this kind of jobs.
Later it turned out that the concerned outsourcer was no... See more This job offer takes the cake. I am reminded of another job offer in Proz, where the outsourcer claimed to be a non-profit organization and frankly said he expected the translation to be free of cost.
But he had the gall to restrict the job offer to Platinum Members only. No thank you sir was the refrain of the topic I initiated for this. After all I do not want to be a platinum member just for this kind of jobs.
Later it turned out that the concerned outsourcer was non-English and did not understand the default button restricting the job to platinum members. But that does not alter the end-result as far as I was concerned.
Unfortunately, I am unable to get the link for that post. But that is another story requiring another topic to be posted in another forum..
Monika Coulson wrote:
Don't bother!
Monika
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I don't know if I can read that many pages in that time, not to mention post-edit...
If one were to spend only 5 minutes on each page, that would already result in over 123 hours work - straight, without any breaks! For a week, that's over 17.5 hours each day, still without any breaks!
PMs should do a little simple math before they come up with something like this.
| | | | | Not only is the deadline ridiculous... | Feb 22, 2007 |
...but if we all agreed to start proofreading machine translation, then guess what our profession will be like in a few years.
I also find it insulting to the EU that these people are machine-translating their documents. It is in fact insulting to every single member of the EU - I wonder how much they will understand of the final text before the EU decides to go over their budget and get it all translated again, which will cost somewhere down the line.
Also, if this IS ... See more ...but if we all agreed to start proofreading machine translation, then guess what our profession will be like in a few years.
I also find it insulting to the EU that these people are machine-translating their documents. It is in fact insulting to every single member of the EU - I wonder how much they will understand of the final text before the EU decides to go over their budget and get it all translated again, which will cost somewhere down the line.
Also, if this IS an EU contract, I sincerely doubt that the agency, after machine-translating the job and all, has a low budget. Last I checked, the EU pays excellent rates for their translations.
This is just an incredibly unbelievable offer. I don't find it funny - I find it rather heartwrenchingly sad... ▲ Collapse
| | | | | I've heard worse | Feb 22, 2007 |
Well... some of us (translators) have been discussing this sort of thing amongst us. And evidently some agencies that have excellent records on blueboard and other lists still try to pay as low as 75 paise (0.012 Euros) or 40 paise (0.006 Euros) per word!!!
(conversions by xe.com)
And they expect good quality work.
And of course, impossible deadlines.
I don't know how they come up with those 'out of the world' figures ... See more
| | | | | If you offer peanuts.... | Feb 22, 2007 |
Ritu Bhanot wrote:
At least I'll be living rather than spending time slogging for peanuts (even peanuts cost more!!!).
[Edited at 2007-02-22 05:32]
If you offer only peanuts, you will end up with monkeys.
Regards,
N.Raghavan
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| Posted here too | Feb 22, 2007 |
This same job was actually posted here on proz yesterday too. Go figure.
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Narasimhan Raghavan wrote: Ritu Bhanot wrote:
At least I'll be living rather than spending time slogging for peanuts (even peanuts cost more!!!).
[Edited at 2007-02-22 05:32] If you offer only peanuts, you will end up with monkeys. Regards, N.Raghavan
But... may be there are people who know how to translate and are good but for some reason or other...
I don't know.
| | | | NMR (X)
France
Local time: 01:33
French to Dutch
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| | One more example | Feb 22, 2007 |
This is another intimation I received today per email.
Source language: German
Target language: English
General subject area: Industrial
Number of words: 8388607
Due date: 2007-06-30 (I ask you)
Format: file.doc
Großprojekt für die nächsten 2 bis 3 Monate. (2 to 3 months)
Thema: Lastenhefte aus der Automobilbranche
Wir erwarten täglich ca. 500 Seiten (pages per day), deshalb brauchen wir einen Übersetzer, der ausreich... See more This is another intimation I received today per email.
Source language: German
Target language: English
General subject area: Industrial
Number of words: 8388607
Due date: 2007-06-30 (I ask you)
Format: file.doc
Großprojekt für die nächsten 2 bis 3 Monate. (2 to 3 months)
Thema: Lastenhefte aus der Automobilbranche
Wir erwarten täglich ca. 500 Seiten (pages per day), deshalb brauchen wir einen Übersetzer, der ausreichend Kapazitäten für diesen Zeitraum vorweisen kann!!! Bitte senden Sie uns eine E-Mail. Sie müssen ein abgeschlossens Studium (Ingenieurbereich) vorweisen können und idealerweise auch noch ein Sprachstudium absolviert haben.
Bitte melden Sie sich umgehend unter.
It is too painful for me even to translate the announcement above.
Well, I think we can at least have a good laught about this.
Regards,
N.Raghavan
[Edited at 2007-02-22 10:02] ▲ Collapse
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| So that's it | Feb 22, 2007 |
In that case, it would be better to quote directly to the EU mentionong your normal translation rate and to try your luck, rather than depending on agencies, who take a hefty commission and act just as post office.
Once you get the job, just discard the machine translation and proceed with your original translation at the daily output you are accustomed to. There will be other translators but you need to break your head only for your turf.
Regards,
N.Raghavan
[Edited at 2007-02-22 10:36]
| | | | NMR (X)
France
Local time: 01:33
French to Dutch
+ ...
| I don't think it is machine translation | Feb 22, 2007 |
But it must be pre-translated text with Trados. I am not concerned and didn't see the files, but I think the word "machine translation" is badly chosen. And I agree, people who are interested and who meet qualifications, can always apply directly with EU.
| | | | | It is not machine translation then? | Feb 22, 2007 |
NMR wrote:
But it must be pre-translated text with Trados. I am not concerned and didn't see the files, but I think the word "machine translation" is badly chosen. And I agree, people who are interested and who meet qualifications, can always apply directly with EU.
But the agency stated clearly "translated by machine" and I don't think Trados was mentioned anywhere. But I agree that what you say is most probably true as I don't think EU is capable of asking us to check machine traslated documents.
Even if that were true, this is all the more discrediting the outsourcer, as he reveals himself as not even being aware of the difference between Trados translation and machine translation.
Regards,
N.Raghavan
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