Poll: Have you ever found errors in a translation after delivering it? Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
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This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "Have you ever found errors in a translation after delivering it?".
This poll was originally submitted by Konbaz . View the poll results »
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I try not to look! I'd rather not know, but I have found a few over my career. Mostly typos.
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Rahaf ziad 
Syria
Local time: 13:40
Arabic to English
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I try not to look too, coz it causes me a huge frustration!
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Mario Chavez (X)
Local time: 06:40
English to Spanish
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I'm too self-conscious to answer this question.
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Morano El-Kholy
Egypt
Local time: 12:40
Member (2011)
English to Arabic
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| It seems that most of us "translators": TRY NOT TO LOOK :-) | Dec 24, 2017 |
Me too!
Muriel Vasconcellos wrote:
I try not to look!
Konbaz wrote:
I try not to look too.
But, Me too!
Muriel Vasconcellos wrote:
I try not to look!
Konbaz wrote:
I try not to look too.
But, Mario Chavez wrote:
I'm too self-conscious to answer this question.
I think Mario that you have thus already answered the posed question  ▲ Collapse
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neilmac
Spain
Local time: 12:40
Spanish to English
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But nothing serious or world-shattering. Sometimes I might think of a better turn of phrase that I could have used, and as most of my clients are direct, I can usually contact them to tweak the offending text, and they can contact me to modify any points they think need changing.
For example, a couple of weeks ago I pointed out some inconsistencies I found in the source text. It later transpired that it had been translated from French into Spanish before being sent to me for translation to... See more But nothing serious or world-shattering. Sometimes I might think of a better turn of phrase that I could have used, and as most of my clients are direct, I can usually contact them to tweak the offending text, and they can contact me to modify any points they think need changing.
For example, a couple of weeks ago I pointed out some inconsistencies I found in the source text. It later transpired that it had been translated from French into Spanish before being sent to me for translation to English, which was the root of the problem.
Nobody's perfect. ▲ Collapse
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Muriel Vasconcellos wrote:
I try not to look! I'd rather not know, but I have found a few over my career. Mostly typos.
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Gehad Feisal
Egypt
Local time: 12:40
English to Arabic
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| yes but not always | Dec 24, 2017 |
This happens in most cases when you don't take enough time to revise because of tight deadlines.
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Mario Chavez (X)
Local time: 06:40
English to Spanish
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| Point in question | Dec 24, 2017 |
neilmac wrote:
But nothing serious or world-shattering. Sometimes I might think of a better turn of phrase that I could have used, and as most of my clients are direct, I can usually contact them to tweak the offending text, and they can contact me to modify any points they think need changing.
For example, a couple of weeks ago I pointed out some inconsistencies I found in the source text. It later transpired that it had been translated from French into Spanish before being sent to me for translation to English, which was the root of the problem.
Nobody's perfect.
Since you also work in my language pair, but in reverse (Spanish to English), I can share this case in point:
A few weeks ago, I translated the following two-line heading:
Extending the Life of Metal
Working and Industrial Fluids
as
Extendemos la vida útil de los metales
Fluidos de trabajo y fluidos industriales
But the client's typo, “metal / working” should have alerted me that it was “metalworking (fluids).” So I updated the flyer with this heading:
Extendemos la vida útil de fluidos para el
mecanizado de piezas metálicas y fluidos industriales
In Spanish, the noun fluid can be fluido or líquido. It's not interlinguistic interference necessarily, as phrases like “mecánica de fluidos” is widely used among the experts.
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Muriel Vasconcellos wrote:
I try not to look! I'd rather not know, but I have found a few over my career. Mostly typos.
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| a better (additional) question might be | Dec 25, 2017 |
... What do you do if you found errors in a translation after delivering it. I expect the answer might commonly be: alert the client and supply a correction asap. Or?
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Kay Denney
France
Local time: 12:40
French to English
| I try not to look | Dec 25, 2017 |
But if I did see one, I would try to make amends if at all possible.
With one client, my translation comes back to me after their proofreader has looked at it, and I have to approve the corrections. If ever I see room for improvement I will make the changes, and I'll let them know what I've done just in case their proofreader doesn't agree, although they always do.
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Mario Freitas
Brazil
Local time: 07:40
Member (2014)
English to Portuguese
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It has happened a few times. I have also thought of a correct or better translation after delivery. Also very common is to have several documents in the same project. You deliver one or two, and in the next document you understand a term better or find a better translation for it.
In the first case, if only a few hours have elapsed, I send a new version right away. In the second case, I'll send the new version as soon as I find the error, as I'm not going to keep translating it incorrectl... See more It has happened a few times. I have also thought of a correct or better translation after delivery. Also very common is to have several documents in the same project. You deliver one or two, and in the next document you understand a term better or find a better translation for it.
In the first case, if only a few hours have elapsed, I send a new version right away. In the second case, I'll send the new version as soon as I find the error, as I'm not going to keep translating it incorrectly in the other documents. ▲ Collapse
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