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Netflix Hermes test
Thread poster: Magdalena Adamus
Nathália D'Ajello
Nathália D'Ajello
Brazil
Local time: 00:53
English to Portuguese
+ ...
Continuing... Apr 18, 2017

Also, I agree with you Magdalena about the part where you said a lot of people who just know a language and are not real translators would now take the test, making the server too busy to analyse all of them. They should have found a better way to do this.

 
Franjo Varšić
Franjo Varšić
Croatia
How'd you solve it? Apr 18, 2017

Nathália D'Ajello wrote:

Hi everyone! I was looking on the internet to find out about people who might have taken the test and had answers regarding how long they take to give the score. Great finding this discussion because I completely agree with you Magdalena. My friend got the same test as you (football video). Very hard indeed. Mine was easier. And there were inconsistencies on the tasks. And yes, it was not possible to use italics and I wrote about this to the support but got only an automatic response. My password did not work either in the beginning, the 4 digits of our phone part. I wrote them on a Saturday and got a response on Monday. I took the test, April 3rd. Haven't got a response yet.


When you say you wrote to them on Saturday and got a response on Monday, do you mean the automatic response or a response from a gen-u-ine, honest to goodness, legitimate, live human being? Because it seems like most people only get the automatic response and then nothing after that.

You say your password didn't work initially, had the SMS with the link arrived by that point?

How did you resolve the password not working problem?


 
Lucie Olešová
Lucie Olešová  Identity Verified
Czech Republic
Local time: 04:53
Member (2016)
Swedish to Czech
+ ...
Problem logging in Apr 19, 2017

Pearl1919 wrote:

Dear Fellow Translators! Has anyone else experienced problems in logging in to take the Hermes Translation Test? Hermes will not recognise my login details, even though they are correct. I wrote Tech Support and they wrote back to apologise for the coding error on their part, but the issue persists and has not yet been resolved. I even wrote the CEO -- still to no avail. Any similar experiences out there? According to at least one media report, thousands have already taken this test:

http://indianexpress.com/article/technology/social/netflix-hermes-translation-test-completed-by-thousands-globally-4594100/

Is the site simply overwhelmed?

Any feedback would be welcome! Thank you in advance!


Hi, yes I have exactly the same problem! And their support just ignores my email so I'm not able to get to the test.


 
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Franjo Varšić
Franjo Varšić
Croatia
touchdown Apr 19, 2017

Michele Vartuli wrote:

About the test itself: I got the football video. I don't understand what all the fuss is about. So what if American football terms don't translate in your language? Big deal! Guess how you say "touchdown" in Portuguese? Yeah, you guessed it! It's "touchdown"! When a term doesn't translate, your work is already done! No need to re-invent the wheel, Einsteins.


Disagree. You should always come up with a term in your own language, if at all possible.

But, more importantly, what is Netflix's policy on this, or the policy of the person who'll be grading your/my translation.

Portuguese subtitles, and he said they pay 2 dollars per minute out of the 9 dollars Netflix pays them.


Is the $9 all for the translation, though, or is it also QC? Because those prices they have listed in that one PDF that's made the rounds are prices for QC+translation+some other stuff.


 
andra_s
andra_s
Netherlands
no test results Apr 19, 2017

I've taken the test two weeks ago and still no answer from them. Do you know where we can check the results? I know there was also an email address where we can ask for the results, but I cannot find anymore. I'm pretty sure I've failed it anyway, but just for the fun of this, I have a question: how did you use Italics? I've had text that was supposed to be in Italic, but I didn't know how to make it Italic. Was there a button I've missed? I did try to look for it.

 
romilandia
romilandia
Argentina
I agree with you!! Exactly! Apr 19, 2017

José Henrique Lamensdorf wrote:

I think it was well-devised. The multiple-choice parts - which a computer can score instantly - will really enable them to screen out those who haven't got what it takes. Their online video translation platform is much better than the ones I've seen imposed by some translation agencies/subtitling firms. As the clips are short, it won't be difficult for skilled evaluators to score them.

Netflix reaching out to freelance translators directly may be a sign that the in-between "vendors" are not paying translators enough to get acceptable quality. Though it will involve extensive project management work from the Nexflix staff, they'll supposedly be able to control the quality level of the translations they hire.


 
Lior Hadar
Lior Hadar
Israel
Local time: 05:53
English to Hebrew
Style guide Apr 19, 2017

Hello folks

I am at phase 4 of this test, where you have to translate a video. I was just wondering, does anybody know if we are supposed to use our language style guide (which can differ from the English) or just follow the general style protocol.
For example, for my language, we're supposed to use hyphen only for the second speaker, but the English has hyphens for both.

The Hermes test guidelines say "Before starting, please make sure to review the Timed Text St
... See more
Hello folks

I am at phase 4 of this test, where you have to translate a video. I was just wondering, does anybody know if we are supposed to use our language style guide (which can differ from the English) or just follow the general style protocol.
For example, for my language, we're supposed to use hyphen only for the second speaker, but the English has hyphens for both.

The Hermes test guidelines say "Before starting, please make sure to review the Timed Text Style Guides (found in the Tutorials section) which explain Netflix Style Guide and subtitling requirements", but it is unclear if they mean the general requirements or the specific language requirements.

How did other people here handle it?

Thanks.
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Michele Vartuli (X)
Michele Vartuli (X)
Brazil
Local time: 00:53
English to Portuguese
+ ...
A few replies Apr 20, 2017

José Henrique, first of all, let me congratulate you on your excellent English writing skills. And if you're not being ironic in the title of your comment, thank you very much!

José Henrique Lamensdorf wrote:
Perhaps not. I wouldn't know about other countries, but the standard Internet connection contract in Brazil is that the subscriber will always have AT LEAST 10% of the agreed speed. IOW - at least in Brazil - a 20 MBPS connection means that the user will always have (unless the connection is down) 2 MPBS or more.

Translating jittery video is definitely not a worthy endeavor.


I agree with the last part - although jittery would not be the problem as much as buffering/stuttering video, actually. And of course, the more speed your connection has, the better for any kind of use. I just intended to point out that you shouldn't give up and not even take the test (as someone in this thread did) just because your connection is under 20 mB. Maybe you'll have to work at night to avoid Internet traffic peaks and get the most from the connection you have (like I did), but it isn't by any means impossible.

José Henrique Lamensdorf wrote:
A translator must level - at least - with the intended audience. A highly technical video intended for brain surgeons will require a specialized translator, of course. If the football video is intended for average TV spectators, any translator worth his salt should be able to figure it out properly.


My thoughts exactly. And "figuring it out properly", IMHO, means this: Subtitles, especially in any video material aimed at entertainment, are not intended to show off your linguistic prowess or the hours you've spent on research. Sometimes an accurate and complete translation doesn't help at all the understandability of a scene. I'm not saying this to José Henrique, obviously, but you have to bear in mind that the audience is trying to enjoy their show and they only have 3-4 seconds to take in your work, understand it, match it to what's being said in the scene and make some sense of the whole. If you spend a quarter of an hour crafting some gem of a subtitle with the cleverest translation of some impossible pun or some term not even intended for translation, such as touchdown or serial killer, chances are that the aforementioned subtitle will make the poor viewer's brain CPU freeze, and they'll be forced to pause the scene and mull about what you wrote at least for a minute to decrypt it and recognize your brilliance. (Trust me, I've seen that in translations, and even I have committed that sin as a newbie.) So let's not overdo it, okay? Oftenly in subtitles less is more.

Franjo Varšić wrote:
Disagree. You should always come up with a term in your own language, if at all possible.


You said it yourself: if at all possible. But if it's not possible, as in the mentioned case in Portuguese, and you insist on it, you're just hammering a square peg into a round hole and not doing the viewer any favors.

Franjo Varšić wrote:
Is the $9 all for the translation, though, or is it also QC? Because those prices they have listed in that one PDF that's made the rounds are prices for QC+translation+some other stuff.


The PDF says "subtitle creation". But it stands to reason that most of the English titles to be translated into other languages are already subtitled in English, and you'll just need to translate them, not time the subtitles or "some other stuff". As for QC, if they (Netflix) are aiming for quality, you should do quality control on your own work to the best of your ability, don't you think? Any other QC by an independent third party would have to be ordered by them (Netflix) as a separate job and surely be paid accordingly.

Still waiting for my score, in case anyone's wondering.

No one in this thread has got their score yet, right? Apparently, apart from a few "friend-of-a-friend" stories about someone getting their score back, we've got zilch so far.


 
Ivan Czar
Ivan Czar  Identity Verified
Hungary
Local time: 04:53
English to Hungarian
+ ...
Cheating on Hermes test Apr 20, 2017

People start cheating on the Hermes test. They take a screenshot and then ask translators to give them the right answers. The problem is if they will collect the phrases sooner or later they can create ultimate keys as the number of phrases are limited.

I do hope Netflix realize this problem soon and find a solution to counter it.


 
Caroluc
Caroluc
Italy
Local time: 04:53
English to Italian
Results???? Apr 20, 2017

I did the test on April 3rd, but I can't see my results yet.
Where do I have to look? There's nothing in my dashboard and the homepage is completely blank!


 
José Henrique Lamensdorf
José Henrique Lamensdorf  Identity Verified
Brazil
Local time: 00:53
English to Portuguese
+ ...
In memoriam
@ Michele & ALL Apr 20, 2017

Michele Vartuli wrote:
José Henrique, first of all, let me congratulate you on your excellent English writing skills. And if you're not being ironic in the title of your comment, thank you very much!


I wish you had no reason to congratulate me. Heck, I'm a professional EN < > PT translator!

A couple of decades ago, I was divorced, and a group of friends and friends-of-friends decided to set up a New Year's party. Incidentally, it took place at the home of the yet-to-become my wife for almost 18 years now. Each guest would bring something.
An amateur chef had a last-minute trip out of town, wouldn't be able to come, yet he sent a giant roast turkey. It looked delicious, but daunting; nobody felt competent to cut it into edible pieces. My girlfriend at that time (not my wife) took a step forward, grabbed an electric knife, and said, "I'll do it." In no time she cut that bird into perfect slices and pieces with amazing dexterity. Everybody was in awe, so she blurted, "Heck, I'm an eye surgeon! What else would you expect? Let's eat!"

That illustrates why I expect every translator to have great writing skills in any language they work with. I speak three other languages, yet without anything close to a comparable flair, so I refrain from translating in or out of these.

I wasn't ironic, I meant it. Your post let me see the entire picture. Translation work often has its chain of supply unduly extended, with one agency outsourcing to another. Bottom line is that a pricey agency gets the assignment, however at the other end of the chain there isn't enough money left to afford anything better than a cheap amateur, whose output will be eventually delivered to the deep-pocketed end-client.

Apparently Netflix's intent here is to cut this chain of supply short, so they'll get the best quality they can at an affordable cost.

Michele Vartuli wrote:
José Henrique Lamensdorf wrote:
A translator must level - at least - with the intended audience. A highly technical video intended for brain surgeons will require a specialized translator, of course. If the football video is intended for average TV spectators, any translator worth his salt should be able to figure it out properly.


My thoughts exactly. And "figuring it out properly", IMHO, means this: Subtitles, especially in any video material aimed at entertainment, are not intended to show off your linguistic prowess or the hours you've spent on research.
...
Oftenly in subtitles less is more.


In subtitling, I relentlessly advocate for the spectator. He or she must enjoy the movie (provided it's good) above everything. The client may have a whole manual of rules, they often help, but not always.

The "M" in my SMART goal (viz. measurable) will have been achieved when a spectator is talking about the movie, say, a week later and, upon being asked "Did you watch it dubbed or subtitled?" replies with "To be honest, I don't remember."

In translation for dubbing, I strive to do the same. Long before I got into video translation, I recall having seen a performance by Rachel Welch on TV so perfectly dubbed, that it made me look up whether she actually spoke such flawless BR Portuguese. (No, she doesn't. AFAIK not even Spanish, in spite of her Colombian father.) I try my best in translation so that a competent dubber will achieve that effect.

In a nutshell, dubbing is all about metrics. Meanwhile subtitling is all about conciseness... getting the idea across as quickly as possible, so the spectator will have more time left after reading to enjoy the movie. Otherwise, they'd be better served from reading the book (or script) at their own pace.

[Edited at 2017-04-20 18:01 GMT]


 
Sonny_dbb
Sonny_dbb
Germany
Local time: 04:53
German to Russian
+ ...
Did ANYONE get their test results yet? Apr 20, 2017

Subj. Finished the tests some 2 weeks ago, wondering if they are actually being evaluated at all, since I wasn't able to find any comments on the 'net from anyone who actually had their results from Netflix.
In this thread, someone mentions someone-they-know who had gotten the results already, but is there anyone who can say "yes I got them"?


 
Chiara Sodi
Chiara Sodi
Italy
Local time: 04:53
English to Italian
Can't finish the test. Apr 20, 2017

When I registered for the test I noticed the system requirements and used a new computer as I didn't want to get stuck.

I managed to complete the first 3 stages of the test without any technical problem, however as soon as I started stage 4 the videos stopped loading, obviously the timer still ran (until I pressed the link to the support email).
When I checked the dashboard I also noticed that it was displaying 6 stages (stage 5 being counted twice).

I emailed the
... See more
When I registered for the test I noticed the system requirements and used a new computer as I didn't want to get stuck.

I managed to complete the first 3 stages of the test without any technical problem, however as soon as I started stage 4 the videos stopped loading, obviously the timer still ran (until I pressed the link to the support email).
When I checked the dashboard I also noticed that it was displaying 6 stages (stage 5 being counted twice).

I emailed them (twice) about these points more than a week ago, but I have not received any answer whatsoever.

Has anyone had this kind of problem with their test? Any suggestions? Should I create a second profile and restart? I am not too kin on retaking the first 3 stages and I am not sure I should try test 5 and start the timer on that one too without having solved stage 4 first.

It's quite a long test already, the least they should do is to provide proper support and/or be ready to deal with more support requests as more people take the test due to all the advertising and word of mouth.

I hope Netflix manages to sort out their support system, if there was a real deadline, I would have missed it because of this.
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