Post from Friendica

Many critics, no defenders,
translators have but two regrets:
when we hit, no one remembers,
when we miss, no one forgets.

Anonymous

#translation #translators

looks like my office, only cleaner...

#translator #translation

An agency denies my candidacy...Their loss. Seriously.

My response to their "corrections" to my test materials:

I have reviewed the Marked Up file, and it is, frankly, completely and utterly ridiculous. I am an expert in the English language, I assure you, having studied and taught English and other languages, and worked as a translator, together, for over two decades. I know my skills and qualifications, and while I might not be a skilled basketball player, I know my native tongue. There are no grammatical or spelling errors in my work. I have thoroughly checked it, several times.

Your editor actually "corrected" items with incorrect spellings, even, such as replacing a word with "undertkakings". What in the Hell are "undertkakings"? "Sign undertkakings" is somehow more correct than "establish commitments"? Not in any court of law in the US, I assure you, and I've worked in the courts for 7 years. In another location, they "corrected" "court clerk's office" with "registry officie". "Officie"? Every court I've worked in has a court clerk. None of them here have a "registry officie".

Did you even look at the "corrections"?

They (your editor) changed "they/their" to "it, its".
Or perhaps, I should say,"It changed..."?
Do you see how ridiculous that is?

"Lawyer" and "attorney" are completely interchangeable in US English (1).
These are merely examples. There's much more I find very questionable in your editor's corrections, and other "corrections" that are absolutely preposterous. It's embarrassing, really, for you, for Merril Brink. Were I to publish your "corrections" your company would become a laughing stock in the industry. (Recall, I haven't signed any NDA in regard to your test materials, either, of course. Had I, I would honor it.).

Where did you dig up this editor? A local high school?

If this is representative of the work you provide clients, perhaps it is best I do not work with you.
I do not want my name on the garbage that your editor returned to me.

#translation

Hacking on TransProCloud

Today I spent some time hacking on TransProCloud.

It still has a long ways to go before it is fully functional, although, the provider and client management parts of the database have been functional for a while now.

Today I finally tackled the beginnings of the actual project management interface and database. I have the rudimentary framework for the financial aspects of the project management interface duct-taped together. There will be more work in this particular area to do yet.

Also, today I started to build the document management aspects, and have a lot of that squared away, now.

Still, the TODO list includes rounding out the financial aspect, polishing up the document management, and, I haven't even started work on the assignments management and building in security. As mentioned on the site, I have my own test/dev installation and the demo installation locked behind an htpasswd wall, which works for now, but eventually I believe I will have to build a better user access system into the application.

In any case, I took advantage of a lull in workflow and did something productive. There's still much work to be done, but I'm hacked out for the day. Soon I will have a working online/cloud translation project management system hacked together. Stay tuned!

Also, if anyone wants to lend a hand, of course, jump in and clone the git repo and have at it!

#tpcloud #translation #projectmanagement

posted from free-haven.org

How NOT to discuss rates with a Freelancer

exorcising bad translations

This, my friends, is why Professional Translators are still a necessity.

Il Foglio, an Italian newspaper, has come out critizing the NY Times, who (OMGSTFUBBQ...can't believe they did this!) used a computer generated translation of an article regarding the Vatican's response to sexual abuse complaints.

The failure to translate led the American newspaper to argue that Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was protecting a sexually abusive priest from Milwaukee.

The article, titled "New York Times does not translate," starts by saying, "New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd returned to attack the Pope. Commenting on the words of exorcist Gabriele Amorth, who said that behind pedophile priests is the devil, Dowd suggested a way for the Catholic church to solve the problem: hire a 'sexorcist.'" 1

Learn from this, kiddies.

When the text is important, neither Google Translate, nor Yahoo! BabelFish is truly your friend.

Go to, Proz.com and find a real, professional translator.

Of course, if your text requires translation from any of French, Portuguese or Spanish to American English, I've got you covered, right here.

tony

---

posted with Xpostulate

Yes! You, too, can use Free Software and Succeed as a Freelance Translator

This past weekend new versions were released of two Free software programs very important for translators, OmegaT, CAT program (Computer Aided Translation), and Anaphraseus, another CAT program, both Free (as in speech) and free (as in beer).

OmegaT, developed in Java, is the CAT program is most used by translators in the Free Software community, and has been used in translation and localization of other important Free Software projects such as OpenOffice.org, the complete, Free, office suite. It is rather distinct from other CAT programs, broadly useful, with ample functions and the ability to deal with a wide variety of files formats, including all those most common to the translation industry, such as all MSOffice® file formats, various software localization formats, and, of course, all Open Document Format files. In addition, OmegaT works with the standard translation memory format, TMX (Translation Memory eXchange).

Anaphraseus CAT works similarly to another, proprietary CAT program, Wordfast®, in its earlier incarnations, but as a macro in OpenOffice.org, not with MSOffice®, as does Wordfast. Anaphraseus developed in StarBasic, is important because it allows translators who are users of free software to provide their customers "unclean" .doc or .rtf files, a bilingual word processing file (containing both, the source and target languages), widely used in the translation industry. With both these tools, translators using only free software are able to compete with those who work with proprietary products that dominate the industry. Both programs are cross-platform, able to run in GNU/Linux, Mac or Windows.

I announced the release of these new versions over the past several days, but today, I'm taking the time to elaborate again on these release, because I believe these programs are extremely important. I've already discussed why I believe open document formats are important at some length, but it is a topic I am likely to revisit, and my original article touching on the matter is, as I see it, a work in progress. I'm certain I will continue to revise and update that article and repost it from time to time. Why freedom of information and open standards are important in my industry, translation, should, as I see it, require little explanation.

Now, my industry, translation, like so many others, is dominated by the use of propietary software tools, such as Trados® and Wordfast@, and inundated with the widespread use of MSOffice®. That's no surprise and no secret. Many translators, in fact, believe that you simply can't work successfully in our industry without MSOffice® and Trados® or Wordfast®, and I'm living proof that the notion is completely erroneous. I've been working as a freelance translator now for half a decade, and using only Free Software on my computers for a full decade, and my family eats three square meals a day. My three most used programs are the above mentioned, OmegaT, Anaphraseus, and OpenOffice.org (the 4th being a web browser, for research and to communicate with clients, providers, etc., and fifth being mocp to listen to music while I work. Seriously. But that's a matter for another article). I work for private clients, government agencies, school systems, and large translation warehouse agencies, the vast majority of whom use the popular proprietary products mentioned above. I've never had any difficulty due to lack of compatibility, and have always been able to deliver the product that my clients have demanded of me. Furthermore, it is my belief that I can do so more efficiently using the Free Software I use, especially since I use them with a GNU/Linux operating system. My system is secure, stable, and efficient. It uses fewer resources than popular proprietary operating systems, doesn't fall prey to the hordes of viruses and attacks to which those other systems are so easily and frequently prey, has never crashed on me (seriously, not once), and is far more customizable and configurable, allowing me to set it up in the way that is more "ergonomic" and efficient for me, allowing me to work as efficiently as possible. I save time, not having to deal with AV software updates, fixing crashes, removing intrusions, etc. Heck, I never even have to reboot the darned thing. Another factor, and, in my opinion, this is probably the least important, but often the most touted in some circles, is that none of my software has cost me a penny. Seriously. I have powerful CAT tools and office tools for my translation work, all the web communication tools needed (e-mail, chat, voip), tools for managing the financial back end (some day I should write an article on gnucash), powerful image manipulation software (sometimes I edit images for clients), essentially, everything I need for my work. (I also have all the toys, games, multimedia software, etc., I could possibly ever not need to distract me when I should be working...).

A common proprietary operating system, cat program, and office suite, alone, would cost me in the neighborhood of US$1500.00. Proprietary image manipulation software would easily tack on another $700, and, let's not forget that I'd have to pay for security tools to protect all my data, with regular AV updates, etc. I could easily spend US$3000.00 or more for the software I would need to do the work that I do, were I to use proprietary software tools. So, I'm not only more efficient in terms of time/energy waste maintaining my machine (able to focus more on work than maintenance...except when I'm blogging or facebooking), I'm also more efficient in terms of expenditure of financial resources, which enables me to pass the savings on to my clients, making, in fact, more competitive than my colleagues who use proprietary software tools.

Now, do I use Free (as in speech) Software just because it's free as in beer)?

No. For me, the issues of freedom of information and open file format standards, and the freedom to control my own computer (not be licensed to use a product over which I have little control, and in a fashion that gives its creators rights over the software on MY machine) are FAR more important to me than price. In addition, the added efficiency and configurability I have with the Free Software I use are convenient and agree with me immensely. Nonetheless, I do feel that it's worth mentioning the added financial advantage these tools bring.

With that, I will get back to work translating these Brazilian articles, and bid you good day.

./tony