Poll: Have you ever been bored by a translation too easy to perform? Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
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| | neilmac
Spain
Local time: 17:54
Spanish to English
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If I found translation "boring", I wouldn't do it. In my worldview, there is nothing more boring than people who are always complaining about things being "boring", at least once they are no longer teenagers.
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I’m not easily bored (I must say though that some pages of dense legalese might have that effect on me for a moment or two)! I always have a good look at the text before accepting it, so in general I know what is to be expected, and an easy translation has a big advantage: it gets done quickly…
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When I suggested this poll, I just had heard a colleague saying that a translation he performed was absolutely boring, because it consisted on a list of words. He was too easy, he said.
As for me, I have never been confronted to such a task, but I can say a translation is never boring to me, because I love doing it.
But I just wonder how it goes for translators that work on a list of automotive parts to translate, for instance.
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Sheila Wilson 
Spain
Local time: 16:54
Member (2007)
English
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| Too repetitive can be tiring | Nov 19, 2016 |
I find repetitive texts rather tiring e.g. catalogue entries where mostly just the size and colour change but everything has to be checked. Not really boring though.
A list of words is too simple? I'd find that challenging, not simple. Without context I might find it rather dissatisfying, but not boring.
I imagine you'd have to consider 99% of my work to be simple, inasmuch as the French is normally easy to understand. Translating it into English is indeed simple. If th... See more I find repetitive texts rather tiring e.g. catalogue entries where mostly just the size and colour change but everything has to be checked. Not really boring though.
A list of words is too simple? I'd find that challenging, not simple. Without context I might find it rather dissatisfying, but not boring.
I imagine you'd have to consider 99% of my work to be simple, inasmuch as the French is normally easy to understand. Translating it into English is indeed simple. If that was all that was needed then I suppose it could get a bit boring. But clients want English marketing copy - not "just" a translation of the words. And creating that copy certainly isn't boring - for me, anyway.
People who find things boring generally aren't putting in enough effort. Put nothing in and you get nothing back. I see it with musicians all the time. The bored ones just play and sing, and the audience might as well go home and put on a CD. The ones who put more into their performance can set the audience alight. Those musicians don't find their job boring. ▲ Collapse
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some translations can be boring, which is ok if they are not too long.
But I try to avoid long and boring texts (this includes subtitling films I would never want to watch in my free time).
| | | | | Topic makes it boring, not difficulty | Nov 19, 2016 |
There are some topics I profoundly dislike in my translation work: anything related to the hotel and catering industry and architecture for the broader audience.
But I am captivated by complicated legal texts, judgments, especially the reasoning parts, and controversial legal issues, etc.
| | | | Michael Harris
Germany
Local time: 17:54
Member (2006)
German to English
neilmac wrote:
If I found translation "boring", I wouldn't do it. In my worldview, there is nothing more boring than people who are always complaining about things being "boring", at least once they are no longer teenagers.
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Noura Tawil
Syria
Local time: 18:54
Member (2013)
English to Arabic
With easy translations the soft music is on, words flow out of my fingertips, I'm alone in my office "working" away from the kids, AND... I'm earning more $$ per hour. What's boring about that?
It's a Bliss!
[Edited at 2016-11-19 16:27 GMT]
| | | | neilmac
Spain
Local time: 17:54
Spanish to English
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| El borde del barranco... | Nov 19, 2016 |
Susana E. Cano Méndez wrote:
When I suggested this poll, I just had heard a colleague saying that a translation he performed was absolutely boring, because it consisted on a list of words. It was too easy, he said.
On the contrary, a list of words without further context can be really difficult!
| | | | Julian Holmes
Japan
Local time: 00:54
Member (2011)
Japanese to English
| Agree with Neilmac, here | Nov 20, 2016 |
neilmac wrote:
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On the contrary, a list of words without further context can be really difficult!
I, unfortunately, vividly remember translating a list of categories, sub-categories and sub-sub-categories for a library indexing system - i.e. a list with absolutely no context at all - to be not exactly 'boring' but the mother of all translations from Hell. Never again. Ever! I would prefer being strapped into a dentist's chair and having root canal treatment all over again.
| | | | Mario Freitas
Brazil
Local time: 12:54
Member (2014)
English to Portuguese
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Although I had many relatively easy translations in my records, in order to become "boring" they'd have to be quile long. Easy translations are usually short texts. Too easy and long is not a common combination, so it usually does not get boring (there's no time for that).
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Ventnai
Spain
Local time: 17:54
German to English
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I beg to disagree with those who say I wouldn't be doing translation if it bored me. At times, I need to work which is highly repetitive, but not repetitive enough for Trados to do all the legwork.
| | | | Mario Freitas
Brazil
Local time: 12:54
Member (2014)
English to Portuguese
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Ian Jones wrote:
I beg to disagree with those who say I wouldn't be doing translation if it bored me. At times, I need to work which is highly repetitive, but not repetitive enough for Trados to do all the legwork.
I always wonder why people state such things. A doctor cannot choose what patients they will cure. A mechanic cannot say I will fix this car but not that one. If we receive a document in one of our areas of expertise from a regular client, unless we are overloaded with other jobs, being "boring" is not a criterion to decline the job, IMO.
And as Ian ery well mentioned above, easy jobs or very repetitive ones are practically completed by our CAT's, so tell me you don't like easy money falling into your pocket as well.
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