The growing problem is a global disrespect towards professional translators which has persisted for at least 25 years; completely unrealistic deadlines that lead to shoddy work even when the translator is skilled and experienced; using unskilled labor (such as language students) for something that would require years of training and then years of practical experience to master; using machine translation tools without a professional human to check the results; and lately, replacing people with AI tools, again without a professional checking the results.
The responsibility is partly on the translators. They’re disorganized, their unions are weak or too meek to defend their members, and they keep working in poor conditions and accepting wages that are in no way representative of the skill level required.
And the responsibility is partly on consumers who blame the translators for crappy work without understanding how the industry works, rather than the companies who are satisfied with getting their translations done for cheap and at poor quality. As well as those consumers who are satisfied with poor quality translations (translations in DVD film releases in Finland have traditionally been abysmal, but people seem to have accepted that as a reality of life).
I remember one case, several years ago, when the feedback for the localization’s lack of quality was so bad that the Japanese publisher issued a public apology and promised to do better in the future - and as far as I’ve seen, they’ve done as promised. They hired better translators. Perhaps more publishers should take that route.
So yeah, there is a problem. It’s not us, the professional translators.
Reminded me once I was talking about things with two friends, and one of them brazilian, and the other from the UK.
Then I was saying something about maintenance, and we from São Paulo have the tendency to shorten words. So “manutenção” (maintenance) becomes “manut”. That UK fella couldnt help himself about the number of “manut” mentioned that day.
But English and Portuguese are very similar if dont speak neither correctly … lol
One of my former employers used mostly HP computers.
I had the HP warranty service phone number on my quick dial. I needed to call them more often than I called my team leader. The positive thing was, the service guy usually came the same or next day to replace the broken bits. Fun times.
Talking about playing with food, and the coming holiday season, reminded me of this piece of heresy from a few years back:
I’ve designed, built, decorated and destroyed my share of gingerbread houses in my days, but never have I played with chocolate like this. Chocolate is sacred. Like cheese.
I know the bashing of the entertainment industry is last month news … but music reminded me this …
That is why YouTube beats Amazon prime …
Just something to add to the idea …
Bismillah is from bismillah-ir-rahman-ir-rahim , from Arabic, literally: in the name of God, the merciful and compassionate.
