Poll: If you do, when did you start using machine translation or offering MTPE services? Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
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This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "If you do, when did you start using machine translation or offering MTPE services?".
This poll was originally submitted by Thorsten Schülke. View the poll results »
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I don't offer MTPE, but, as I said before (a similar Quick Poll), I’ve done only one MTPE job so far (I’ve refused many as I don’t want to shoot myself on the foot).
P.S. I must add that yesterday chatting with a colleague I respect and enjoy working with she said that nowadays she much prefers doing MTPE to editing some human translations. I’m not easily influenced but I might reassess my opinion on MTPE…
[Edited at 2024-04-30 07:04 GMT]
| | | | Gaurav Gupta
India
Local time: 05:59
Member (2023)
Japanese to English
I didn't become a translator to become a machine slave
I became a translator because I enjoy the process
| | | | Lieven Malaise
Belgium
Local time: 02:29
Member (2020)
French to Dutch
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I started using it in 2020 at the beginning of the pandemic as one of the measures to weaponize myself against the financial doom I thought covid would bring (eventually it didn't bring any).
No regrets whatsoever. On the contrary: offering quality MTPE at a profitable rate is without a doubt an asset to survive a little longer in this industry.
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Zea_Mays 
Italy
Local time: 02:29
Member (2009)
English to German
+ ...
I wouldn't put using MT and offering MTPE on the same level, they are completely different things.
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I never offered to do MTPE services. Being asked about it is another matter though.
[Edited at 2024-04-30 07:47 GMT]
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I don't use MT. All assignments I get from agencies expressly ban MT use.
I was offered (never offered them) and completed MTPE jobs for the first time in 2001 for a returning agency customer. Then sporadically from 2007 until 2010. Then recently from long-standing customers.
Twenty+ years of progress and still as boring, uninteresting, mind-numbing a task as order pick-up in a giant warehouse. At least I earn more per hour than standard translation, but it's only to offset fu... See more I don't use MT. All assignments I get from agencies expressly ban MT use.
I was offered (never offered them) and completed MTPE jobs for the first time in 2001 for a returning agency customer. Then sporadically from 2007 until 2010. Then recently from long-standing customers.
Twenty+ years of progress and still as boring, uninteresting, mind-numbing a task as order pick-up in a giant warehouse. At least I earn more per hour than standard translation, but it's only to offset future brain damage.
Philippe
[Edited at 2024-04-30 11:52 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | Liena Vijupe
Latvia
Local time: 03:29
Member (2014)
French to Latvian
+ ...
I do not remember the exact time, I think it was before Covid already. I have never offered it and still don't, but was forced to use it for EU jobs if I wanted to continue the work. Considering the volumes it has been generally worth it, just boring as hell.
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I don't remember - and in the beginning it was just a hassle, which I just took on exceptionally.
However, surprisingly MT has improved tremendously the last year and has even become a help.
But I still don't do MTPE for peanuts.
| | | | Stepan Konev
Russian Federation
Local time: 03:29
English to Russian
| Apples and oranges | Apr 30 |
You should not mix two different things together. Offering MTPE is a synonym of ripping off yourself. MT is a tool that can facilitate your work if you know how to use it. I use MT for years now but I don't accept MTPE in the modern sense ("the less we pay, the more you work > profit").
| | | | Levan Namoradze
Georgia
Local time: 04:29
Member (2005)
English to Georgian
+ ...
Any MTPE project is an underpaid job. Agencies pay less for an almost same job. I would rather give up translating, than deal with MTPE jobs.
| | | | Alex Lichanow
Germany
Local time: 02:29
Member (2020)
English to German
+ ...
| Never really started... | Apr 30 |
...and probably never will. I did get into DeepL pretty much when it was introduced, but I have never used it beyond helping me with the occasional complex sentence. It would never occur to me to pre-MT any of my jobs and then post-edit the output, the hassle is way too much compared to just translating the way I am used to translating.
MTPE, though? I will - very rarely - accept a job to see if I'm missing out on anything, only to get clear confirmation that, no, I am still not missing ou... See more ...and probably never will. I did get into DeepL pretty much when it was introduced, but I have never used it beyond helping me with the occasional complex sentence. It would never occur to me to pre-MT any of my jobs and then post-edit the output, the hassle is way too much compared to just translating the way I am used to translating.
MTPE, though? I will - very rarely - accept a job to see if I'm missing out on anything, only to get clear confirmation that, no, I am still not missing out and probably never will. I don't know - nor care to know - what MT engines my clients are using, but they are not even able to construct the simplest German sentences. ▲ Collapse
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I feel like many translators take issue with MTPE, and rightly so. However, recently, even respectable agencies that have been around for what feels like decades, have started offering MTPE services that jeopardize the translator, making quality jobs harder to find than ever before.
Sometimes one is forced to take these kinds of jobs, especially in dry months. No client guarantees constant quality work. Our industry is very harsh in that you're always seeking new clients/opportunit... See more I feel like many translators take issue with MTPE, and rightly so. However, recently, even respectable agencies that have been around for what feels like decades, have started offering MTPE services that jeopardize the translator, making quality jobs harder to find than ever before.
Sometimes one is forced to take these kinds of jobs, especially in dry months. No client guarantees constant quality work. Our industry is very harsh in that you're always seeking new clients/opportunities in order to maintain a decent living.
That's just my own experience though. I'm wondering what others think about this. Maybe I'm taking the wrong approach to obtaining clients. Let me know your thoughts! ▲ Collapse
| | | | Hayley Wakenshaw
United Kingdom
Local time: 01:29
Member (2018)
Dutch to English
| Sometimes MT is better than a human! | May 2 |
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida wrote:
P.S. I must add that yesterday chatting with a colleague I respect and enjoy working with she said that nowadays she much prefers doing MTPE to editing some human translations. I’m not easily influenced but I might reassess my opinion on MTPE…
[Edited at 2024-04-30 07:04 GMT]
Oh lord, I absolutely agree. In my language pair, I’m afraid there is usually not much difference in quality between the human-translated texts and the machine-translated texts.* They take about the same amount of time to revise. Actually, sometimes, the punctuation is quite sloppy in human translations, so they take longer. I get 25% of my translation rate for revision. I get about 60% of my translation rate for MTPE. So I’m happy to do MTPE, but as a rule, I don’t do revision any more.
I started doing MTPE at the end of 2022.
Interestingly, since Chat GPT and DeepL came to the fore and overtook GT, I’ve been getting better translation work. Bigger jobs, more well-written source texts and better rates. It gives me hope that there will be room for good creative translators for a while yet.
*I suspect that this is because not many native speakers of the target language understand the source language well enough. Instead, it appears that most translations are done by non-native speakers.
[Edited at 2024-05-02 09:36 GMT]
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