Feb 21, 2010

eMpTy Promises

What hath Charles wrought? In geological time, it's been a short passing of gas since Mr. Babbage conceived the programmable computer until the smell of it has hit us in full with the Productivity Society, all of us wearing our designer IT chains as we scurry from one quick response job to the next. I remember the time spent crafting reports, letter and other written communication back in the Dark Ages of my young adulthood. Content mattered. Now often all that "matters" is speed. I remember a story I read in high school in my German class: it was part of a wonderful collection from Heinrich Böll. The main character in it ran around the office driving everyone nuts, exclaiming "Etwas muss geschehen!" ("Something must happen!") In the end, something did. He fell over dead. In 1976, when I read that story, that fellow was a comical figure, an aberration. Now he's your boss. Your agency PM. Your cherished direct customer. Your partner.

I understand the resistance of many of my colleagues to technology, and I find myself very much in agreement with many of the points made by Theodore Kaczynski, aka the Unabomber. Technology is too often a corrosive, undermining force acting on our social fabric. But the fault lies not in the thing itself: a knife can cut bread, or it can be plunged into a store clerk's chest during a robbery. Human choice, moral choice, lies between those disparate actions. We must always encourage and develop wisdom in application for technology as for anything else. The same principle has applied since before we humans developed what we are fond of calling "civilization". It is a particular property of human arrogance to believe that as our tools advance, the nature of Man advances with them. At the individual level this is hardly the case, and while human institutions have surely improved around the world in many ways since my great-great grandfather joined General Sherman to slaughter women and children and burn their farms on a tour through the US states in secession, a quick glance at today's headlines tells me that progress is a fragile thing and sometimes the process is one step forward following by a long backward slide into a ditch full of alligators.

But we translators live in a better world. A magical world. A world of words. We are the Competent Facilitators of the Brave New World of Globalization, the grease in the wheels of international commerce, indispensable, loved and cherished, irreplaceable... or not. Machine translation appears to be a source of existential crisis for some of my fellow translators. Opinions on its present and future usefulness vary; those who have an interest in the topic should follow Kirti Vashee's new blog. He's one of a number of very bright minds thinking great thoughts about the machines who must step in to do the work for which we translators are too few and too slow. I've met a lot of incredibly smart people who know a lot and do a lot to make this technology better. The demos are even rather impressive at times. "Controlled language" is the key to success one expert told me. Well, in my experience, telling technical writers to control their language is like telling a class of sixteen-year-olds to dedicate themselves to the principle of abstinence. Sure, they'll agree with the principle. Maybe. The practice is different in every case.

And so the idea of truly effective MT without human intervention is screwed from the start by the complexity of human psychology in addition to the complexities of dynamic human language. Even the idea that we'll all end up as editing slaves for MT-generated content is ludicrous. Sure, those jobs are out there now. And some desperate folks will do them, just like there are Dalits in India who will still clean latrines with their hands because they have few other options to make a living. These people deserve dignity and respect like anyone else, but don't expect me to do those jobs. I have my own methods and lifestyle choices.

MT will play no useful role for the bulk translation of high quality communication for localized markets. If a company wants to translate its brochures, web sites, user manuals, surgical instructions, employment contracts, patent submissions, customer support communications, etc. with machine translation technology, I encourage them to do so as I translate for the competitors who will eat them alive on the international markets and pay me higher rates for helping them capture a bigger market share. "MT" on a micro scale, integrated with translation environment tools, often plays a useful role in assisting terminological conformity, but as colleagues such as Nicole Schnell have pointed out in the past, this can poison the choice of words and structure in a text and lead to an inferior result. The purpose of the translation must always be kept in mind. And for most of what I translate, you'd have to smoke some pretty strong dope before you could come to the hallucinatory conclusion that MT will set me free to live under a scenic bridge somewhere.

And now, in the spirit of ridiculous polemics, I'll do what proponents of machine translation complain about so often: use free online translation tools to translate my rant into German, French, Spanish, Russian and traditional Chinese. Feel free to experience the future with Google Translate or the tool of your choice in your own language.

GERMAN:

Was hat Charles gewirkt? In der geologischen Zeit, es war ein kurzer Weitergabe von Gas, da Herr Babbage der programmierbaren Computer konzipiert, bis der Geruch hat es uns in vollem Umfang mit der Produktivität Gesellschaft getroffen, wir alle tragen unsere Designer IT-Ketten wie wir aus einer schnellen Reaktion Job huschen zum nächsten. Ich erinnere mich an die Zeit, crafting Berichte, Briefe und andere schriftliche Kommunikation zurück in the Dark Ages meiner jungen Erwachsenenalter. Inhalt ankam. Heute oft, dass alle "Angelegenheiten" ist die Geschwindigkeit. Ich erinnere mich an eine Geschichte, die ich lesen in der Schule in meiner deutschen Klasse: es war Teil einer wunderbaren Sammlung von Heinrich Böll. Die Hauptfigur lief es rund um das Büro fahren alle Nüsse, rief: "Etwas muss geschehen!" ( "Es muß etwas geschehen!") Am Ende etwas tat. Er fiel tot um. Im Jahr 1976, als ich las, dass die Geschichte, der Kerl war eine komische Figur, ein Irrweg. Jetzt ist er Ihren Chef. Ihre Agentur Uhr. Ihre direkten Kunden geschätzt. Ihr Partner.
Ich verstehe den Widerstand vieler meiner Kolleginnen und Kollegen die Technik, und ich finde mich sehr gut in Übereinstimmung mit vielen Punkten von Theodore Kaczynski, alias Unabomber gemacht. Die Technologie ist zu oft eine ätzende, untergraben Kraft auf unsere sozialen Gefüges. Aber die Schuld liegt nicht in der Sache selbst: ein Messer kann Brot schneiden, oder es kann in die Brust ein Kassierers bei einem Überfall
gestürzt.
Human Wahl, moralische Entscheidung, liegt zwischen den unterschiedlichen Aktionen. Wir müssen uns immer fördern und zu entwickeln Weisheit in der Anwendung für die Technik wie für alles andere. Das gleiche Prinzip hat sich seit bevor wir Menschen entwickelt, was wir sind zu nennen die "Zivilisation" gern angewendet. Es ist eine besondere Eigenschaft der menschlichen Arroganz, zu glauben, dass unsere Werkzeuge voraus, die Natur des Menschen Fortschritte mit ihnen. Auf individueller Ebene ist dies kaum der Fall ist, und während die menschlichen Institutionen sicherlich auf der ganzen Welt in vielerlei Hinsicht seit meiner Ur-Ur-Großvater trat General Sherman zu schlachten, Frauen und Kinder und brennen ihre Betriebe auf eine Tour durch den US-Bundesstaaten im Jugendstil verbessert , ein kurzer Blick auf die aktuellen Schlagzeilen sagt mir, dass der Fortschritt eine zerbrechliche Sache, und manchmal auch der Prozess ist ein Schritt nach vorne nach hinten durch eine lange Rutsche in einen Graben voller Alligatoren ist.
Aber wir Übersetzer leben in einer besseren Welt. Eine magische Welt. Eine Welt der Worte. Wir sind der kompetente Helfer der schönen neuen Welt der Globalisierung,das Fett in den Rädern des internationalen Handels, unentbehrlich, geliebt und umsorgt, unersetzlich ... oder nicht. Maschinelle Übersetzung zu sein scheint eine Quelle der existenziellen Krise für einige meiner Kolleginnen und Übersetzer. Meinungen zu ihren derzeitigen und zukünftigen Nutzen variieren; diejenigen, die ein Interesse an dem Thema haben sollten, neue Kirti Vashee's blog. He's folgen eine von vielen sehr helle Köpfe denken große Gedanken über die Maschinen, die in die Arbeit zu tun Schritt muss für die wir Übersetzer sind zu wenig und zu langsam. Ich
habe eine Menge von unglaublich intelligente Leute, die wissen viel und viel tun, um diese Technologie besser zu erfüllen haben.
Die Demos sind sogar ziemlich beeindruckend mal abgerufen. "Kontrollierte Sprache" ist der Schlüssel zum Erfolg eines Experten zu mir. Nun, nach meiner Erfahrung sagen, technische Redakteure, um ihre Sprache zu beherrschen ist wie zu sagen eine Klasse von sechzehn-Jährigen, sich engagiert um das Prinzip der Abstinenz. Sicher, sie werden mit dem Prinzip. Vielleicht. Die Praxis ist in jedem Fall anders.
Und so entstand die Idee einer wirklich effektiven MT ohne menschlichen Eingriff ist von Anfang an durch die Komplexität der menschlichen Psychologie neben der Komplexität der Dynamik der menschlichen Sprache
verschraubt.
Auch der Gedanke, dass wir alle werden am Ende wie das Editieren des Sklaven für MT-generated content ist lächerlich. Klar, sind diese Arbeitsplätze jetzt da draußen. Und einige verzweifelte Leute werden sie tun, genauso wie es Dalits in Indien, die immer noch sauber Latrinen mit ihren Händen, weil sie nur wenige andere Möglichkeiten ihren Lebensunterhalt zu verdienen haben. Diese Menschen verdienen Würde und Respekt wie jeder andere, aber erwarten Sie nicht von mir, diese Arbeitsplätze zu tun. Ich habe meine eigenen Methoden und des Lebensstils.
MT keine nützliche Rolle spielen wird für den Großteil Übersetzung von hoher Qualität für die Kommunikation für lokalisierte Märkte. Will ein Unternehmen seine Broschüren, Websites, Handbücher, chirurgische Anleitungen, Arbeitsverträge, das Einreichen von Patenten zu übersetzen, Kunden-Support Kommunikation usw. mit maschineller Übersetzung Technologie, ermutige ich sie, dies zu tun, wie ich für die
Wettbewerber, die essen übersetzen
sie lebendig auf den internationalen Märkten und höhere Preise zahlen mich ihnen helfen, diese erfassen einen größeren Marktanteil. "MT" auf einer Mikro-Ebene, mit der Übersetzung Umwelt-Tools integriert, spielt oft eine wichtige Rolle bei der Unterstützung der terminologischen Übereinstimmung, sondern als Kollegen wie Nicole Schnell in der Vergangenheit darauf hingewiesen, diese vergiften kann die Wahl der Worte und die Struktur in einem Text und führen zu einer minderwertigen führen. Der Zweck der Übersetzung muss immer im Auge behalten werden. Und für die meisten, was ich zu übersetzen, haben yxou'd ein paar ziemlich starke dope rauchen, bevor Sie kommen konnten, um die halluzinatorische Schluss, dass MT set me free, unter einer malerischen Brücke irgendwo leben.
Und jetzt, im Geist der Polemik lächerlich, ich werde, was Befürworter der maschinellen Übersetzung nicht beschweren über so oft benutzen: kostenlose Online-Übersetzungs-Tools auf meine rant zu übersetzen.


FRENCH:
Qu'at-Charles forgé? En des temps géologiques, ça fait un court passage du gaz depuis que M.
Babbage conçut l'ordinateur programmable jusqu'à ce que l'odeur de
celui-ci nous a frappé dans son intégralité avec la Société de la
productivité, chacun de nous porter notre designer IT chaînes que nous
courent d'un emploi de réponse rapide
à l'autre. Je
me souviens du temps passé élaboration des rapports, lettres et autres
communications écrites de retour à l'âge des ténèbres de mon âge
adulte.
Le contenu qui importe. Maintenant souvent tout ce qui «compte», c'est la vitesse. Je
me rappelle une histoire que j'ai lue dans les écoles secondaires de ma
classe en allemand: il faisait partie d'une collection merveilleuse de
Heinrich Böll.
Le personnage principal, il s'est sauvé du bureau conduite des noix tout le monde, criant "Etwas geschehen muss! ( "Quelque chose doit se passer!") En fin de compte, quelque chose fait. Il tomba à la mort. En 1976, quand j'ai lu cette histoire, celui-là était un personnage comique, une aberration. Maintenant, il est votre patron. Votre agence de PM. Votre client direct chéri. Votre partenaire.

Je comprends la résistance de beaucoup de mes collègues à la technologie,
et je me trouve très en accord avec plusieurs des points soulevés par
Theodore Kaczynski, alias Unabomber.
La technologie est trop souvent un corrosif, sapant force agissant sur notre tissu social. Mais
la faute n'incombe pas à la chose elle-même: un couteau peut couper le
pain, ou il peut être plongé dans la poitrine d'un employé du magasin
au cours d'un vol qualifié.
Choix de l'homme, le choix moral, se situe entre ceux des actions disparates. Nous devons toujours nous encourager et développer la sagesse dans l'application de la technologie que pour toute autre chose. Le même principe est appliqué depuis avant nous, humains, nous avons développé ce qui se plaisent à appeler la «civilisation». Il
s'agit d'une propriété particulière de l'arrogance de l'homme de croire
que, comme l'avance de nos outils, la nature de l'homme avance avec
eux.
À
l'échelle individuelle, cela n'est guère le cas, et que les
institutions de l'homme ont sans doute amélioré dans le monde à bien
des égards depuis mon arrière-arrière grand-père est entré chez General
Sherman pour les femmes et les enfants à l'abattage et à brûler leurs
fermes sur un parcours à travers les États-Unis dans la sécession
,
un regard rapide sur les titres du jour me dit que le progrès est une
chose fragile et parfois le processus est une étape suivante en avant
par une longue glissade vers l'arrière dans un fossé plein
d'alligators.

Mais nous traducteurs vivent dans un monde meilleur. Un monde magique. Un monde de mots. Nous sommes les facilitateurs compétente du nouveau monde de mondialisation,
la graisse dans les rouages du commerce international, indispensable,
aimée et chérie, irremplaçable ...
ou non. La traduction automatique semble être une source de crise existentielle pour certains de mes collègues traducteurs. Les
avis sur son utilité actuelle et future varient: ceux qui ont un
intérêt dans le sujet devrait suivre blog.He nouveau Kirti Vashee's
'est un de nombre d'esprits très lumineux des pensées de choses sur les
machines qui doivent intervenir pour faire le travail pour lequel nous
traducteurs sont trop rares et trop lents. J'ai
rencontré beaucoup de gens incroyablement intelligents qui savent
beaucoup et faire beaucoup pour rendre cette technologie de meilleure
qualité.
Les démos sont même assez impressionnant par moments. "Langage contrôlé" est la clé de la réussite d'un expert m'a dit. Eh
bien, dans mon expérience, disant rédacteurs techniques pour maîtriser
leur langue, c'est comme dire à une classe de seize ans pour se
consacrer au principe de l'abstinence.
Bien sûr, ils vont d'accord avec le principe. Peut-être. La pratique est différente dans chaque cas.

Et si l'idée de MT véritablement efficace sans l'intervention humaine est
vissé dès le début par la complexité de la psychologie humaine, en plus
de la complexité du langage humain dynamique.
Même l'idée que nous allons tous finir comme esclaves d'édition pour le contenu généré par MT est ridicule. Certes, ces emplois sont là maintenant. Et
certaines personnes désespérées qui les faire, comme il ya des Dalits
en Inde qui sera encore nettoyer les latrines avec leurs mains parce
qu'ils ont peu d'autres options pour gagner leur vie.
Ces gens méritent la dignité et le respect comme tout le monde, mais n'espérez pas que je fasse ces emplois. J'ai mes propres méthodes et des choix de vie.

MT ne jouera aucun rôle utile pour la traduction en vrac de communication de haute qualité pour les marchés localisés. Si une société veut traduire ses brochures, sites web, manuels
d'utilisation, les instructions chirurgicales, contrats de travail, les
soumissions de brevets, de communications soutien à la clientèle, etc
avec la technologie de traduction automatique, je les encourage à le
faire comme je le traduis pour les concurrents qui va manger
vivants
sur les marchés internationaux et me payer des taux plus élevés pour
les aider à capturer une part plus importante du marché.
"MT"
à l'échelle micro, intégrés aux outils de traduction environnement,
joue souvent un rôle utile en aidant la conformité terminologique, mais
comme des collègues tels que Nicole Schnell ont souligné dans le passé,
ce poison peut le choix des mots et la structure dans un texte
et conduire à un résultat inférieur. Le but de la traduction doit toujours être gardé à l'esprit. Et
pour la plupart de ce que je traduis, yxou'd faut fumer de la dope
assez forte avant que vous puissiez arriver à la conclusion que la MT
va hallucinatoire Set Me Free à vivre sous un pont pittoresque quelque
part.
Et maintenant, dans l'esprit de polémique ridicule, je vais faire ce que
les promoteurs de la traduction automatique se plaindre si souvent: la
libre utilisation des outils de traduction en ligne pour traduire mes
coups de gueule.


SPANISH:
¿Qué ha forjado Charles? En tiempo geológico, que ha sido un paso corto de gas desde que el Sr.
Babbage concibió el ordenador programable hasta que el olor de ella nos
ha golpeado en su totalidad con la Sociedad de la productividad, todos
nosotros usando nuestro diseñador de TI a medida que las cadenas se
apresuran de un trabajo de respuesta rápida
a la siguiente. Recuerdo el tiempo de elaboración los informes, la carta y de la comunicación escrita en la Edad Oscura de mi edad adulta. Contenido importaba. Ahora, a menudo todo lo que "importa" es la velocidad. Recuerdo
una historia que leí en la escuela secundaria en mi clase de alemán:
era parte de una maravillosa colección de Heinrich Böll.
El
personaje principal en que la vuelta a la oficina de conducción a todos
los frutos secos, exclamando: "geschehen Etwas muss!"
( "Algo tiene que suceder!") Al final, algo sucedió. Cayó muerto. En 1976, cuando leí esa historia, ese hombre era una figura cómica, una aberración. Ahora él es tu jefe. Su PM agencia. Su cliente directo queridos. Su pareja.

Entiendo la resistencia de muchos de mis colegas a la tecnología, y me encuentro
muy de acuerdo con muchos de los puntos planteados por Theodore
Kaczynski, más conocido como el Unabomber.
La tecnología es muy a menudo un corrosivo, socavar la fuerza que actúa sobre el tejido social. Pero
la culpa no reside en la cosa en sí: un cuchillo puede cortar el pan, o
puede ser sumergido en el pecho de un empleado de la tienda durante un
robo.
La elección humana, la elección moral, se encuentra entre las acciones dispares. Siempre debemos fomentar y desarrollar la sabiduría en la aplicación de la tecnología como para cualquier otra cosa. El mismo principio se aplica desde antes de que los seres humanos desarrollaron lo que nos gusta llamar "civilización". Se
trata de una propiedad particular, de la arrogancia humana de creer
que, como nuestras herramientas de antelación, la naturaleza del hombre
avanza con ellos.
A
nivel individual este no es el caso, y mientras las instituciones
humanas, sin duda han mejorado en todo el mundo en muchos aspectos,
desde mi tatarabuelo se unió el General Sherman masacre a las mujeres y
los niños y quemar sus granjas en un viaje a través de los estados de
los EE.UU. en la secesión
,
un rápido vistazo a los titulares de hoy me dice que el progreso es
frágil y, a veces el proceso es un paso adelante después de una larga
caída hacia atrás en un foso lleno de cocodrilos.

Pero tenemos traductores viven en un mundo mejor. Un mundo mágico. Un mundo de palabras. Nosotros somos los facilitadores Competente del mundo feliz de la globalización,
la grasa en las ruedas del comercio internacional, indispensable, amado
y apreciado, irreemplazable ...
o no. La traducción automática que parece ser una fuente de crisis existencial de algunos de mis colegas traductores. Las
opiniones sobre su utilidad actual y futura varían: los que tienen un
interés en el tema debe seguir blog.He nuevo Kirti Vashee de 's uno de
una serie de mentes muy brillantes pensamientos grandes sobre las
máquinas que deben intervenir para hacer el trabajo para que
los traductores son muy pocos y demasiado lento. He conocido a mucha gente muy inteligente que sabe mucho y hacer muchas cosas para hacer que esta tecnología mejor. Las demos son aún más impresionantes a veces. "Lenguaje controlado" es la clave del éxito de un experto me dijo. Bueno,
en mi experiencia, decirle a escritores técnicos para el control de su
lengua es como decirle a una clase de dieciséis años de edad que se
dedican al principio de la abstinencia.
Claro, que estará de acuerdo con el principio. Quizás. La práctica es diferente en cada caso.

Y así la idea de MT verdaderamente eficaces sin la intervención humana se
atornilla desde el principio por la complejidad de la psicología
humana, además de la complejidad del lenguaje humano dinámico.
Incluso la idea de que todos terminaremos como esclavos de edición de contenidos generados por MT-es absurdo. Claro, esos puestos de trabajo están allí ahora. Y
algunas personas desesperadas que les hará, al igual que existen los
dalit en la India que todavía limpiar las letrinas con las manos porque
tienen muy pocas alternativas para ganarse la vida.
Estas personas merecen dignidad y respeto como cualquier otra persona, pero no esperes que haga esos trabajos. Yo tengo mis propios métodos y estilo de vida.

MT no desempeñan ningún papel útil para la traducción al grueso de la
comunicación de alta calidad para los mercados localizados.
Si
una empresa quiere traducir sus folletos, sitios web, manuales,
instrucciones quirúrgicas, los contratos de trabajo, presentaciones de
patentes, apoyo a las comunicaciones del cliente, etc con la tecnología
de traducción automática, les animo a que lo hagan lo traduzco para los
competidores que se comen
vivos en los mercados internacionales y me pagan tasas más altas para ayudar a capturar una mayor cuota de mercado. "MT"
en una escala micro, integrado con las herramientas de entorno de
traducción, a menudo desempeña un papel útil en la asistencia a la
conformidad terminológica, sino como colegas como Nicole Schnell han
señalado en el pasado, esto puede envenenar la elección de las palabras
y la estructura en un texto
y conducir a un resultado inferior. El propósito de la traducción debe tenerse siempre en cuenta. Y
para la mayoría de lo que traducir, yxou'd tienen que fumar un poco de
droga muy fuerte antes de poder llegar a la conclusión alucinante que
MT me librará de vivir bajo un puente escénico en alguna parte.

Y ahora, en el espíritu de la polémica ridícula, haré lo que los
defensores de la traducción automática se quejan tan a menudo: el uso
gratuito de herramientas de traducción en línea para traducir mi
perorata.


RUSSIAN:
Что сказал Чарльз кованого? В геологическом времени, это был краткий прохождении газа поскольку г-н
Бэббидж задумал программируемый компьютер, пока запах его ударило нам в
полном объеме с производительностью общества, всех нас носит наш
дизайнер ИТ-сетей, как мы снуют с одного быстрого реагирования
к следующему. Я
помню время, проведенное Crafting отчеты, письма и другие письменные
связи еще в мрачные времена моей молодости взрослую жизнь.
Авторские значения. Теперь зачастую все, что "вопросы", является скорость. Я помню историю, которую я читал в школе в моем классе немецкой: он был частью прекрасные коллекции Генриха Белля. Главный герой в ней бегал по офису вождения все орехи, восклицая "Etwas Geschehen беспорядок!" ( "Что-то должно случиться!") В конце концов, что-то сделали. Он упал мертвым. В 1976 году, когда я читал эту историю, что парень был комической фигурой, аберрации. Теперь он ваш босс. Ваше агентство AM. Ваши заветные прямых клиентов. Ваш партнер.

Я понимаю, что сопротивление многих моих коллег к технологии, и я считаю
себя очень согласен со многими из замечаний, высказанных Теодор
Качинский, AKA Unabomber.
Технология слишком часто коррозионные, подрывая силы, действующей на нашу социальную ткань. Но вина лежит не в самой вещи: нож не резал хлеб, или он может быть погрузился в груди магазин клерка во время ограбления. Человеческого выбора, нравственного выбора, находится между этими разрозненными действиями. Мы всегда должны поощрять и развивать мудрость в применении технологий как ни для чего другого. Тот же принцип применяется еще до нас, людей, разработал то, что мы любим называл "цивилизацией". Мне
доставляет особое свойство человеческого высокомерия к убеждению, что
наше продвижение инструменты, природу человека авансы с ними.
На
индивидуальном уровне это вряд ли дело, и, хотя человек учреждений,
несомненно улучшились во всем мире во многих отношениях со времени
моего прапрадеда вступил генерала Шермана убивать женщин и детей и
сжечь их хозяйств на тур по штатам в отделении
,
беглого взгляда на заголовки сегодняшних мне подсказывает, что прогресс
вещь хрупкая, а иногда этот процесс один шаг вперед, за которым следует
долгий отсталой слайда в кювет полным аллигаторов.

Но мы переводчиков жить в лучшем мире. Волшебный мир. Мир слов. Мы являемся компетентным Координаторы дивный новый мир глобализации, жир в
колеса международной торговли, необходимо, любят и лелеют, незаменимый
...
или нет. Машинный перевод, как представляется, является источником экзистенциального кризиса для некоторых из моих коллег переводчиков. Мнения
о своем настоящем и будущем полезности различаются те, кто
заинтересован в этой теме должны следовать новым blog.He Кирти Vashee's
'с одним из нескольких очень ярких умов думал больше мыслей о машинах,
которые должны вмешаться, чтобы делать работу, за которую мы
переводчика слишком мало и слишком медленно. Я встретил много невероятно умных людей, которые знают многое и многое сделать, чтобы сделать эту технологию лучше. Демо даже весьма впечатляет на раз. "Контролируемая языка" является ключом к успеху один эксперт рассказал мне. Ну,
по моему опыту, говоря техническим писателям контроль их язык, как
говорят класс шестнадцатилетнего возраста, чтобы посвятить себя принцип
воздержания.
Конечно, они будут согласны с принципом. Может быть. Практика различна в каждом конкретном случае.

И такая идея действительно эффективной МТ без вмешательства человека
ввинчивается с самого начала из-за сложности человеческой психологии, в
дополнение к сложностям динамического человеческим языком.
Даже мысль, что мы все в конечном итоге, как редактирование рабов для МТ-создаваемое содержание, является нелепым. Конечно, эти рабочие места там сейчас. А
некоторые отчаянные люди будут делать их, как есть далитов в Индии,
которые будут по-прежнему чистые туалеты с их рук, потому что они имеют
несколько другие возможности зарабатывать себе на жизнь.
Эти люди заслуживают уважения и достоинства, как все, но не ждите, чтобы я на этих местах. У меня есть свои методы и образа жизни.

МТ не будет играть полезную роль для основного перевода высокого качества связи для локализованных рынков. Если компания хочет перевести свои брошюры, веб-сайтов, руководств
пользователя, хирургических инструкций, трудовых договоров, патентные
материалы, коммуникационной поддержки клиентов и т.д. с машиной
технология перевода, я призываю их сделать это, как я перевел для
конкурентов, которые будут есть
их живьем на международных рынках, и платят мне более высокой скорости для оказания им захватить большую долю рынка. "МТ"
на микро масштаба, интегрированные со средствами перевода окружающей
среды, зачастую играет полезную роль в оказании помощи
терминологические соответствия, а также коллеги таких как Nicole
Schnell отмечали в прошлом, это может отравить выбора слов и структуры
в тексте
и приведет к уступает результату. Цель перевода должна всегда иметь в виду. И
почти все, что я перевожу, yxou'd должны дым некоторые довольно сильный
допинг перед тем как вы пришли к выводу, что галлюцинаторные МТ будет
освободить меня жить под живописным мостом где-то.

И вот теперь, в духе смешной полемику, я сделаю все, что сторонники
машинного перевода жаловаться так часто: использование бесплатных
онлайн инструментов перевода для перевода моей Rant.


CHINESE (traditional):
查爾斯造成什麼 hath?在地質時期,它一直是一個短傳後的氣體巴貝奇先生設想的可編程計算機上,直到它的氣味,我們已達到完全與生產力的社會,我們都穿著我們設計的IT連鎖如我們急忙從一個快速反應的工作到下一個。我記得用的時間各具特色的報告,信函和其他書面通訊早在黑暗時代的我年輕的成年人。內容要緊。現在常常一切“事項”是速度。我記得有一個故事,我讀高中,我德語課:這是一個美好的一部分收集的海因里希伯爾。主角也跑在辦公室裡駕駛人堅果,叫道:“某物馬斯生成和發生!” (“有些事情必須發生!”),最後,事情一樣。他倒下死了。 1976年,當我看到這個故事,那傢伙是個滑稽人物,存在偏差。現在,他是你的老闆。您的旅行社日。你珍惜的直接客戶。您的合作夥伴。
我知道很多阻力同事技術,我發現我非常同意有很多點,由西奧多卡欽斯基,又名的炸彈客。技術往往是一種腐蝕性,破壞力量行事我們的社會結構。但現在錯不在於事物本身:1刀可切麵包,也可以是陷入店員的胸部在一次搶劫。人的選擇,道德選擇,是行動之間的不同。我們必須始終鼓勵和發展智慧,在應用技術為別的。同樣的原則也適用於人類,因為在我們開發出了我們都喜歡稱“文明”。這是一個特殊的財產人類傲慢相信,隨著我們的工具的發展,人類進步的性質與他們。在個人層面,這是很難的情況下,儘管人類機構肯定有改善,世界各地的許多方面,因為我的高祖父加入謝爾曼將軍的屠殺婦女和兒童,他們的農場燒毀的旅遊通過美國國家分裂,看一眼就在今天的頭條新聞告訴我,進步是一個脆弱的事,有時這個過程是一大進步之後長期陷入落後的一條溝裡充滿了短吻鱷。
但是,我們生活在一個翻譯更美好的世界。一個魔幻般的世界。世界的話。我們是稱職的調解人的美麗新世界的全球化,油脂在車輪國際商業,不可缺少的,熱愛和珍視,不可替代的...與否。機器翻譯似乎是一個生存危機來源為我的一些同事翻譯。意見對目前和未來的作用各不相同,那些有興趣誰在主題應遵循基爾提 Vashee新blog.He氏數的一個非常光明的思想對思想的偉大思想的機器,必須一步誰做我們的工作翻譯太少,太慢。我遇到了很多令人難以置信的聰明人誰知道了很多,做許多事情來使這一技術更好。的演示更是相當可觀的時間。 “控制語言”是成功的關鍵,一位專家告訴我。那麼,在我的經驗,告訴技術作家,控制他們的語言,就像在講述一個類 16歲獻身禁慾的原則。當然,他們會同意的原則。大概。這種做法是在每個案件的不同。
所以真正有效的思想噸,沒有任何人為干預,是從一開始就搞砸了人類心理的複雜性,除了複雜的充滿活力的人的語言。即使我們的思想,最終將所有的奴隸,為手機編輯生成的內容是荒謬的。當然,這些工作現在都在那裡。還有些絕望的人都會去做,就像有達利特誰在印度仍清潔廁所用他們的雙手,因為他們幾乎沒有其他選擇謀生。這些人應該得到尊嚴和尊重像其他人一樣,但不要期望我做這些工作。我有我自己的方法和生活方式的選擇。
手機將發揮有益的作用,沒有大量翻譯的高品質溝通本地化市場。如果一家公司要翻譯的小冊子,網站,用戶手冊,手術指導,就業合同,專利提交,客戶支持通訊等與機器翻譯技術,我鼓勵他們這樣做,因為我翻譯的競爭對手將吃誰他們活著的國際市場和利率上升給我幫助他們獲取更大的市場份額。 “噸”,在微觀規模,環境結合起來翻譯工具,往往起著有益的作用,協助用語一致,但同事,例如妮可施奈爾指出,在過去,這可能毒化選擇的語言和文字結構並導致劣勢的結果。目的的翻譯必須時刻牢記。和大多數我翻譯,yxou'd有吸煙相當強塗料之前,你可以得出結論,幻覺噸,將設置我自由生活在一個觀景橋某處。
現在,在精神荒謬論戰,我會做的支持者的機器翻譯經常抱怨:使用免費的在線翻譯工具翻譯我的咆哮。

Feb 18, 2010

Loss of Facebook

Facebook logo
rom the beginning I was a bit skeptical of some of the more popular new "social media" for business use. Tweeting on twitter seemed a thing for twits with too much time and Facebook.... well, I couldn't see using a platform covered with cow patties from Farmville and splattered with blood from the Mafia wars as a serious place to do business. But after a young online entrepreneur (e-book publisher for architecture exam prep) from San Diego whom I follow launched his Facebook page and explained how such things work, I decided to give it a try and evaluate the technical aspects of Facebook pages as a business platform. These pages are separate from one's private profile, and since increasing numbers of clients and colleagues had been sending me Facebook friend requests, I thought this might be a good alternative, as I'm not really sure I want my business partners reading snide comments from my sister or drunken remarks from a bum I knew in high school.

The Notes feature and the Wall were my primary means of communication. I never really understood the interaction statistics on the page, though I found them interesting. Technically, there were a lot of glitches. When I wrote dictionary reviews, the cover images often wouldn't upload, or the system refused to align the pictures properly. When edited at a later date, I could usually correct matters. But on the whole the environment was a lot buggier and more limited than even a Google-hosted blog, and far worse than my own site for dogs using Wordpress.

But the deal killer came more recently. Facebook censors without notice. Twice I have received notes like this:

Hello,

You have posted one or more status updates on your Page that violated our Terms of Use. Among other things, statuses that are hateful, threatening, or obscene are not allowed. We also take down statuses that attack an individual or group, or advertise a product or service. Continued misuse of Facebook's features could result in your account being disabled.

The Facebook Team

No actual indication of what was deleted, just a generic notice and a disappearance of content. I had to browse a bit and rely on my memory to figure out what had been removed. (Even PrAds usually does better than that.) The content in question involved scam warnings in German and English involving the notorious Dominic de Neuville of Zurich, Switzerland, whose company Language Promotion GmbH was recently declared insolvent, leaving many translators and others unable to collect monies still owed. Mr. de Neuville is also known for his tactics of threats and harassment against those who consider going public about his misdeeds. My partner and I have been subjected to considerable abuse, telephone harassment, threats and attempts to sucker us in the form of fake project offers. Some background on this is posted on my blog here as well as on the Zahlungspraxis list and various private forum blogs:


This evening I received the following comment from one of Mr. de Neuville's former victims, a translator in Africa:

... I think your support for other translators is great. Had a lot of correspondence with some of our colleagues regarding outstanding monies owed by D. de Neuville. The general attitude was: "I do not dare to continue and [I will] give up because I am afraid he will take matters further"(threat, blackmail, defamation, lawsuit etc. - his typical working method). My assurances that he has more reasons to be afraid did not help. Now his company is in liquidation and unfortunately there is no chance for them to get their money.

Facebook has supported the requests of this individual to suppress information which is in the public domain and documents his unethical business practices. My partner has even been warned by Facebook for linking to it. Also, the warning I received from Facebook stated that advertising a product or service is not permitted. Thus the whole notion of using the Pages feature of Facebook to promote one's business is rather dodgy. I will continue to leave my page up there and add content from time to time, but given that there is no possibility of recovering deleted content from there, everything will be backed up and posted redundantly on my blogs here and elsewhere.

And given that Facebook has adopted some of the tactics of the political elites of the PRC and Iran, I would not be surprised to find any day now that I am among the "virtual disappeared".

Feb 12, 2010

Translation blogging in German


Hang out at the Watercooler
The migration of translators to the Watercooler continues to proceed at an impressive pace, and the newcomers are full of suggestions for how to make the environment better. It's nice to see that suggestions are well received, too, even if technical implementation may not always be possible. There are some limits to what one can expect from a working translator who set up that fine, free site as a better place for networking, not a clearing house for jobs and projects or a source of Google AdSense revenue.

One interesting feature of the site is its internal blogging for each member. The Watercooler is a "closed" site, which means access is restricted to approved members and there is no access to search engines. Discussions on the site stay on the site generally, so unlike PrADs forums, where one's posts and comments are visible to the entire online world (including prospective customers), one can get down to some more serious business discussions if inclined to do so. Members who want to restrict a particular blog post or comments permission to a more limited circle ca use the "friends" feature. Very nice.

As part of finding my way in that rapidly evolving environment (which has doubled in size since December), I have begun blogging in German. The German group members are mostly familiar with my appalling written German from the ProZ forums, so I'm unlikely to shock anyone with mangled prepositions. And there I don't have to deal with any flaky moderators who seem to think that offering to work for less all the time is a strategy with a future. The atmosphere is thankfully free of the barrel bottom scraping nonsense I've found elsewhere lately. It's nice writing for a more limited group with a lot of the colleagues I've come to know and respect over the past decade. Maybe I'll repost the occasional German piece here from time to time, especially choice essays for Mr. Hinterberger :-)

Feb 9, 2010

Agriculture & dairy terminology dictionaries

As a former small hobby farmer in Oregon and translator of agricultural texts, I can't resist a good dictionary - or even a bad one - related to agriculture and food production. These fields often have very specialized terminology, and the terms in English often vary by dialect (UK, US), so it isn't always easy to find the right expressions eve if you do have a reasonable grasp of the field. Despite the key role that agriculture plays in the international economy, this is also not an area overloaded with multilingual dictionaries like, for example, IT or engineering technology.
In many ways, the publisher Elsevier seems to play the role that VEB Verlag Technik Berlin did in the old GDR. The publisher distributes many specialized dictionaries which often appear to be the only ones of significance in their field. So it is with agriculture too. When haunting the used book options of eBay with my preconfigured searches, I have managed to net two useful volumes for a total of about 20 euros, which otherwise would have cost me the price of a plane ticket to visit family in the US: the International Dairy Federation Dictionary of Dairy Terminology and the Dictionary of Agriculture. I bought the former on a whim, simply because I like to collect dictionaries, but it has found practical use in a number of projects translating about cheese making, yogurt and milk hygiene. The second volume stays close to my knee when I'm doing combines and forage harvesters or other related topics. To be honest, I would have gotten full value out of these at the retail price, but I'm glad to have saved what I did. There are so many things to be found there that can often be found nowhere else. Internet glossaries cannot cover everything, especially if you don't know enough to filter the noise.

In any case, for colleagues active in these areas and the relevant languages, I can recommend these as backup resources to accompany good prior knowledge of the fields:

Title: International Dairy Federation Dictionary of Dairy Terminology (Second Revised Edition)
Publisher: Elsevier Science B.V.
Languages: English, French, German, Spanish
ISBN-10: 0444896449
ISBN-13: 978-0444896445
Year published: 1996
Cost: about € 120 new through Amazon.de

Title: Elsevier's Dictionary of Agriculture
Publisher: Elsevier Science B.V.
Languages: English, German, French, Russian, Latin
ISBN-10: 0444500057
ISBN-13: 978-0444500052
Year published: 2000
Cost: about € 155 used to € 230 new through Amazon.de

Feb 8, 2010

Aerospace dictionary bargain (DE/EN)

Although we've got a rather extensive library of German/English translation dictionaries and other reference works, I haven't been satisfied with its coverage of aerospace topics. Up to now the best I've had has been a Lufthansa dictionary and a bunch of general technical ones (the infamous Ernst and a dozen others). Then I found a copy of Roderich Cescotti's Aerospace Dictionary with Aerospace Definitions in an online auction. The price was right, so I thought I would risk a few euros. On Amazon.com the book sells for USD 125; one vendor there offers a copy for nearly USD 300. The regular price on Amazon.de is about 95 euros (around USD 140 at current rates).

It finally arrived today. I was pleased to see that the content is tagged according to subfield; if this dictionary had been on my shelf last summer when I did a big translation on helicopter canopies, all the helicopter-relevant terms would have been clearly labeled as such for my convenience. The first half of the dictionary is a decent DE>EN and EN>DE dictionary like most. The second half has both German and English monolingual sections which give detailed explanations of individual terms. We can't all be aerospace engineers, and this is very useful to help me understand some of the concepts. If a term listed in the first half of the book has a definition in the second half, this is indicated in the dictionary entry.

The dictionary isn't cheap as noted above, but it's a worthwhile investment if you do work in this area. It's even more worthwhile if you get it cheaper, which you can. I paid about 20 euros on eBay.de for it, and I see many copies of it there listed regularly on the German eBay site (eBay.de), most at a "Buy it now" price under 40 euros that includes shipping.

Here are the basic data on the book:

Aerospace-Wörterbuch / Aerospace Dictionary
ISBN 10: 3613021943
ISBN 13: 9783613021945
Year published: 2002 by Motorbuch Verlag
Hardcover, 1 volume
555 pages
Weight: 1.224 kg
Languages: English, German

My favorite legal dictionaries (DE<>EN)

Once in a while in a relationship, it's nice to check and see if both partners are still on the same wavelength. That's important I think both in business and in private life. So I wandered into the next office and asked the love of my life what the "best" German/English dictionaries in our library are (from the standpoint of real usefulness for our work). Without hesitation she named "Dietl/Lorenz" as #1. It seems that she and I are still in tune with one another, at least as far as dictionaries are concerned :-) This set of dictionaries is used frequently when we translate contracts, patents or other material of a legal nature. In fact, I usually find these volumes more useful than a specialist patent dictionary like Uexküll, which has some questionable English entries (at least from an American perspective). There are, of course, other legal and commercial dictionaries out there, some of which we have, other merely the objects of lust but not in the current budget, and plenty with which I wouldn't do more than start the barbecue.

Please note that new versions have been released in recent years; DE>EN in 2005 and EN>DE in 2009. A lot of the copies in circulation are older editions.

The basic data for these great references are as follows:

Dictionary of Legal, Commercial and Political Terms (Volume I, English to German)
(Wörterbuch für Recht, Wirtschaft und Politik, Bd.1, Englisch-Deutsch)

# Hardcover: 943 pages
# Publisher: C.H. Beck Verlag; Edition: 6., completely revised (January 2009)
# Languages: English to German
# ISBN-10: 3406441122
# ISBN-13: 978-3406441127
# Size: 25.6 x 17.7 x 5.7 cm

Dictionary of Legal, Commercial and Political Terms (Volume II, German-English)
(Wörterbuch für Recht, Wirtschaft und Politik 2. Deutsch - Englisch: Einschließlich der Besonderheiten des amerikanischen Sprachgebrauchs. Mit erläuternden und rechtsvergleichenden Kommentaren: Band 2)

# Hardcover: 899 Seiten
# Publisher: Beck Juristischer Verlag; Edition: 5. A. (22 June 2005)
# Langiage: German to English
# ISBN-10: 3406480675
# ISBN-13: 978-3406480676
# Size: 25.6 x 17.8 x 5.6 cm

First-rate dictionary for logistics (DE-EN)

I'm not a logistics expert, nor do I actively seek translations in this area. But logistics is often an important part of various projects, and I have a good friend working for a freight forwarding company who has sought my assistance for various projects over the past decade, so the field is not entirely unfamiliar to me. I bought this dictionary when it first appeared to enable me to help my friend polish his CV and cover letters when he was between jobs, and it has proven very valuable since then on projects such as quotations for shipping, manuals for special lifting equipment for military tanks, shipping and handling instructions and more. We also own and use the companion volume (EN>DE), which is useful when editing some of the crazy English my friend and his colleagues in various countries produce. When I have my doubts that an English term used is legitimate, I have a quick look i the EN>DE volume and I'm often surprised. Logistics terminology can be pretty nuts. Even with a great dictionary like this, it's good to know someone in the field who can tell you whether your apparently plausible translation really reflects usual usage.

When I looked on Amazon.com, I was quite surprised to see that the dictionary was no longer available through Amazon, though a number of vendors sell it via links there, starting at about $88. However, Amazon.de has plenty of copies listed at 64 euros and links to other vendors selling it new starting at 55 euros. I bought my copy ages ago for 60 euros and a week later found another on eBay that I grabbed for 10 euros and gave to my friend as a birthday present. It's worth the full price.

A customer review on Amazon.de stated:
Don't let the unprofessional design of the cover fool you - this is the most comprehensive dictionary and the best currently available on the market for the field of logistics. Its sole disadvantage is that, because every term only vaguely related to logistics is listed, the book is relatively thick, heavy and bulky.

I disagree with the comment on bulkiness - the volumes are no bigger than most of the good standard dictionaries in my library, and quite a lot smaller and lighter than many. It won't fit in your back pocket, but except for my favorite welding dictionary, I can't think of a worthwhile reference that will.

Basic data for the dictionary:

* Hardcover: 803 pages
* Publisher: Cornelsen Lehrbuch (January 2001)
* Language: German & English
* ISBN-10: 3464494365
* ISBN-13: 978-3464494363
* Dimensions: 23.3 x 17 x 3.7 cm

This one is definitely worth buying new or putting on the eBay watch list!

ES-DE-EN-IT-FR dictionary for art conservation and restoration

A few years ago we were asked to do an interesting translation for a small local museum in Germany which was applying to the Getty Museum for funding for some restoration projects. It wasn't an area that I was deeply familiar with, but I've haunted museums all my life, and I was particularly fond of the artist whose work was the subject of the project, so we took the job on with great anticipation. However, it quickly became apparent that ordinary reference resources and information available on the Internet were deeply inadequate for the task ahead. The chemical side of the text wasn't an issue, but the special vocabulary of the world of art conservation/restoration was not easy to discover.

Fortunately I had a few connections. My favorite professor from college days, a specialist for organic chemistry, was a scientific advisor to the Getty Museum who helped to establish its conservation institute after his retirement in the 1980's. I contacted him to ask if he could question his acquaintances at the Getty and find out if they had terminology resources available. They recommended the Diccionario Tecnico Akal De Conservacion Y Restauracion De Bienes Culturales: Espanol-aleman-ingles-italiano-frances, which was fairly new at the time and not so easy to get. We managed to acquire a copy, which helped us enormously in the project. In the meantime I can find the dictionary at a reasonable price on Amazon. Don't let the Spanish title scare you off; it's perfectly easy to use for persons competent in German, French, Italian or English as well.

Here are the basic data for the reference work:

# Hardcover: 1128 pages
# Publisher: Akal Ediciones Sa (August 22, 2006)
# Language: Spanish
# ISBN-10: 8446012278
# ISBN-13: 978-8446012276
# Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.6 x 2.4 inches (23.9 x 16,8 x 6.1 cm)
# Shipping Weight: 4.2 pounds (1.9 kg)

Old gold from the GDR

Throughout the early and mid-80s I spent a lot of time on the "wrong" side of the Berlin Wall, where despite the best efforts of certain elements to complicate my life, more often than not I met the "right" kind of people. Today I live in the former East Germany, in a small town near Berlin, where I am in most respects happier than in any other place I have lived before. One of the things which I always found notable in the GDR was its standards of education; my friends and family in the "old" federal states may cling to their prejudices, but I note that many "impossible" things from the east such as 12 years to complete pre-university education are now the cornerstones for reform. And the west has a looooooong way to go to catch up on child care!
My first trips to East Berlin were to buy books, usually technical dictionaries for German, English and Russian. As a poor student living off a small allowance I found that ten marks for a high quality Russian/English dictionary at Das Internationale Buch was a lot friendlier than 120 DM for the same book in Saarbrücken. The old days of the screwy command economy had plenty of low points surely, but the quality of literature and technical references was not among them. I'm much in awe of the reference works for forestry, agriculture, hunting, dog training, etc. translated from Czech and Slovak by my neighbor Oskar Kasperl, and the many ancient multilingual glossaries I've collected, which were produced in the 1970's and 1980's, will keep their honored places on my reference shelf. They are not perfect, and often they are outdated, but they cover subject areas which are often very difficult to find terminology resources for. From the publisher VEB Verlag Technik Berlin, some of the resources I am fortunate to have include

  • Technik-Wörterbuch Hydraulik/Pneumatik (hydraulics/pneumatics) in English, German, French, Russian, Spanish, Czech, Polish and Hungarian
  • Technik-Wörterbuch Spektroskopie/Spektralanalyse (spectroscopy / spectral analysis) in English, German, French, Russian, Spanish, Czech, Polish and Hungarian
  • Technik-Wörterbuch Technische Akustik (technical acoustics) in English, German, French, Russian, Spanish, Czech, Polish and Hungarian
  • Technik-Wörterbuch Vakuumphysik/Vakuumtechnology (vacuum physics and technology) in English, German, French and Russian
& alia

Most of these were collected from eBay.de for just a few euros or acquired inexpensively from used bookstores and street vendors. As older translators and engineers retire or pass on, the contents of their libraries become available, and it is worth panning these streams for gold nuggets like those I've found.

Feb 2, 2010

Time for a refreshing drink


Visit Watercooler
Quite some time (a year or two) ago, I was invited by an Australian colleague, Andrew Bell, to join a new translators' network he was building. It looked interesting, but at the time it was rather small, and I seldom had the time to do more than drop by and browse a few interesting blog posts. While I was otherwise occupied, the site continued to grow and is now approaching 500 members. I see a lot of respected colleagues whom I have met in the past through the BDÜ or ProZ, typically those with a little more interest in the professional side of the profession. Due to events elsewhere, that growth has accelerated: I think more than 100 serious translators have joined in the last week or two, and last night a German group was formed.

What's the draw? Not the job posts, certainly. There aren't any, though there is a list where one could post opportunities. Nor are there any competitive schemes to earn gold stars for shot-from-the-hip term proposals. The Watercooler is simply an evolving virtual space in which people who are serious about our profession can share experience, advice and fellowship. It's a no-fee members-only site that is not open to the search engines, where matters best discussed among colleagues can stay among colleagues. Altogether a fine thing.

This isn't a "replacement" for the breadth offered at other sites which emphasize other things such as directories to be filtered according to X criteria to find translators willing to work for -Y, terminology resources (not sure how/if this would work on Watercooler) or contests. It's simply a different experience, one which will lack certain useful elements for a raw beginner looking to make his first mistakes, but for mature colleagues who understand the nature of our business and some of the approaches, tools and techniques that are part of it, I think this can have a lot to offer. Check it out.