On a site where people can offer (or ask for) things for free, a certain person offered a number of items. The list included also:
5. Flying pan
Photos on request.
I am sure this person just mistyped the word, but still ...
I would love to know what a flying pan looks like - or even OWN one ...
2/02/2012
2/01/2012
Unbelievable!
This morning I got (again) one of those wonderful (Chinese in this case) mails:
> We have one file to be translated from Japanese to english, one
> part is around 7000 japanese characters, second part is around
> 10,000 japanese characters. It is text about law, can you
> please take one part of it? Our deadline is 17:00 on Feb 3 at
> Tokyo time. Price is 0.04 USD per english word. Our payment term
> is paypal or moneybookers.
Which was just followed by the name of sender.
(Admittedly, searching through the footer of the mail allowed me to find that person's Proz.com profile.)
The above numbers (7000 characters, quite complex material) indicate about 20 pages of translation and deadline would be about 24 hours later. (Not to mention that PayPal would swallow about half of the earned in form of "fees")
Personally I consider (and told the sender) a mail with no identification of who the sender is, what company s/he works for or any contact information as shady.VERY shady!
And the rate: 0.04 USD/word is a joke, isn't it?
Given the current exchange rate, this EXTREMELY low.
On that rate I could not make enough money to "put food on the table" = LITERALLY, even if I were to work 36 hours a day.
I told the sender (actually located in Hongkong) so, whereupon he replied:
"The file is attached and our info is as blow, please let me know whether you can translate the yellow part of the file."
I don't know about everybody else, but apart from irrealistically too cheap I consider this an offense. An attempt to make a fool out of a translation WORKER.
Are the Chinese not supposed to take particular care of the WORKER COMRADES???
1/31/2012
CAT tools - are they really helpful???
Last spring I bought one CAT tool (memoQ) and although I it tried many times already on different files, so far it has proven "helpful" in just ONE case. Everything else has been trouble!
Most probably this is because I am just too stupid, but I suspect some more "basic" reasons too.
For example:
I get a Word file for partial translation = meaning the file contains German, English and Japanese text, of which only the Japanese portions scattered throughout the document need to be translated.
1) I have to import the file.
2) Select all German/English text portions and copy them into the target segement.
3) Translate a few segments, want to take a break or continue working somewhere else.
4) Attempt BACKUP the "project".
=> Get error messages that tell me, I cannot do that. The reasons elude me.
* In fall of last year someone took remote control of my computer to resolve similar problems with an Excel file, and commented: "Oh, that is a "known issue" = bug. I will try to make the developers fix this."
5) Attempt to "export" the active document, which still contains a few hundred untranslated segments, fails too. Error message:
"At least one of the documents you are trying to export contains errors than prevent memoQ from exporting the document.
Do you wish to resolve these errors now?" Yes ->
6) Results, naturally, a very long list of items/segments, where the "error" is:
"Too few memoQ {tags} in target segment"
This is a matter of course too, since I have yet done anything with those segments!
The customer support tells me:
"It is not possible to simply ignore all the tag errors in memoQ, and export a monolingual document in it's original format, as the missing tags would make that impossible."
7) "Export bilingual" sort of "works" = it gives me a 2-column, intricately interlaced and completely garbled rtf file in which I would have to search and than manually copy each and every already translated segment to the orginal Word file. (Since memoQ cannot handle ODF files, I am also stuck with Word.)
Well, THAT does not make ANY sense. In that case I would be a lot better off using the original file from the beginning and forget about memoQ altogether.
Actually, that was the idea when I tried to "export" the document.
So, with the mentioned ONE SINGLE exception I ALWAYS get the some (or all) of the following problems
* Software cannot import original file
* Software cannot export imported file
* Software cannot "backup" the project
* In order to work on the designated text, I have to work on ALL OTHER text too.* The work put into a file only half finished apparently cannot be recovered be recovered in any sensible/practical way.
* I always MANUALLY have to tell memoQ, that it should ignore various things I would NEVER have to care about working with an ordinary (Word/text) file. There I would for example just a date/number and that's it. In memoQ I am confronted with the need to check "number format", verify numbers, insert tags etc. etc.
What in a word processor is for example TWO keystrokes (for example "10") may well need to required 10 or more "clicks" to get the same thing done!
That is FIVE TIMES MORE work!
This kind of software is supposed to "increase productivity" and make the process of translation easier and more efficient. THAT is not my experience. It makes the translation work more difficult, time-consuming and labor intensive and thus DEFINITELY REDUCES productivity.
Maybe you need very special documents to begin with?
For example during translation of a Japanese patent (in particular the claims) the order in which the individual portions of the sentence are arranged in Japanese differs significantly from for example English or German. So, the "alignment" of segments like "A-A", "B-B", "C-C" etc. does not work. It needs to be "A-C", "B-B", "A-C" or something like that.
I could not yet find out, if the (any) CAT tool would be able to handle that in any labor-easing form ...
But, as I already said, I am probably must too stupid.
Most probably this is because I am just too stupid, but I suspect some more "basic" reasons too.
For example:
I get a Word file for partial translation = meaning the file contains German, English and Japanese text, of which only the Japanese portions scattered throughout the document need to be translated.
1) I have to import the file.
2) Select all German/English text portions and copy them into the target segement.
3) Translate a few segments, want to take a break or continue working somewhere else.
4) Attempt BACKUP the "project".
=> Get error messages that tell me, I cannot do that. The reasons elude me.
* In fall of last year someone took remote control of my computer to resolve similar problems with an Excel file, and commented: "Oh, that is a "known issue" = bug. I will try to make the developers fix this."
5) Attempt to "export" the active document, which still contains a few hundred untranslated segments, fails too. Error message:
"At least one of the documents you are trying to export contains errors than prevent memoQ from exporting the document.
Do you wish to resolve these errors now?" Yes ->
6) Results, naturally, a very long list of items/segments, where the "error" is:
"Too few memoQ {tags} in target segment"
This is a matter of course too, since I have yet done anything with those segments!
The customer support tells me:
"It is not possible to simply ignore all the tag errors in memoQ, and export a monolingual document in it's original format, as the missing tags would make that impossible."
7) "Export bilingual" sort of "works" = it gives me a 2-column, intricately interlaced and completely garbled rtf file in which I would have to search and than manually copy each and every already translated segment to the orginal Word file. (Since memoQ cannot handle ODF files, I am also stuck with Word.)
Well, THAT does not make ANY sense. In that case I would be a lot better off using the original file from the beginning and forget about memoQ altogether.
Actually, that was the idea when I tried to "export" the document.
So, with the mentioned ONE SINGLE exception I ALWAYS get the some (or all) of the following problems
* Software cannot import original file
* Software cannot export imported file
* Software cannot "backup" the project
* In order to work on the designated text, I have to work on ALL OTHER text too.* The work put into a file only half finished apparently cannot be recovered be recovered in any sensible/practical way.
* I always MANUALLY have to tell memoQ, that it should ignore various things I would NEVER have to care about working with an ordinary (Word/text) file. There I would for example just a date/number and that's it. In memoQ I am confronted with the need to check "number format", verify numbers, insert tags etc. etc.
What in a word processor is for example TWO keystrokes (for example "10") may well need to required 10 or more "clicks" to get the same thing done!
That is FIVE TIMES MORE work!
This kind of software is supposed to "increase productivity" and make the process of translation easier and more efficient. THAT is not my experience. It makes the translation work more difficult, time-consuming and labor intensive and thus DEFINITELY REDUCES productivity.
Maybe you need very special documents to begin with?
For example during translation of a Japanese patent (in particular the claims) the order in which the individual portions of the sentence are arranged in Japanese differs significantly from for example English or German. So, the "alignment" of segments like "A-A", "B-B", "C-C" etc. does not work. It needs to be "A-C", "B-B", "A-C" or something like that.
I could not yet find out, if the (any) CAT tool would be able to handle that in any labor-easing form ...
But, as I already said, I am probably must too stupid.
1/18/2012
Fuckin’ Sale?
I saw a very interesting news clip:
http://en.rocketnews24.com/2012/01/18/wtf-is-a-fuckin-sale/
Since I am not "subscribed" to that site, I could not leave a comment there - so I will post it here.
"I like this one!
Yet, after living for 33 years in Japan, I suspect, that this was NOT meant to be read as the English word "fucking", but rather an alphabetic rendition of the Japanese word "FUKU-IN" = good news, gospel. Selling "Fuku-in goods" around New Year is a Japanese custom.
It's just that the Japanese still have (a lot of!!) trouble with anything written in Latin characters ..."
This is very true - I believe.
And it naturally also applies to translation, since I OFTEN come across translation agencies and thus indirectly the original clients, that have very strange ideas about words.
And - unfortunately - this is also a major handicap in the field of my vocation = acupuncture.
Even there is an abundance of high quality material available in Japanese, that could make practitioners elsewhere in the world jump for joy, if it were available in English (or any other western language) ...
neither are the Japanese themselves interested in "making themselves heard", nor
are foreign publishers etc interested in Japanese materials (which seem to be considered "not the original Chinese"), because they probably won't sell.
Or, as one publisher put it: something written by a Japanese person and then translated into English (for example) will not be appealing to the English reading audience, because of the "different way of thinking".
http://en.rocketnews24.com/2012/01/18/wtf-is-a-fuckin-sale/
Since I am not "subscribed" to that site, I could not leave a comment there - so I will post it here.
"I like this one!
Yet, after living for 33 years in Japan, I suspect, that this was NOT meant to be read as the English word "fucking", but rather an alphabetic rendition of the Japanese word "FUKU-IN" = good news, gospel. Selling "Fuku-in goods" around New Year is a Japanese custom.
It's just that the Japanese still have (a lot of!!) trouble with anything written in Latin characters ..."
This is very true - I believe.
And it naturally also applies to translation, since I OFTEN come across translation agencies and thus indirectly the original clients, that have very strange ideas about words.
And - unfortunately - this is also a major handicap in the field of my vocation = acupuncture.
Even there is an abundance of high quality material available in Japanese, that could make practitioners elsewhere in the world jump for joy, if it were available in English (or any other western language) ...
neither are the Japanese themselves interested in "making themselves heard", nor
are foreign publishers etc interested in Japanese materials (which seem to be considered "not the original Chinese"), because they probably won't sell.
Or, as one publisher put it: something written by a Japanese person and then translated into English (for example) will not be appealing to the English reading audience, because of the "different way of thinking".
SOPA and PIPA
SOPA and PIPA
Apparently the US government - with the help or on initiative of large companies/commercial enterprises - is trying to implement censorship to the information available on the internet.
That sounds PRECISELY like the enhanced censorship the Chinese government has annnounced to apply to their equivalents of twitter etc. (this was on the regular news today) "to protect the society from bad influences".
Sure! Meaning: further enforcing censorship of opinions opposed to the "communist" dictatorship.
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/hmd/greek/greek_oath.html
Implementing censorship (I can image that for example Microsoft would LOVE to do that!!!) could result in the following. The beginning of the Hippocratic oath censored ->
The Hippocratic Oath
(Original Version)
I've censored the following, in protest of a bill that gives any corporation and the US government the power to censor the internet--a bill that could pass THIS WEEK. To see the uncensored text, and to stop internet censorship, visit:
http://americancensorship.org/posts/43096/uncensor
-->
I █████ by ██████ the █████████, ███████████, and ██████, and All-████, and all the ████ and █████████, ████, █████████ to my ███████ and █████████, I ████ ████ ████ ████ and ████ ███████████.
http://americancensorship.org/posts/43096/uncensor
Well, I STRONGLY OPPOSE all government or commercial idiots trying to do this to "their people" and
support free information - like the wonderful work of the people at Wikipedia!
Apparently the US government - with the help or on initiative of large companies/commercial enterprises - is trying to implement censorship to the information available on the internet.
That sounds PRECISELY like the enhanced censorship the Chinese government has annnounced to apply to their equivalents of twitter etc. (this was on the regular news today) "to protect the society from bad influences".
Sure! Meaning: further enforcing censorship of opinions opposed to the "communist" dictatorship.
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/hmd/greek/greek_oath.html
Implementing censorship (I can image that for example Microsoft would LOVE to do that!!!) could result in the following. The beginning of the Hippocratic oath censored ->
The Hippocratic Oath
(Original Version)
I've censored the following, in protest of a bill that gives any corporation and the US government the power to censor the internet--a bill that could pass THIS WEEK. To see the uncensored text, and to stop internet censorship, visit:
http://americancensorship.org/posts/43096/uncensor
-->
I █████ by ██████ the █████████, ███████████, and ██████, and All-████, and all the ████ and █████████, ████, █████████ to my ███████ and █████████, I ████ ████ ████ ████ and ████ ███████████.
http://americancensorship.org/posts/43096/uncensor
Well, I STRONGLY OPPOSE all government or commercial idiots trying to do this to "their people" and
support free information - like the wonderful work of the people at Wikipedia!
12/28/2011
Donation to Wikipedia
The other day I made a (small) donation to Wikipedia. (This is actually my second donation).
In a little questionnaire that followed was a little box, where I could write my reasons for donating.
Here is what I wrote there:
" Personally I support the idea of "free information for all" and think that it should be put forward, that knowledge (in general) should not be the "property" (copyrighted) of any single person/organization/company/country. Knowledge makes free. THAT is something this world really needs. Now more than ever."
In a little questionnaire that followed was a little box, where I could write my reasons for donating.
Here is what I wrote there:
" Personally I support the idea of "free information for all" and think that it should be put forward, that knowledge (in general) should not be the "property" (copyrighted) of any single person/organization/company/country. Knowledge makes free. THAT is something this world really needs. Now more than ever."
12/11/2011
日本にもいる事は知らなかった・・・
先日知らない京都の会社から夜の10時半に電話が掛かった。私の名前をネット上で見て、是非とも英独の翻訳を頼みたい。容量は約150ページ分のプリンターマニュアルだった。希望納期は約10日間。
元のファイルはPDFであったため原文をそのままCATツールで処理出来る物でもなかった＝全て手で翻訳とタイプする必要であった。それなりの専門文でもあって、けっし楽勝の仕事ではない。
それなのに
「添付ファイルＰＤＦの英語⇒ドイツ語への翻訳は可能でしょうか。
文字数は、27,219ワードありまして、
お支払いは、27,219ワード×5円＝136,095円となります。」
一ワード辺り5円。それは英独出来る人がいっぱいいるヨーロッパでさ話にならないほど低いレート。今までそれぐらいの「お小遣いレート」は中国やインドの会社の仕事でしか見た事ない！一ページ800円で翻訳者はこの国ではいくら働いても生活出来ない。
このような専門職（翻訳者）を馬鹿にするレートを要求する会社は日本にもあるのは知らなかった。
がっかりするね。
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