| Pages in topic: < [1 2] | How much do you rely on MT (and CAT tools in general) for your work? Thread poster: Daniel Santana
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| It depends from the MT | May 3, 2022 |
Personally, I don't like MTs as they are sometimes more time consuming than a real translation, but it depends from MT's output quality.
I use MTs only for some agencies that asks for MTPEs jobs and usually they use their own MTs. I find them really useful only when their output is based on TMs and termbases created with previously human translated documents.
For sure, I'd never use MT for marketing texts nor medical texts.
| | | | Kay Denney 
France
Local time: 16:35
French to English
jyuan_us wrote:
You can ask how much you would reply on MT, but the question of how much you would "rely on" CAT tools hardly make any sense. You either use a CAT tool on every project, or use no CAT tool at all.
Why on earth would you say that? It may be true for you but it is very much not true for me!
I use MemoQ on certain projects from an agency who lends me a licence to complete the work. And I shelled out for Trados because another agency (who wouldn't lend me a licence) said the only reason I wasn't given first refusal for all projects from their Very Prestigious Client was because I didn't have Trados. Once I got Trados, they started giving me a lot more work, and very interesting work at that (and they pay very promptly too). Fair enough.
When I'm not forced to use CAT tools by an agency, I don't touch them with a barge pole, because there is no point using them to translate descriptions of artwork for exhibitions, or the sleeve notes of CDs and the vast majority of other jobs that I get.
One of my direct clients is an artist, I translate stuff for her website and Instagram posts. For her most recent translation, she lifted a few sentences from previously translated texts. She took the main point and then shuffled the information around to the point that a CAT tool would likely not have matched anything.
For some of those sentences, I didn't recall translating those ideas previously, and started from scratch. Half-way through, I got a feeling of déjà vu and started searching my previous translations. I came across a little nugget that I had already translated a second time... but then I realised that the translation I had just come up with was much better than what I had put previously a few years ago, so I didn't bother to use my previous translation. .
So my client got a good translation, and was able to improve a file that was already published on her website. She paid me before I had even issued the bill, and actually rounded my fee up instead of paying the exact sum I had put in her estimate, so I get the impression she was very happy with what I did.
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OP: The degree of reliance on MT will generally be in proportion to the age of the translator and whether the texts they translate are intended for publication.
I suppose it boils down to whether your priority is making a living, or enjoying making a living.
| | | | Baran Keki
Türkiye
Local time: 17:35
Member
English to Turkish
| 'Luddites' & MT-haters will be hanged, drawn and quartered | May 3, 2022 |
Kay Denney wrote:
because another agency (who wouldn't lend me a licence) said the only reason I wasn't given first refusal for all projects from their Very Prestigious Client was because I didn't have Trados. Once I got Trados, they started giving me a lot more work, and very interesting work at that (and they pay very promptly too). Fair enough.
Sounds like no-brainer. I wouldn't think twice about pulling the trigger on Studio at such a prospect.
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Daniel Santana
United States
Local time: 09:35
English to Spanish
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TOPIC STARTER
Samuel Murray wrote:
For offline CAT tools, this is unusual. I strongly believe that authors of such videos do the industry (and new translators) a disservice if they use machine translation as a normal part of the video. Although many translators do use machine translation, it is not yet the standard way of using offline CAT tools.
I agree. I posted that question because I assumed MT was industry standard. Despite not being against it, I prefer to translate without MT. As I said before, though, I am new to translation, so I can't speak out of experience; this is just personal preference.
Now that I think about it, however, they probably are using MT as part of the demo just to showcase what the software is capable of. However, I think they shouldn't focus the whole video on that.
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