| Pages in topic: < [1 2 3] > | Pairs in the qualification round need your votes! Thread poster: Henry Dotterer
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Mónica Algazi 
Uruguay
Local time: 22:53
Member (2005)
English to Spanish
| SOME OF US SIMPLY DID NOT SAY A WORD | Dec 8, 2008 |
[quote]dumont wrote:
Perhaps I have made a fuss over it.
"...who knows, I could be wrong against the better judges of public opinion which I expect to follow at the close of the contest. I have significantly lowered my expectations. Whatever happens I would not bark the way I did. I will carefully observe and note public opinion and see what’s wrong with my own opinion and how it could possibly be the case."
This approach is humbler, Dumont. Good.
[Editado a las 2008-12-08 13:18 GMT]
[Editado a las 2008-12-08 13:19 GMT]
| | | | wonita (X)
China
Local time: 21:53
| Deficiency in the Chinese way of education | Dec 8, 2008 |
I have never been able to do a test or a contest just for fun.
As far as I could remember, I was told that I must strive to be the best, otherwise I had no future in a country with 1.3 billion people. One year in my middle school I got the 4th high marks in the yearly tests, among 50 students. My parents only asked me the names of the first three ones, and "encouraged" me to surpass them next year. In China, I had never learned to appreciate other people's good work, because thos... See more I have never been able to do a test or a contest just for fun.
As far as I could remember, I was told that I must strive to be the best, otherwise I had no future in a country with 1.3 billion people. One year in my middle school I got the 4th high marks in the yearly tests, among 50 students. My parents only asked me the names of the first three ones, and "encouraged" me to surpass them next year. In China, I had never learned to appreciate other people's good work, because those better ones were my enemies, which was my standard education both at schools and at home.
Two years ago I passed the test to be a certified tourist guide. My German colleagues threw a big party to celebrate their passing the exam, whereas I was angry with me that I had only "passed" the exam.
Now seeing more and more entries in my language pair being ruled out, I sit nervously in front of the PC, counting my time... ▲ Collapse
| | | | Milena Bosco (X)
Italy
Local time: 03:53
English to Italian
+ ...
| Hi Henry, thanks Angio. | Dec 8, 2008 |
I am one of the contestants in a couple of language combinations. I just read this post, and I just got to know that I am invited to rate other translations. I guess it's too late, because I tried and I can't rate anymore.
I will in the final round, for sure, because I am aware of some grammar mistakes that were done in the Eng>Ita pair that were not pointed out. I am also aware of my mistakes and I agreed with the opinion of some of my colleagues.
My days are pretty fu... See more I am one of the contestants in a couple of language combinations. I just read this post, and I just got to know that I am invited to rate other translations. I guess it's too late, because I tried and I can't rate anymore.
I will in the final round, for sure, because I am aware of some grammar mistakes that were done in the Eng>Ita pair that were not pointed out. I am also aware of my mistakes and I agreed with the opinion of some of my colleagues.
My days are pretty full, thank God. I did post in the contest as a sort of "divertissement". There is one thing I learnt in my growth as a professional: one has to be humble. The way to success is swallowing your own pride and go "naked", exposing yourself to the opinions of agencies and clients. This is the only way to get better, and the only way that keeps me in touch with the world.
The contest offers this possibility. I am a technical translator and this is not a very happy moment for me in this web site, but I have to say that I really enjoyed participating. If I did badly for sure next time I'll do better.
Maryro, please next time join us!
Regards,
Milena ▲ Collapse
| | | | Donglai Lou (X)
China
Local time: 09:53
English to Chinese
+ ...
| Thank you, Henry | Dec 8, 2008 |
Hi! Henry,
Thanks very much for your pompt action and thorough investigation into this issue.
best regards,
Donglai Lou
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Alan Wang
China
Local time: 09:53
English to Chinese
+ ...
| Thanks, Henry | Dec 8, 2008 |
I feel complimented.
But, right now, I am more concerned with not being an embarrassing case of “no matter what I am the best” syndrome in the world of translators. It would be a bigger issue for me than winning a contest.
Henry D wrote:
Thanks for posting, dumont. It gives me additional insight into the experience of being a contestant.
By the way, the impression I get from your thoughtful post is that you either are a very good translator already, or are on your way to being one. Thanks for taking part.
| | | | | Some inconsistencies | Dec 8, 2008 |
Qualifying round for pairs with more than 7 entries has closed and votes are being tallied. Final voting will start soon.
View each entry side by side with source text option still works. (in English to Russian pair)
In English to Turkish pair I still have the option "Rate some now"
| | | | Susan Welsh
United States
Local time: 21:53
Russian to English
+ ...
| "two countries separated by a common language" | Dec 8, 2008 |
José Henrique Lamensdorf wrote: One Portuguese (PT-PT) interpreter once saw at an agency a translation I had done, which had been duly proofread by an equally competent (or incompentent?  ) Brazilian colleague, and said: "This is low-quality machine translation!". The PM, who doesn't speak any Portuguese, got cold feet, and asked us about it. We stood by our guns. So he got a fourth opinion, who said that it was first-class PT-BR translation... no matter how it appeared to be automatic translation to a speaker of the European variant. This is why I chose to keep out any likes/dislikes I could have on PT-PT entries, otherwise it wouldn't have been fair.
I think the same could be said for EN-GB and EN-US (perhaps not quite as extreme, I'm not sure since I don't know either variant of Portuguese). I believe that a good bit of the agree/disagree quarreling on contest submissions that I rated had to do with U.S. versus British ways of doing things. I believe it was George Bernard Shaw who said that we are "two countries separated by a common language." (We are separated by more than that, but that's another issue.)
There are also the arguments between those who think every grammar, punctuation, and spelling rule they learned in elementary school must be followed to the letter, and those who think the written word should convey the spoken word, including sometimes its ambiguity. If you applied today's spelling, grammar, and punctuation "conventions" to William Shakespeare's work, you'd end up with a hell of a lot of "tracked changes"! (He didn't even spell his own name consistently the same way.)
Susan
[Edited at 2008-12-08 17:52 GMT]
| | | | Milena Bosco (X)
Italy
Local time: 03:53
English to Italian
+ ...
| Pair with no tags...A few questions | Dec 8, 2008 |
I finally managed to agree/disagree, there must have been something wrong with my browser.
In one pair in which I submitted a translation there are no tags at all. Does this mean that no one voted? I found a mistake in my own translation, how can I "disagree" with myself? If I can I will be happy to agree/disagree with my colleagues.
Regards,
Milena
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| Responses to Milena | Dec 8, 2008 |
Milena Bosco wrote:
In one pair in which I submitted a translation there are no tags at all. Does this mean that no one voted?
No, the two are not linked. There have been votes in all pairs.
I found a mistake in my own translation, how can I "disagree" with myself?
No, but it is a good idea. Thanks!
| | | | | Thanks, M. Ali | Dec 8, 2008 |
M. Ali Bayraktar wrote: Qualifying round for pairs with more than 7 entries has closed and votes are being tallied. Final voting will start soon. View each entry side by side with source text option still works. (in English to Russian pair) In English to Turkish pair I still have the option "Rate some now"
Thanks for reporting the thing with side-by-side voting. (You are good at finding such things!) As for English to Turkish, it has not yet been closed. We are going pair by pair.
| | | | Milena Bosco (X)
Italy
Local time: 03:53
English to Italian
+ ...
| Thanks Henry/I'm having problems voting in the Eng>Cat pair | Dec 8, 2008 |
I am mother tongue Catalan, Spanish and Italian. I do not translate into Catalan, because years ago Catalan was not studied at school, and I think that younger translators have a much better chance to provide an excellent service. Spanish as a mother tongue does not fit in my profile.
I can tell "good" Catalan from "bad" Catalan, and I am familiar with the English text. I checked and it seems that I cannot vote. I would like to. Could you help me? Please excuse me if this is the wro... See more I am mother tongue Catalan, Spanish and Italian. I do not translate into Catalan, because years ago Catalan was not studied at school, and I think that younger translators have a much better chance to provide an excellent service. Spanish as a mother tongue does not fit in my profile.
I can tell "good" Catalan from "bad" Catalan, and I am familiar with the English text. I checked and it seems that I cannot vote. I would like to. Could you help me? Please excuse me if this is the wrong place to ask for help.
Regards,
Milena ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Respecting the deadlines... | Dec 8, 2008 |
In 7th Translation contest my entry has not been accepted because I was late for approx. 30 minutes.
But now when I have taken a look from the first day of the present "1st Annual contest" I saw that site has broken it's own deadlines several times.
So I should ask this question; is it really hard for the site to keep the deadlines that mentioned by the site itself?
The other point which makes me think and believe that its 100% unfair thing:
He... See more In 7th Translation contest my entry has not been accepted because I was late for approx. 30 minutes.
But now when I have taken a look from the first day of the present "1st Annual contest" I saw that site has broken it's own deadlines several times.
So I should ask this question; is it really hard for the site to keep the deadlines that mentioned by the site itself?
The other point which makes me think and believe that its 100% unfair thing:
Henry wrote that he has found some entries and returned them back despite the fact that they were ruled out. Yes, may be it seems a kind of justice at first sight, but if you think more deeply, you would see that this action creates injustice rather than justice.
Why?
Those entries were out of the contest for a while (may be several days)
That means the users which entered the contest page for the purpose of voting, didn't see them. And their interests were forwarded on the other entries. This means; absence of the ruled out entry has broken the bad quality parameters because when you hide the worst one, second worst becomes the first one.
This look likes as if they were kept in a safe case for a while,
Do I really have troubles with seeing the big picture? or am I right?
[Edited at 2008-12-08 23:01 GMT] ▲ Collapse
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| You are right, M. Ali | Dec 9, 2008 |
M. Ali Bayraktar wrote:
In 7th Translation contest my entry has not been accepted because I was late for approx. 30 minutes.
But now when I have taken a look from the first day of the present "1st Annual contest" I saw that site has broken it's own deadlines several times.
So I should ask this question; is it really hard for the site to keep the deadlines that mentioned by the site itself?
The other point which makes me think and believe that its 100% unfair thing:
Henry wrote that he has found some entries and returned them back despite the fact that they were ruled out. Yes, may be it seems a kind of justice at first sight, but if you think more deeply, you would see that this action creates injustice rather than justice.
Why?
Those entries were out of the contest for a while (may be several days)
That means the users which entered the contest page for the purpose of voting, didn't see them. And their interests were forwarded on the other entries. This means; absence of the ruled out entry has broken the bad quality parameters because when you hide the worst one, second worst becomes the first one.
This look likes as if they were kept in a safe case for a while,
Do I really have troubles with seeing the big picture? or am I right?
Conceptually, I would agree with you. There could be some effect, particularly if they were gone for a prolonged period of time. (One thing, though (again): just because they were removed first does not mean they were "worst".)
Anyway, I took the issue you bring up into consideration when I decided to reinstate. As I wrote at the time I reinstated, the entries were down during a particularly slow period.
In the end, the "restored" entries received a number of ratings that was in the normal range. So I feel that it was the right decision.
As for deadlines, no one likes when the deadlines move. My apologies for that, too!
| | | | | Why still in qualification with 7 entries left? | Dec 9, 2008 |
Why are e.g. Portuguese-English or Italian -> German still in qualification, when there are only 7 entries left?
Chris
[Edited at 2008-12-09 11:50 GMT]
| | | | | Define "soon", please | Dec 11, 2008 |
"Final round voting will start soon"... I didn't expect "soon" to mean a few days (three, four, or more).
I appreciate your efforts for the contest, Henry, but I kind of lose my patience
Will the voting start soon?
Kind regards,
Maria
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