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Poll: Do you use machine translation to do a first draft? Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
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This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "Do you use machine translation to do a first draft?".
View the poll results »
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Michael Harris 
Germany
Local time: 10:10
Member (2006)
German to English
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Anke Formann
Germany
Local time: 10:10
English to German
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I like writing in my own words better than correcting somebody (or something) else's. Revising a machine translation would mean more work for me than doing the translation from scratch, so for me it's a definite "NO".
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Mary Worby
United Kingdom
Local time: 09:10
German to English
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Michael Harris wrote:
Why?
You took the words right out of my mouth. I can see no benefit. The process would only create frustration and additional work.
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Jocelyne S
France
Local time: 10:10
French to English
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| No, and I don't intend to | Apr 30, 2010 |
For once there's no "No and I don't intend to option"!
Best,
Jocelyne
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Suzan Hamer
Netherlands
Local time: 10:10
English
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Michael Harris wrote:
Why?
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Suzan Hamer
Netherlands
Local time: 10:10
English
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Jocelyne S wrote:
For once there's no "No and I don't intend to option"!
Best,
Jocelyne
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| Don't have the time to waste | Apr 30, 2010 |
If and when the standard improves I might consider honing my editing skills, but at the moment this would a case of wasting my time twice over - a bit like the situation when someone asks you to "check a translation" which their niece/employee (bilingual according to his CV)/godson has done: you have to read through the translation and THEN persuade them to give you the original so that you can translate from scratch again since this will be quicker than editing the first translation. OK, it doe... See more If and when the standard improves I might consider honing my editing skills, but at the moment this would a case of wasting my time twice over - a bit like the situation when someone asks you to "check a translation" which their niece/employee (bilingual according to his CV)/godson has done: you have to read through the translation and THEN persuade them to give you the original so that you can translate from scratch again since this will be quicker than editing the first translation. OK, it doesn't take long to come to the conclusion that the first translation is irredeemable... ▲ Collapse
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| machine machine machine | Apr 30, 2010 |
sometimes machines make life complicated.... and this is one of the cases...
why should I do a double effort??
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telefpro
Local time: 13:40
Portuguese to English
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Machine translations, more often than not, cause a mockery of the language and the translation. It sucks like out of a human translation. Sometimes it translates : the elephant rides on a cat.
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| Same comment | Apr 30, 2010 |
Why should I create so much work for myself?
Everyone knows that it is much better to get things right the first time than to fix them. Besides, with the way it is possible to whizz through the TUs at lightning speed in Studio, inserting terminology and complete phrases, based in particular on extensive termbases and my own Autosuggest dictionary, there would not be much reason to have a draft prepared in advance. In fact, the system is so good to work with these days (in Studio) th... See more Why should I create so much work for myself?
Everyone knows that it is much better to get things right the first time than to fix them. Besides, with the way it is possible to whizz through the TUs at lightning speed in Studio, inserting terminology and complete phrases, based in particular on extensive termbases and my own Autosuggest dictionary, there would not be much reason to have a draft prepared in advance. In fact, the system is so good to work with these days (in Studio) that even the proofreading stage is very little work. ▲ Collapse
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agree with Anke and telefpro. If you know what you're reading, then why use a machine to write what you already know. It'll just be garbled nonsence anyway. I would hate to have to revise a document based on a machine translation: surely it would be quicker doing it from scratch...?
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| I have folk to do that for me... | Apr 30, 2010 |
- as the Danes put it.
I have been sent plenty of machine translated text for so-called proofreading. Why introduce errors before you start doing it properly?
I do like on-line and CD rom dictionaries, my CATs and other mechanical aids, but the first draft is ALWAYS made by me - often with such primitive equipment as pencil on a print-out of the source.
That way it is honestly much easier to formulate and record alternative versions until I have found and ... See more - as the Danes put it.
I have been sent plenty of machine translated text for so-called proofreading. Why introduce errors before you start doing it properly?
I do like on-line and CD rom dictionaries, my CATs and other mechanical aids, but the first draft is ALWAYS made by me - often with such primitive equipment as pencil on a print-out of the source.
That way it is honestly much easier to formulate and record alternative versions until I have found and organised the terminology or whatever.
No typos, no need to delete, just a quick scratch out. I hop over the routine bits and mark up cross references, segments that need to be joined or divided, and note down anything I need to remember along the way.
*** Best of all, there are no wrong guesses to remove when I start typing. ***
I translate in a smooth flow, and take a break before proofreading. It actually saves a lot of time compared with starting mechanically at the top, breaking off every time I need to look something up.
Happy translating! ▲ Collapse
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Susanna Martoni
Italy
Local time: 10:10
Member (2009)
Spanish to Italian
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| Crazy idea for me | Apr 30, 2010 |
Could not think of my text machine-translated, even for a first draft.
Absolutely no!
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Roberto Rey
Colombia
Local time: 03:10
Member (2007)
Spanish to English
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| 10% said yes!! | Apr 30, 2010 |
Please God don't let me ever work with a translator who uses machine translation first!
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