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Do you submit feedback when a certain translator's jobs that you review are consistently AWFUL?
Thread poster: Adieu
Kay Denney
Kay Denney  Identity Verified
France
Local time: 18:42
French to English
. Sep 29, 2021

Christine Andersen wrote:

Tom in London wrote:

Never mind that. People who don't know the difference between "lose" and "loose" should not be criticising someone else's English.


I know the difference in my head, but my fingers don´t.
I have been struggling with keyboards for fifty years, and I still cannot promise that a mistake will never get past my final chek. (sic)

You cannot see how may times I have stopped and corrected typos, just typing this post. Or gone back. It drives me mad, but I can't type! Unfortunately my neat and legible handwriting does not fit the bill for most jobs, so I have to compromise.

But I look leniently on other people's mistakes that could simply be typos.



Could be typos, and it's not the kind of typo that spell-checks pick up on. Or it could be a non-native English speaker. It's common courtesy to write clearly, but we do need to extend some grace to those who only use English as a source language. I'm pretty sure I must have made plenty of silly mistakes in the French-language forum but nobody has ever corrected my French there.


Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
Tretyak
Ying-Ju Fang
 
Kay Denney
Kay Denney  Identity Verified
France
Local time: 18:42
French to English
. Sep 29, 2021

Adieu wrote:

At what point do you notify a PM that someone is lazy, incompetent, and utterly subpar compared to their other translators?

How do you clearly communicate that this is a real issue and you aren't just being petty or in a mood?


I always give a sentence or two of feedback as I hand my work in, I'll typically mention whether there were any shocking mistakes like important terminology choices, or if the translator didn't bother to craft sentences that sound like authentic English.

On the rare occasion that the translator has done a very sloppy job, I'll use Track changes to show the PM the extent of my editing. The amount of red ink is a pretty reliable indicator.


 
Christine Andersen
Christine Andersen  Identity Verified
Denmark
Local time: 18:42
Member (2003)
Danish to English
+ ...
I always use Track changes Sep 29, 2021

Kay Denney wrote:

On the rare occasion that the translator has done a very sloppy job, I'll use Track changes to show the PM the extent of my editing. The amount of red ink is a pretty reliable indicator.


I send two files, one RED and one CLEAN.

I sometimes wonder myself whether my suggestions are actually improvements, but I make it easy for the client to decide - it is their text!
Then the client can see what I have changed, and reject anything they disagree with. If they trust me implicitly, or do not understand English well enough to argue, they can simply use the CLEAN file, which should be final, correct and ready for use.



[Edited at 2021-09-29 13:54 GMT]


Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
AnnaSCHTR
 
AnnaSCHTR
AnnaSCHTR  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 11:42
English to Czech
+ ...
Yes, the client needs to know Sep 29, 2021

A brief feedback is important, as long as we remember that:

a) the client has ZERO interest in our emotions;

b) they probably do not speak the language, so they need to see the redline reviews (as a visual reference for the extent of the revisions) and a few specific examples with concise explanation.

If it's really bad, it is useful to point out the consequences a specific error might have, e.g. rejection of a regulatory submission, litigation, legal loop
... See more
A brief feedback is important, as long as we remember that:

a) the client has ZERO interest in our emotions;

b) they probably do not speak the language, so they need to see the redline reviews (as a visual reference for the extent of the revisions) and a few specific examples with concise explanation.

If it's really bad, it is useful to point out the consequences a specific error might have, e.g. rejection of a regulatory submission, litigation, legal loophole etc.

The requirement (a) is the reason why I edit (and shorten) my feedback several times. Also, as it had been pointed out by another poster, it helps to add something positive, according to the Mary Poppins' rule for medicine.
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Adieu
Peter Shortall
 
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Do you submit feedback when a certain translator's jobs that you review are consistently AWFUL?







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