Editing - Chinese/English - is this normal?? Thread poster: Aaron Dolman
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Aaron Dolman 
United Kingdom
Local time: 11:36
Chinese to English
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Hi there!
I was offered a job with an agency, I think they first contacted me. They then asked me for rates to which I gave them, they replied and said translation rates are fine, editing rates are too high and offer xxx per source character.
They then asked me to do a translation/editing test (which is normal and fine), I received the text with Chinese and English so was instructed to edit it. It was a shambles, I thought it was something straight out of google tran... See more Hi there!
I was offered a job with an agency, I think they first contacted me. They then asked me for rates to which I gave them, they replied and said translation rates are fine, editing rates are too high and offer xxx per source character.
They then asked me to do a translation/editing test (which is normal and fine), I received the text with Chinese and English so was instructed to edit it. It was a shambles, I thought it was something straight out of google translate, so I went to google translate and pasted the source text and sure enough the English was pasted straight from Google.
They offer low rates for editing and high rates for translating, yet i am guessing i will never translate for them because they'll throw everything into google and say ti needs editing, when in fact the whole things needs translating again. Is this normal practice? What would you do in this situation?
Would be great to hear from you.
Thanks! ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Don't commit before seeing text | Oct 8, 2015 |
Hi Aaron, I normally make it clear that my proofreading rate is x per source word but if text needs editing-or even translating again- I will let them know and that rate would be higher. Be clear before you commit that text needs proofreading/editing as some agencies either do not know the difference or refuse to acknowledge it or try to trick to pay less. I would tell them the text needs re-translating and show them the errors. My 2 cents.
| | | | Sheila Wilson
Spain
Local time: 11:36
Member (2007)
English
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| Normal for some outsourcers | Oct 8, 2015 |
Aaron Dolman wrote:
They offer low rates for editing and high rates for translating, yet i am guessing i will never translate for them because they'll throw everything into google and say ti needs editing, when in fact the whole things needs translating again. Is this normal practice? What would you do in this situation?
It isn't editing, it's PEMT and it really shouldn't be done on GT output but on something a whole lot better. Even then most professional translators won't touch it, but I guess there's a place for it if the per-hour rate is acceptable. Some agencies specialise in this sort of stuff; but others would never use it. I think you can guess what I'd do .
| | | | | Don't offer editing services | Oct 9, 2015 |
Stop editing translations for that agency. Translation or nothing, end of story.
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Aaron Dolman
United Kingdom
Local time: 11:36
Chinese to English
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TOPIC STARTER
Thanks everyone, it was great to read the responses, I agree with what you have all aid and have written back to them explaining the situation and expressing that it would be good to be on the same page so if they want, we can wok together.
I just wanted to check this wasn't normal practice from agencies.
Again, thanks for your replies.
| | | | Peter Zhuang
Germany
Local time: 12:36
German to English
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| I've fell for it before | Oct 9, 2015 |
Hello Aaron, while I am sure that this happens in other language combination as well, an agency once tried to convince me to take up a PEMT job under the guise of a normal editing job in the Chinese-English language pair.
The agency approached me about a translation job, but we couldn't agree on the word price. Then they claimed to have found another candidate. A few days later, the project manager approached me again and asked if I was interested to edit the translation. Because I... See more Hello Aaron, while I am sure that this happens in other language combination as well, an agency once tried to convince me to take up a PEMT job under the guise of a normal editing job in the Chinese-English language pair.
The agency approached me about a translation job, but we couldn't agree on the word price. Then they claimed to have found another candidate. A few days later, the project manager approached me again and asked if I was interested to edit the translation. Because I was just starting out then and didn't know any better, I scanned through the first few pages and thought the "translation" read decent enough. To their credit, the agency did try to make the machine translation look vaguely like the work of a human, at least the initial pages. So I promptly alerted the project manager and pointed out that the text looked suspiciously like a MT. At the end, they paid me their normal translation rates, and I had to retranslate the whole document.
Although translators should exercise prudence when taking up a job, the onus is on agencies to inform translators of the nature of a job. If not, the agency just sounds dodgy, and I would stay away from them. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Phil Hand
China
Local time: 18:36
Chinese to English
| dishonest behaviour | Oct 11, 2015 |
No-one else has said it yet, so I'll just make it absolutely explicit: what the agency did there was dishonest, and demonstrates to me that you shouldn't work with them.
Whether or not translators should do editing of machine translation is a contested issue, so for the moment let's just accept that some translators are happy to do it. It's called PEMT, and it is a different job to editing human translations. You charge different rates for it, and it requires different skills. An ag... See more No-one else has said it yet, so I'll just make it absolutely explicit: what the agency did there was dishonest, and demonstrates to me that you shouldn't work with them.
Whether or not translators should do editing of machine translation is a contested issue, so for the moment let's just accept that some translators are happy to do it. It's called PEMT, and it is a different job to editing human translations. You charge different rates for it, and it requires different skills. An agency which fails to distinguish between these two different kinds of jobs is just not professional.
Personally, I don't do any editing at all, and certainly not post-editing. But if you want to offer those services, then go for it - just make sure that you are setting the right rates, and that you and your clients are crystal clear on what services you are performing. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Neirda
China
Local time: 18:36
Chinese to French
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| Don't just read the first pages | Oct 13, 2015 |
But to be honest, I personally scratched editing and proofreading from my services unless for some very few clients I know for sure do things right.
For a pair as "complex" and with such an imbalanced market as Chinese-French, this used to happen way, way too often.
Too many agencies (and their clients) see this as perfectly standard practice, just assume they can cut their expenses by getting the initial job done by MT or by an unskilled translator (who's going to get confuse... See more But to be honest, I personally scratched editing and proofreading from my services unless for some very few clients I know for sure do things right.
For a pair as "complex" and with such an imbalanced market as Chinese-French, this used to happen way, way too often.
Too many agencies (and their clients) see this as perfectly standard practice, just assume they can cut their expenses by getting the initial job done by MT or by an unskilled translator (who's going to get confused by page 3 - always check a document at about 75% of its length, that's where true magic happens) then just get the proofing discount for the "same result".
So, well this used to be a waste of time on my side until I decided to shut the tap.
Those same companies can be otherwise very decent on all other aspects by the way. I'm not even blaming them for taking the garbage recycle part of their business. Just not with me.
[Edited at 2015-10-13 09:25 GMT] ▲ Collapse
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