| Pages in topic: < [1 2] | What is your experience with proofreaders (in general)? Thread poster: eng_to_cz
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macimovic
Netherlands
Local time: 16:03
English to Serbian
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My experience has been "so so" so far. The worst experience I have ever had was when my translation in Serbian was proofread by a native Croat. Or, when a proofreader for Serbian language just changed the order of the words in sentences which didn't change any meaning and marked them as "mistranslation".
That is how I didn't get hired two times thanks to the fellow proofreaders...
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The quality of translation work is declining these days. So is the quality of writing, as well as the quality of thinking. It's certainly possible to find Masters of Arts in linguistics who can't stay on top of their grammar or spelling or write well, as well as M.A. holders in translation studies who can't write much better in the language of their focus than a secondary school student should.
It's hard to find a good proofreader or editor, though one is certainly worth his weight ... See more The quality of translation work is declining these days. So is the quality of writing, as well as the quality of thinking. It's certainly possible to find Masters of Arts in linguistics who can't stay on top of their grammar or spelling or write well, as well as M.A. holders in translation studies who can't write much better in the language of their focus than a secondary school student should.
It's hard to find a good proofreader or editor, though one is certainly worth his weight in gold.
But too often it's a joke. It's especially not cool when as neither a philologist nor a native speaker you need to teach grammar or syntax or punctuation to someone who was born with the language and graduated in it.
I certainly appreciate a second pair of eyes, but I'm also severely disenchanted with the current state of QA. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 15:03
Member (2008)
Italian to English
| More convinced than ever | Nov 23, 2013 |
Reading through some of the posts here, especially those posted by proofreaders or ex-proofreaders, self-justifying themselves and their presumptuous sense of entitlement to make decisions about what's right and what's wrong, I'm more than ever convinced that proofreaders are a detestable subspecies of the human race. 
However, there may be a role for proofreaders to service low-level, bottom-of-the-barrel, cheapo age... See more Reading through some of the posts here, especially those posted by proofreaders or ex-proofreaders, self-justifying themselves and their presumptuous sense of entitlement to make decisions about what's right and what's wrong, I'm more than ever convinced that proofreaders are a detestable subspecies of the human race.
However, there may be a role for proofreaders to service low-level, bottom-of-the-barrel, cheapo agencies who hire "translators" who can't even get elementary grammar and spelling right, and whose translations need fundamental corrections of an elementary-school type, particularly in these times of what's been called "the return to illiteracy"; but not the rest of us (tried and tested translators with years, indeed decades of experience) for whom it's a matter of one person's sense of style against another's.
Proofread and correct my translations? Why - I'm old enough to be your English teacher !
[Edited at 2013-11-23 20:33 GMT] ▲ Collapse
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Tom in London wrote:
However, there may be a role for proofreaders to service low-level, bottom-of-the-barrel, cheapo agencies who hire "translators" who can't even get elementary grammar and spelling right, and whose translations need fundamental corrections of an elementary-school type, particularly in these times of what's been called "the return to illiteracy";
Care to guess what the bulk of the market consists of (or will soon become)?
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| Ignoring seniority in proofreading... lol yeah | Nov 23, 2013 |
Tom in London wrote:
Proofread and correct my translations? Why - I'm old enough to be your English teacher !
[Edited at 2013-11-23 20:33 GMT]
| | | | Lingua 5B 
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Local time: 16:03
Member (2009)
English to Croatian
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My experience with proofreaders I dealt with in real life is fantastic, while those ghost proofreaders online that you can't see, plus don't even know their identity - well those experiences were quite bad.
I've learnt a lot from the input and guidance of more experienced proofreaders - in real life setting strictly - those people had a name and a lot of background to prove their qualities.
| | | | | French proofreading or French Canadian proofreading !!!!!!!!!! | Nov 24, 2013 |
I suspect a lot of agencies in USA don't know there is a big difference beetween Canadian French and French French!
as a result, in these contexts, they have the French-french proofred by Canadian-french proofreaders; this is terrible!
Of course, this (or the other way around) is not relevant!
In some cases, these agencies sent me a text half translated into Canadian French for me to finish translating into French-French.
I am afraid the end-cu... See more I suspect a lot of agencies in USA don't know there is a big difference beetween Canadian French and French French!
as a result, in these contexts, they have the French-french proofred by Canadian-french proofreaders; this is terrible!
Of course, this (or the other way around) is not relevant!
In some cases, these agencies sent me a text half translated into Canadian French for me to finish translating into French-French.
I am afraid the end-customer won't be very happy. This happened to me twice with different agencies.
Madeleine
[Edited at 2013-11-24 10:11 GMT]
[Edited at 2013-11-24 10:23 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | Gina W
United States
Local time: 10:03
Member (2003)
French to English
Yes, it does seem like some proofreaders - or editors/reviewers - take it a bit too far, and some even make "corrections" erroneously. It is generally the agency's fault, though, for instance once an agency had my translation, which was specified for U.S. English, edited by someone who obviously made "corrections" as if it were for UK English. Uh, big difference then, but again that was the agency's fault. (I also see Madeleine's similar post about European French versus Canadian French - the... See more Yes, it does seem like some proofreaders - or editors/reviewers - take it a bit too far, and some even make "corrections" erroneously. It is generally the agency's fault, though, for instance once an agency had my translation, which was specified for U.S. English, edited by someone who obviously made "corrections" as if it were for UK English. Uh, big difference then, but again that was the agency's fault. (I also see Madeleine's similar post about European French versus Canadian French - there is a difference.) Also, there was one other situation where the editor actually "corrected" my terms to terms obviously spelled incorrectly, such that the misspellings even showed up in Word - I mean, seriously? I pointed out to the agency that it was laughable for the editor to have even submitted such a document back to them, and that I hoped that they had not yet sent the final product to the client! ▲ Collapse
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One of my favourite clients always has my translations proofread and then sent back to me for the final approval. I really appreciate this arrangement, because this way the editorial remarks appear to be rather suggestions than corrections, and I feel totally in control.
[Edited at 2013-11-24 21:46 GMT]
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