opolt Germany Local time: 20:56 Member (2010) English to German + ...
OK
Feb 8
Maybe my reaction was exaggerated then. (Though I still think that from a regular, "innocent"/uninformed client's perspective, in this day and age, the preoccupation with MT is, sadly, at least as valid as Bin's request for a Word file.) And my 2nd posting was motivated more by Marie's "clients from hell" comment.
Maybe I just had a bad day, and my comments were not to the point. But you see, they were made against the background of what I see as a rather heavy bias in these forums: there seem to be at least 10 times as many postings on ProZ about CAT tools freaking out, the potential of MT for translators, the stubborn resistance of the PDF file format against being converted, SDL Trados support, weird tags, the oddities of this or that TM, and all the rest, compared to what I would consider the real issues of translation. So I admit (without irony) that I have difficulties seeing the funny part in this (even though I consider myself quite computer-savvy).
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Annamaria Amik Romania Local time: 21:56 Member (2008) Romanian to English + ...
Oh yeah
Feb 8
opolt wrote:
But you see, they were made against the background of what I see as a rather heavy bias in these forums: there seem to be at least 10 times as many postings on ProZ about CAT tools freaking out, the potential of MT for translators, the stubborn resistance of the PDF file format against being converted, SDL Trados support, weird tags, the oddities of this or that TM, and all the rest, compared to what I would consider the real issues of translation.
I agree 100%! I too wanted to post about this issue. Now this is indeed outrageous that questions on the genuine professional side of translations are so rare, and whenever I open the forum page, I have to scroll down until I reach a non-CAT related thread. Sigh.
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Suzan Hamer Netherlands Local time: 20:56 Member (2007) English + ...
This site is addictive. If I don't pull myself away, I'll never get anything done today.
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Cetacea Switzerland Local time: 20:56 English to German + ...
Exactly
Feb 8
opolt wrote:
Maybe I just don't get it. Sincerely, no offense intended to anyone reading this, but I consider myself a translator whose main tool is the brain (not only what it "contains", but more importantly its capacity to learn, and even more importantly its capacity to learn how to learn). Anything else is auxiliary, be it dictionaries, glossaries, Google, CAT or mouse. When I started out, computers weren't even available. And I think my basic working methods haven't changed much since then.
My point is: they show you a text -- it doesn't matter whether it's carved in stone, written on a parchment with goat blood, shown on a screen or printed out, handwritten, typewritten, or sprayed onto a wall as a graffito. They want you to translate it. As long as it's readable, you just do it, and hand it back. That is all.
From one dinosaur to another: your reaction is not exaggerated at all. And I also happen to think that the response of Bin's client was neither a crying nor a laughing matter, just a valid comment.
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It makes me smile. At the dawn of my translation era a prospect client approached me asking to translate some 20 pages. When we negotiated the terms he sent me a .DOC file, as agreed. But when I opened it--it appeared to be embedded scans. Handwritten. 75 DPI.
You wanted a .DOC? -- You've got it! Happy now?!
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gad United States Local time: 14:56 Member French to English
I wouldn't translate for them
Feb 9
Bin Tiede wrote:
This morning I got a PDF file to translate from a Law office. I asked them to send me a word file, they got very alerted then.
“Why do you need a word file to translate? Do you plan to put the text in a translation machine? We don’t want to have a machine translation, please type the text yourself! ”
I don’t know to laugh or to cry!
I would probably reply explaining to them that no, their assumption of you rendering a machine translation is false, and you don't appreciate the accusation. Then I'd refuse to work with anyone so unprofessional as to even write this. I mean, seriously? I work at a law firm that this is not how we communicate with anyone - client, vendor, whoever.
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Denise Phelps Spain Local time: 20:56 Member (2011) Spanish to English
Perhaps I'm missing the point, but
Feb 9
first, I'd say that a machine translation is very different to a translation produced by a professional translator using CAT tools, and it would always be worth pointing this out to a potential client.
And secondly, I've never found a PDF to Word converter that was 100% reliable, and working with a half-size PDF on one side of the screen and a half-size Word doc on the other is a real pain. Before I got Trados, I always used to ask for Word documents so that I could translate directly into the source text using track changes.
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A PDF is a final product which is not for editing whereas a translator has to shaper the text freely, so he needs either pure txt or some editable format...
I had encountered similar issues but it was quickly solved when I mentioned that I was going to charge extra for DTP!
Cheers
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And I also happen to think that the response of Bin's client was neither a crying nor a laughing matter, just a valid comment.
