RIP Yahoogroups :-(

No, the popular free Yahoogroups have not been eliminated. Yet.

However, the latest "improvements" introduced by the idiots at Yahoo responsible for such things may have killed the usefulness of this feature for many people.

Those who use or subscribe to these groups - which cover a range of subjects far beyond translation - will understand what I mean if they have occasion to use the web interface sometimes. The new web design introduced a few weeks ago is radically different and disorienting, and I must now resort to e-mail functions if I want to contribute to a discussion. Many others seem to have similar issues.

Note to designers and developers: if it ain't broke, maybe you should keep your hands off it. Something might look dated but still be far more serviceable than your "clever" new design ideas.

I see this all as part of a trend to undermine years of progress in human/computer interface design. In recent years, programmers have been moving close boxes on dialogs, perhaps to overcome well-trained user impulses to get rid of them before they are read. Often there is a commercial interest behind such a change. Or it might be pure, stupid ego. I am reminded of an arrogant SOB at a former employer of mine in Germany, a very intelligent software developer who had created an interesting document management module but decided one day that print functions belong under the Edit menu. WTF? He was completely deaf to all protests that the File menu was the standard, expected place for such things and felt that as a demigod he had the right to dictate to thousands of others that they must bow to his superior will.

This is not a useful way to work. We programmers are not gods, though at times I'm not sure thata ll of us are human. (Most are in the ways that count, fortunately.)

When I think of the great contributions these online groups have made to our translation profession, providing support communities for the software we use, for our discussions of language, the payment practices of clients and much more, I am very saddened to think that this might all be lost now because of the stupid redesign by Yahoo. But Yahoo is a troubled company and may be on the way out, so perhaps we need to think about ways of preserving these information archives if they are worth keeping and look to new fora for the future. Google+? Maybe. But despite all the enthusiasm of Guy Kawasaki and the interesting things I am discovering in that integrated platform, I do not yet see it as offering structured discussion groups in quite the same useful way. I hope I'm missing something obvious.

Apparently Yahoo is receiving many thousands of complaints, access to those with disabilities no longer work, and there are many new problems with technical features and spam. But why should that matter to demigods? "Neo", as the new mess is called, is here to stay according to Yahoo.

There are many discussions of the problem out there. Most I find depressing. Don't bother. 

Time to vote with our feet?

The Buck Stops Where?

When I was asked last summer to speak at TM-Europe 2012 in Warsaw, I discussed possible topics with the organizers, Peter Reynolds and Monika Popiolek. There are so many challenges facing us in the future of translation, not all of them having to do with machine translation. These include:

• ever shorter project cycles
• rising cost pressure in many segments
• a greater than ever need for business savvy to survive
• increasing use of technology in many areas: it's not enough to be a good translator; one must often be an IT expert or have access to such expertise
• radical "scoping" policies, i.e. discounts based on match scales

Solutions to these and other issues may be technical; often they are matters of policy.

It is hard – impossible, really – to look ahead and see with any certainty the technical shape of the future. But I believe that the most important elements of the future are known and knowable.

The title of my talk is taken from a well-known saying of former US president Harry Truman: the buck stops here. What does that mean? It's about responsibility.

But responsibilities in many areas of our profession are often not clear, or the lines are becoming blurred.

More and more, stakeholders – I hate that word – in translation processes try to pass that buck, making others, such as individual translators, responsible for technical preparations which lie outside their areas of expertise.

Really, this is not a technical problem. It is a human issue.

I said that the key elements of the future of translation are known or knowable. I believe that these are the elements of our human nature. How we choose to work with others. How we decide to train the next generation. How we share responsibility.

In our drive to optimize our processes we must, if we are to recognize the solutions for the complex challenges of our future, allow a certain inefficiency in which our subconscious minds are given scope to process these challenges and find solutions. Often, we need to sleep on it.

You know the old saying: work smarter, not harder. Not like a hamster on a wheel. But this requires space. And quiet. Time to talk, and negotiate, and understand our partners and customers and help them understand us.

The buck stops where??? Who is responsible? We have to think about this, talk and decide.

An example of a critical decision for the future came out in a discussion with Doug Strock and others as we prepared for the panel on MT and its role or lack thereof in the future. When I mentioned to Doug how few specialists there were in my areas, how difficult it is to find a research chemist with an understanding of patent law and high-level translation skills, he commented that this is why we need machine translation. I'm sure he was joking. He said that we are the last generation of real subject matter experts translating in such areas. After we die out, there will be no choice but to rely on machines to understand the texts we translate today. Bollocks.

Let's forget the question of quality and the impossibility of achieving the necessary accuracy of translation with machines and post-editors ignorant of the subject matter. Why can't we simply develop the human resources we need instead? We did it after the launch of Sputnik. The United States and other countries transformed their education systems.

I have a lot of personal ideas for how to solve specific challenges facing us now and in the future of translation.

For a long time, I have been an advocate of including formatting – such as tags – in piece rate translation quotation.

With regard to the technical qualifications and competencies for using technology in translation, I have been carrying on a private campaign to persuade tool vendors, professional associations, translation agencies and others to develop outcome-based testing and certification of basic problem-solving skills for translation using technology, to determine, for example, whether a translator truly understands how to work with embedded objects in a compound document or translate tagged formats such as HTML or an XML for which the tags containing translatable content must be specified.

But it's not my ideas that are important and offer the best solutions for our common future. Nor are they yours most likely. It is the ideas and solutions that we develop together in discussion and negotiation, with as little "noise" as possible.

Therefore I would like to close this rant and send you all off to the coffee break early to talk and decide for yourselves how to share responsibility in a sustainable way, to decide where the buck should stop – now and in the future. 

Photo by colleague Valerij Tomarenko: TM-Europe 2012 in Warsaw, Poland

21 lucky translators can't pass this one up, surely?

From: Ricky Ricardo
To: (a list of 21 lucky sworn translators in the Berlin area)
Subject: Translation order for ENG - Ricky Ricardo


Hello,


I would like to order certified translations from German to English from you for the documents in the attachment for purposes of submission to a bank in Spain.


Please consider the following information in calculating your fee:


- 3a_RicardoR_PaySlipsMarMay2012: Translation of the two pay records
- 3TC_RicardoR_TaxCard_CinterionWM
- 4_RICARDO PERON, RICARDO - Income Tax Declaration2011: Total cost and per page
- 4_RICARDO PERON, RICARDO - Income Tax Statement 2011: Total cost and per page (1,2 and 4)
- 4TC_RicardoR_TaxCard_CarmeqVW
- 5_RicardoR_CreditBureauSCHUFA_Certification_201206: Total cost and per page (1,3 and 4)


Can you accept this job? If so, how much would it cost? Please include an overview of the corresponding amounts for each individual document.


Please indicate the time for processing and possibly suggestions as to whether it is possible to translate only the relevant lines or pages with information (particularly for the documents where "total cost and per page" is indicated). How would the amount be re-calculated in this case?


If you have separate questions regarding this assignment, please feel free to send me your questions. I look forward to your answer; thanks in advance!


Best regards,


Ricky Ricardo

Dear Ricky,

Thank you for taking the time to research the names and e-mail addresses of so many qualified colleagues from the online translators' directory of the German translators' association BDÜ. Some of that effort might have been better invested in considering whether a mass mailing of this sort will really produce the desired result of detailed costing based on unclear instructions.
Fortunately, there are some service providers eminently qualified to provide you with the service you deserve. The Eurozone Translations Group (http://www.eurozonetranslations.com/) has all the right stuff to stuff that translation where it needs to go.


Best regards,


Kevin Lossner

Mao's Revenge

That e-mail like that shown above is perhaps offering me some irresistible bargain on an herbal Viagra alternative made of rhino horn or monkey feces. Hard to tell, though, since I don't read Chinese. Nonetheless, the hardy spammers behind The Great Firewall send me such missives daily, a few dozen times a day. The only result so far has been to increase my natural suspicion of doing business in any form with mainland China. Despite my best efforts to view such transactions neutrally, personal reports over the past three decades from those who have visited clothing factories proposing to make wet suits for a Cousteau company and found workers chained to their sewing machines, adhesives specialists describing the utterly irresponsible, uncontrolled use of solvents in production, factory managers shot for production problems in a refrigerator plant and more than my little brain wants to remember make me question the greedy, headlong rush to outsource everything to the Middle Kingdom and then let it buy up our assets at home with the profits.

Although I wish I knew how to block trash mail like this, for me it is also a useful reminder that we need to choose our business partners carefully. The entry of Chinese LSPs into the service market for European languages in combinations not involving languages in China's region has done nobody any good. Not even the Chinese I suspect, because they are guaranteed to get only very mediocre results at best with the rate structures they favor. I do know one very respectable German colleague who would contradict me on this point. I haven't discussed actual euros and cents with him regarding this matter, but I'll concede the argument to him to this extent that his partner in China is an exception, like the Indian service provider who once paid me about 22 euro cents per German source word for a patent translation. A good partner can be found anywhere in the world, but when confronted with masses of data, a tsunami of cooperation proposals and the potential risks and pitfalls of cross-regional transactions, for those in the US and western Europe, it is usually a complete waste of time to talk translation business for major, non-Asian and non-Slavic language combinations with service providers in many parts of the world. That includes China.

So I have a friendly request for the Party censors there. Please take a little time in your day, stop trying to track down bloggers, artists and others to jail and harass for their "subversive" opinions, and do something to improve your country's image by catching its spammers and subjecting them to public trials (with competent simultaneous or consecutive interpreting, broadcast live on the Internet) and subsequent public execution. If you do, maybe I'll even consider doing a free test translation from German to English for you.

How not to seduce good translators

Last Saturday I received the following missive from a translation agency located in a town near Düsseldorf, Germany:

Sehr geehrter Herr Lossner,

über das Verzeichnis proz.com sind wir auf Sie aufmerksam geworden. Bottomfeeders Sprachenservice GmbH ist ein etabliertes Übersetzungsbüro, das qualifizierte Fachübersetzungen in fast alle Sprachen der Welt erstellt. Zu unseren Kunden zählen namhafte Wirtschaftsunternehmen, wissenschaftliche Institute und Einrichtungen des öffentlichen Dienstes. Gerne würden wir auch Sie zu unserem Übersetzerstamm zählen und langfristig mit Ihnen zusammenarbeiten.

Gerade Ihre Sprachkombination mit Ihren Fachgebieten ist für uns sehr ansprechend.

Wie Sie sicher verstehen, müssen wir unseren Kunden attraktive Preise anbieten, um eine hohe Auftragsquote zu erreichen. Dies ist natürlich nur dann möglich, wenn auch unsere freiberuflichen Mitarbeiter günstige Tarife anbieten. Nur so können wir eine gute Auftragsauslastung realisieren, von der wiederum unsere Übersetzer profitieren.

Wie hoch ist Ihr Wortpreis im Ausgangstext? Bieten Sie ab einer bestimmten Textlänge Rabatte an und wenn ja, in welchem Umfang?

Sobald wir uns preislich einig geworden sind, würden wir Sie gerne noch mit einer kurzen Probeübersetzung (ca. 20 Zeilen) beauftragen. Dies ist eine im Rahmen des Qualitätsmanagements festgelegte Vorgehensweise.

Wir hoffen auf eine positive Rückmeldung und würden uns sehr freuen, langfristig mit Ihnen zusammenzuarbeiten.

For those of you who can't read German or prefer not to, the compelling message is:

We found you in the ProZ.com directory. Bottomfeeders Sprachenservice GmbH is a well-established translation agency producing professional translations in nearly all the world's languages. Our clientele includes well-known commercial enterprises, scientific  institutes and public agencies. We would like to count you too among our regular team of translators and work with you long-term.   

Your language combination and specialties are particularly appealing to us.

As you surely understand, we must offer our customers attractive rates in order to achieve a high order volume. This is, of course, only possible if our freelance collaborators offer low rates as well. Only in this manner can we achieve a good volume, which in turn benefits our translators.
How high is your source text word price? Do you offer discounts as of a certain text length and, if yes, to what extent?

As soon as we have agreed on rates, we would like to assign you a small test translation (of approximately 20 lines). This is part of a defined quality management procedure.

We hope for a positive response and would be very pleased to work with you long-term.

My rather spontaneous response to this honor was

Sehr geehrte Frau B,

es tut mir leid, aber auf eine solche Ansprache kann ich leider nicht positiv reagieren. Wenn Sie Dumpingpreise benötigen, suchen Sie bitte in Bangladesch. Die Ziele meiner Kunden sind vorrangig gute Kommunikation und rechtssichere Arbeit sowie geeignete technologische Umsetzung und zügige Abwicklung. Preis ist ziemlich nachrangig, und Ihre alleinige Betonung des Preises lässt vermuten, daß Qualität und Fachqualifikation eher eine Nebenrolle spielen. So ist das jedenfalls der Eindruck Ihrer Worte.

Ich bin stets soweit ausgelastet, wie ich sein will, und zwar mit interessanten Projekte meiner Wahl bzw. langfristigen Kundenpflegearbeiten für zuverlässige Partner. Geeignete Projekte haben immer die Chance, Interesse zu wecken, aber so 'ne Geiz-ist-geil-Philosophie kommt bei mir einfach nicht an.

For the non-Teutonophiles:

Dear Ms. B,

I'm sorry, but unfortunately I cannot react positively to such an approach. If you need price dumping, please look in Bangladesh. My customers' goals are primarily good communication and legally secure results as well as appropriate application of technology and timely processing. Price is rather secondary, and your sole emphasis on price leads one to suspect that quality and professional qualification play more of an ancillary role. That is, in any case, the impression made by your words.

I am always as busy as I choose to be with interesting projects of my choice or long-term work to support customers for reliable partners. Suitable projects always have a chance of interesting me, but this "cheap is cool" philosophy simply doesn't work.

I found it particularly amusing that these bottom feeders are in Germany, a country where most of my contacts with agencies emphasize better values. Even when my contacts are with cheapskates who don't give a fig about quality, they at least talk a better game. This particular "vendor manager" in the virtual sweatshop reeks of amateurism.

Recruiting is a bit like seduction, maybe a lot like it. I have it on good authority that if one wants to attract a partner worth having, it's best not to talk too much about oneself, at least not in an opening line.

Hey baby, I found your number in the telephone book. I'm a well-established professional who can translate almost anything your little mind can imagine (except fashion). My customers include famous companies and scientific institutes as well a whole lotta government gigs. Whatcha say? Wanna crawl under the covers with me and make some beautiful words? (Long-term, of course, since we all know a relationship with someone as Heaven-sent as me is forever).

Does that work for you? Probably not. And if it does, I want to see the results of your AIDS test first. Anyone who falls for a line like Ms. B delivers must be desperate to the point of extreme incaution.

My correspondent, having established what she perceives me to be, thinks that all that is now necessary is to haggle over the price. But unlike the tired, old joke, she fails to show a modicum of respect by asking if I would work for her for some appallingly high price. I'm still waiting for someone to offer me a million euros for a quickie translation; I have a great response prepared for the first one who does.

I shared the inquiry and my response with a few colleagues to ask them if they felt I had been to harsh. Apparently not. If one soft-spoken respondent had given the advice I received to that wimp General Sherman, the United States would not be burdened with its troublesome Southern politicians today. He, too, has no big problem with translation work being "exported" to the developing world by companies who care little for communication quality and customer safety, but like me he wishes they would go quickly and directly there and not bother us by ringing our doorbells like so many delinquent children.

It is really not our problem that bottom feeding agencies like this one have proliferated like rats on a garbage heap and are now gnawing at the cables in more respectable establishments and invading corporate boardrooms. When the food supply of clients where purchasing clerks are the key decision-makers for quality-critical elements such as translation grows scarce, the rats will turn on each other (as they have done) and eat each others' flesh. The red ink at Lionbridge for so many years in the past decade is just one example of this. I would think no more of stepping into the price wars between these lowball losers than I would of involving myself in the drug wars of the gangs in the areas of Southern California where I grew up.

I would like to contrast Ms. B's failed seduction with a successful one some eight years ago. The agency principal called me one day to chat, sounded me out about my specialties, work experience and general philosophy. He said he wanted to try me out with the idea of working together long-term if we were both satisfied. He offered a paid assignment, and when early in the relationship, his British reviewer had a fit about my work, calling it literal Germanic crap or some such thing, we discussed the matter at length, and when I challenged him to ask the customer which worked better for a US audience, he passed on both my original translation and the revision and never questioned my competence again after that. And the price? Oh yes, we did agree on one. It was OK at the time, now it's actually at the very bottom of my rates, but I've been so thoroughly seduced by excellent project management, reliable payment practices, respect and mutual support in many matters that I not only don't care, I actively help recruit new clients (for languages I don't do) and refuse to charge for doing so most of the time, because I get a great feeling from helping a friend and his team succeed in a tough, competitive environment.

I suspect there might not have been much difference between what Ms. B was willing to pay and what I take from this other agency. But the latter knew all the right dance steps, when to lead and when to be led. I have a great time working with them, and I never feel used. And when something warrants a special charge, I say so, and there isn't a problem. My other partners offering double and triple the rates of my old partner are often as fun or respectful, but while they might now take up most of my schedule, they cannot break the loyalty I feel to a partner who underpromised (never spoke of big volumes or any of that horsefeathers) and overdelivered with a truly productive long-term relationship.

Mobile monkeys: Vodafone

My new location makes it necessary to rely on high speed mobile communications for Internet and VoIP telephone connections, as there are no broadband options available for land lines. That's just as well; I like the idea that my entire electronic communications infrastructure is "ready for the road". But I do find it irritating that the provider I use (because the other networks' bandwidth is insufficient here) obviously uses monkeys for its translation. Drunken monkeys like in those old Kung Fu films I used to watch with friends in a Monterey Park cinema in Southern California. Except that those had better translations in their subtitles than Vodafone Germany typically has on its English web pages!

Subprime

One of the links in my blogroll - Patenttranslator's Blog - is becoming a favorite for its strangeness and irreverent insights. I don't remember where I found it, but as patent translation is one of those activities that I usually pursue recreationally, I probably bookmarked it thinking I would learn the occasional interesting, new thing about patents. Instead I've enjoyed music video links with each post which often have no discernible bearing on the matter discussed but which make good background music as I read the text. Yesterday's interesting post was about agencies who send out silly sign-up forms for folks like you and me to become part of the great feed lot of translating cattle waiting to be slaughtered by translation consumers hungry for low rates.

I see this time-wasting nonsense a few times a week. Mostly I ignore it , though on rare occasions I might bite if the letter is from a specialist agency with subject matter of great interest. Such agencies are relatively rare, however. The sheer inefficiency of most of this is appalling; too few use web technology for collecting their data, and those that do usually have horribly designed forms and databases. (I speak here as a user of these forms and as a former developer of database-backed web applications.) Even the better ones like I know from outsourcers using OTM (see the form on the demo site here) can be exhausting if you deal with all the subject area specialties (and try to navigate the categories), though the basic input is straightforward.

Patenttranslator (PT) suggested that the PMs that send out these cattle call information requests have way too much time on their hands. I would add that some of them are not too bright or not entirely honest. I had a request from one fellow in the US last week who said that he had seen my resume and might be interested in services for a patent project and wanted me to sign an NDA and provide him with a bunch of information including my resume, which he claimed to have read. Smooth move Ex-Lax!

How you deal with these inquiries is a matter of confidence between you and your priest. Those of us who have been around a while can usually sense when it's worthwhile to acknowledge this form of spam and when to ignore it (most of the time). Why would I give a rat's tail about the database of some bunch I don't know and don't have any particular reason to know as they beg for my data and please-don't-forget-to-include-your rates? You show me a specific project that interests me and I'll show you a relevant rate that fits the project's parameters. Most anything else is a waste of time.

In his commentary, PT introduced the concept of the subprime translator as a target group that should and probably does take an interest in these cattle calls, because they have time on their hands and no more profitable way to spend it. "Subprime" doesn't necessarily mean bad translators. But I find the term interesting in this context, and some of PT's associated comments got me to thinking that there is potential in that word to describe some of the high-risk behavior of LSPs who package and resell services from way down the food chain like others packaged and passed on junk loans until banks and other institutions started suffering a bit of a melt-down a few years ago. The sort of melt-down I've seen in the historical slag of past translations from a few major direct clients who used to deal with Top Ten Volume LSPs.

Some of these LSPs who make elaborate marketing promises for multiple levels of review and other crap they probably never bother with in reality probably have a lot in common with the sharks who sold subprime loans to borrowers who never understood the hook that was being set. Translation consumers (individuals, companies and organizations who pay the ultimate bill for the work) are too often unaware of what really goes on with their projects. Some are unaware that the databases (translation memories) with their company's data may pass through more hands in the course of a year than an "entertainer" at a busy Hamburg port brothel and that the hygiene practiced at such places probably exceeds that being practiced with their critical technical and marketing text.

Time and again I am amused by the purveyors of subprime translation projects who contact me here in Germany expecting me to embrace offers that good Indian translators I know (yes, there are good ones in my pair!) would not consider. Well above the three cents a word that everyone likes to bitch about, but marginal at best for generalist work and an utter joke for a project that requires the special scientific knowledge one can usually find only with a qualified engineer or chemist. Even if they do find a hungry engineer with the language and writing skills one almost never finds with engineers and that person is eager to do skilled work at a receptionist's pay, this is no more a relationship with a future than the encounters in the aforementioned Hamburg establishment.

So if the translators and the end customers are getting screwed in these subprime relationships, cui bono? The pimps as usual.

Fortunately, in my experience, this does not describe all of the MLV landscape, which is usually populated by diverse and interesting people, at least among SMEs. The serious ones worth working with add real value and can educate their customers to understand how this works so that they pay the rates needed to support viable results. One interesting organization that I know even follows a strategy of basing its offers to translators on a share of the gross rate from which the known overhead and target profit share are deducted, so depending on the particular deal negotiated with an end customer a translator's proposed compensation may vary widely. The intention behind that is certainly honorable and reflects good business planning at the MLV level, but I do wonder whether the translators taking everything that comes their way at whatever price are keeping an eye on their fixed overhead costs. I personally find it tiring to see fixed rate offers for which I have to calculate constantly whether it's worth getting out of bed and putting on the coffee. The MLV relationships that really work for me are the superprime ones where my target rate is respected and I don't care if the agency has a 300% markup, but where my time and effort is clearly respected and appropriate surcharges are offered for anything rushed or unreasonable before I have to bring those matters up. I've also noticed over the years that these MLVs usually practice the best hygiene with their customers' data, and even over years I see little unacceptable content infecting the TMs.

But how shall the translation consumer tell the pimps from these princes?

We have met the enemy and he is the customer

The Twitter stream from a colleague taking the train back to Berlin after the ProZ conference in Prague was unexpected and shocking. German railway employees assaulting unarmed Czech passengers, abusing them ever more loudly as their confused, embarassed victims waited for the boot to descend and the police arrive, which they finally did to back up their uniformed brothers from Deutsche Bahn. Only spirited resistance by other passengers and reminders that Kundenservice doesn't always mean serving your customer's head on a platter finally caused the uniformed tormenters to relent. Service is a foreign word, taken prisoner to do duty where no native word for the concept exists, and when it comes time to enjoy this serrvice, one is too often reminded that Deutschland ist kein Einwanderungsland, especially not for such ideas.

Face it, customers are the enemy. Isn't that so? My business isn't Burger King. How dare they presume to have it their way! You don't have to be a German railway employee to understand what a bother these people are, disturbing our perfect routines with their perfectly unreasonable projects. Vee muss train zem. Kundenerziehung. Now that's a word to export along with all those Mercedes cars and cool machine tools. Maybe it can come in a boxed set with a leather corset and a whip.

It's simply too much to ask that we recognize, accept and forgive the human fallability of our customers. That we forego the opportunity to enlighten them with brutally frank commentary on their second language competence and offer to let them kiss our college class rings in exchange for the grammar lesson. Emotional intelligence is a moron from Oxy when you're right.

Years ago, Mike (a consulting customer of mine) told me about his "big break" as a salesman for some sort of parts. His stuff was simply the best. Best quality, best price, best delivery time. Probably bore God's Own Seal of Approval, too, since he was in Oklahoma at the time. But the purchasing agent at the prospect was simply too stupid to realize that he and his company were missing out on the real deal. Mike tried for years to get that account, but the dummies just kept buying inferior stuff from the competition. And all the while he had to listen to the puchasing agent's piteous whining, his inferiority complex about being whupped by his brother-in-law at bass fishing. Finally, Mike couldn't stand it any more and brought him a package of his favorite rubber worms and explained how to hook and use them. The next time Mike visited, the guy surprised him with an order and bored him to tears with the tale of the jaw-dropping bass he caught the day bro-in-law got skunked. And he kept on ordering after that. But what did the customer learn about the better product he was now buying? Not a damned thing. Don't be like Mike. Teach your customers a lesson!

Juggling formats

Juggling formats has probably been an issue for translators since ancient days when the various media of stone, clay and papyrus required different tools and sets of skills. And the Babel of formats has only gotten worse over the millenia as any practicing translator knows instinctively. It often seems that the portion of time spent on actual translation diminishes as customers submit documents with insane mark-up schemes that require graduate studies in formal logic to sort out. Some time ago, I published a little PDF guide on preparing MS Word and PDF files with content to exclude, i.e. cases like when a customer asks you to "translate only the green text, proofread the hot pink text, pray for the red text and ignore the rest". I thought I had pretty much covered all the cases when last night I received a help request from a charming colleague who had read the instructions but still couldn't sort out what to do with her particular project. It was actually a scenario I had described - copying text to translate from one column into another and hiding the original source column - but in her case, only the green text in the source column had to be copied over for translation with a translation environment tool. Minor variation on an old theme.

But there are sooooo many of these variations. I had one yesterday that had me baffled. Three simple Excel spreadsheets that refused to import into memoQ. I was really baffled by this one until Kilgray's support department offered the following explanation and workaround:

Hi Kevin,

As far as I know this error message occurs when embedded tables are present in the Excel document. At the moment unfortunately memoQ cannot import the files you have sent us in this format. I can suggest two workarounds in this case:

- You can convert the embedded tables to ranges, please check out the following guide:

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/convert-an-excel-table-to-a-range-of-data-HA010067555.aspx

- You can save the XLS file as Excel 2003 XML format in Excel, then this XML file can be imported to memoQ with the Excel2003 filter. After you have exported this XML file you can save it as XLS in Excel.

These suggestions work, but by the time I got the timely response I had already gone another way copying table content into MS Word, the re-importing it to Excel via OpenOffice to avoid getting messed up by line breaks in the cells. All a bit complex and time consuming, all of it an unwanted distraction from what I would much rather do: concentrate on producing the best translated text I can.

I have about 38 years of IT experience of various kinds, though for much of that time computers played a supporting role for other interests. But still I'm reasonable good at sorting out data migration puzzles, format nightmares and the like give a little time to ponder matters (though, alas, in our profession, time is one element that is often missing). However, lately I am often hard put to find solutions for some of the crazy format challenges presented. And if I find things a bit nightmarish, what must others with less geeky histories be experiencing? Something is definitely wrong with this picture. More than webinars, training courses and dummy books is called for, but I can't say what. And the high priests of complexity, the witch doctors who make a good living as consultants from other people's confusion, see the problem as a opportunity... and perhaps that is part of the problem.

Road kill in the fast lane

Life in the fast lane
Surely make you lose your mind
Life in the fast lane, everything all the time

-- From the Eagles' song (c) 1976 

It's a bit frightening how the theme of a silly pop song inspired by an out-of-control ride with a drug dealer has become a description of the reality of life for too many today. Everything all the time. Always connected, always available, 24/7 at work and at your service. For what?

Certainly not for quality and even less for mental and physical health.

Bob Herbert, a New York Times columnist, advises that we "tweet less and kiss more". I couldn't agree more. Now if only I can convince my lady of that....

This post was originally inspired as a response to or affirmation of Corinne McKay's commentary on the importance of downtime. In it she referenced an article from Science which described how time off and rest is essential to creativity.

My own experience has had numerous incidents that illuminate the role of rest in creativity and productivity. My start as a programmer of scripted applications for the Macintosh years ago came after I told a friend that a jigsaw puzzle would be too difficult to program on the Mac for her three year old. I shut off the computer, went to sleep and woke up at 3 am with all the code dancing in my head. Hyperpuzzle was born and enjoyed some use in rehabilitation and recreation with image sections scrambled, rotated and mirrored through two axes. My invention of the first UV-blocking silicone material for intraocular lenses came from an inspiration I had while nodding off in a really boring organic chemistry lecture at USC. Patentable breakthroughs in my research with radiation-curable adhesives came when I blew off the lab and went home to wash dishes or wander the halls of the LA County Natural History Museum and look at dinosaur bones.

The list of evidence is much longer than that, more likely because I'm getting old and not because I'm more creative than my peers. (I'm not, but I am slightly less crazy than some.) Very little work of which I am proud has resulted from a frontal assault on the problem. Rested, indirect paths inevitably lead to a better result.

This holds true in translation too. Am I the only one who finds that a text flows better and my translation has more rhetorical polish in the first draft than it would after two re-writes if I just walk away from it for a while and look again with fresh eyes? Or am I the only one who sees the deadline-driven mass production quality-be-damned-MT-will-soon-be-good-enough approach to translation as a deeply poisonous thing?

If you have no work, a deadline isn't usually a bad thing, and schedules are important and unavoidable to plan our activities in some reasonable way. But too seldom is a distinction made between important and arbitrary deadlines. To one person "important" might mean having the translation on the day before he leaves on holiday so he can lie rested on the beach for a month knowing that the text is awaiting him upon return. Or perhaps the person assigning the job can demonstrate great efficiency and competence and impress her boss by having another person turn the translation around a week sooner than she might be able to do with her busy days. No explanted heart on ice here awaiting the translation of instructions for how to implant it in the patient lying on the operating room table now.

If you have work - lots of it - and do not have the wisdom to leave off calculating all your time as a financial asset, you may eventually find the value of that time deteriorating in proportion to how much of it you invest in work. At extreme levels of commitment that deterioration appears to follow an exponential function.

Quality is worth its price. Rest promotes quality. Work less and charge more. Discerning customers will be grateful.

Divided by a common language

It happened again today for the third or fourth time this week, possibly the tenth time in the last month or the hundredth this year. A call from a stranger at a strange agency:

"I have a document that urgently requires translation into English. Can you do it?"

"Good question. Your guess is as good as mine. What's it about? Why don't you send me the text and I'll let you know."

A few minutes later the text arrives. Several small documents on automotive technology. Easy stuff, unless...

"What variant of English did you have in mind?"

"Uh... I don't know. British English I suppose. The customer didn't say."

And you didn't ask, either, you git, I thought. Ooops, scratch that. I'm American. Make it "you idiot".

One would think that language service providers would be aware of the important differences between language variants in English, Spanish, Portuguese and a host of other languages about which I know very little, because I don't pretend to provide service for all the world's languages, just from German German and occasionally from the Swiss variant into US English. San Gabriel Valley English to be more precise, with occasional bits of Oregon country thrown in for rustic flavor. We don't use no spanners. Boots are for wearing on feet, preferably with spurs, and bonnets are mostly out of fashion, except with the occasional surviving grandmother. So we don't do no steenkeen British automotive texts, because we pity the technicians in the UK who wouldn't understand a lot of it. Just like my auto mechanic in California wouldn't get far with a British repair manual most likely.

Now there are some fields and situations where I'm not too uncomfortable trying to follow British conventions for spelling, though I won't even pretend to know much about the peculiarities of insular punctuation or the rich British vocabulary one absorbs between floggings in school. What I find more disturbing is that the project manager never thought to ask the customer about the intended use of the translation and the preferences for usage. I recently did a certified legal translation for a client and sent it off for checking by a few pairs of eyes at the agency before producing the final stamped and sealed official version. The corrections came back - lots of them. One was legitimate, a typo I had missed I think. The rest was my beautiful American legalese defaced with British spelling. I went a bit nuts over that, in part because I don't know a thing about contract language and legal conventions in the UK, and the use of British spelling in this case might imply that I do. My choice of contract language in English is governed by my linguistic and cultural background as well as the guidelines for clear language in contracts taught in California law schools like USC in the late 1980s. This time the decision to mess with the text was based on an internal agency style guide that used British conventions. Once again, no one ever thought to ask the customer what was really needed.

Perhaps I'm old fashioned to believe that knowing the intended use of a translation and the variant of the target language to satisfy that intent is a fundamental requirement for professional service in most cases. If there's even a chance that British English is called for, I'll probably fend off the query and send it elsewhere. And I do admit to a certain secret delight in sending the prospects trotting off on a pilgrimage to find a competent British translator, armed perhaps with a few e-mail addresses and telephone numbers from me. Everyone wins: the prospect will probably get a translation, someone I know and like might get an interesting bit of work and make a new business acquaintance and I don't have to give another English lesson when I'd rather be burying fish heads in a meadow to bait the foxes.

Foolish tools

No matter what translation environment tool is used to work on a text like the one below, the experience can be an unpleasant one. MemoQ's cell scrolling feature makes this horrible case just barely tolerable. It's one of the biggest tag salads I've see in a while. In a "future scenario" I would like to see some option for condensing messes like this so that the real work of translating the text can be accomplished better. Usually I see garbage like this in INX (InDesign) files. This particularly charming case is a TTX made from a DOCX and imported into memoQ for reasons that are too hair-raising to explain.

Wer arbeit sucht...

kann sich bestimmt über folgendes Angebot freuen:

Kurzbeschreibung
Titel:	Dolmetscher/in u. Raumpfleger/in Arbeitsort: Lingen (Ems)
Beschreibung:
Für ein Handelsunternehmen wird eine Kraft im Rahmen einer Teilzeitbeschäftigung gesucht. Aufgaben: - Reinigung der Büro- und Geschäftsräume incl. sanitäre Anlagen - Begleitung und Dolmetschen von/bei Montagearbeiten im Ausland (u.a. Niederlande, England, Belgien) Erforderlich: - perfekte Englischkenntnisse (überwiegende Übersetzungsarbeit) und Russischkenntnisse - Sprachkenntnisse französisch und niederländisch - Zuverlässigkeit - selbständige Arbeitsweise - Flexibilität - Führerscheine: FS B PKW/Kleinbusse (alt: FS 3): Zwingend erforderlich
Benötigte Sprachen:	russisch-verhandlungssicher, englisch-verhandlungssicher, französisch-Erweiterte Kenntnisse, holländisch-Erweiterte Kenntnisse
Anfangsdatum:	05/02/2010
Geografische Angaben
Land:	Deutschland
Bezahlung
Minimalgehalt:	500 Euro mtl.
Währung:	Euro
Lohnsteuer:	Brutto
Wochenstunden:	11
Vertragsart:	unbefristet Arbeitsplatz (Teilzeit)
Extras
Übernachtung wird zur Verfügung gestellt:	No
Anforderungen
Notwendige Bildungs fähigkeiten:	nicht relevant
Führerschein erforderlich:	FS B PKW/Kleinbusse (alt: FS 3)
Arbeitgeber
Name:	Agentur für Arbeit Lingen
Information:	Arbeitsvermittlung
Adresse:	Jakob-Wolff-Platz 1, D-49808 Lingen (Ems), Deutschland
Telefon:	+49 591 91212103
Fax:	+49 591 91212701
Email:	Lingen.126-Arbeitgeber-Service@arbeitsagentur.de

Droht uns allen der soziale Abstieg???!!!

Wer sich von so etwas beeindrücken lässt, ist schon längst professionell abgestiegen, wenn er überhaupt mal auf professionellem Niveau war. Dummheit ist so alt wie die Menschheit, und das freiberufliche Leben - oder das Leben überhaupt - erfordert viel mehr. Verantwortung unter anderem. Gelegentlich Kreativität. Die Beschäftigung mit solchen "Angeboten" wie oben ist schädliche Zeitvergeudung, nicht mal entspannend oder irgendwie seelisch erfrischend wie manche "Zeitvergeudungen", wie sie von Anderen wahrgenommen werden.

Jeder Tag ist ein neuer, jeder Kunde anders und jede Situation eine genaue Betrachtung Wert. Möglichkeiten, auch gute, gibt es zuhauf. Die Kunst besteht darin, sie auszulesen und umzusetzen. Ihr behauptet, Künstler zu sein. Beweist das mal. 

(reposted from the Watercooler)

No Monkeys!

The recent launch of colleague Wendell Ricketts' No Peanuts blog got me thinking. I endorse the basic concept that translators who do decent work deserve a decent living or better yet an indecently good one, but in our discussion of "living wages" and "sustainable fees" let us not forget the elephant in the room... and the monkey riding on its back.

Frankly I wouldn't pay peanuts for some of the work we've been asked to review in the past. I doubt that a bad rate was a primary determinant of the quality in those cases; though a hurried, overworked translator is likely to deliver sub-par translations at least occasionally no matter how good her skills, it's those monkeys banging away at the keyboard on the way to randomly reproducing the works of Willie Shakespeare that do the really spectacular damage. And there are, alas, quite a few of these. It's a scary day when I have to agree with a PM that a machine translation would at least be consistent in its awfulness, but I have more weeks of those days in a year than I have vacation.

So in the spirit of quality, reform and professional development, I urge you all to join the No Monkeys movement. Ours is not an exclusive movement; we welcome even those stricken with Simian Syndrome and support them in their search for a cure. Career change is an obvious step in this direction, and I have long suspected that many of those slaving away at new translations of Dostoevsky would make better plumbers and bricklayers. But for those who have dreamed since childhood of translating corporate financial reports, instructions for use for toothpaste and high school diplomas, I propose a twelve step program for shedding the tail, thinning out the fur and participating in the Ascent of Translators.

1. Acknowledge that you are powerless against Human Stupidity, including your own, and follow the plan of a Higher Power. That HP would be me, so pay attention.
2. Do your homework on sustainable rates, quote them and stick to them. This one is just so basic that you'd think the discussion would have ended long ago. If you think that as a house hubby, student or a reeking rank novice you shouldn't be charging full professional rates, think again. Forget all those whining arguments about undercutting your colleagues by charging less than the typical translator in Peru or Bangladesh. Heck, you might live in those countries for all I know. No, there are better reasons to do this. Greed first of all. Greed is good. Just ask Gordon Gecko. Or your favorite outsourcers. There's also the little matters of self respect (ignore that, it's a vicious myth intended to inspire peasant and worker revolts), the need to pay bills even if the main breadwinner ends up on the dole or worse (on second thought, who needs to eat? lean translation, like lean software development and all the myriad starvation diets are surely healthier alternatives....) and a professional future. If you're not at the top of the game, give yourself a chance to develop and charge a top rate and pay the extra to the best editor willing to overhaul your junk language vehicle and make it run like a well-tuned Ferrari.
3. Do your homework on sustainable rates, quote them and stick to them. Yes, yes I know. This was Step No. 2. It's good that you've noticed; there's hope for evolution. But I'll bet those simian synapses are still not firing fully. Just for fun, take your current rates and double or triple them. If you live in Bangladesh or Peru, please pentuple them at least. Make that the goal for your evolutionary plan and set a date for new clients to pay those rates. Now move the date up by a few years. Try setting it about three months from now.
4. Now think about what you can add in value to your translation and other language service work to achieve those rate goals. What? You lack the education to offer a credible specialty? McDonald's is hiring I hear. Or we can start with an English lesson. If you don't know the word autodidact, look it up and become one. Good translators who get top rates are usually autodidacts, and that club's membership is open to any aspirants. Of course you've already created style guides for your target languages which you share with clients and prospects when planning projects and adjust to fit their interests and specifications. But have you thought about how you might leverage your terminology expertise to squeeze a little extra out of a project, even if it's just extra smiles and warm thoughts of a client looking forward to the next project with you? Do you have a colleague who's a super proofreader or editor and has capacity? Have you made arrangements to join forces for greater client satisfaction?
5. Join a real professional translators' association, and if you don't qualify, figure out how to close the gap and do so. Sure, some of these people are snooty twits who waste far too much energy wishing that it were possible to close off a wide-open profession, and there are just as many clueless newbies (including many with translation degrees) who have never learned how to write an invoice as you'll find on the ProZ forums. By professional association, by the way, i most definitely do not mean public translation portals, even if these do pass out shiny red virtual "pro" badges and the like. Think ATA, ITI, those NAATI Australians, AdÜ, BDÜ, all those French associations that I'll never learn to pronounce or spell or whatever else may be within your reach. It's best if the association offers a member's directory which is popular with local or national businesses looking for a good translator. Oh, you don't want to evolve into a good translator? Like I said, McDonald's is hiring. And that's a disciplined company that might teach you some skills you need to succeed in translation. 
6. Find a mentor. This one is not optional. Most twelve-step programs involve a sponsor, usually one who has struggled with the same issues in the past. In our movement we offer more latitude: you don't have to seek out a recovering monkey as your mentor. You can also work under the watchful eye of someone who got things right the first or second time.
7. Develop your writing skills in your target language. If you think this is for monkey only, think again. If you think you've got this one down, learn more about when to break the rules. But make sure you actually know those rules first and are capable of applying them. Seek lots of feedback from your mentor and other Higher Powers, because it's easy to develop blind spots on this point. How often have I re-read my own texts and thought "quam tauri merda!"?
8. Improve your source language comprehension. Doh. Or maybe not. Those with very long tails may need to brush up on grammar basics, learn about false friends and other beginners' stuff, but for those who are new to the business or are simply thick as bricks with respect to linguistic awareness, it may be important to point out that most authors of texts are not fully in control of the language they write, even if it is presumably their native language. Learn about screwups. Dialect. Guess what? Engineers writing repair manuals in Stuttgart are too often heavily influenced in their writing by the Swabian dialect. You might think of them as linguistic monkeys, but get over it. You have to make something comprehensible out of that mess, preferably something which will keep the client from getting sued very often.
9. Just say no! This one works for drugs, excessive alcohol, extra-marital affairs, the seduction of translating into one's second, third and fourth languages and taking on that extra 20,000 words for the weekend. No is a wonderful word, worth learning in every language, even if you learn nothing else. Can you really, honestly handle the subject and register of the text on offer? Not sure are you? NO! NO! NO! NO! NO!!!!!!!
10. Learn an effective project management system and apply it religiously. This can start with something as simple as the project folder system I developed for myself years ago. It might involve software tools, such as Translation Office 3000 or OTM, but a good spiral-bound notebook with tab dividers or a paper-based organizer or chalkboard on your home office wall or some combination of these and other options might do as well or better. Find a system that works for you and improve it as you make mistakes. That improvement is critical to evolution.
11. Get a good translation environment tool, but understand clearly that it's your brain that does the real work! Even if you have Jurassic aspirations, you can use these tools to filter much of the crap people want translated and put it in a nice format you can handle in any word processor on most any computer platform. MemoQ version 4.2 with its exportable RTF tables for any source file format is a good example of this, but by no means the only useful one. But never forget: a fool with a tool remains a fool and trägt er auch 'n goldn Ring, der Affe bleibt a häßlich Ding.
12. If you can't handle Steps 1 to 11 and anything else necessary to evolve as a translator in the modern world, consider joining a monastery or choosing a different pursuit. Actually, the monks I've known (I used to teach for the Capuchin Franciscans) won't cut you any slack, so think about doing gardening service, cleaning houses, dog sitting or anything else you can enjoy some measure of real success doing. My first choice would be gardening. It's how I earned a lot of my pocket change as a kid and college student, and it gets me out of the house into the sunshine and fresh air. Or the rain, which is also pretty cool for someone who grew up with the perpetual curse of heat and dry, polluted air in the LA basin. I would dearly love to be a professional musician or at least a singer, but I can't carry a tune and Chopsticks is the best I can manage on the finest grand piano, so I'm doomed to pursue the lesser path of the linguist. Any honest work is honorable, even the much-maligned role of the translation project manager or agency owner. (Just be careful not to follow bad examples.) Pursuing something you're not good at and never will be good at is of no sustainable use to anyone. I'm not one of those who believe that translation is an art requiring an artist's talent and temperament; it is a craft with many aspects, at least some of which can be mastered by most people with sufficient basic competence in two languages. But success requires more than just talent or desire. Commitment and right action are absolute fundamentals.

Human Interoperability

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Anyone who is bored enough and has enough time on her hands to read my shot-from-the-hip presentation description from last fall, published in the conference schedule for memoQfest 2010 and who then compounds her error by watching the YouTube version of the actual talk delivered in my green hunting drabs (at least I took the hat off so more light could diffuse in the room) will notice that there is a bit of a difference.

By the time I got up to talk, my slides were best described as a palimpsest; I had scraped off the original text and written Something Very Different, something heretical. Like Ol' Ned, I've forsaken technology.

I'm quite pleased to see that other, more technically competent persons have taken up the banner of technical interoperability and come up with more permutations than previously imagined in my philosophy. I nearly swooned with pleasure as Angelika Zerfass deftly explained how to fix every mistake I've ever made migrating data to and from memoQ as well as a few more mistakes I was planning to make next week. Balázs Kis, Denis Hay, Gergely Vándor and an army of API-savvy LSPs charged the ramparts of monolithic software solutions and competently routed the enemy. And Tom Imhoff was there to pick off the stragglers who doubted the depths to which Trados integrations might go.

The best thing about a battle like this is that I don't expect any dead bodies, but rather healthier practices and, I hope, healthier translators.

But the Devil never sleeps, and his Infernal Engines are ready to receive the best of tools placed in the wrong hands with a wrong heart. Aside from its insatiable appetite for resources, there probably isn't much wrong with Trados Studio 2009 SP2. What I saw in the beta looked OK; I intend to purchase an upgrade to one of my Trados licenses at some point if only to write more accurately about it, but more likely to integrate it in my workflows where it makes sense to do so. SDL has some super employees on board who work late into the night helping users, and who have a sense of balance and fairness. I think they've done a lot to repair the damage done by insulting SDL marketing campaigns like the infamous "amnesty" offer to those who had dared to pass up a few upgrades. I look forward to writing about the good side of SDL products, particularly how they can finally help bring about those blooming landscapes that my neighbors in Brandenburg have been waiting for for so long.

memoQ too can be straight from Hell. Not in the usual CAT tool way, crashing and destroying your 300-page translation five minutes before it's due. Well, not usually anyway. If you want that, the best thing to do is re-install the original release of SDL Trados Studio 2009 from last June. The worst a beta of memoQ has been is a bit of frustration, and I got used to that in my first marriage.

No, the hellish aspects of memoQ – or any other tool – come to the fore when Good Tools fall into the hands of Bad People. Or Good People with Good Intentions, which as we all know are the paving stones on the path to Hell.

Think of those Trados word count logs. Useful things, actually, even if they aren't all that accurate as tools for assessing real effort in many real cases. MemoQ offers something better/worse. Homogeneity. For those of you in Kansas, yes its implementation can indeed be a sin, just not the one you think. Last year at memoQfest 2009 the evil I had anticipated was revealed in the form of a fallen angel from a French agency who spoke of using the memoQ homogeneity anaysis for text, which "anticipates" fuzzy matches that will arise in the course of a translation, to reduce the rates paid to translators. Boo, hiss. Actually, the angel in question was a nice guy doing his job trying to keep his staff off the dole, and I really felt bad about throwing him to the wolves when I asked for clarification of the matter in front of an audience. So I was more restrained this year when one wiry LSP rep spoke of accelerating workflows and 15 minute turnarounds that would make the Dark Lord's Turncoat Translations concept seem sluggish. All this with the power of the memoQ server that many of us hold dear. Satanic mills indeed.

It's not about tools, it's about people. Nothing less.

If it's too risky, too rushed, let it go. Walk the wire over the chasm of drop deadlines long enough, and eventually you'll fall into the Pit. Go slow, like food should be to digest in a settled stomach. Remember those twelve-course Belgian dinners that start at six and go to midnight before she asks you to go dancing and how well you sleep afterward. And when you plan your translation processes, remember that there are no processes without people, and if you insist on thinking of people as tools, then treat them as fine ones, restore them, not discard them, when they lose their edge, and show them greater respect than the finest heirloom plane in the chest of tools from your great-grandfather.

True interoperability is whatever it takes for people to work effectively and happily together. Technology may facilitate this, but never, never confuse the technology with the concept it should serve.

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。