Poll: Has a client ever asked you for advice on how to implement machine translation?
Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
ProZ.com Staff
ProZ.com Staff
SITE STAFF
Mar 17, 2019

This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "Has a client ever asked you for advice on how to implement machine translation?".

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Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida  Identity Verified
Portugal
Local time: 19:35
Member (2007)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
NO Mar 17, 2019

I’ve never used MT professionally and I wouldn’t even dream of doing that. Most of my clients know that and are thankful for that. I just can’t imagine any of them asking my advice on such a thing… Being one of those dinosaurs who hate working with CAT tools just imagine what I think of MT!

 
neilmac
neilmac
Spain
Local time: 20:35
Spanish to English
+ ...
No Mar 17, 2019

Thank goodness. Although I do use MT to a certain extent, I do so judiciously and according to my own criteria. Properly deployed, it can be a useful addition to the translator's arsenal. The problem arises when people think that it's some kind of magic wand whereby anyone can translate anything they want smoothly and accurately every time.

Alexandra Speirs
Angus Stewart
Morano El-Kholy
Yetta Jensen Bogarde
Kay-Viktor Stegemann
Linda Miranda
Christine Andersen
 
DZiW (X)
DZiW (X)
Ukraine
English to Russian
+ ...
No Mar 17, 2019

 While (1) teaching, (2) learning and (3) procreation are tree principles moving the world, it's very (4) purpose what tells relevant and acceptable from the rest.

 My direct clients neither care nor ask about CAT/MT, but they have considered the recommendation about MT for sifting out non-urgent and non-important info--and some even implemented an internal CAT engine.

Yes, I deliberately suggested using an offline rule-based specia
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 While (1) teaching, (2) learning and (3) procreation are tree principles moving the world, it's very (4) purpose what tells relevant and acceptable from the rest.

 My direct clients neither care nor ask about CAT/MT, but they have considered the recommendation about MT for sifting out non-urgent and non-important info--and some even implemented an internal CAT engine.

Yes, I deliberately suggested using an offline rule-based specialized MT to preview the documents, saving time and efforts, so we can drive away at the most important points.

 Moreover, my clients agreed that it's better to hire a decent specialist with satisfactory foreign language skills than a top-notch translator with some background in the field.

[Edited at 2019-03-17 16:06 GMT]
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Mario Freitas
Mario Freitas  Identity Verified
Brazil
Local time: 16:35
Member (2014)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
No, and they refuse it too Mar 17, 2019

No client ever asked me, but in two occasions, I noticed they were doing it all wrong and sent them some advice to improve their yielding. Both of them ignored my advices.

Regarding CATs:
One of them creates a new TM and TB for each job, then adds all TMs and TBs to all jobs. I told them to have one per client or a single one (the ideal), but they didn't listen. So, every time I get a job from them now, I have to unmark 30 TM's and TB's, leave only the main ones marked, and ma
... See more
No client ever asked me, but in two occasions, I noticed they were doing it all wrong and sent them some advice to improve their yielding. Both of them ignored my advices.

Regarding CATs:
One of them creates a new TM and TB for each job, then adds all TMs and TBs to all jobs. I told them to have one per client or a single one (the ideal), but they didn't listen. So, every time I get a job from them now, I have to unmark 30 TM's and TB's, leave only the main ones marked, and mark my own to be able to work in a decent time.

Regarding MTs:
I will only work for clients that use MT if I'm sure it's not Google Translate or similar public MTs, i.e., if they have their own MT, adapted to the specific jargon of the job, and generating decent texts for MTPE. If I find out the client is using Google to translate to pay me less as post-editing instead of translation, they'll either pay me the same rate or say goodbye.

[Edited at 2019-03-18 16:48 GMT]
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Gibril Koroma
Gibril Koroma  Identity Verified
Canada
Local time: 15:35
French to English
+ ...
No Mar 17, 2019

Never.

 


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Poll: Has a client ever asked you for advice on how to implement machine translation?






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