| Pages in topic: < [1 2] | The price for Language Quality Assurance Thread poster: Lamine Boukabour
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Tony Keily
Local time: 09:34
Italian to English
+ ...
| Terms, terms, terms... | Nov 30, 2023 |
Just to note that, as usual, terms like 'proofreading' are not being used here in accordance with the definitions of European Standard EN ISO 17100.
The usual reaction to this kind of objection is along the lines of 'Yes, but you KNOW what I mean!' or 'But Trados uses "proofreading" too.' These reactions fail to explain what we should call actual proofreading if we now use that word to describe revision.
It just seems to me that if translation is to be taken seriously... See more Just to note that, as usual, terms like 'proofreading' are not being used here in accordance with the definitions of European Standard EN ISO 17100.
The usual reaction to this kind of objection is along the lines of 'Yes, but you KNOW what I mean!' or 'But Trados uses "proofreading" too.' These reactions fail to explain what we should call actual proofreading if we now use that word to describe revision.
It just seems to me that if translation is to be taken seriously as a profession (before it's killed off - see almost all other forums), the relatively short list of services we provide should be given their standard names.
It's also worth noting LQA is not among the list of standard LSP services and neither is it listed in EN ISO 17100's Annex F on other value-added services (although the Annex's list is, wisely, non-exhaustive).
So I guess LQA, like Eminem/Marshall Mathers back in the day, is whatever you say it is. ▲ Collapse
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Tony Keily wrote:
Just to note that, as usual, terms like 'proofreading' are not being used here in accordance with the definitions of European Standard EN ISO 17100.
You’ll have to forgive me Tony for never having read that standard and having no intention of ever doing so because the ISO needs to butt out of translation. They lost me years ago when they invented ISO 9001(?) so that agencies could convince clients that two crappy translators do a better job than one good one.
I call it checking. You call it revision. Some call it proofreading. Like with me and ISO, I honestly don’t think anyone cares…
| | | | | Beware of “bastard translations” | Dec 5, 2023 |
I’ve been entrusted with LQAE for a long time with the same outsourcer for several outstanding corporate customers, and we went through some surprising events of firms providing us with documents that they handed over as “translations”. As time went by, that awkward situation became a regular one with different important international firms.
The original deal, however, was the following: if the changes represented less than one-third of the total words, the rate was 1/3 of the normal... See more I’ve been entrusted with LQAE for a long time with the same outsourcer for several outstanding corporate customers, and we went through some surprising events of firms providing us with documents that they handed over as “translations”. As time went by, that awkward situation became a regular one with different important international firms.
The original deal, however, was the following: if the changes represented less than one-third of the total words, the rate was 1/3 of the normal rate; if the changes represented more than one-third and less than half of the total words, the rate was 1/2 of the normal rate, and if the changes represented more than half of the total words, the rate was 2/3 of the normal rate.
In practice, such a situation was initially fair for the three parties involved, i.e., the customer, the outsourcer, and me. As machine translation became more regularly used, we have come upon some awkward cases where it was crystal clear that the documents to be LQAEed were simply processed with some translation software with no human intervention whatsoever, which eventually led me to call these projects “bastard translations” since they were only created with a simple click.
I had some cases where my suggestion was to charge 100% of the normal rate, which was seldom approved, and the most common scenario in such unfortunate situations was to get 90% of the common rate.
Moreover, such projects usually have restrained TATs, and cumbersome projects naturally require more time, which brings about additional conflicts.
A similar situation happened with MTPE. Outsources often say these projects have good quality but you never know for sure what you are going to receive. Therefore, dear friends of mine, my humble suggestion is certainly to offer an hourly rate both for LQAE and MTPE, which being honestly seen by all three parties, happens to be the only fair situation.
Well, that’s it. Best regards!
JJ ▲ Collapse
| | | | Lamine Boukabour 
Algeria
Local time: 08:34
Member (2022)
English to Arabic
TOPIC STARTER
Thank you for sharing your experiences with LQAE and MTPE projects. Your suggestion of an hourly rate for transparency and fairness is thoughtful and pragmatic.
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