| Pages in topic: < [1 2 3 4 5] | Are any other translators having a quiet period workwise? Thread poster: Rose Webb
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Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 09:46
Member (2008)
Italian to English
Lieven Malaise wrote:
.... the argument that you can't deliver a fluently sounding translation with a CAT tool (segmentation, you know) is nonsense. .
No. It's correct. A CAT tool will only do the first rough translation. That is only about 10% of the work required to produce a fluent translation. I spend hours improving on the segments of my translations (working inside the CAT tool, rewriting each segment) and then at a later stage shutting down the CAT tool and working directly on the text, over and over, many times. I eventually arrive at what looks like a printable version. But the printable version (which is the only one that can be read at normal human speed) throws up all kinds of infelicities that impede the flow - so more work is still required - and more printouts (even trying to print as little as possible to save the planet).
To achieve a flowing translation you need to be able to see the whole page, printed. We don't read a text the way a CAT tool reads it. We're more intelligent and we connect things we've just read to things we're reading now, or something that might have been on the previous page. We also "hear" (mentally) assonances and dissonances, associative relationships between words, words that repeat too frequently. etc. No CAT tool has anything like the power to do this.
As someone once asked the famous Swiss architect Mario Botta
Q Do you use computers a lot in your office?
A Not much. Computers are too slow.
[Edited at 2023-10-30 10:57 GMT]
| | | | Lieven Malaise
Belgium
Local time: 10:46
Member (2020)
French to Dutch
+ ...
Tom in London wrote:
No. It's correct. A CAT tool will only do the first rough translation.
Well, I'm happy to disagree, then.
| | | | Lingua 5B 
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Local time: 10:46
Member (2009)
English to Croatian
+ ...
Tom in London wrote:
As someone once asked the famous Swiss architect Mario Botta
Q Do you use computers a lot in your office?
A Not much. Computers are too slow.
[Edited at 2023-10-30 10:57 GMT]
I asked the same thing to a German civil engineer. He told me: My colleague does that. I assume "the colleague" is someone from a certain poor country, or a freelancer. The said engineer prefers being outdoor and do nice things (eg. measuring things on the houses), rather than slouching in front of a screen.
| | | | | One direction | Oct 30, 2023 |
Lieven Malaise wrote:
Even the argument that you can't deliver a fluently sounding translation with a CAT tool (segmentation, you know) is nonsense. A few weeks ago I was asked to translate a few blog articles for a holiday park company about their winter offerings with the express demand to make it sound very natural and fluent. I rarely get feedback, but this time I did : I received a message that they were impressed by the translation result. So there you go.
It's not that you can't, but that it makes it harder (and less likely), so why do it?
I use a CAT tool for most of my translations but it only saves time when I get a long repeated passage. Even with my own TMs, reading and updating segments generally takes longer than starting from scratch. This is mainly because of what I translate.
We just have to accept that we all work in very specific niches, making generalisation difficult even within the same language pairs and subject areas. However, client behaviour and messaging around AI seem to be headed in one direction only, even in niches like mine where it shouldn't really be happening.
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Lingua 5B
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Local time: 10:46
Member (2009)
English to Croatian
+ ...
Ice Scream wrote:
even in niches like mine where it shouldn't really be happening.
Why? In my language pair, absolutely lowest rates are in the medical translation. It's been going on for quite some time, long before AI revolution. Is that a field in which it should be happening, picking random $0.02 per word translators online?
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Lingua 5B wrote: Ice Scream wrote:
even in niches like mine where it shouldn't really be happening.
Why? In my language pair, absolutely lowest rates are in the medical translation. It's been going on for quite some time, long before AI revolution. Is that a field in which it should be happening, picking random $0.02 per word translators online?
Obviously not. Some texts lend themselves to MT and some don’t, as you know, and that’s what I’m referring to.
When the media or markets hang on every nuance of what a public body says, you wouldn’t expect AI to be involved.
| | | | | The ideal world | Oct 30, 2023 |
Tom in London wrote:
I spend hours improving on the segments of my translations (working inside the CAT tool, rewriting each segment) and then at a later stage shutting down the CAT tool and working directly on the text, over and over, many times.
My workflow is similar. I use a CAT tool to take advantage of my personal glossary and fragment memory only, then I work extensively on the exported document to refine the text as I find it appropriate. (In many cases, even highly formatted technical texts would benefit from this kind of post-translation processing to make them flow better and more naturally.)
However, this is only possible when we are able to export and edit the translated document ourselves. We just can't do that when we are forced to work on a document that has been pre-segmented with a different CAT tool, and which translation we cannot view nor edit after being exported by others.
This happened to me a few days ago, when I had to translate a long, passionate love letter from a Japanese to an Italian using a SDL Studio-fragmented file (!). It was not a piece of literature, really, and the experience was very frustrating since I could not move pieces of text around to give more sense to a horridly written composition, and it made me realize once more how unprofessional some translation companies can be. Who on earth would find it useful to reuse the resulting translation memory for the next love letter?
[Edited at 2023-10-31 00:54 GMT]
[Edited at 2023-10-31 05:06 GMT]
[Edited at 2023-10-31 22:32 GMT]
| | | | | I'm glad you mentioned it... | Dec 5, 2023 |
Yes, it's been a quieter end of the year here too. Unfortunately, an oversupply of translators coupled with fewer job opportunities has led some companies to make unreasonable demands. This trend is commoditizing the market, discouraging translators from investing further in their profession.
At this rate, it seems that human translators need to reinvent themselves, focusing on smaller, more specialized niches. Success in these areas will require not only a consistent workflow but a... See more Yes, it's been a quieter end of the year here too. Unfortunately, an oversupply of translators coupled with fewer job opportunities has led some companies to make unreasonable demands. This trend is commoditizing the market, discouraging translators from investing further in their profession.
At this rate, it seems that human translators need to reinvent themselves, focusing on smaller, more specialized niches. Success in these areas will require not only a consistent workflow but also smart marketing strategies. This is very challenging because translators need to demonstrate that their role extends beyond mere translation and that they are, in essence, consultants attuned to their clients' specific needs. ▲ Collapse
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