| View previous topic :: View next topic |
| Author |
Message |
ed4444
Joined: 12 Oct 2004
|
 Posted: Sat Jan 25, 2014 9:34 pm Post subject: Proofreading torture |
 |
|
This weekend I am doing a proofreading project but it is killing me.
The girl is using Google translate to change the text from Korean to English and then sending the resulting gibberish to me for "proofreading".
If that was not bad enough the company it comes from is a stem cell research company so its full of Google-translated technical terms.
Sigh! The things we do for money sometimes. 
Here is an example of a sentence I got in an article last friday:
| Quote: |
| Examination standard through patent information of overall consulting brand design raising value of company's IP elevated level, through screening draw management result of Star company instance, and also based on patent management. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
 |
The Cosmic Hum
Joined: 09 May 2003
Location: Sonic Space
|
| Posted: Sat Jan 25, 2014 9:46 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| Because of empathetic past of future experiences profitable always not but for the one together we endure must to doing our best. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
ed4444
Joined: 12 Oct 2004
|
| Posted: Sat Jan 25, 2014 9:51 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| The thing that kills me is that the girl providing this has quite good conservational English but she will not even try have a stab at the translations herself, even though I told her Google Translate is worse than useless for anything other than the most basic phrases. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
ed4444
Joined: 12 Oct 2004
|
| Posted: Sat Jan 25, 2014 9:51 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| The Cosmic Hum wrote: |
| Because of empathetic past of future experiences profitable always not but for the one together we endure must to doing our best. |
Words to live by!  |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
World Traveler
Joined: 29 May 2009
|
| Posted: Sat Jan 25, 2014 9:53 pm Post subject: |
|
|
Google Translate does better changing English into Korean than Korean into English.
(My students do the same thing. I hate that.) |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Stain
Joined: 08 Jan 2014
|
| Posted: Sat Jan 25, 2014 11:25 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| The Cosmic Hum wrote: |
| Because of empathetic past of future experiences profitable always not but for the one together we endure must to doing our best. |
I disagree. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
transmogrifier
Joined: 02 Jan 2012
Location: Seoul, South Korea
|
| Posted: Sun Jan 26, 2014 12:38 am Post subject: Re: Proofreading torture |
|
|
| ed4444 wrote: |
This weekend I am doing a proofreading project but it is killing me.
The girl is using Google translate to change the text from Korean to English and then sending the resulting gibberish to me for "proofreading".
If that was not bad enough the company it comes from is a stem cell research company so its full of Google-translated technical terms.
Sigh! The things we do for money sometimes.
Here is an example of a sentence I got in an article last friday:
| Quote: |
| Examination standard through patent information of overall consulting brand design raising value of company's IP elevated level, through screening draw management result of Star company instance, and also based on patent management. |
|
I do editing for my school, and I feel your pain....just that one sentence has given me a headache |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Skippy
Joined: 18 Jan 2003
Location: Daejeon
|
| Posted: Sun Jan 26, 2014 2:04 am Post subject: Re: Proofreading torture |
|
|
| transmogrifier wrote: |
| ed4444 wrote: |
This weekend I am doing a proofreading project but it is killing me.
The girl is using Google translate to change the text from Korean to English and then sending the resulting gibberish to me for "proofreading".
If that was not bad enough the company it comes from is a stem cell research company so its full of Google-translated technical terms.
Sigh! The things we do for money sometimes.
Here is an example of a sentence I got in an article last friday:
| Quote: |
| Examination standard through patent information of overall consulting brand design raising value of company's IP elevated level, through screening draw management result of Star company instance, and also based on patent management. |
|
I do editing for my school, and I feel your pain....just that one sentence has given me a headache |
I am lucky, I do not have much editing to do. I have had to help a few students edit (rework, rewrite, make coherent) some speeches or essays. Generally I can get the idea or jist of what it is the want to say. Then get it in some working ORDER.
Yet once I had a paragraph that I just spend about an hour on alone trying to figure out. By the end It was inducing feelings of rage and murder. I really to this day could not figure out what the heck it meant. The rest of the speech I could get some what. Yet that one paragraph..... calm..... |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
littlelisa
Joined: 12 Jun 2007
Location: Seoul
|
| Posted: Sun Jan 26, 2014 3:45 am Post subject: |
|
|
Translation work is something I'd turn down if I couldn't understand the original in Korean with help from a dictionary. If she is just putting things in google translate and then giving you the result, IMO, she should either give you the original in Korean and pay you more for a translation job instead of an editing one, find someone who can translate from the original Korean (if you don't speak Korean or don't want to do translation), or do her best to translate on her own (though translation is HARD to do into a second language) after which you can edit it.
Otherwise I would turn down the job. Not worth the headache.
Besides, she's either paying you by time it takes you, which would be really costly for her, and possibly more expensive than getting it translated by a professional, or by the word/page, which will be super time intensive for you/not worth it. Most likely you both lose out. Decline.
Edit: Unless this is part of your actual main job?
Last edited by littlelisa on Sun Jan 26, 2014 3:46 am; edited 1 time in total |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
lemak
Joined: 02 Jan 2011
|
| Posted: Sun Jan 26, 2014 3:46 am Post subject: |
|
|
| The Cosmic Hum wrote: |
| Because of empathetic past of future experiences profitable always not but for the one together we endure must to doing our best. |
Bedspread! |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Speck7
Joined: 05 Sep 2012
|
| Posted: Sun Jan 26, 2014 5:15 am Post subject: |
|
|
| I can totally empathize with you OP. I got so sick of it, so I just started to read a sentence 2-3 times max and just quickly wrote down in English what I thought it meant--not entirely sure half the time. I just didn't expend the brain power to try to figure out what she was actually trying to say. If she rejected it and got picky, then I would ask her to write the sentence over again with different words so as to be able to pick up the gist of what she was trying to say easier. I made her work just as hard as I did. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Stain
Joined: 08 Jan 2014
|
| Posted: Sun Jan 26, 2014 5:47 am Post subject: |
|
|
| Speck7 wrote: |
| I can totally empathize with you OP. I got so sick of it, so I just started to read a sentence 2-3 times max and just quickly wrote down in English what I thought it meant--not entirely sure half the time. I just didn't expend the brain power to try to figure out what she was actually trying to say. If she rejected it and got picky, then I would ask her to write the sentence over again with different words so as to be able to pick up the gist of what she was trying to say easier. I made her work just as hard as I did. |
I did this, too. Or I would just impose my own ideas on the subject. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Troglodyte
Joined: 06 Dec 2009
|
| Posted: Sun Jan 26, 2014 3:43 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| lemak wrote: |
| The Cosmic Hum wrote: |
| Because of empathetic past of future experiences profitable always not but for the one together we endure must to doing our best. |
Bedspread! |
He who entrusts the cabbage dog, washes the grey squirrels in a copper pot.  |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Harpeau
Joined: 01 Feb 2003
Location: Coquitlam, BC
|
| Posted: Sun Jan 26, 2014 4:34 pm Post subject: |
|
|
My goodness! I really feel for you OP. That's not proofreading, but rather psychic reading!! I would not put up with that. I would simply send it back and tell her to do it again.
I've been doing proofreading for one company that are not too shabby. They've requested that I "track changes", and leave comments on the side in MS Word. Most writers are good, but the odd one sucks wind. I make sure to express my comments. They've been improving the quality over the last months.
15 years ago, the translations were horrible!! We've mostly come a long way since then, IMHO. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Troglodyte
Joined: 06 Dec 2009
|
| Posted: Sun Jan 26, 2014 4:47 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| Harpeau wrote: |
My goodness! I really feel for you OP. That's not proofreading, but rather psychic reading!! I would not put up with that. I would simply send it back and tell her to do it again.
I've been doing proofreading for one company that are not too shabby. They've requested that I "track changes", and leave comments on the side in MS Word. Most writers are good, but the odd one sucks wind. I make sure to express my comments. They've been improving the quality over the last months.
15 years ago, the translations were horrible!! We've mostly come a long way since then, IMHO. |
I also use track changes and comments.
I've occasionally been asked to proofread stuff that likely came from an online/electronic translator. As with all proofing, I just highlight stuff that I can't understand and tell the author that I don't know what he wants to say there so I can't correct it. If there are only a few difficult sentences then I'll recheck those sentences after they've been rewritten. If I'm doing it for pay and most of it is unintelligible then I tell the person the first time that I'll re-check it but that afterwards if they give me something that was machine translated and I can't understand most of it, then I'll charge them again for the second proofreading. In that case, I would probably correct some of the grammar throughout to show that I did actually do something. In general though, you waste time on these things. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
FAQ
Search
Memberlist
Usergroups
Register
Profile
Log in to check your private messages
Log in
