| Страниц в теме: < [1 2] | Critique your own test translation..? Автор темы: Iris Shalev
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| Stay objetive | May 18, 2016 |
Established translators with years of experience do make mistakes, but it is unrealistic that suddenly everything is wrong.
Now, PMs do not necessarily speak the languages they manage. In similar situations (I recall it has happened to me a couple of times) I have taken the following approach:
- First of all, disengage any emotional factors; stay objective to the very end.
- Start pointing out why the changes are either preferential or simply improper, and only d... See more Established translators with years of experience do make mistakes, but it is unrealistic that suddenly everything is wrong.
Now, PMs do not necessarily speak the languages they manage. In similar situations (I recall it has happened to me a couple of times) I have taken the following approach:
- First of all, disengage any emotional factors; stay objective to the very end.
- Start pointing out why the changes are either preferential or simply improper, and only do it for about five entries.
- Write an email stating that you would have no trouble accepting client's preferential changes (like "my car is repaired" vs "my car is fixed", who cares; the bill will be the same), but also point out that the rest of the changes are, almost in their entity, improper.
- If they insist, ask them to engage a third party proofreader, at their cost, who will give their objective opinion.
The key is to stay objective as opposed to explaining the MP how they are being tricked by a self-appointed and auto-proclaimed "proffreader". The former is professional attitude. The latter is an attitude that may backfire.
I recall once I accepted calling my customer's client and explaining them that the inverted punctuation mark "¡" in the word "¡Hola!" had nothing to do with the letter "i". It took me time and effort, but after all, I still work with this customer and have very interesting and lucrative projects. The call took me about 15 minutes. I think it was worth it. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Clarisa Moraña 
США
Local time: 12:15
Член ProZ.com c 2002
английский => испанский
+ ...
| What about the quality of the review? | May 18, 2016 |
It has happened to me that the client's reviewer proofreads my translation and they introduce many mistakes, all sort of errors. I select a couple of those and return my job to the translation agency.
| | | | | Test Translation | May 18, 2016 |
I once worked briefly as an editor/proofreader. We were encouraged to find as many "mistakes" as possible so the cost of the translation could be brought down. Editors who came up with few errors found themselves unemployed.
| | | | Samuel Murray
Нидерланды
Local time: 19:15
Член ProZ.com c 2006
английский => африкаанс
+ ...
Iris Shalev wrote:
Not only that, but the form I was supposed to fill in went something like this:
Source sentence - Original translation - Corrected translation - Severity of errors - Explanation.
This is a type of revision/editing that goes by many names, but most of my clients call it "LQA" (and I have no idea what that stands for). Whenever a client (new or almost new) asks me to do editing or revision, I reply that I don't do revision that requires me to copy/paste text from one file into another, and which requires me to grade errors by type and severity. I try to avoid these jobs because they are very time consuming, and they usually work with Excel files that lock the cell as soon as you've typed something in it (so, you can't fix an error in a previous cell).
I think it is acceptable for a client to send you an edited version of the text and ask you to accept/reject the changes, if there aren't too many changes. But what your client sent you is a separate job. The reviser is the one that was supposed to fill in that Excel sheet, not the translator.
I was stunned and offended.
Don't be offended. It's not meant as an insult. The reviser can't help it that his tracks are in a contrasting colour.
They came back today and told me 'we understand it's a lot of work, but we need you to do this.'
No, refuse. It was not part of the job. Explain to the client how long you estimate that it would take, and offer to do the task for your hourly rate.
I hadn't been told it was a test translation...
What makes you think that this was a test translation?
==
Iris Shalev wrote:
I was mainly wondering what you all thought about having to analyse your own translation... This was what really got to me. Any thoughts?
Oh, that's not difficult. But first, you must copy all of the reviewer's changes over to the Excel file in the required format, and then you must categorise and grade each error, and write a description of the change. Usually this is done by the reviser, not the translator.
Then (in a separate column or in the description column) write whether you merely accept the change (i.e. you don't object to it, but you don't think it's an error), reject the change (i.e. you think it introduces an error), or agree with the change (i.e. you acknowledge that you had made a mistake, and you agree with the reviser's proposed solution). Use red text if you disagree, green text if you accept, and black text if you agree.
Samuel
[Edited at 2016-05-19 11:20 GMT]
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Vera Schoen
Швеция
Local time: 19:15
Член ProZ.com c 2008
немецкий => шведский
+ ...
Iris Shalev wrote:
Nothing was heard again, until yesterday evening, when I suddenly got a message saying: "The client has reviewed your test translation and made some changes. Could you just check the changes, fill in the attached form, incorporate the changes in the text and send it back to us."
Vera
| | | | Iris Shalev
США
Local time: 11:15
Член ProZ.com c 2007
английский => голландский
+ ...
Автор темы | Non-emotional | May 20, 2016 |
Merab Dekano wrote:
- First of all, disengage any emotional factors; stay objective to the very end.
- Start pointing out why the changes are either preferential or simply improper, and only do it for about five entries.
- Write an email stating that you would have no trouble accepting client's preferential changes (like "my car is repaired" vs "my car is fixed", who cares; the bill will be the same), but also point out that the rest of the changes are, almost in their entity, improper.
- If they insist, ask them to engage a third party proofreader, at their cost, who will give their objective opinion.
Thank you, Merab. That is good advice. I think I might have reacted just a little emotionally... I should not have done that. I just really had enough of it. I wanted to be finished with it already. I will remember what you said for next time, though..!
[Edited at 2016-05-20 12:08 GMT]
| | | | Iris Shalev
США
Local time: 11:15
Член ProZ.com c 2007
английский => голландский
+ ...
Автор темы | Non-emotional | May 20, 2016 |
Samuel Murray wrote:
Don't be offended. It's not meant as an insult. The reviser can't help it that his tracks are in a contrasting colour.
 That's true, but if it was all in green, I would still have been upset! But I get what you mean. Switch off emotions. Will remember!
I hadn't been told it was a test translation...
What makes you think that this was a test translation?
Well, they said so in their last e-mail... I thought it was just a regular job, then it turned out it was a test translation - for me only. I was supposed to accept all their changes to my translation, agree to translate the way they wanted in future, and then the agency would have sent all work from that client to me. I now understand why the first translator 'disappeared'...
==
Oh, that's not difficult. But first, you must copy all of the reviewer's changes over to the Excel file in the required format, and then you must categorise and grade each error, and write a description of the change. Usually this is done by the reviser, not the translator.
Then (in a separate column or in the description column) write whether you merely accept the change (i.e. you don't object to it, but you don't think it's an error), reject the change (i.e. you think it introduces an error), or agree with the change (i.e. you acknowledge that you had made a mistake, and you agree with the reviser's proposed solution). Use red text if you disagree, green text if you accept, and black text if you agree.
Well, that's easy then
What I learned from all your reactions was: Be non-emotional. Right, I can do that. I might have made a bit of a mess of this - I haven't got any reaction to my refusal. But I'll know for next time. Deep breath, make coffee. Sit down, write non-emotional answer.
Thanks all of you!
Iris.
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