Poll: Most of my clients are familiar with the advantages and disadvantages of machine translation Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
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This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "Most of my clients are familiar with the advantages and disadvantages of machine translation".
View the poll results »
| | | | | I don't know | Jun 27, 2022 |
I don't know, I’ve never discussed it with my clients. "My clients" are extremely diverse, from big global players to small boutique agencies and everything in between. A French agency indicated a while ago that they were moving into MT. I do a lot of revision for them and I have to say that the output has been fairly good with the occasional “faux pas”. By contrast, other clients have added to their POs or NDAs a note saying that the translator must not use Deepl or GT.
| | | | Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 07:13
Member (2008)
Italian to English
| Familiar with the advantages and disadvantages - for them | Jun 27, 2022 |
ProZ.com Staff wrote: This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "Most of my clients are familiar with the advantages and disadvantages of machine translation". View the poll results »
Some of my clients who are agencies seem to regard machine translation as a way to pay less.
My direct clients, and some agencies, know that machine translation is unreliable and is often completely useless. That's when they contact me, and pay me properly for a proper translation.
So yes, I would expect them to be familiar with the advantages and disadvantages of machine translation. After all, it's part of what they do.
[Edited at 2022-06-27 09:32 GMT]
| | | | neilmac
Spain
Local time: 08:13
Spanish to English
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My main client, a billing software company in the international scope, sometimes copies and pastes erroneous translations, or uses machine translated terms or lists of the same generated by their own people. I've notified them about these kind of errors a few times, but the same howlers popping up again, year after year. So, for example, you get things cropping up like "butt" (a type of barrel) translated as "culo" in Spanish. Or "yard" (unit of measure) translated into Spanish as "patio"....... See more My main client, a billing software company in the international scope, sometimes copies and pastes erroneous translations, or uses machine translated terms or lists of the same generated by their own people. I've notified them about these kind of errors a few times, but the same howlers popping up again, year after year. So, for example, you get things cropping up like "butt" (a type of barrel) translated as "culo" in Spanish. Or "yard" (unit of measure) translated into Spanish as "patio"....
I rarely find these things amusing nowadays. ▲ Collapse
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| Agencies: Yes End Clients: No | Jun 27, 2022 |
Agencies, of course, know all about MT ... and are keen to apply reductions to word counts when they know a document is amenable to MT.
End clients? They just want a good translation, and normally don't know or care how that gets done.
| | | | Kay Denney 
France
Local time: 08:13
French to English
I expect the agencies all know all about it. Most have asked me to perform post-editing at some point, and I tell them I'm not interested. None have stopped working with me.
There's just one, which doesn't seem to use even CAT tools, but then they are specialised in the arts and history, typically the kind of text where machinery can't really be of much use.
I don't think my direct clients know much about it. For one client, I translated a text and while proofreading it, I ... See more I expect the agencies all know all about it. Most have asked me to perform post-editing at some point, and I tell them I'm not interested. None have stopped working with me.
There's just one, which doesn't seem to use even CAT tools, but then they are specialised in the arts and history, typically the kind of text where machinery can't really be of much use.
I don't think my direct clients know much about it. For one client, I translated a text and while proofreading it, I realised I had already translated it previously. I saw that the most recent translation was much better and so I told the client to also change it in the other section of her website. She did so, and then mentioned that a friend of hers who is also a translator (but not the right language pair) said that if I were properly equipped, I wouldn't have had to translate it a second time.
I immediately wrote back explaining that me doing it again led to better overall quality, and that there were other bits in that same text where I had realised while translating that I had already translated those bits, and recycled them. But this was the first time in five years working with her that I had recycled anything. So even though I am already "properly equipped" with CAT tools, it really wasn't worth using them on her beautiful texts.
Had she mentioned MT, I'd have said much the same thing, although of course I wouldn't be able to claim I'm "properly equipped". ▲ Collapse
| | | | Thayenga
Germany
Local time: 08:13
Member (2009)
English to German
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For this reason my clients stay clear of it. Once in a while an agency asks for MTPE and receives a friendly reminder that I don't do this type of work. If one customer insists that I should "give it a try", I reply that I would provided s/he pays for a full translation or an editing job by the hour. And suddenly they have no more MTPE type of work for me.
| | | | Michael Newton
United States
Local time: 02:13
Japanese to English
+ ...
| disadvantages of MT | Jun 29, 2022 |
I have no such clients. But, believe me, most clients using MT would walk on broken glass to save a penny or two.
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