Poll: Have you received files from clients which have already been machine translated before reaching you? Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
|
|---|
This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "Have you received files from clients which have already been machine translated before reaching you?".
View the poll results »
| | | | Michael Harris 
Germany
Local time: 08:30
Member (2006)
German to English
but funnily enough, I had been given one to evaluate the other day and it will have to be re-translated from scratch as it was just a load of rubbish!
| | | | Lizette Britz
Spain
Local time: 08:30
Member (2008)
English to Spanish
| Have a client | Sep 21, 2010 |
I have a client that pretranslates all the text; 99% of it has to be translated again because it does not make sense.
Liz
| | | | Simon Bruni
United Kingdom
Local time: 07:30
Member (2009)
Spanish to English
But I sent it back. I should have told them I am a Spanish to English translator, not a Gibberish to English translator.
| | |
|
|
|
Cecilia Civetta
Italy
Local time: 08:30
Member (2003)
Italian to Spanish
+ ...
| More than once | Sep 21, 2010 |
Sent them back. Like Simon.
| | | | Melanie Nassar
United States
Local time: 09:30
German to English
+ ...
I understood this question a little differently. I didn't receive the machine translation, but I found one that already existed. Strangely enough, I was working on a file just yesterday and in my terminology research, found a machine translation of the same article on the Internet.
A sample
"patients have, for example after pregnancy, blood transfusions or Vortransplantationen antibodies formed"
and unfo... See more I understood this question a little differently. I didn't receive the machine translation, but I found one that already existed. Strangely enough, I was working on a file just yesterday and in my terminology research, found a machine translation of the same article on the Internet.
A sample
"patients have, for example after pregnancy, blood transfusions or Vortransplantationen antibodies formed"
and unfortunately
"transplant patients must live long (!) after taking medicines that suppress the immune system"
Not that it helped me much, unless it's to show how unsatisfactory MT is. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Rebekka Groß (X)
Local time: 07:30
English to German
only as part of post-editing projects
| | | | R. Alex Jenkins
Brazil
Local time: 03:30
Member (2006)
Portuguese to English
+ ...
The client offered me about 60% of the normal fee to 'edit' previously translated text. When I realised it was MT I refused to do it, so the client offered me the full fee to re-translate the text, which I accepted.
| | |
|
|
|
a couple of times, from a client that uses MT between Spanish and Galician. The results are surprisingly good because of the type of documents, the volume of previous translations and the proximity of both languages. Of course a human proofreading is always necessary, and sometimes a very amusing experience
| | | | Miho Ohashi
Japan
Member (2008)
English to Japanese
+ ...
I once accepted a translation job from Spanish to Japanese. Soon after I started working on it, I noticed something was wrong with the source text. I asked my client and they told me that the original text was in Catalan and they had machine-translated it into Spanish...
| | | | Gina W
United States
Local time: 02:30
Member (2003)
French to English
| Haven't received any, though was once asked to | Sep 21, 2010 |
I haven't received any files that had previously been machine translated. However, once I had a higher-up at a large corporation contact me to ask me to, on an ongoing basis, "fix" texts that have been previously translated by their translation software. I explained to him that I do not accept that type of work since it is usually more work for me than had I translated it myself but pays less and it is also difficult to guarantee the quality of the translation besides. Of course he didn't res... See more I haven't received any files that had previously been machine translated. However, once I had a higher-up at a large corporation contact me to ask me to, on an ongoing basis, "fix" texts that have been previously translated by their translation software. I explained to him that I do not accept that type of work since it is usually more work for me than had I translated it myself but pays less and it is also difficult to guarantee the quality of the translation besides. Of course he didn't respond because he probably thinks he knows better, and I realize that there may be someone out there who will eventually accept such work...then again here's to hoping that he received enough of the same responses to actually have gotten the point. Either way, it just wouldn't be worth it for me, for the reasons I already stated above. ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Yes, more than once | Sep 21, 2010 |
Well, i'll go a bit against the flow.
The task will well defined, it's called post-editing and I know beforehand what the client is up to. The MT system is usually fed upstream with human TMs and terminology. It may not sound exciting, but online help or procedures are not by essence.
When smartly managed, MT projects do speed things and lead to a translation fit-for-purpose. Of course it is not literature, and will never be, even after post-editing. But huge volumes and short times... See more Well, i'll go a bit against the flow.
The task will well defined, it's called post-editing and I know beforehand what the client is up to. The MT system is usually fed upstream with human TMs and terminology. It may not sound exciting, but online help or procedures are not by essence.
When smartly managed, MT projects do speed things and lead to a translation fit-for-purpose. Of course it is not literature, and will never be, even after post-editing. But huge volumes and short times to market demand some kind of industrial strength that human translators can't address. With controlled language, using MT does make sense: the outcome, albeit machine-sounding, can be understood correctly. And the source is already machine-sounding, for MT to be more efficient. I suspect some source texts are written specifically for MT processing.
MT post-editing IS NOT translation: I don't deliver the same service. This task requires another mindset and the goal is not to work out an appealing sentence to convey the idea that voltage should be 0 on pin 25 or that you should click such button before clicking another. I have no shame agreeing that style is bulky compared to what I deliver on standard translation, but it fits the bill: grammar and spelling corrects, meaning accurate and understanding easy. If the end client don't require style as an additional layer of quality, it is their right, and my duty to comply.
MT is totally irrelevant in many other fields like technical manuals or press releases.
And without some upstream human work and an overall volume above say 100k, I don't think it is worthwhile to throw MT in.
MT is not anywhere near producing a human-sounding translation, but the huge amount of translation needed in a more and more global environment makes it a sensible choice in some cases.
My humble experience,
Philippe ▲ Collapse
| | |
|
|
|
Sometimes it's helpful; sometimes it isn't.
When it's too messed up, I translate from scratch because the pay is good.
| | | | | My experience of MT pieces of work | Sep 26, 2010 |
As most of you have said, in my experience so far, using machine translations is more laborious that translating straight from the origional text.
The most difficult one I had to do was from a student, writing in very poor Spanish with lots of spelling mistakes, who had used an online translator for her letter, putting it into a very weird English/Spanish/nonsense mix! Since it was a farily short letter I actually quite enjoyed translating it into proper English - it was like bre... See more As most of you have said, in my experience so far, using machine translations is more laborious that translating straight from the origional text.
The most difficult one I had to do was from a student, writing in very poor Spanish with lots of spelling mistakes, who had used an online translator for her letter, putting it into a very weird English/Spanish/nonsense mix! Since it was a farily short letter I actually quite enjoyed translating it into proper English - it was like breaking a code!
However, I would hope that with more difficult and technical translations that I would be able to translate from stratch, using the origional text. ▲ Collapse
| | | | To report site rules violations or get help, contact a site moderator: You can also contact site staff by submitting a support request » Poll: Have you received files from clients which have already been machine translated before reaching you? | TM-Town | Manage your TMs and Terms ... and boost your translation business
Are you ready for something fresh in the industry? TM-Town is a unique new site for you -- the freelance translator -- to store, manage and share translation memories (TMs) and glossaries...and potentially meet new clients on the basis of your prior work.
More info » |
| | Trados Studio 2022 Freelance | The leading translation software used by over 270,000 translators.
Designed with your feedback in mind, Trados Studio 2022 delivers an unrivalled, powerful desktop
and cloud solution, empowering you to work in the most efficient and cost-effective way.
More info » |
|
| | | | X Sign in to your ProZ.com account... | | | | | |
Login to reply/comment 
