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baileysarah68
Community Member

Got a machine-translated legal document, practically incomprehensible.

I got hired to proofread this but I ended up having to translate the whole document from start to finish. A beginner's mistake for taking the job, so that's my bad. But isn't it a little unfair to just hire and pay for just proofreading instead of a translation?

I know it is on me this time, I was not paying attention so keep those comments to yourselves.

Want to know if this happened to others and how you dealt with it?

16 REPLIES 16
lysis10
Community Member


Sarah B wrote:

I got hired to proofread this but I ended up having to translate the whole document from start to finish. A beginner's mistake for taking the job, so that's my bad. But isn't it a little unfair to just hire and pay for just proofreading instead of a translation?

I know it is on me this time, I was not paying attention so keep those comments to yourselves.

Want to know if this happened to others and how you dealt with it?


Either stick to hourly or get a copy of it before you accept a fixed price job.

petra_r
Community Member


Sarah B wrote:

I got hired to proofread this but I ended up having to translate the whole document from start to finish.


Never accept a proofreading job without reviewing the entire document first.... 

Ask me how I learned that lol (the same way...)

When it happened to me I just did it (because I had accepted it without checking) but I mentioned it to the client who was horrified, dealt with the translator who had originally done the work and paid me a decent bonus.

 

When I am hired to proofread a translation I look it over and charge accordingly, either for proofreading or editing, depending on the quality, or I tell the client to send it back to the translator to do over, giving them the option to hire me to do the retranslation at my translation rate.

 

PS - I think you want to adjust your claimed translation speed.... "Average time per word: 0.83 seconds" That would make it 3000 words an hour. I don't think so. 

Thank you!
P.s I removed that one. The stats on that site said so, I should have done the math myself first. Thank you for pointing this out! 🙂

lysis10
Community Member


Petra R wrote:

Sarah B wrote:

I got hired to proofread this but I ended up having to translate the whole document from start to finish.


Never accept a proofreading job without reviewing the entire document first.... 

Ask me how I learned that lol (the same way...)

When it happened to me I just did it (because I had accepted it without checking) but I mentioned it to the client who was horrified, dealt with the translator who had originally done the work and paid me a decent bonus.

 

When I am hired to proofread a translation I look it over and charge accordingly, either for proofreading or editing, depending on the quality, or I tell the client to send it back to the translator to do over, giving them the option to hire me to do the retranslation at my translation rate.

 

PS - I think you want to adjust your claimed translation speed.... "Average time per word: 0.83 seconds" That would make it 3000 words an hour. I don't think so. 


It's funny you say read it entirely. That's so true. The last one I did, I skimmed the content and even told the client it's not so bad, so he escrowed for 30 mins. When I got into it, I had to bang my head on my desk. I shoulda read it thoroughly. It only took me an hour but still.


Petra R wrote:

Sarah B wrote:

I got hired to proofread this but I ended up having to translate the whole document from start to finish.


Never accept a proofreading job without reviewing the entire document first.... 

Ask me how I learned that lol (the same way...)

When it happened to me I just did it (because I had accepted it without checking) but I mentioned it to the client who was horrified, dealt with the translator who had originally done the work and paid me a decent bonus.

 

When I am hired to proofread a translation I look it over and charge accordingly, either for proofreading or editing, depending on the quality, or I tell the client to send it back to the translator to do over, giving them the option to hire me to do the retranslation at my translation rate.

 

PS - I think you want to adjust your claimed translation speed.... "Average time per word: 0.83 seconds" That would make it 3000 words an hour. I don't think so. 


I am currently in negitiation to proofread novel translation. The sample I have so far are all edited machine translations provided by top rated translators scammers on this platform.


Jennifer R wrote:


I am currently in negitiation to proofread novel translation. The sample I have so far are all edited machine translations provided by top rated translators scammers on this platform.


It's so funny when you read the work and just think to yourself "you went with the cheapest bidder who just said plz give me job sir."

 

Sometimes I wonder if they even chatted at all even a little bit with the guy they hired. There is no way the person they hired would be able to hold a chat conversation without it being painfully obvious they are ESL with barely any English skills. Like, did they just see a $5 bid and English:Fluent and hired? Like wat?


Jennifer M wrote:

Jennifer R wrote:


I am currently in negitiation to proofread novel translation. The sample I have so far are all edited machine translations provided by top rated translators scammers on this platform.


It's so funny when you read the work and just think to yourself "you went with the cheapest bidder who just said plz give me job sir."

 

Sometimes I wonder if they even chatted at all even a little bit with the guy they hired. There is no way the person they hired would be able to hold a chat conversation without it being painfully obvious they are ESL with barely any English skills. Like, did they just see a $5 bid and English:Fluent and hired? Like wat?


The problem is that these scammers start with low budget jobs and the first clients do not check the quality just to save money. Then they get top rated after a while and with this history they move on to clients that pay more, again skip the proofreading, relying on the past feedback etc. One has made 40K+ in 3 years and translates "English and French to German and from German to English and French". My client thought translating into several target languages is proves the qualification.

 

prestonhunter
Community Member

re: "Want to know if this happened to others and how you dealt with it?"

 

It has happened to LOTS of us.

 

How to deal with it?

Learn from the mistake and try not to make same mistake again in the future.

 

For fixed-price contracts, get the full document and review it before accepting a contract and setting a rate. Or work using an hourly contract.


Preston H wrote:

re: "Want to know if this happened to others and how you dealt with it?"

 

It has happened to LOTS of us.

 

How to deal with it?

Learn from the mistake and try not to make same mistake again in the future.

 

For fixed-price contracts, get the full document and review it before accepting a contract and setting a rate. Or work using an hourly contract.


You get hired to proofread translations?

re: "You get hired to proofread translations?"

 

No.

 

But I have agreed to fixed-price contacts without properly vetting the task and input files, and regretted doing so.

jr-translation
Community Member


Sarah B wrote:

I got hired to proofread this but I ended up having to translate the whole document from start to finish. A beginner's mistake for taking the job, so that's my bad. But isn't it a little unfair to just hire and pay for just proofreading instead of a translation?

I know it is on me this time, I was not paying attention so keep those comments to yourselves.

Want to know if this happened to others and how you dealt with it?


If a client wants to hire me to proofread a translation, I always reply with two rates. One for machine translation (100% of my translation rate) and one for proofreading human translation. If I get hired to proofread a human translation and receive a (poorly edited) machine translation (yes it does happen), I provide the client with proof that it is a machine translation and ask to either pay my rate for that or to return the translation to the translator.

atlinguist
Community Member

Sarah,

 

I'm sorry to hear that you are worried about getting unfriendly comments from grumpy forum posters. This forum is for professionals and people with a sense of humour, so you really shouldn't be the one to worry. I hope you will be able to have some fun here (even in these stressful times).

 

As to your question, I think there is no other way but to charge according to the work provided (hourly or fixed-price), as the others have stated in this thread. Most of us get requests to "proofread" machine-translated texts now and then, simply because people think it's cheaper to let the machine do the basic work first, like when you let someone check your essay or letter. In fact, I think you have to take into account that most people simply don't know that machines are only good at translating certain kinds of materials (conventional phrases, typical collocations, standard grammatical constructions, and anything available in large textual databases) and less so at others, i.e. they tend to mess up idiosyncracies and non-standard usage. 

 

I now charge for post-editing the same amount that I charge for translations under 50k words because in terms of expenditure of time they're roughly equivalent. (Which is probably why some clients turn down the offer. Ha!) For proofreading I charge what I would charge for a large translation project.

 

Best wishes,

Alexandra 

makeshift mask.jpg


Alexandra H wrote:

Sarah,

 

I'm sorry to hear that you are worried about getting unfriendly comments from grumpy forum posters. This forum is for professionals and people with a sense of humour, so you really shouldn't be the one to worry. I hope you will be able to have some fun here (even in these stressful times).

 

As to your question, I think there is no other way but to charge according to the work provided (hourly or fixed-price), as the others have stated in this thread. Most of us get requests to "proofread" machine-translated texts now and then, simply because people think it's cheaper to let the machine do the basic work first, like when you let someone check your essay or letter. In fact, I think you have to take into account that most people simply don't know that machines are only good at translating certain kinds of materials (conventional phrases, typical collocations, standard grammatical constructions, and anything available in large textual databases) and less so at others, i.e. they tend to mess up idiosyncracies and non-standard usage. 

 

I now charge for post-editing the same amount that I charge for translations under 50k words because in terms of expenditure of time they're roughly equivalent. (Which is probably why some clients turn down the offer. Ha!) For proofreading I charge what I would charge for a large translation project.

 

Best wishes,

Alexandra 

makeshift mask.jpg



Hi Alexandra!

 

I'm new to Upwork and hoping for a few proofreading jobs to start. So far, the jobs I've applied for are fixed-price jobs. I didn't notice until after I started reviewing the proposals I've sent.

 

Are clients normally transparent with the fact that the work they expect you to proofread is translated? If not, can I ask them if it is before accepting the job?

 

If it turns out that I may have to do more work because of a machine translation, is it then fair game to negotiate with the client, or should I just simply turn down the job?

 

I'm glad I decided to check out the forums before really starting on any work.

 

Thank you!

 

Best,

Carla

Hi!

Nope, they will not tell you unless it is in the job description from the start. I always (now) have a clause in my proposals for proofreading were I state that if this is an MT my fee is xx USD instead (the same as for a translation). I did learn my lesson 🙂
If I don't hear from them, fine! Then I can spend my time on something more fun!

You should ask them and insert a clause like mine (I read about that in the forum)!

The MT texts just ruin the flow because is often is rubbish and you end up doing it all over from scratch anyway. So try to stay away if you don't get paid accordingly.

The forum is super to read so do that often, it has helped me numerous times!

Good Luck and hope you get loads of jobs at the right price! 🙂

resultsassoc
Community Member

No. I never charge for translation, I do it as a courtesy for current clients, and tell them to go to someone else if they need accuracy and nuance.

 

I use machine translation only with my own work, when I've written it to be easily understandable in the target language, and I know what the translation should be. That's a multiplication exercise; if either factor is zero the result is zero.

 

Th last proofreading job I accepted my work was rejected. "I expected you to triple the content!" That's called ghostwriting.


Bill H wrote:

No. I never charge for translation, I do it as a courtesy for current clients, and tell them to go to someone else if they need accuracy and nuance.

Erm, that's what the OP's client did.

 

I use machine translation only with my own work, when I've written it to be easily understandable in the target language, and I know what the translation should be. That's a multiplication exercise; if either factor is zero the result is zero.

I can share a list with "translators" on Upwork providing machine translation "as their own work" and charge for human translation

 

Th last proofreading job I accepted my work was rejected. "I expected you to triple the content!" That's called ghostwriting.
That is not the topic of this thread.