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agnethe
Community Member

Quality of translation tests

What's your impression of the translation tests? And are they relevant for showcasing your language skills to potential clients?

I just finished the English to Danish translation test, but some of the answers were poor quality translations, and one question did not have a correct answer. Seems like the translations were written by someone who spoke the language, but with average writing skills. Now I have a 4.9 score rather than 5,  despite the fact that I'm a professional writer and native Danish speaker with a university degree in Danish, because I was looking for the least incorrect translation. I don't want to showcase such a result on my profile.

 

Anyone had a similar problem?

 

21 REPLIES 21
jr-translation
Community Member

Yes. Some solutions just do not match and you can only guess what they are looking for. Some skill test are poor translations as well using expression that in theory are correct but not used by any native speaker.

I tried to used the comment function during the exam to point out the problems but then the times keeps running and you might get an even worse result.

I just do not worry too much about them. You can retake the exam as well later on. You can also decide not to display it in your profile.

 

Well I'm glad I'm not the only one...

 

I just worry that without actual proof that I'm a skilled translator, my proposals will be ignored, since I've had zero jobs so far and have yet to prove myself. Don't know how many clients will actually look at my portfolio, since that's the only 'proof' I have right now.

jmeyn
Community Member

The tests are pretty much **Edited for Community Guidelines**. Quality is poor. I never did them.

agnethe
Community Member

So what did you rely on the get your first customers? Portfolio?

jmeyn
Community Member


@agnethe P wrote:

So what did you rely on the get your first customers? Portfolio?


 Agnethe,

 

It took me several months to land my first job on Upwork. The tip I can give is:

 

  • Focus on either writing or translation. Trying to sell both will be a problem in your early stages. Add the second area of expertise later.
  • Publish some screen shots of previous translations in your portfolio. You don't have to publish the whole document just a screen shot of one page showing the English and the Danish text side by side.
  • Pick a variety of examples, website, books, leaflets and several industries.
  • Be frank with your prospective clients and tell them you want the job to demonstrate your skills.
  • Don't go low on prices! You'll never get them up again.
agnethe
Community Member

hanks for the advice:-)

tlsanders
Community Member

I'm not a translator, but every test I've taken in my field appears to be at about an 8th grade level in terms of skill and knowledge, and allows a ridiculously long period of time to answer very basic questions.

dalahast
Community Member

Yeah, the translation tests are a little wonky. Clients, unfortunately, have no option but to assume that test scores are an accurate representation of your ability. Since you have other qualifications (a degree in Danish), I wouldn't even bother with the test. Hide it from your profile and let your degree do the talking instead.

iamchunchunchun
Community Member

It was not even likely that the English to Chinese translation test was designed by someone who can read both English and Chinese.

 

For example, in the question it says April 7th, and all the options read July 4th.

 

On the other hand the results don't really seem to matter. I personally just took the tests to make my profile 100% completed.

e_luneborg
Community Member

There is definitely something wrong with the translation test English -> Danish.

I just took the test for fun, and I got a full score (5 points - 1st Place). And I'm not even Danish. LOL!

________________________
Freelancing is a gamble - To win you need skill, luck and a strategy

I've recently edited an English to French translation and had a shock: the person who had done the translation didn't even know how to use masculine and feminine (fairly complicated in French, I must admit).

 

I didn't get the feeling that the translation had been done by a machine. It had probably been done by an English native speaker with a good knowledge of French who didn't mind calling himself/herself an English to French translator.

 

Anyway, it was terribly weird. Wonder if that person had taken the Upwork tests and what the results were. 

If you don't know how to use masculine and feminine the right way, you probably shouldn't do translations to French. That's why I don't offer to translate to and from German or French, even though I have a pretty good graps of both languages, just not good enough to do a proper translation. But that's what clients will get if they chooses people with the lowest rates.

 


@agnethe P wrote:

If you don't know how to use masculine and feminine the right way, you probably shouldn't do translations to French. That's why I don't offer to translate to and from German or French, even though I have a pretty good graps of both languages, just not good enough to do a proper translation. But that's what clients will get if they chooses people with the lowest rates.

 


 I quite agree with you, but some Upwork clients are naive enough to request English native speakers to translate from English to French! This is asking for trouble, as all true translators know...

petra_r
Community Member


@agnethe P wrote:

1) If you don't know how to use masculine and feminine the right way, you probably shouldn't do translations to French.

2) That's why I don't offer to translate to and from German or French, even though I have a pretty good graps of both languages, just not good enough to do a proper translation.

3) But that's what clients will get if they chooses people with the lowest rates.

 


 1) "Probably" LOL? 🙂

2) Yup. I live in Italy and speak Italian (sort of... but I can read is pretty well now) I wouldn't dream to offer my services to tranlate from Italion, let alone into it (shudder)

3) The sad thing is that it's not just the cheap clients. They simply don't know, so when someone tells them they can translate from x to Y they have little to go on. My newest client got me an editor (paid by her of course) so I can concentrate on translating without obsessing over small details or wasting time doing several rounds of proofreading. I've never been so productive in my (translation) life!

 

Some people genuinely think that a translator is someone who speaks one or many foreign languages and hence can translate from or into these languages.

 

And also, some people genuinely believe that they can write or translate into their foreign language. See how many Engrish writers we have here who won't agree that their work read totally unnatural to native speakers.

-----------
"Where darkness shines like dazzling light"   —William Ashbless


@Rene K wrote:

Some people genuinely think that a translator is someone who speaks one or many foreign languages and hence can translate from or into these languages.

 

And also, some people genuinely believe that they can write or translate into their foreign language. See how many Engrish writers we have here who won't agree that their work read totally unnatural to native speakers.


 And some people think that just because they can spell in their native language that makes them a writer.

________________________
Freelancing is a gamble - To win you need skill, luck and a strategy


@Rene K wrote:

Some people genuinely think that a translator is someone who speaks one or many foreign languages and hence can translate from or into these languages.

 

And also, some people genuinely believe that they can write or translate into their foreign language. See how many Engrish writers we have here who won't agree that their work read totally unnatural to native speakers.


 Well, Upwork should add the option "English as Lingua Franca writers".

 

My current full-time job is working as a Persian Farsi translator. I only translate from Farsi to English, since English is my native tongue, but I'm extremely fluent in Farsi. Our organization's policy is that no translation goes out without a second set of eyes. I translate and do quality control, and it really does increasy efficiency for everyone involved.


@Eve L wrote:

There is definitely something wrong with the translation test English -> Danish.

I just took the test for fun, and I got a full score (5 points - 1st Place). And I'm not even Danish. LOL!


 I'm trying to find possible explanations to this miracle:

Let's say that you were the only person to take that test, that would explain why you're number one. Or let's say that all the people that have taken that test are like you, they don't really speak Danish, just doing the test for fun. I might give it a go!

 

I took the test and ended at 4.6 BELOW AVERAGE!

 

If you score 4.6 in the Spanish-English you have a TOP 20 result.

 

In my opinion 4.6 is 4.6 but the colour code used to place the your result among the others give a totally different impression.

husainaa
Community Member

I found the test to be basic: The questions merely scratch the surface of translation problems. That being said, it could be a good test for its intended purpose if they add more advanced ones.