| Pages in topic: < [1 2 3] > | Poll: Would you accept a post-editing job (of a machine translated text)? Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
|
|---|
Nicole Schnell 
United States
Local time: 19:35
English to German
+ ...
In memoriam
Gianluca Marras wrote: but my maybe the rates would prevent the job from being assigned to me!!! 
Being asked for MT editing doesn't mean that you have to do that at a fraction of your regular rates.
| | | | Steven Capsuto
United States
Local time: 22:35
Member (2004)
Spanish to English
+ ...
Under most circumstances I don't take editing/proofreading jobs of any kind, even if the translation was done by a human being. I occasionally make an exception for specific colleagues who I know do very good translations, but on the whole I consider myself a translator, not an editor.
| | | | Amy Duncan (X)
Brazil
Local time: 23:35
Portuguese to English
+ ...
I don't often accept post-editing jobs, but when it comes to machine translated post-editing jobs, there are a couple of things to keep in mind:
The more popular the language, the better possibility that the text won't be a complete mess.
Depending on the type of text in one of the more popular languages, the translation sometimes isn't all that bad.
So, yes, I would accept one of these jobs if I could have a look at it first. In any event, with all proofreading/post-edi... See more I don't often accept post-editing jobs, but when it comes to machine translated post-editing jobs, there are a couple of things to keep in mind:
The more popular the language, the better possibility that the text won't be a complete mess.
Depending on the type of text in one of the more popular languages, the translation sometimes isn't all that bad.
So, yes, I would accept one of these jobs if I could have a look at it first. In any event, with all proofreading/post-editing jobs, I charge according to the quality of the text. ▲ Collapse
| | | |
Translation provided by the client would have to be of quality better than GT (otherwise I am perfectly capable myself of running the text through GT if I feel like it) and the rate would have to be much higher than my standard rate for proofreading.
In fact it would have to be my rate for translation with possible small discount rather than slightly increased rate for proofreading.
Cheers
S
[Edited at 2011-06-20 13:37 GMT]
| | |
|
|
|
Eser Perkins
Türkiye
Local time: 05:35
English to Turkish
+ ...
SITE LOCALIZER | Absolutely, positively no! | Jun 20, 2011 |
Jana Kinská wrote: prefer my good health to my account balance. 
What they offer as a payment in return of this service is completely irrelevant to me. I never accepted any machine translation post-editing job and I strongly doubt that I ever will. It is naught but a waste of time and precious brain cells. Not to mention that it is pointless.
| | | | | | Emin Arı
Türkiye
Local time: 05:35
English to Turkish
+ ...
| Absolutely NO! | Jun 20, 2011 |
A machine translation always happens to be a puzzle, rather than a translation. First you must translate from target language to target language (this is really a puzzle) then you can proofread.
No way!
| | | | | No, I haven't the patience | Jun 20, 2011 |
In principle, if people can get machines to do the real boilerplate work, then fine by me. I admire the sort of people who keep working at such a hopeless cause, dreaming and hoping that one day some machine will do the impossible.
Data in Star Treck and Bicentennial Man are somehow endearing...
But I have had one or two small sections of MT slipped in as proofreading, and in my language pairs the results are ridiculous.
Even though Scandinavian languages and Eng... See more In principle, if people can get machines to do the real boilerplate work, then fine by me. I admire the sort of people who keep working at such a hopeless cause, dreaming and hoping that one day some machine will do the impossible.
Data in Star Treck and Bicentennial Man are somehow endearing...
But I have had one or two small sections of MT slipped in as proofreading, and in my language pairs the results are ridiculous.
Even though Scandinavian languages and English are related, the syntax is not interchangeable, and calling it fancy names like post-editing does not make the task any less impossible. Often the result in English is not strictly incorrect, just unidiomatic and dificult to read.
I too find it simply too mind-numbing to sort out the mess. It is far easier to translate rom scratch.
Early in my career I did some PRE-editing - writing index cards and abstracts in controlled language for machine searching. That was tedious, but no worse than the other manual jobs we did at the time. (It was way back, before there were screens on the computer, and when printouts were all in capitals on blue-striped Leporello 'wallpaper'!)
At least it was meaningful. I worked at a research library, which is where you went when the Internet and Wikipedia were still just as much beautiful dreams as Data and Andrew the household robot are today...
MT may take off one day, but I will probably not live to see it! ▲ Collapse
| | |
|
|
|
| Defending the profession | Jun 20, 2011 |
No. I will never post-edit a machine.
First, because if you post-edit a machine, it's because one translator has not been assigned the translation job in question.
Second, because by being part of the process, you help improve it, ie. you help replace a future translator: yourself.
Au
| | | | darkokoporcic
Slovenia
Local time: 04:35
Member (2005)
German to Slovenian
+ ...
| I dont take machine translation seriosly. | Jun 20, 2011 |
Why? Well, because I just don't believe in it. Is anybody even considering anything like "machine copywriting" or "machine journalism". MT could and will soon be used in some specific fields, maybe in safety datasheet or specific legal document translations but I don't think that the general public, clients and end users will accept the dull and monotonous machine language. I believe that the world, in which Ford, Lexus and Volvo used exactly the same expressions in their user's manuals, would b... See more Why? Well, because I just don't believe in it. Is anybody even considering anything like "machine copywriting" or "machine journalism". MT could and will soon be used in some specific fields, maybe in safety datasheet or specific legal document translations but I don't think that the general public, clients and end users will accept the dull and monotonous machine language. I believe that the world, in which Ford, Lexus and Volvo used exactly the same expressions in their user's manuals, would be a miserable place (Just think about this rare and sweet expression: "Congratulations for buying our high quality product").
I don't even believe that "quality" and "consistency" should be used as synonyms. OK, glossary terms should be kept consistent within a translation but that doesn't stand for each and every word or phrase. I believe people seek variety and diversity, not the opposite. So I believe that machine translation will be state-of-the-art technology about the same time as computers will be able to paint a masterpiece or write a novel. Perfection is not always the ultimate goal, that's what we shouldn't forget. Or maybe we should redefine perfection as minimum cost or maximum profit?
[Edited at 2011-06-20 20:47 GMT]
[Edited at 2011-06-20 20:59 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | mgodfrey
United States
Local time: 21:35
| Language pairs matter | Jun 20, 2011 |
I think the language pair matters. For example, English-French pair and Japanese-Korean pair will make more sense than English-Korean or Japanese-French pair. The later will make no sense whatsoever - and, yes, I had that experience, and that was a total waste of my time. However, Korean-Japanese pair was not too bad except a few language-specific expressions.
| | | |
Darko Koporcic wrote:
MT could and will soon be used in some specific fields, maybe in safety datasheet or specific legal document translations
You can click ENTER and in one second you will have anything translated by a machine (literature would be excluded, granted) and the final product will be good (very good) because there are many colleagues (see the numbers in this poll) already post-editing! Happy with this "opportunity" they have.
but I don't think that the general public, clients and end users will accept the dull and monotonous machine language.
They would get a dull and monotonous translation if they received the document directly from the machine, but they get a document proofread by a translator.
This is a reality. There is an agency in my country that recently introduced this new "opportunity" to many colleagues in an open event. Translators are asked to send their post-edition together with... (don't cry) a report (probably like the TAPs where we share our mental processes). Yes. It's unbelievable. I agree. That's why we need to continue explaining colleagues who post-edit how lethal it is for our future. I couldn't believe my eyes when I read the figures in the poll, but felt much better after reading some of the comments in this thread.
Cheers!
Au
| | |
|
|
|
Gina W
United States
Local time: 22:35
Member (2003)
French to English
I do not do "post-MT editing". I have been asked before and have always declined, explaining to the company/agency that it ends up being more work and less money for me, and then I still can't guarantee the quality. I only hope that enough translators do the same so that would-be clients have to stop requesting this altogether.
Just my opinion.
| | | | | I have been postediting MT for 30 yrs | Jun 21, 2011 |
I work from Spanish to English for the Pan American Health Organization using the system they been developing in-house since 1976 and continue to improve. They have two computational linguists on staff and are constantly building the dictionaries and updating the system.
The pay is good (US$ .12), and the machine output is often pretty easy to work with.
Over the decades, I have developed a bag of tricks for dealing with recurring structural issues.
There ... See more I work from Spanish to English for the Pan American Health Organization using the system they been developing in-house since 1976 and continue to improve. They have two computational linguists on staff and are constantly building the dictionaries and updating the system.
The pay is good (US$ .12), and the machine output is often pretty easy to work with.
Over the decades, I have developed a bag of tricks for dealing with recurring structural issues.
There are times when the output is quite clean and smooth and really speeds up the job. More often, however, it takes about as long as translating from scratch. What I've discovered is that my translations are less creative and lose the dynamic flow they would have otherwise.
Fortunately, I have more than 50 other clients. ▲ Collapse
| | | | | OT- welcome to the new user! | Jun 21, 2011 |
Hello Aurora!
It is crazy to call you, of all people, a new user, but that's machines for you.
WELCOME BACK!
Hugs
Christine
| | | | | Pages in topic: < [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 » Poll: Would you accept a post-editing job (of a machine translated text)? | Trados Business Manager Lite | Create customer quotes and invoices from within Trados Studio
Trados Business Manager Lite helps to simplify and speed up some of the daily tasks, such as invoicing and reporting, associated with running your freelance translation business.
More info » |
| | 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 
