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luce-neidert
Community Member

Extra fast translation

This is very suspicious. Yesterday evening, this client was offering an IDEAL FOR NEWCOMER English French translation job. Short dialogues, 15 000 to 17 000 words. They must have found a very efficient translator, as the same company is now offering another IDEAL FOR NEWCOMER job, this time it's proofreading the 15 000 to 17 000 words.

 

In my opinion, they've just decided it was cheaper to have some machine translation do the job and now want some naive newcomer to spend hours checking it.

 

I have noticed that more and more clients are offering this type of proofreading : they use some CAT to have a "translation" done, they then expect someone to go over it for cheap. I myself use a CAT and know that unless it's supervised by someone that knows what they're doing, a CAT translation is worthless.

 

And now I wonder if I should spend some connects to inform those "smart" clients that translators haven't been replaced by machine translators yet.

18 REPLIES 18
tropicany
Community Member

Did they hire anyone for that translation job? Is it possible that someone they hired just used the machine translation?


Maria P wrote:

Did they hire anyone for that translation job? Is it possible that someone they hired just used the machine translation?


Why not? 15 000  to 17 000 could be translated by a machine in less than 10 hours. I'd love to see the result.

tranvanhieu
Community Member

May be they were proactive and wanted to hire a proofreader first, and only assign the proofreading work to him after they got the translation?

Hieu T
Vietnamese translator


Hieu T wrote:

May be they were proactive and wanted to hire a proofreader first, and only assign the proofreading work to him after they got the translation?


That is the usual workflow, I've been invited to two such projects in the last 7 days, clients dividing a project up into translation and proofreading phases.

 

That said, I have looked at enough texts-to-be-proofread that were clearly machine translated (by the client or a fake freelancer) to know Luce has a point.

 


Hieu T wrote:

May be they were proactive and wanted to hire a proofreader first, and only assign the proofreading work to him after they got the translation?

 

 


Why not... anyway, they were offering $150 to translate between 15 000 and 17 000 words. So maybe they got what they wanted: some horrible machine translation, and now they're looking for someone  who is going to go nuts trying to fix the "translation".

Yeah, maybe they are just too smart for their own good!
martina_plaschka
Community Member


Luce N wrote:

This is very suspicious. Yesterday evening, this client was offering an IDEAL FOR NEWCOMER English French translation job. Short dialogues, 15 000 to 17 000 words. They must have found a very efficient translator, as the same company is now offering another IDEAL FOR NEWCOMER job, this time it's proofreading the 15 000 to 17 000 words.

 

In my opinion, they've just decided it was cheaper to have some machine translation do the job and now want some naive newcomer to spend hours checking it.

 

I have noticed that more and more clients are offering this type of proofreading : they use some CAT to have a "translation done", they expect someone to go over it for cheap. I myself use a CAT and know that unless it's supervised by someone that knows what they're doing, a CAT translation is worthless.

 

And now I wonder if I should spend some connects to inform those "smart" clients that translators haven't been replaced by machine translators yet.


Well, any jobs that ideal for a newbie is un-ideal for me... I've also seen a number of those. Sometimes they say outright that they machine-translated the job themselves and now need a proof-reader. Oh well. I chuckle at these jobs and the unfortunate newbie that had to translate the text from scratch or deliver a non-sensical jumble of words. 


Martina P wrote:

Luce N wrote:

This is very suspicious. Yesterday evening, this client was offering an IDEAL FOR NEWCOMER English French translation job. Short dialogues, 15 000 to 17 000 words. They must have found a very efficient translator, as the same company is now offering another IDEAL FOR NEWCOMER job, this time it's proofreading the 15 000 to 17 000 words.

 

In my opinion, they've just decided it was cheaper to have some machine translation do the job and now want some naive newcomer to spend hours checking it.

 

I have noticed that more and more clients are offering this type of proofreading : they use some CAT to have a "translation done", they expect someone to go over it for cheap. I myself use a CAT and know that unless it's supervised by someone that knows what they're doing, a CAT translation is worthless.

 

And now I wonder if I should spend some connects to inform those "smart" clients that translators haven't been replaced by machine translators yet.


Well, any jobs that ideal for a newbie is un-ideal for me... I've also seen a number of those. Sometimes they say outright that they machine-translated the job themselves and now need a proof-reader. Oh well. I chuckle at these jobs and the unfortunate newbie that had to translate the text from scratch or deliver a non-sensical jumble of words. 


I never bother to apply to such jobs. First because checking machine translation takes much longer than translating. Second because I would feel like screaming at the nonsence the machine has come up with and this would be bad for my blood pressure. Third because I love translating but hate proofreading anyway.

 

But yes, I can imagine the poor newbie dealing with the jumble of words. Sorry for his luck!

Well, in this case I personally grant them the credit of being honest and upfront.


Saeed N wrote:
Well, in this case I personally grant them the credit of being honest and upfront.

I don't think they are. If they say they need to have some machine translation checked, no-one in their right mind will accept the job. Only naive would be translators will be fooled by the document as a native speaker you can always tell a machine translation. It looks like some Martian trying to speak a language, that's what it looks like. And it was done extra fast. On average, it takes me a day to translate 2000 words.

jr-translation
Community Member


Luce N wrote:

This is very suspicious. Yesterday evening, this client was offering an IDEAL FOR NEWCOMER English French translation job. Short dialogues, 15 000 to 17 000 words. They must have found a very efficient translator, as the same company is now offering another IDEAL FOR NEWCOMER job, this time it's proofreading the 15 000 to 17 000 words.

 

In my opinion, they've just decided it was cheaper to have some machine translation do the job and now want some naive newcomer to spend hours checking it.

 

I have noticed that more and more clients are offering this type of proofreading : they use some CAT to have a "translation done", they expect someone to go over it for cheap. I myself use a CAT and know that unless it's supervised by someone that knows what they're doing, a CAT translation is worthless.

 

And now I wonder if I should spend some connects to inform those "smart" clients that translators haven't been replaced by machine translators yet.


I have identifies several top rates translators that deliver poorly edited machine translation on a regular basis and you can even see in their portfolio. As long as clients accept their work and leave 5* feedbacks there is not a lot we can do about that either.

 

I warn clients if they are in contact with me already but do not waste conntects. Some clients just believe they can save money by accepting the lowest bid. Just wait until something seriously backfires. Not to long ago a proofread a patent translation done by one of my special friends. "33 µm at 22.000 Hz" was translated "22.000 µm at 33 Hz" just like google has told the translator. I was too busy to do the translation myself but was invited to an interview, that's how I managed to warn the client.

 

Did you see the ad on YT by one of these freelance platforms that implies that the client only has to hire a few freelancers to get a small app that can translate? I guess it was a bot that came up with the idea to replace humans with a few programmed lines.


Jennifer R wrote:

Luce N wrote:

This is very suspicious. Yesterday evening, this client was offering an IDEAL FOR NEWCOMER English French translation job. Short dialogues, 15 000 to 17 000 words. They must have found a very efficient translator, as the same company is now offering another IDEAL FOR NEWCOMER job, this time it's proofreading the 15 000 to 17 000 words.

 

In my opinion, they've just decided it was cheaper to have some machine translation do the job and now want some naive newcomer to spend hours checking it.

 

I have noticed that more and more clients are offering this type of proofreading : they use some CAT to have a "translation done", they expect someone to go over it for cheap. I myself use a CAT and know that unless it's supervised by someone that knows what they're doing, a CAT translation is worthless.

 

And now I wonder if I should spend some connects to inform those "smart" clients that translators haven't been replaced by machine translators yet.


I have identifies several top rates translators that deliver poorly edited machine translation on a regular basis and you can even see in their portfolio. As long as clients accept their work and leave 5* feedbacks there is not a lot we can do about that either.

 

I warn clients if they are in contact with me already but do not waste conntects. Some clients just believe they can save money by accepting the lowest bid. Just wait until something seriously backfires. Not to long ago a proofread a patent translation done by one of my special friends. "33 µm at 22.000 Hz" was translated "22.000 µm at 33 Hz" just like google has told the translator. I was too busy to do the translation myself but was invited to an interview, that's how I managed to warn the client.

 

Did you see the ad on YT by one of these freelance platforms that implies that the client only has to hire a few freelancers to get a small app that can translate? I guess it was a bot that came up with the idea to replace humans with a few programmed lines.


Hi Jennyfer! No, I haven't seen this very interesting ad. Loking forward to it!

 

I recenty spoke to a doctor who told me about instructions on how to take a medicine that made no sense - probably machine translated. We (translators) really need to stop that foolishness!

One of the most time-consuming jobs I know is to "proofread" a machine-translated text. And, IMO, one of the most expensive.  

 

Here's another story to show how terrible the situation is:

 

Recently, I answered an offer for translation of a small book. I told the client I needed to know how many words were involved to make a bid. This person was nice enough to send me the document. 17744 words. I don't know about you, but to me that could take up to 9 days of work.

 

The client was offering $200. He received bids between $200 and $60. Suddenly, I noticed the job was no longer available, so I contacted the guy, hoping that he had not chosen some cheapo that would end up using machine translation. He answered that he had found someone who seemed all right.

 

Next day, the client contacted me again. The translation was ready (80 pages) and the quality was not what he had expected (he happens to speak French, which he had said in his offer, so he could judge it right away). We, translators, really have to fight these stupid machine translation users who don't even know what translation means.

I was asked to participate in a survey recently and got annoyed because two questions were left untranslated and a term most machines get wrong was there as well. (Needless to say, the whole thing looked machine-translated, but it's what I would expect nowadays.) 

 

Guess what I did. (And let me tell you that I am not foolish or particularly brave.) I wrote to the company, a big multi-national, telling them about it and offering to 'help out' next time. Ha!

 

Did I make a fool of myself, do you think? 


Alexandra H wrote:

I was asked to participate in a survey recently and got annoyed because two questions were left untranslated and a term most machines get wrong was there as well. (Needless to say, the whole thing looked machine-translated, but it's what I would expect nowadays.) 

 

Guess what I did. (And let me tell you that I am not foolish or particularly brave.) I wrote to the company, a big multi-national, telling them about it and offering to 'help out' next time. Ha!

 

Did I make a fool of myself, do you think? 


Not at all! We (translators) have to fight to make people understand what translation is. Well done, Alexandra! Let me know if that company contacts you!

Hello! I was looking around the forum and found this topic quite interesting!

I think you did the right thing Alexandra! They obviously need your services and didn't know it!
They were the ones who made a fool of themselves by putting out such poor writing for others to see. It's funny because people usually go through a lot of effort to write stuff properly and proofread it (or pay someone to do it) so that it's correct. So why would you ruin all that with a bad translation? If the translation doesn't make sense then it has the same result as you writing a poor text in the first place!

 

In the case of the doctor that was mentioned before and the badly translated medicine instructions - is that even allowed? Like do the manufacturers not have to check that what they're selling is safe? Because wrong instructions on a medicine bottle can be as bad as having the wrong name written on it!


Katerina S wrote:

Hello! I was looking around the forum and found this topic quite interesting!

I think you did the right thing Alexandra! They obviously need your services and didn't know it!
They were the ones who made a fool of themselves by putting out such poor writing for others to see. It's funny because people usually go through a lot of effort to write stuff properly and proofread it (or pay someone to do it) so that it's correct. So why would you ruin all that with a bad translation? If the translation doesn't make sense then it has the same result as you writing a poor text in the first place!

 

In the case of the doctor that was mentioned before and the badly translated medicine instructions - is that even allowed? Like do the manufacturers not have to check that what they're selling is safe? Because wrong instructions on a medicine bottle can be as bad as having the wrong name written on it!


Hi Katerina, I myself find it rather hard to believe that even laboratories are using the wrong kind of "translators", but who knows? My neighbour, who happens to be a doctor, told me about it twice, so there's a good chance it really happened. When money is involved, anything is possible, I'm afraid!