| Pages in topic: < [1 2 3 4] | An example of the kind of ridiculous job offers I am getting. Thread poster: Ragnar Egilsson
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Mr. Satan (X)
English to Indonesian
| | Thinking of forming a guild? | Feb 16, 2022 |
Tom in London wrote:
I know this is completely impossible, but how would it be if all the translators in the world suddenly stopped work?
With only MT available, would the world be able to continue?
Cafeful with that line of thought, somebody might call the police.
I do think that MT will dominate eventually with the way things are going, though. It's already good enough for several applications, patent examiners use it extensively for example. The need for human proofreading probably won't disappear, however.
Addressing another aspect of this thread: yeah, maybe don't direct cheapskate clients to one of the most exploited labor markets in the world with sarcasm? You're not wrong about reality, but you aren't helping anyone either.
| | | | Lingua 5B 
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Local time: 19:15
Member (2009)
English to Croatian
+ ...
| Marketing and promos? | Feb 16, 2022 |
Novian Cahyadi wrote: I can’t speak for the other industry sectors. But at least in the tourism industry, first we have these things: https://www.engadget.com/2020-01-14-translation-gadgets-in-2020-are-nearly-as-good-as-babel-fish.html Second, everyone who works in the tourism industry is required to have a good command of the foreign language(s) they are expected to deal with on a daily basis, at least in my country. This is especially important for tour guides, as they may need to explain complex topics to their international audiences. So I don’t think the tourism industry would be affected much even when all professional translators were on strike.
Yes, but most tourism companies like to launch their offers in different langauges to “speak” to and attract customers from their target countries. You may ask them how much marketing matters in their business. Yes, it can be sent just in English, but they see better results when they speak to them in their language.
For instance, I have several direct clients in the tourism sector who have been sending their promo materials for translation for 5+ years (even during pandemic!) to me. Would they keep doing that and investing money in it if it didn’t make a difference for their package sales?
[Edited at 2022-02-16 11:41 GMT]
| | | | | Disposable heroes | Feb 16, 2022 |
Lingua 5B wrote:.
For instance, I have several direct clients in the tourism sector who have been sending their promo materials for translation for 5+ years (even during pandemic!) to me. Would they keep doing that and investing money in it if it didn’t make a difference for their package sales?
[Edited at 2022-02-16 11:41 GMT]
Obviously we make a difference, but the question was whether the world would grind to a halt. It wouldn’t.
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Lingua 5B wrote: Gerard Barry wrote: Tom in London wrote: Ragnar Egilsson wrote:
.....Translation services are massively undervalued ..... I know this is completely impossible, but how would it be if all the translators in the world suddenly stopped work? With only MT available, would the world be able to continue? I think nobody would really notice to be honest. We're not performing an essential service like delivering food, providing healthcare, refuse collection or the like. No commerce outside the borders then. Food, drugs, etc. (sheets, labels, declarations) all need to be translated as part of the import protocol (it’s required by the law). Let’s then stay within our own borders with just the local products and see how the world “does not change”. No announcements in English for you at airports as you travel to distant countries either (that’s translation as well). You are in China? Forget about the menu in English to help you as you eat in restaurants. [Edited at 2022-02-15 23:53 GMT]
But machine translation can do all that too.
| | | | Mr. Satan (X)
English to Indonesian
Most tourism companies would just tell a random dude/dudette in their marketing department who just so happens to speak English/Mandarin/Japanese/Martian as their second language to work on these promotional materials + regular administrative chores + fix the printer + make them coffee in one neat package.
The tourism industry players are cheapskate bas***ds.
Lingua 5B wrote:
Yes, but most tourism companies like to launch their offers in different langauges to “speak” to and attract customers from their target countries. You may ask them how much marketing matters in their business. Yes, it can be sent just in English, but they see better results when they speak to them in their language.
| | | | Lingua 5B
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Local time: 19:15
Member (2009)
English to Croatian
+ ...
| Generally agree. | Feb 16, 2022 |
Novian Cahyadi wrote: Most tourism companies would just tell a random dude/dudette in their marketing department who just so happens to speak English/Mandarin/Japanese/Martian as their second language to work on these promotional materials + regular administrative chores + fix the printer + make them coffee in one neat package. The tourism industry players are cheapskate bas***ds. Lingua 5B wrote:
Yes, but most tourism companies like to launch their offers in different langauges to “speak” to and attract customers from their target countries. You may ask them how much marketing matters in their business. Yes, it can be sent just in English, but they see better results when they speak to them in their language.
But some companies obviously sell the “story” and want to have it in the target languages. Not sure why you limited it to 4 languages only in your example, many tourist agents deal with guests from all over the world (especially highly touristic countries).
| | | | Mr. Satan (X)
English to Indonesian
Lingua 5B wrote:
But some companies obviously sell the “story” and want to have it in the target languages.
Good, we need more of these companies who actually care about their own businesses. So they won’t be offering translators $0.004 per word or $0.5 per video-minute rates.
[Edited at 2022-02-16 14:11 GMT]
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| Translators Are Definitely Needed,.. | Feb 16, 2022 |
...as long as MT is not perfected (is the latter even possible?), because people can be very negatively impacted, in very fundamental ways, if they don't have access to accurate, vital information. And while greedy capitalists create and offer all kinds of luxury goods and services, I'm not the least bit interested in working for them anymore, unless my work as a translator would promote the acquisition of the jobs they create.
[Edited at 2022-02-16 14:52 GMT]
[Edited at 2022-02-16... See more ...as long as MT is not perfected (is the latter even possible?), because people can be very negatively impacted, in very fundamental ways, if they don't have access to accurate, vital information. And while greedy capitalists create and offer all kinds of luxury goods and services, I'm not the least bit interested in working for them anymore, unless my work as a translator would promote the acquisition of the jobs they create.
[Edited at 2022-02-16 14:52 GMT]
[Edited at 2022-02-16 15:01 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | Lingua 5B
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Local time: 19:15
Member (2009)
English to Croatian
+ ...
| Machines, etc. | Feb 16, 2022 |
Gerard Barry wrote: Lingua 5B wrote: Gerard Barry wrote: Tom in London wrote: Ragnar Egilsson wrote:
.....Translation services are massively undervalued ..... I know this is completely impossible, but how would it be if all the translators in the world suddenly stopped work? With only MT available, would the world be able to continue? I think nobody would really notice to be honest. We're not performing an essential service like delivering food, providing healthcare, refuse collection or the like. No commerce outside the borders then. Food, drugs, etc. (sheets, labels, declarations) all need to be translated as part of the import protocol (it’s required by the law). Let’s then stay within our own borders with just the local products and see how the world “does not change”. No announcements in English for you at airports as you travel to distant countries either (that’s translation as well). You are in China? Forget about the menu in English to help you as you eat in restaurants. [Edited at 2022-02-15 23:53 GMT] But machine translation can do all that too.
I am not aware of any machine in the world that operates without human control and supervision. Are you? Who designed the MT?
Ice Scream wrote: Lingua 5B wrote:.
For instance, I have several direct clients in the tourism sector who have been sending their promo materials for translation for 5+ years (even during pandemic!) to me. Would they keep doing that and investing money in it if it didn’t make a difference for their package sales?
[Edited at 2022-02-16 11:41 GMT] Obviously we make a difference, but the question was whether the world would grind to a halt. It wouldn’t.
I'm not aware of anything that would bring the world to a halt. World wars, pandemic, etc. and it's still rolling.
[Edited at 2022-02-16 16:13 GMT]
| | | | | My two cents | Feb 17, 2022 |
I recently had to translate a punch list where engineers working on a huge international project would report issues the other party had to deal with. And some of the items were ridiculous, like equipment duty (in a tech document) turning into daily duty of the kind you have in the military. Totally different words, but both appear in dictionaries. They'd spotted some gross mistranslations, but I wonder how many they'd overlooked. Some people might say, "Oh, but the folks working on those projec... See more I recently had to translate a punch list where engineers working on a huge international project would report issues the other party had to deal with. And some of the items were ridiculous, like equipment duty (in a tech document) turning into daily duty of the kind you have in the military. Totally different words, but both appear in dictionaries. They'd spotted some gross mistranslations, but I wonder how many they'd overlooked. Some people might say, "Oh, but the folks working on those projects have all the time in the world, so they can afford to use MT and then deal with the consequenses; after all, MT is so cheap and so fast!" Or they might suggest that international projects be banned unless all parties involved can communicate in the same language (which one? English? why not Chinese? and if Chinese, which variety of it?). I've had experience where a customer, after being delivered about 800k words translated by humans, would go, "Hey, I'm not paying for this. I don't understand any of it." And all those words were contained in important documents. Engineers can design, but they are usually no good with experssing their ideas in writing. Some technical documents are prepared by technical writers who could have become engineers if they'd had more talent. And making sense of their writings is not a trivial task, I'm confident that MT will keep sucking at it for many years to come, until all human languages get seriously crippled and we all get used to it. I was lucky to have access to subject-matter experts when dealing with that huge project, and I was told, "Call this man for all things radio engineering, call that man for all things air traffic, and call me for all things aircraft." Only one of those experts knew some English, and I'd often had to disagree with his suggestions and explain why I thought he was wrong. There are people of immense learning who say ludicrous things when talking about something that's out of their realm because that learning occupies all the language space in their heads. Don't they need help if they fancy sharing their ideas with the international crowd?
[Edited at 2022-02-17 07:15 GMT] ▲ Collapse
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