| Pagine: < [1 2 3] | TRANSLATION COMPANIES ARE KILLING THE LINGUISTS BEFORE AI Iniziatore argomento: Burcu Erdogan
|
|---|
Burcu Erdogan wrote:
Also, only this morning I saw a job post on Proz from a company called Flipper; they are paying something like 35 USD for 50,000 "Flipper Points". I really don't know how these companies can come up with ways of humiliating the translators!
Mind you, Flipper Points are excellent for buying Disney Dollars.
[Edited at 2025-02-14 20:42 GMT]
| | | |
expressisverbis wrote:
... the real problem is how the industry treats professional translation: as a low-cost service rather than a highly skilled profession. ...
... and in this regard, sad to say, Proz.com has chosen to become an integral part of the 'industry' to which you refer.
I recall that for the last freelance translation job I completed - it was in 2003 - I was paid EUR 0.24 per word. It was technical instructions for a major broadcast media event. It was urgent, critical for the success of the worldwide TV coverage of the event. I did over 5,000 words within a single working day with nothing more sophisticated than a paper print-out of the source text while typing the translation in Word (Office 2000) on a laptop running Windows XP. All the specialist terminology I needed was in my head - no dictionary needed, nor any yearning for the 'tools' offered today (nay, imposed...) with CATs. And the fee landed in my bank account just two days after I sent the translation to the client.
I can well imagine that that same job could now be done faster, and at far less cost to the client, with AI.
But whether it should be done using AI is another question entirely - and not only with translation accuracy in mind. My pension income is financed for the most part by the current generations of professionals - at least, those who can (or can be bothered to) work. But, does AI contribute to the state and private pension funds of the human beings whose professional skills and knowledge have been expropriated - nay, plundered, without compensation - without so much as a thank you?
| | | | Adrian MM.
Austria
Local time: 13:53
Da Spagnolo a Inglese
+ ...
| Translation offices: insourcing companies, outsourcing agencies or sidelining travel agencies | Feb 15 |
We need to be careful about terminology.
I used to work inhouse as a staff translator in Central London for a couple of insourcing (Notarial) Translation *Companies* - reluctantly setting up a translators' vs. interpreters' bonus scheme and then complaining about us translators' 'greed and greediness getting the better of us' when beating the routine contractual salaried-employee target of 100,000 words translated a calendar month.
Because of office overheads and corpo... See more We need to be careful about terminology.
I used to work inhouse as a staff translator in Central London for a couple of insourcing (Notarial) Translation *Companies* - reluctantly setting up a translators' vs. interpreters' bonus scheme and then complaining about us translators' 'greed and greediness getting the better of us' when beating the routine contractual salaried-employee target of 100,000 words translated a calendar month.
Because of office overheads and corporate mismanagement, those Anglo-American & Irish companies have moved out of town and/or gone under.
The monolingual revolution foreshadowed by the advent of the artificial Esperanto language - and that I up to 30 years ago, jogging past the Esperanto Centre & Library every week in West London, had been craving to relieve me of the burden of translation - never happened.
The translation offices and regional satellites also doubled as outsourcing translation *agencies* farming out, so outsourcing translation jobs to freelance(r)s, often to the cheapest and fastest bidder and triumphantly claiming up to 40 years ago - after attending Computers & Translation Conferences in Westminster - that 'machine translation' would never replace, supplant or supersede translators or (court) interpreters. Well, AI has to a certain extent, especially in LLDs - languages of limited diffusion, like Albanian, the Baltic, African and Oriental lingos.
In the German- and Slavonic-speaking world, there are traditionally Turkish and ex-Yugoslav (Serbo-Croat etc.) travel agencies sidelining as translation offices.
Many mega-law firms now have their own inhouse translation & interpreting facilities and employ their lawyers to do translations on the cheap or outsource to their panel of regulars, the sheer volume of work calling for AI as a back-up (literally getting our backs up = annoying us), rather than as a panacea.
In all the above cases, it is for the translators to under- or (as used to be claimed at T&I conferences internationally up to 30 years ago) over-charge, plumbing and electrician occupations being based more on a travel (over-)allowance & materials, quality of work and time taken, translation by definition being an 'imperfect product or service', whether done by humans or AI, MTPE / machine translation post-editing often being the only way-out when hundreds of pages need (to) be translated 'overnight'.
[Edited at 2025-02-15 14:46 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | Yasutomo Kanazawa 
Giappone
Local time: 21:53
Membro (2005)
Da Inglese a Giapponese
+ ...
| People never learn | Feb 15 |
expressisverbis wrote:
Right now, agencies set the rules, and since there's no industry-wide enforcement of fair wages or quality standards, it's a race to the bottom.
The result: many people with no formal education and/or experience in translation enter the field and accept ridiculously low rates just to get work. They deliver poor-quality translations, and since agencies focus on cheap labor, they keep contacting them.
Last August, I was contacted by an Italian agency who offered me a proofreading job at 10 Euros. When I counted the number of source words, I find out that the rate they were offering was 5 Euros shy which I accept (my minimum charge), so I told them that. Then the PM, or rather the owner of the agency tried to correct me that the offer was 10 Euros, not 15, so I told them that I know that you are offering me this job at 10 Euros but my minimum rate is 15 Euros. Then she got a bit upset and told me that the job was not confirmed yet, so I got frustrated and sent her the following message:
" I know that your offer is 10 Euros, but my minimum rate is 15 Euros.
Let me get this straight.
It’s not YOU who decide how much the offer is, it is I who decide the rate.
Do you walk in to a “bar” and tell them that you are willing to offer one Euro for their cappuccino, whereas their price for a cup costs 2 Euros?
Do you think they would agree to your offer?"
Then she got really upset, and sent me the following message:
"No need to answer to your arguments, the revision has been already completed, if you don’t accept our offers there’s someone else who does it."
I felt very frustrated but at the same time sad because these kinds of obnoxious and stupid clients who think they are calling the shots still exist and believe that they are the only ones who are running a business and translators are just slaves who would accept anything that comes.
And the funny thing is that they never learn: the same person who runs this agency contacted me again two weeks ago about a similar proofreading job stating how much they can offer, so I kindly sent her a message by attaching the correspondence we had back in August asking if she doesn't remember what happened the last time when she contacted me. And of course, she never wrote back.
| | | | | Pagine: < [1 2 3] | To report site rules violations or get help, contact a site moderator: You can also contact site staff by submitting a support request » TRANSLATION COMPANIES ARE KILLING THE LINGUISTS BEFORE AI | Wordfast Pro | Translation Memory Software for Any Platform
Exclusive discount for ProZ.com users!
Save over 13% when purchasing Wordfast Pro through ProZ.com. Wordfast is the world's #1 provider of platform-independent Translation Memory software. Consistently ranked the most user-friendly and highest value
Buy now! » |
| | Protemos translation business management system | Create your account in minutes, and start working! 3-month trial for agencies, and free for freelancers!
The system lets you keep client/vendor database, with contacts and rates, manage projects and assign jobs to vendors, issue invoices, track payments, store and manage project files, generate business reports on turnover profit per client/manager etc.
More info » |
|
| | | | X Sign in to your ProZ.com account... | | | | | |
Login to reply/comment 
Translation news
