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| Pages in topic: < [1 2] | | User | Thread poster: Marcy V CAT software question |
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Tomás Cano Binder 
Spain
 Member (2005)
English to Spanish
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| | More 'translationation' | Jun 9 |
Sorry if you don't speak Spanish. It keeps hurting!!
Automatic translator A
English: My mother is in the kitchen. Meet me at the airport.
Spanish: Mi madre es en la cocina. Conoce a mí en el aeropuerto.
(Means "My mother exists while in the kitchen". Well, some people might feel that about their mothers, but it's not what the text says really...)
Automatic translator B
Spanish: Mi madre está en la cocina. Satisfágame en el aeropuerto.
(This one got the first sentence right; in the second one it says "Please me at the airport").
Automatic translator C
Spanish: Mi madre está en la cocina. Encuéntreme en el aeropuerto.
Oh well, translator C got it! Not quite perfect, but OK if I edit it a bit. Let's try something more interesting:
English: Would you care for a cup of coffee?
Spanish: ¿Usted se preocuparía para una taza del café?
(Oh damn! In Spanish it says "Would you be worried about a cup of coffee?")
I am worried about my cup of coffee, but I am mercyless person and will swallow it no matter what!! 
[Edited at 2008-06-09 09:28]
 
| | | | Angela Arnone
Italy
Member (2004)
Italian to English
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| | We weren't off topic until Marcy clarified. | Jun 9 |
Wolfgang,
Thanks for your input here, but I've got my moderator hat on, and as far as I can see, we were not off topic, as it was not clear what Marcy wanted to know.
Now she has cleared that up.
Angela
Wolfgang Jörissen wrote:
As far as CAT applications are concerned, they might save time and increase your profit, provided that you use them effectively. And what Lawyer-Linguist says, also goes here: Don't expect miracles overnight.
I have been feeding my databases for 10 years now, and I could not imagine my professional life without them.
If you really want to see what it can mean for you and find out whether it suits you, just play around with a couple of them (which is free). Or take Jost (translation tools compared) - whose banner appears quite frequently, even right now on this page (at least here) - up on his offer. |
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[Edited at 2008-06-09 09:02]
[Edited at 2008-06-09 09:03]
| | | | Susan Welsh
United States
Member (May 2008)
Russian to English
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Just to clear up a misconception: Wordfast is not free. There is a free trial download, with a certain amount of memory, but after that you have to pay. It's a lot cheaper than Trados (I don't know about the other ones).
OmegaT, which is the one I'm using to learn on, is free. I'm getting to like it, and recommend giving it a try. I had a little trouble getting started, since I was completely ignorant about TMs, CATs, and other such strange creatures. If you try it and need help with rudimentary questions, you can email me.
Susan
| | | | Yamila Sosa
Argentina
Member (Apr 2008)
English to Spanish
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| | Pros and Cons of OmegaT | Jun 9 |
OmegaT, which is the one I'm using to learn on, is free. I'm getting to like it, and recommend giving it a try. I had a little trouble getting started, since I was completely ignorant about TMs, CATs, and other such strange creatures. If you try it and need help with rudimentary questions, you can email me.
What are the advantages and disadvantages of OmegaT compared to other CATs? I do not use any CATs, but I am interested in them because I know that many translators use them for translating texts containing many repetitions and for time saving purposes.
Thanks in advance,
Yamila
[Edited at 2008-06-09 15:13]
| | | | Susan Welsh
United States
Member (May 2008)
Russian to English
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Yamila Sosa wrote:
What are the advantages and disadvantages of OmegaT compared to other CATs? I do not use any CATs, but I am interested in them because I know that many translators use them for translating texts containing many repetitions and for time saving purposes.
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To me, "free" is an advantage! I don't have experience with other CAT tools, so cannot answer you otherwise, and refer you to the forum archives.
I can mention a couple of points:
OmegaT does not support MS Word, so you have to download the office package from openoffice.org (it's free), and open your Word document in Open Office Writer. Then once it's all translated, you have to open it in Word again, check for any formatting errors--like rules not lining up just right--and then send it to the client. Assuming your client doesn't use Open Office, which most don't. If you forget to send it in word, and leave it in .odt, the client will be unable to open the file.
I'm told that it can deal with any .TMX file (which is what Trados produces), but I don't have any experience with that.
The glossary function is useless for a highly inflected language like Russian. I've been told that ALL glossary functions on ALL CAT tools are unable to deal with inflected languages. But OmegaT has a powerful SEARCH function, which, I'm told, easily plays the role that a glossary would.
Good luck,
Susan
| | | | Yamila Sosa
Argentina
Member (Apr 2008)
English to Spanish
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Thanks so much for your explanation! It has been very clear and useful.
Best Regards,
Yamila
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| Viktoria Gimbe
Canada
Member (2005)
English to French
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| | What are you? Translator, freelancer or businessperson? | Jun 9 |
The initial post in this thread made me wonder if it is not the perception we each have of ourselves that determines how well our businesses perform (and thus how satisfied we all are of our breadwinning in general).
I am starting to see that there are three types of freelance translators, on this site as well as out there in general. The translator, the freelancer and the businessperson. I guess some definitions are needed:
Translator - A professional translator who loves languages and is generally satisfied with the work s/he does. It is hard for these people to achieve a comfortable income but they'd rather accept slightly lower rates and slightly worse conditions than be stuck with no work or with well-paid but uninteresting work. Terms and conditions of your contract are negotiated.
Freelancer - A person who loves being independent and is happy to get some kind of revenue, provided they can set their own hours and don't have to wait for the bus each morning in the cold. Increasingly, what matters to them most is being independent - being a translator is secondary. Many freelancers accept boring work because to many of them, it's just work. Many of them also accept work they are not qualified for. Freelancers are, for the most part, interested in a high daily output as opposed to high rates (excellent candidates for technology like CAT and voice recognition). Terms and conditions of contracts are dictated by your client.
Businesspersons - These are the freelance translators who consider that they are one-man shows running a business. They generally love the work they do, but mostly because it allows them to carry on some kind of business. These are people who care to be professional, and even though some of them accept work they are not necessarily cut out for, they call on their contacts for help and negotiate their rates accordingly, so the overall output is still professional. These are usually people who will not go without negotiation, but also go to greater lengths than the other two categories when it comes to caring for their image, educating clients, networking and, above all, regular prospection to find clients willing to pay for the quality language services they need. Terms and conditions of your contract are set by you - if the client doesn't like it, he can ask for a slight modification or look for another, more influenceable translator. A businessperson's business is much more high maintenance than the other two categories' - prospection, networking, marketing, etc. These people need to work hard to keep it up.
Of course, we all have a bit of each category within us. The proportion in which each category (or personality) is present is what I call a profile. For example, my profile is 50% businessperson, 30% translator and 20% freelancer (my working hours are similar to a secretray's and I respect them 95% of the time). You need to ask yourself what your profile is. Price matters a lot to businesspersons and matters much less to freelancers. Most freelancers get the bulk of their work from clients who stumbled upon their profile, while businesspersons mostly work with direct clients they had to seduce to get into a relationship with. Needless to say, the businessperson is the one who is most likely to open an agency.
Once you have figured out your profile, concentrate on the dominant personality. If your dominant personality is the businessperson, then you will be sorry if you look for work on ProZ, because the rates are on the lowish side. On the other hand, if your businessperson personality comes here to get to know the industry well and to steal tricks of the trade, a membership in this site may be your best investment. If your dominant personality is the freelancer, you will be really happy if you look for work here. Wait long enough for your profile to be indexed by search engines and people will contact you each week with opportunities (provided your profile is complete, targeted at your ideal clients and well written). If your dominant personality is the translator, then you will like this site either way, but you may get frustrated after a while seeing how translation is being commoditized - a translator is a professional and being treated like cheap labour can hurt a professional's feelings (and wallet).
The bottom line is:
Businesspersons looking for work here are better off looking elsewhere.
Translators looking for work here will eventually find interesting opportunities but they will have to back them up by other, more conventional sources.
Freelancers looking for work here will have an awesome time on this site.
As for CAT tools, once again, it depends. In my opinion, there are only two valid reasons for a freelance translator to use a CAT tool. One is to be more efficient and to be able to deliver translations that are more consistent within a shorter timeframe. The other is to be able to deliver file formats that are compatible with your clients' software (TMX, TTX, ITD, etc.). Once again, it depends on your personality. Freelancer: can't work without a CAT tool - go buy it right away. Translator: if you translate text that is naturally adapted to CAT tools, you will find your work easier and better organized - you may want to invest but most clients will not require it. Businessperson: If you think it will help your bottom line, go for it - you are not going for clients who use CAT tools so you really don't have to get a CAT tool.
[Edited at 2008-06-09 21:27]
| | | | Marcy V
United States
Member (Jun 2008)
English to Spanish
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Responses have been most enlightening. Apologize for the delay in clarifications.
I am a court interpreter for the most part, so my experience working with actual written translation is minimal, and I'm looking to expand, build more vocab, grow as an interpreter/translator, and make a little extra income along the way. I am the newest, so my hrs are short and I think I have a lot left to learn (don't we all).
I love languages, and I'm probably more on the overly self-councious, more qualified that I think I am, do not ask what I could/should monetary-wise... even of interpreting jobs. But I'm building a backbone as I go.
Definately only about a 10% business person, and probably 5% freelancer. I have to love what I do in order to enjoy my work, and I get a (weird) kick out of learning more words and getting back to my native tongue.
So I guess I'm the translator. I had an excellent teacher for interpreting, who was of the opinion that everything we need is in our heads.
But a database like this would be very cool and definately something I had been thinking about but didn't know where to find. It would be great to have my terms input and easily accesible. Currently, I have 2-3 composition notebooks that are serving that purpose.
But it may not be worth for me to buy Trados at this point in time.
[Edited at 2008-06-14 04:19]
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The translation workplace 
