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How do you feel about agencies that ask you to use their software?
Thread poster: Tom in London
Kay Denney France Local time: 23:59 French to English
Bullying
Jun 2, 2016
One of my favourite clients has just switched over to a stupid interface where you have to click all over the place just to find the text to be translated, and once you've found it, no way of performing a spellcheck, no way of managing terminology. Once you've validated a text you can't go back to modify or even read it. And there's no way of telling how far you've got, whether you've got time to go swimming or even have another cuppa.
So I asked them to copy all the bits to be tran... See more
One of my favourite clients has just switched over to a stupid interface where you have to click all over the place just to find the text to be translated, and once you've found it, no way of performing a spellcheck, no way of managing terminology. Once you've validated a text you can't go back to modify or even read it. And there's no way of telling how far you've got, whether you've got time to go swimming or even have another cuppa.
So I asked them to copy all the bits to be translated into a translator-friendly file (cat or word, not fussy) and they said it would take too much time, it's the translator's job. But the interface was designed by somebody who knows naff all about translations, how translators work and what they need. Rather than make it translator-friendly, they want to "train" me to use the damn thing.
I'm currently drawing up a list of questions for them, including whether it was the same person who wrote the texts and then put them in the interface. I bet it wasn't. As a translator, I feel that I'm on a level closer to the author than the person doing the copying and pasting.
Since I'll probably end up copying and pasting everything into a translator-friendly file I shall be charging my top-level translation rate for that time. After all, I can binge on music while I do it to take the edge off the mind-numbing boredom but it'll be time I can't spend doing top-level translation and the client will be getting a much better translation by dint of me putting in that time. ▲ Collapse
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if it turns out to be a nightmare and I lose too much productivity, I just stop the collaboration, unless they are prepared to give me the files to use in my own CAT tools...
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2GT Italy Local time: 23:59 English to Italian + ...
Useful software = good software
Jun 2, 2016
Giovanni Guarnieri: if it turns out to be a nightmare and I lose too much productivity, I just stop the collaboration, unless they are prepared to give me the files to use in my own CAT tools...
Same here. I always like using new translation software (offline, online, proprietary, open source), but it has to be useful and serve my purpose.
Cheers Gianni
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