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Off topic: Agencies pay for this?
Thread poster: Jonathan Norris
Noura Tawil
Noura Tawil  Identity Verified
Syria
Local time: 03:24
Member (2013)
English to Arabic
The report Apr 17, 2014

Jonathan Norris wrote:

Hi Noura, Thanks for replying. Sounds like you handled it just right, and if you don't mind my final report might borrow a bit from yours. Best wishes,


Hi Jonathan,
Well, the report was somewhat brief, it basically mentioned:
- Approximate number of spelling and grammatical errors.
- A note expressing my impression that the translator never gave his work a second look, based on the nature of some mistakes.
- Approximate number of mistranslations, and added one example of the silliest one.
- The number of hours it took me to make the translation accurate and readable due to the very bad writing style of the original translation (around 15 hours for editing 5500 words). The job was paid for based on the word count, but by mentioning this information, I just wanted the PM's eyebrows to rise when he does the math!
- Finally, the "Please never ask me to clean up this translator's mess again" note.

I find it more time consuming and energy draining to fix a bad translation than to re-translate it all over again, because you try to keep the "puzzle pieces" that are OK, and integrate them into the corrections and improvements that you made, all while trying not to mark the whole thing in red. It's a delicate balance between sticking to your assignment, and delivering an excellent result. Well, I made it clear that even now the result is not excellent, but just fine and accurate, so they can't do business this way each time.

Hope that helps!
Noura


 
Kay Denney
Kay Denney  Identity Verified
France
Local time: 01:24
French to English
Totally with Noura here! Apr 19, 2014

Noura Tawil wrote:

I find it more time consuming and energy draining to fix a bad translation than to re-translate it all over again, because you try to keep the "puzzle pieces" that are OK, and integrate them into the corrections and improvements that you made, all while trying not to mark the whole thing in red. It's a delicate balance between sticking to your assignment, and delivering an excellent result. Well, I made it clear that even now the result is not excellent, but just fine and accurate, so they can't do business this way each time.



except that I no longer have any qualms about marking the whole thing red.

I read this thread the other day, and I had just accepted a proofreading job that turned out to be retranslating. Maybe 15% of the segments were left intact (the shortest!).

The client had explained that their client was not happy, it was not enough of a marketing style for them. I'm not sure that a human being had worked on the file, because idiomatic expressions were translated very literally and sentence structure was identical to source throughout.

I added to the report that the translator had better look at what I did to understand why the client was unhappy.


 
Noura Tawil
Noura Tawil  Identity Verified
Syria
Local time: 03:24
Member (2013)
English to Arabic
Second look Apr 21, 2014

Texte Style wrote:

I added to the report that the translator had better look at what I did to understand why the client was unhappy.


I bet that the "translator" never had a second look at what HE/SHE did, let alone looking at what YOU did


 
Kay Denney
Kay Denney  Identity Verified
France
Local time: 01:24
French to English
Actually, Apr 21, 2014

Noura Tawil wrote:

Texte Style wrote:

I added to the report that the translator had better look at what I did to understand why the client was unhappy.


I bet that the "translator" never had a second look at what HE/SHE did, let alone looking at what YOU did


Actually, given the hefty amount my proofreading cost the agency, and the fact that they are having trouble finding good translators at a rate that enables the boss to lead the jetset lifestyle he feels he deserves, they sent my track-changes version and scathing report to the translator and told him he had to shape up fast. I was given another file to be proofread by the same people a few days later and commented that it was a much better translator who had made efforts to write natural sounding English and who had researched the subject thoroughly, and was then told it was the same guy! His next move ought to be to raise his rates because of the extra effort put in, but of course that has nothing to do with me.


 
Dina Dyachenko
Dina Dyachenko  Identity Verified
Russian Federation
Local time: 07:24
English to Russian
+ ...
unprofessional translators should be either educated or fired;) Apr 22, 2014

Agree with most comments - I also try not to accept poor translation for proofreading, and always inform the client about quality issues. I often work as a translator too and never allow myself to deliver poor, unchecked work. Why should others do this?
Besides, I am sometimes asked to edit tarnslated, proofread and corrected texts, that had been returned by clients. I think it is a real shame for an agency and all the people who had worked on it, because all three-four people (native spea
... See more
Agree with most comments - I also try not to accept poor translation for proofreading, and always inform the client about quality issues. I often work as a translator too and never allow myself to deliver poor, unchecked work. Why should others do this?
Besides, I am sometimes asked to edit tarnslated, proofread and corrected texts, that had been returned by clients. I think it is a real shame for an agency and all the people who had worked on it, because all three-four people (native speakers!) let this crap see the world...
PMs do not have time to read all the texts and they rely on translators and proofreaders, so our work is to raise quality issues, and their work is to decide what to do with it.
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Edward Vreeburg
Edward Vreeburg  Identity Verified
Netherlands
Local time: 01:24
Member (2008)
English to Dutch
+ ...
If the agency pays for this.. Apr 22, 2014

... it means the combined cost of a bad translation + a good proofreader is still lower than a good translator + a good proofreader...

Which either means - you work really fast, or at a reduced rate, or the translation is quite bad, but fairly easy to correct and "make something of it"....

When the translation is so bad the time/money spend correcting it exceeds the cost of having to retranslate it from scratch - that is probably when the agency is going to look for bet
... See more
... it means the combined cost of a bad translation + a good proofreader is still lower than a good translator + a good proofreader...

Which either means - you work really fast, or at a reduced rate, or the translation is quite bad, but fairly easy to correct and "make something of it"....

When the translation is so bad the time/money spend correcting it exceeds the cost of having to retranslate it from scratch - that is probably when the agency is going to look for better translators.

If you feel you are being taken advantage of (you might want to take the first paragraph and highlight all spelling mistakes, - that is something that any translator could and should have done anyway - run the spellchecker)

Then you might want to show a full corrected version which is readable (correct phrases, terminology,... etc.).

But if the agency has set no limits to the time spend/budget to correct it - by all means tell them this is probably going to cost a lot extra and correct the whole text)...
It might even be their (end)client has made his own translation and "just"send it to them
for proofreading....

===
Ed
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Jonathan Norris
Jonathan Norris  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 17:24
Spanish to English
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Good point Apr 22, 2014

Dina Dyachenko wrote:

PMs do not have time to read all the texts and they rely on translators and proofreaders, so our work is to raise quality issues, and their work is to decide what to do with it.


You nailed it, communication is crucial.


 
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