Poll: For how long have you been translating/interpreting?
Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
ProZ.com Staff
ProZ.com Staff
SITE STAFF
Jan 9, 2019

This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "For how long have you been translating/interpreting?".

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Muriel Vasconcellos
Muriel Vasconcellos  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 04:32
Member (2003)
Spanish to English
+ ...
55 years Jan 9, 2019

Just please don't tell my clients.

I learned today that my favorite client will be using a new "neural" machine translation system and I'm seriously thinking of saying goodbye to them.

[Edited at 2019-01-09 08:39 GMT]


Miguel Jimenez
Ricki Farn
Nadia Silva Castro
 
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida  Identity Verified
Portugal
Local time: 11:32
Member (2007)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
34 years full-time... Jan 9, 2019

... plus 9 years part-time, so a total of 43!

 
Thayenga
Thayenga  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 12:32
Member (2009)
English to German
+ ...
43+ Jan 9, 2019

I've started as an in-house translator, then became a freelancer. But retirement is still far away.

 
Miguel Jimenez
Miguel Jimenez  Identity Verified
Germany
German to Spanish
+ ...
I don't hope that the machines will be better than us! Jan 9, 2019

Muriel Vasconcellos wrote:

Just please don't tell my clients.

I learned today that my favorite client will be using a new "neural" machine translation system and I'm seriously thinking of saying goodbye to them.

[Edited at 2019-01-09 08:39 GMT]



I don't hope that the machines will be better than us! In the future will be have a serious competitor.


 
Christine Andersen
Christine Andersen  Identity Verified
Denmark
Local time: 12:32
Member (2003)
Danish to English
+ ...
Wait til they come back to you! Jan 9, 2019

Muriel Vasconcellos wrote:

Just please don't tell my clients.

I learned today that my favorite client will be using a new "neural" machine translation system and I'm seriously thinking of saying goodbye to them.

[Edited at 2019-01-09 08:39 GMT]


Just keep quiet and wait until the client finds out what a mess neural networks can make.

I have passed the 20-year mark a couple of months ago, don't tell my clients either!

Spent all yesterday battling with an academic text with long sentences, full of what I suspect is unedited, muddled thinking. The neural network would have had a field day and produced something really abstruse.
I know the client, so I could make sense of it


[Edited at 2019-01-09 14:19 GMT]


Ricki Farn
Amir Arzani
Kay Denney
 
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida  Identity Verified
Portugal
Local time: 11:32
Member (2007)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
It really gets to my nerves... Jan 9, 2019

Muriel Vasconcellos wrote:

Just please don't tell my clients.

I learned today that my favorite client will be using a new "neural" machine translation system and I'm seriously thinking of saying goodbye to them.

[Edited at 2019-01-09 08:39 GMT]


... that some clients believe that consistency of terms equals quality in translation…


Muriel Vasconcellos
Jocelyne Cuenin
Christine Andersen
Karen Wooddissee
Michele Fauble
 
Ricki Farn
Ricki Farn
Germany
Local time: 12:32
English to German
21 years Jan 9, 2019

(for money, and as a hobby since as young as I got hold of foreign words)

Just please don't tell my clients that my ProZ profile says "celebrating 20 years", and when I entered my data on Xing (the German version of LinkedIn) the other day, it calculated it as 21 years. You would assume I'm able to count on my fingers, but nope!


Hanna Swaryczewska
Nadia Silva Castro
Amir Arzani
 
Christopher Schröder
Christopher Schröder
United Kingdom
Member (2011)
Swedish to English
+ ...
24 Jan 9, 2019

Ricki Farn wrote:
Just please don't tell my clients that my ProZ profile says "celebrating 20 years", and when I entered my data on Xing (the German version of LinkedIn) the other day, it calculated it as 21 years. You would assume I'm able to count on my fingers, but nope!


I'm still celebrating 20 years in the business four years on. Hic.

Or is it drowning my sorrows?


Ricki Farn
 
Nadia Silva Castro
Nadia Silva Castro
United States
English to German
+ ...
Almost embarrassed here :) Jan 9, 2019

6 years, counting internships, full time job, and years as a freelance translator.

 
Mario Freitas
Mario Freitas  Identity Verified
Brazil
Local time: 08:32
Member (2014)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
32 years Jan 10, 2019

Although I had a long pause between 1991 and 2001, when I spent ten years in a small town, working in another area that took all my time, where English and translations were like studying UFOs.

 


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Poll: For how long have you been translating/interpreting?






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