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Google translate proofreading projects
Thread poster: Djana Surkovic
Djana Surkovic
Djana Surkovic
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Local time: 08:23
Member
French to Bosnian
+ ...
Jul 21, 2017

Projects of proofreading google translations are very often lately. Should we accept those projects and deteriorate that way our income and our work?

 
Christopher Schröder
Christopher Schröder
United Kingdom
Member (2011)
Swedish to English
+ ...
No Jul 21, 2017

No.

Well, I suppose it depends how desperate you are.


 
Philippe Etienne
Philippe Etienne  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 08:23
Member
English to French
You're your own boss Jul 21, 2017

I don't see the point of accepting GT-prepped files if you KNOW it brings no value in what you do. If it did, you would use it yourself, wouldn't you?

But if you hit your target hourly rate proofreading GT projects, without later complaints from agency/end customer, then why not.
If an agency offered me paper clip unbending assignments at my hourly rate, I'd give them priority. It's likely less demanding than translation.

Philippe


Jorge Payan
Clara Marino
IrinaN
Adieu
Xiaodong Du
 
Tom in London
Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 07:23
Member (2008)
Italian to English
No. Jul 21, 2017

Djana Surkovic wrote:

Projects of proofreading google translations are very often lately. Should we accept those projects and deteriorate that way our income and our work?


No. I would rather not deteriorate that way. I'm deteriorating in my own way.


 
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida  Identity Verified
Portugal
Local time: 07:23
Member (2007)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
No Jul 21, 2017

I have never been asked to proofread Google translations, but as it happens I refuse most proofreading projects because I prefer to spend my time translating...

IrinaN
SandraV
 
Shouguang Cao
Shouguang Cao  Identity Verified
China
Local time: 15:23
English to Chinese
+ ...
No Jul 21, 2017

I saw such an offer once and simply ignored it.

Sometimes Google Translate is just amazing, but it's totally unpredictable, and sometimes it fails drastically. I will not take this proofreading job as it will be frustrating.

Google Translate can be a wonderful reference tool for translators though. I consider it as a help for translators, rather than replacing human translators.


Jeslynn Khoo
Miomira Brankovic
SandraV
 
Maija Cirule
Maija Cirule  Identity Verified
Latvia
Local time: 09:23
German to English
+ ...
Yes but at the rate of translation from scratch Jul 21, 2017

I have received such offer twice or thrice but after the reply above I have not heard anything from the "client".

toasty
 
Djana Surkovic
Djana Surkovic
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Local time: 08:23
Member
French to Bosnian
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
- Jul 21, 2017

I agree that we should ask for the same price as it was translation project.

Gabriele Fu
SandraV
 
Gitte Hoveds (X)
Gitte Hoveds (X)
Denmark
Local time: 08:23
Danish to English
+ ...
Entirely your choice Jul 22, 2017

Who is to say what thousands of individual translators should or shouldn't do?

We are all individuals, and what we want to do, what kind of work we enjoy or are willing to undertake, and how we want to run our businesses - these are all individual choices.

If YOU want to proofread Google-translated material, go for it.

I wouldn't...


 
Soonthon LUPKITARO(Ph.D.)
Soonthon LUPKITARO(Ph.D.)  Identity Verified
Thailand
Local time: 14:23
English to Thai
+ ...
To enhance our productivity Jul 23, 2017

Djana Surkovic wrote:

Projects of proofreading google translations are very often lately. Should we accept those projects and deteriorate that way our income and our work?


The functions to enhance the Neural Machine Translation System is the latest MT to assist translators for more productivity. I support this movement and I am an advocate of latest technology to help human translators.
I am going to be 65 years old. This is why I need to move proactively.

Dr. Soonthon Lupkitaro
Bangkok, Thailand


 
Mirko Mainardi
Mirko Mainardi  Identity Verified
Italy
Local time: 08:23
Member
English to Italian
Short sighted Jul 24, 2017

Soonthon LUPKITARO(Ph.D.) wrote:

Djana Surkovic wrote:

Projects of proofreading google translations are very often lately. Should we accept those projects and deteriorate that way our income and our work?


The functions to enhance the Neural Machine Translation System is the latest MT to assist translators for more productivity. I support this movement and I am an advocate of latest technology to help human translators.
I am going to be 65 years old. This is why I need to move proactively.


What's the point in being more productive if you're being paid less?

It's a bit like CAT tools. You can use one to enhance your productivity (and consistency), so all good, no? Pity that so many clients ask you to use one in order to (recursively) lower your rates by requesting so called "fuzzy discounts"...


Beatriz Ramírez de Haro
 
mona elshazly
mona elshazly  Identity Verified
Egypt
Local time: 09:23
Member (2016)
Italian to Arabic
+ ...
it depends on the language pair Jul 26, 2017

I do not like proofreading projects, but if you want to try you should consider the language pair first, some language are not tiresome to revise, while others you have to repeat the translation from scratch.

 
gauloise
gauloise
United States
Local time: 08:23
Member (2020)
Italian to English
+ ...
At least they're honest Jun 26, 2019

At least they are telling you upfront they are google translate. I stopped doing revisions because the translator was basically submitting google translate and getting paid the higher fee for literally a few minutes of work

 
Adieu
Adieu  Identity Verified
Ukrainian to English
+ ...
MTPE Jan 7, 2021

Quote them a 50% marked-up translation-from-scratch rate and your usual TL rate as an "MTPE rate"

Because there's no gain whatsoever from them running the text through Google "for you". You can do that yourself with zero time or effort.

Btw, I'm starting to think they know that and aren't even trying to knock down the price or anything, but rather just shielding themselves from getting raw MT submitted to them by preemptively running the MT themselves.

[Edited at
... See more
Quote them a 50% marked-up translation-from-scratch rate and your usual TL rate as an "MTPE rate"

Because there's no gain whatsoever from them running the text through Google "for you". You can do that yourself with zero time or effort.

Btw, I'm starting to think they know that and aren't even trying to knock down the price or anything, but rather just shielding themselves from getting raw MT submitted to them by preemptively running the MT themselves.

[Edited at 2021-01-07 07:28 GMT]
Collapse


 
Mihai Badea (X)
Mihai Badea (X)  Identity Verified
Luxembourg
Doing the thinking for free Jun 25, 2021

Adieu wrote:

Quote them a 50% marked-up translation-from-scratch rate and your usual TL rate as an "MTPE rate"

Because there's no gain whatsoever from them running the text through Google "for you". You can do that yourself with zero time or effort.

Btw, I'm starting to think they know that and aren't even trying to knock down the price or anything, but rather just shielding themselves from getting raw MT submitted to them by preemptively running the MT themselves.

[Edited at 2021-01-07 07:28 GMT]



Progress is inevitable and it would be unwise to oppose it.

There is a chance at some point, perhaps in a few years, perhaps in a couple of decades - difficult to know! - the MT will be very near to human translation. That is fine. We only need to think of the next step.

But there are basically two options:

1. MT can be trusted, and human intervention is not required;

2. MT cannot be trusted, human intervention is required, and so MT is just typing help, because a human is still required to do the thinking.

Not doing the thinking because "things seem right", and providing the text to the client as human translation is indeed very risky business.

Of course, things would be a little different if the translator could see, in the suggested automated translation, what sub-segments originate from human translation (and, ideally, from where exactly they have been taken). Therefore, a bit of transparency from the MT technology providers might actually do the thing a bit more feasible and credible.


 
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