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Translator doing the proofreader's job?
Thread poster: Marthina Pettersson Cevallos
Sheila Wilson
Sheila Wilson  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 07:18
Member (2007)
English
+ ...
Certainly great for quality Jul 12, 2011

Rolf Kern wrote:
I am in no way compelled to accept the proofread text, what I send back is the accepted final version.
The final result is a perfect translation.


but can you really be absolutely sure it's perfect?

Nevertheless, it's probably as good as it's going to get and definitely fit for its purpose. I wouldn't complain although if it was an important client and taking a significant time then I would take this into consideration when thinking about raising my rate.


 
Monica Hartono
Monica Hartono
Indonesia
Local time: 14:18
English to Indonesian
I also wondering about the same thing Nov 28, 2019

I don't mind but it saddening me if the proofreader making mistakes on what's already right or did some missing translations, typos and grammar. Those cases are adding my work, that I have to reject some and explaining the reason.

It's even more saddening if my already below minimum salary's gonna be deducted for my mistakes when I'm willing to do the revision.
I know I still have a lot to improve, mine is definitely not perfect, especially when the English source aren't helpi
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I don't mind but it saddening me if the proofreader making mistakes on what's already right or did some missing translations, typos and grammar. Those cases are adding my work, that I have to reject some and explaining the reason.

It's even more saddening if my already below minimum salary's gonna be deducted for my mistakes when I'm willing to do the revision.
I know I still have a lot to improve, mine is definitely not perfect, especially when the English source aren't helping (especially if the English was translated from China, that's why some words sounds funny)
but the salary deduction is still discouraging.


[Edited at 2019-11-28 15:00 GMT]
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Daria Galkina
Daria Galkina  Identity Verified
Montenegro
Local time: 08:18
English to Russian
+ ...
Common but questionable practice Nov 27, 2021

I guess this thread is not active anymore, but anyway... just in case someone reads it now.
I agree that it is a common practice, but I strongly disagree that it is that "useful" as previous discussers claim it to be. It is one thing when a proofreader is a person with at least 10 years of experience in linguistics, who has a deep knowledge of his/her native language (at the "better than average" level), to whom such words as "colloquialsim", "linguistic calque", and "morpheme" are not "Gr
... See more
I guess this thread is not active anymore, but anyway... just in case someone reads it now.
I agree that it is a common practice, but I strongly disagree that it is that "useful" as previous discussers claim it to be. It is one thing when a proofreader is a person with at least 10 years of experience in linguistics, who has a deep knowledge of his/her native language (at the "better than average" level), to whom such words as "colloquialsim", "linguistic calque", and "morpheme" are not "Greek" at all. Yes, you can learn something from them.
But unfortunately over the past few years we see more and more unqualified people entering this industry. They believe that it is enough to speak a foreign language at a good level to be a translator. Many of them simply lack erudition and experience, or even don't know the grammar of their native language. So, every time I am corrected by such a "specialist", I just get angry, because, in fact, I have to spend my time on cleaning the text from all these stupid semantic/stylistic/grammar errors added by a "proofreader'. There is nothing you can learn from these people. In fact, you have to explain the obvious grammar rules to them or "project managers" who usually do not understand anything about the subject. And yes, you spend enormous amount of time on these explanations for free. It's like if you agreed to become a volunteer in a high school and taught these kids some obvious grammar rules. And yet, they argue and try to prove that it is OK to say things like "I is go to school every day" (my target language is Russian, but this is just to give you an idea). I am not saying that my translations are perfect, and there is always you can learn. But these things... I cannot even call them "translations". And many agencies are OK with such a low quality, and they even publish them. Sad, but true. No one really cares about the quality these days.

[Edited at 2021-11-27 12:23 GMT]
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Tony Keily
 
Adieu
Adieu  Identity Verified
Ukrainian to English
+ ...
Is this ACTUALLY from the proofreader? Nov 27, 2021

The few times I have received such emails, they were really from an angry secretarial worker on the client's side.

They were typically inane and curiously coincided with notes sent to the PM like "this letter is addressed to Dr. John Stevens, but starts with a 'Dear Mr. Steven Jones' " or "caution: this application to conduct a clinical trial of product A lists the name of a trial of product B and then proceeds with the copypasted body text from an application for product C"
<
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The few times I have received such emails, they were really from an angry secretarial worker on the client's side.

They were typically inane and curiously coincided with notes sent to the PM like "this letter is addressed to Dr. John Stevens, but starts with a 'Dear Mr. Steven Jones' " or "caution: this application to conduct a clinical trial of product A lists the name of a trial of product B and then proceeds with the copypasted body text from an application for product C"

Several days later, you'll get some feedback on your translation with crazy statements like "it is utterly unacceptable to use the term 'study' in a professional setting" or "please keep in mind that the correct abbreviation for street is 'Str.' "[It really really isn't]

Marthina Pettersson Cevallos wrote:

Hi all,

I have a question regarding the proofreaders' task. The thing is I have done a translation job and now the agency is sending me my original translation back to me with the proofreader's comments on what I should change and wants me to make the changes and corrections. Sometimes it is changes that I do not agree with, or unnecessary changes that doesn't change the meaning or improve the translation, i.e. synonyms, or changed word order.

I always thought that the proofreader makes the changes and corrections and then just send it back to the agency ready for delivery to the end client.

Is this procedure normal procedure, or how does it usually work? It feels as though I am doing part of the proofreader's job. If he/she anyway has to write the comments, why not change it directly in the translation?

Grateful for any comments.

Marthina



[Edited at 2011-07-11 11:19 GMT]


[Edited at 2021-11-27 13:18 GMT]

[Edited at 2021-11-27 13:23 GMT]
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Translator doing the proofreader's job?







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