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Please help with my research survey on attitudes towards machine translation (less than 5 mins)
Thread poster: sarahjayne96
sarahjayne96
sarahjayne96
United Kingdom
Local time: 11:54
French to English
+ ...
Dec 12, 2017

Hi,

I am a final year BA Modern Languages student taking a specialist module in Translation Studies. I am currently writing an assignment on how the rapid rise of machine translation will affect the role of the translator in the future. In order to further my research, I have created a survey which aims to gather qualitative and quantitative data from professionals in the translation industry regarding their attitudes towards machine translation.

Any translators who co
... See more
Hi,

I am a final year BA Modern Languages student taking a specialist module in Translation Studies. I am currently writing an assignment on how the rapid rise of machine translation will affect the role of the translator in the future. In order to further my research, I have created a survey which aims to gather qualitative and quantitative data from professionals in the translation industry regarding their attitudes towards machine translation.

Any translators who could be so kind to spare no more than 5 minutes to fill in this quick survey, your responses would be greatly appreciated.

The survey can be accessed here: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/BTCX6GG

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me on [email protected]

Thank you very much in advance.
Collapse


 
Sheila Wilson
Sheila Wilson  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 11:54
Member (2007)
English
+ ...
Done Dec 14, 2017

For once, I had no problems answering the questions, so congratulations on that..

 
Tom in London
Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 11:54
Member (2008)
Italian to English
Me too..... Dec 14, 2017

Sheila Wilson wrote:

For once, I had no problems answering the questions, so congratulations on that..


Me too.


 
Jennifer Forbes
Jennifer Forbes  Identity Verified
Local time: 11:54
French to English
+ ...
In memoriam
Ditto Dec 14, 2017

Yes, a very straightforward questionnaire.
I'd be interested to know the result of your survey. Do you plan to let us know?


 
sarahjayne96
sarahjayne96
United Kingdom
Local time: 11:54
French to English
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Thank you! Dec 14, 2017

Thank you so much to everyone who has participated so far and for your positive feedback. Your responses will be incredibly useful in my work so please do keep them coming!

I am more than happy to share the survey data results with anyone who is interested. Feel free to comment here and I will copy you in to a PM once the the results have been collated.


 
Bhaswar Lochan
Bhaswar Lochan
India
Local time: 17:24
English to Hindi
+ ...
Done Dec 14, 2017

Done. It was quite straightforward.

 
Susan Welsh
Susan Welsh  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 07:54
Russian to English
+ ...
Your survey is misdirected Dec 14, 2017

As I wrote within the survey, several of the questions are directed at LSPs, not translators (expanded a bit here): "Your choices here are mostly aimed at translation companies, not translators! The assumptions in the "Confidentiality" question (that MT is an advantage because it is more confidential than using a human translator) are totally wrong - see many forums on Proz.com, especially in the MT forum, which is where this survey should have been placed, about the lack of confidentiali... See more
As I wrote within the survey, several of the questions are directed at LSPs, not translators (expanded a bit here): "Your choices here are mostly aimed at translation companies, not translators! The assumptions in the "Confidentiality" question (that MT is an advantage because it is more confidential than using a human translator) are totally wrong - see many forums on Proz.com, especially in the MT forum, which is where this survey should have been placed, about the lack of confidentiality of MT and the fact that an increasing number of companies require NDAs that specify non-use of MT). "Universiality" is not a word; even if spelled correctly, what you describe doesn't exist in any MT I know about. The advantage of MT for me as a translator is that it gives me a "gist" translation to work from, saving keystrokes, and providing help with terminology (which may or may not be correct, and always has to be checked, but is still very useful and saves time). The main advantage for the translator, which you do not offer as a choice, is that it SAVES TIME."Collapse


 
Mario Chavez (X)
Mario Chavez (X)  Identity Verified
Local time: 07:54
English to Spanish
+ ...
I wonder Dec 15, 2017

sarahjayne96 wrote:

Hi,

I am a final year BA Modern Languages student taking a specialist module in Translation Studies. I am currently writing an assignment on how the rapid rise of machine translation will affect the role of the translator in the future. In order to further my research, I have created a survey which aims to gather qualitative and quantitative data from professionals in the translation industry regarding their attitudes towards machine translation.

Any translators who could be so kind to spare no more than 5 minutes to fill in this quick survey, your responses would be greatly appreciated.

The survey can be accessed here: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/BTCX6GG

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me on [email protected]

Thank you very much in advance.


Sarah,

I wonder if your professors have taught or informed you about proper and statistically significant data gathering procedures for an academic project (like your paper or assignment).

I got a BA, a MA and I am currently working on my PhD thesis, so I know a thing or two about writing assignments. Without trying to sound blasé or condescending, an assignment with your topic would require the following:

Topic: How the rapid rise of machine translation will affect the role of the translator in the future (quite a mouthful). I'd shorten it to How the rise of MT may affect the role of future translators. Why? Nobody knows what MT will actually do to the role of future translators, we can only speculate. So, is the assignment's purpose to speculate on this topic? It seems to be the sports du jour among many translators and translation educators these days.

The question is open ended and invites arguments for and against. Yes, MT may affect translators in A, B or C ways, but something different could happen: these are the scenarios.

You have to argue the topic, meaning, you have to use rhetorical tools to persuade the reader that this question is worth asking and thinking about. A good argument would present the different sides of a question and different responses or outcomes. A survey (as you call it) might be either an adornment or a useful source of facts (although it will be just a bunch of opinions, which are hardly quantifiable) that may or may not support the initial argument that MT may affect future translators.

On the other hand, if you're using your survey as a starting point, you're already on the wrong path.


 
Mervyn Henderson (X)
Mervyn Henderson (X)  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 12:54
Spanish to English
+ ...
But ... Dec 15, 2017

... all she did was ask very politely for a survey test-drive. That's all. What do you care about her procedures, and what do we care about your PhD, which you mention at every opportunity? Don't do the thing if you don't want to.

 
Mario Chavez (X)
Mario Chavez (X)  Identity Verified
Local time: 07:54
English to Spanish
+ ...
You care Dec 15, 2017

Mervyn Henderson wrote:

... all she did was ask very politely for a survey test-drive. That's all. What do you care about her procedures, and what do we care about your PhD, which you mention at every opportunity? Don't do the thing if you don't want to.


I'm sure the original poster can speak for herself. As for my mentioning my PhD studies, that was directed solely at her as background information for her benefit.


 
Mervyn Henderson (X)
Mervyn Henderson (X)  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 12:54
Spanish to English
+ ...
Sure it was Dec 15, 2017

Sure it was.

 
Maxi Schwarz
Maxi Schwarz  Identity Verified
Local time: 06:54
German to English
+ ...
It's already closed Dec 16, 2017

so I couldn't do the survey.

 
Robert Forstag
Robert Forstag  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 07:54
Spanish to English
+ ...
A strange notion of collegiality Dec 16, 2017

Mario Chavez wrote:

Sarah,

I wonder if your professors have taught or informed you about proper and statistically significant data gathering procedures for an academic project (like your paper or assignment).

I got a BA, a MA and I am currently working on my PhD thesis, so I know a thing or two about writing assignments. Without trying to sound blasé or condescending.... [etc.]


First, if you really wanted to provide constructive criticism in a non-shaming way to the poster, the classy move would have been to contact her privately. Secondly, a man with your exquisite sensitivity to language ought to be capable of appreciating that announcing one’s intention not to do something is often in itself the commission of the disavowed act. I am sure that you yourself already know this but, for the benefit our more benighted colleagues, such a rhetorical device is called apophasis.

In any event, I think it safe to say that this is something that Borges would not have done.

I offer these observations in the most collegial spirit and most certainly intend no disrespect – sir.


[Edited at 2017-12-16 16:48 GMT]


 
Christopher Schröder
Christopher Schröder
United Kingdom
Member (2011)
Swedish to English
+ ...
Blimey Dec 16, 2017

Mario Chavez wrote:

Lots


May I ask what the title of your PhD is, Mario?


 
Mario Chavez (X)
Mario Chavez (X)  Identity Verified
Local time: 07:54
English to Spanish
+ ...
Now it's called shaming or non-shaming? Dec 16, 2017

Robert Forstag wrote:

Mario Chavez wrote:

Sarah,

I wonder if your professors have taught or informed you about proper and statistically significant data gathering procedures for an academic project (like your paper or assignment).

I got a BA, a MA and I am currently working on my PhD thesis, so I know a thing or two about writing assignments. Without trying to sound blasé or condescending.... [etc.]


First, if you really wanted to provide constructive criticism in a non-shaming way to the poster, the classy move would have been to contact her privately. Secondly, a man with your exquisite sensitivity to language ought to be capable of appreciating that announcing one’s intention not to do something is often in itself the commission of the disavowed act. I am sure that you yourself already know this but, for the benefit our more benighted colleagues, such a rhetorical device is called apophasis.

In any event, I think it safe to say that this is something that Borges would not have done.

I offer these observations in the most collegial spirit and most certainly intend no disrespect – sir.


[Edited at 2017-12-16 16:48 GMT]


I appreciate your points, Robert, although they veer into the philosophical. What I said to Sarah in writing I would have said to her in person, in context. Sending her a private message was unwarranted at this time. The same thing could be said about your courteous observations —they could have been made in private to me, right? But that's splitting hairs.

Sarah's request in the form of a survey for academic purposes is not the first (and certainly not the last) that I've encountered. You and others may question my wording and content, but the reply was meant for her as other replies have. So, what's the problem?


 
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Please help with my research survey on attitudes towards machine translation (less than 5 mins)







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