Difference between translation and proofreading
இழை இடுபவர்: mari pet
mari pet
mari pet  Identity Verified
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Local time: 11:41
ஸ்பேனிஷ் - ஸ்லோவாக்
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Nov 14, 2011

I have just received an offer from an agency for a proofreading job.
"Slovak copy would be adapted from Czech and (...) to proofread the Czech copy and adapt it for the Slovak market."
I wasn't very clear if what I have to do is to translate from Czech or to proofread the translation. But I'm afraid, I have to do both things but under the title "proofreading". Do you think is this normal? Well, Czech and Slovak are very similar and understandable but they are two different languages
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I have just received an offer from an agency for a proofreading job.
"Slovak copy would be adapted from Czech and (...) to proofread the Czech copy and adapt it for the Slovak market."
I wasn't very clear if what I have to do is to translate from Czech or to proofread the translation. But I'm afraid, I have to do both things but under the title "proofreading". Do you think is this normal? Well, Czech and Slovak are very similar and understandable but they are two different languages with different vocabulary, syntax an so on. Now I understand perfectly why so many advertising (translated into Slovak) sound like Czech and use Czech words which try to sound Slovak and Czech syntax...
BTW, can some Spanish translator imagine that an agency sends him a text in Italian or Portuguese and he just has to proofread it for the Spanish market?
Sounds foolish, right?
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Tom in London
Tom in London
யுனைடட் கிங்டம்
Local time: 10:41
உறுப்பினர் (2008)
இத்தாலியன் - ஆங்கிலம்
Proofreading Nov 14, 2011

mari pet wrote:

Sounds foolish, right?


Yes, very foolish. Every time I see the word "proofreading" all sorts of alarm bells begin to ring. It often means "doing a completely new translation for half the money and no professional satisfaction".

In your case, it would appear that a careless PM no longer even bothers to think what "proofreading" really means: it means "translation".

[Edited at 2011-11-14 12:13 GMT]


 
Thomas Pfann
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Go and educate the client Nov 14, 2011

Very often it is possible to simply adapt one flavour of a language into another by making a few changes here and there without having to translate from scratch - this is often called "proofreading" or "editing" and not really a problem. It is often done when different versions of a German text for the German, Austrian and Swiss markets are needed or different English versions for the British or the US market, for instance.

However, this is obviously not possible for Czech and Slova
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Very often it is possible to simply adapt one flavour of a language into another by making a few changes here and there without having to translate from scratch - this is often called "proofreading" or "editing" and not really a problem. It is often done when different versions of a German text for the German, Austrian and Swiss markets are needed or different English versions for the British or the US market, for instance.

However, this is obviously not possible for Czech and Slovak as these are two different languages. Your client apparently is not aware of this and needs to be told. Make your case, explain the matter and why you need to translate from scratch rather than simply adapt the Czech translation. In the end the client will probably thank you for it.

At least they didn't ask for a Czechoslovakian translation.
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Rosa Grau (X)
Rosa Grau (X)
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Local time: 11:41
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Machine translated? Nov 14, 2011

I think most probably your Slovak copy would be a text that has been machine translated ("adapted" in their words) from Czech. Then you have to re-translate it at half the price that you would charge if you had to translate it from scratch from SL to CZ.

Translators are becoming just machine assistants. And some of them out there still believe that translation is an art! Not this kind of translation indeed.

Rosa


 
mari pet
mari pet  Identity Verified
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தலைப்பை ஆரம்பித்தல்
I don't think so Nov 14, 2011

Rosa Grau wrote:

I think most probably your Slovak copy would be a text that has been machine translated ("adapted" in their words) from Czech. Then you have to re-translate it at half the price that you would charge if you had to translate it from scratch from SL to CZ.





I think they wanted just send me the Czech translation and I would just translate it to Slovak, because as they told me, they were waiting for the translation so that they could send it to me. I think it's the common practice thay operate because the PM presented it to me as it was the most standard practice (it's not a Czech/Slovak agency).

As for the explication and education, I see it a bit difficult, as I received two messages so far, every one of them from different PM and no answer to my question (or comment).

So maybe they are just looking for another "proofreader".


 
Natalie
Natalie  Identity Verified
போலந்து
Local time: 11:41
உறுப்பினர் (2002)
ஆங்கிலம் - ருஷ்ஷியன்
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மட்டுறுத்துனர்
SITE LOCALIZER
This is NOT foolish - I think, you have misunderstood the task Nov 14, 2011

You should clarify this with the outsourcer, of course, but my best guess is that you have misunderstood the task. I thing, the outsourcer does not require you to re-translate the Czech text into Slovak; I think they meant that the Czech document will be used in Slovakia, and you just need to check if it will be fully understood by Czech speakers who live in Slovakia. I do the same quite often with EN documents translated into Russian and intended for use not only in Russia, but in other countri... See more
You should clarify this with the outsourcer, of course, but my best guess is that you have misunderstood the task. I thing, the outsourcer does not require you to re-translate the Czech text into Slovak; I think they meant that the Czech document will be used in Slovakia, and you just need to check if it will be fully understood by Czech speakers who live in Slovakia. I do the same quite often with EN documents translated into Russian and intended for use not only in Russia, but in other countries where part of population speaks Russian: Ukraine, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Israel, USA. Usually you don't need to do anything at all as the text should remain exactly the same, however, sometimes you need to "localize" some things, currencies, for example, or measurement units.

I would suggest asking the client if this is what they need.



[Edited at 2011-11-14 13:51 GMT]
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mari pet
mari pet  Identity Verified
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Local time: 11:41
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தலைப்பை ஆரம்பித்தல்
not sure about Nov 14, 2011

Natalie wrote:

You should clarify this with the outsourcer, of course, but my best guess is that you have misunderstood the task. I thing, the outsourcer does not require you to re-translate the Czech text into Slovak; I think they meant that the Czech document will be used in Slovakia, and you just need to check if it will be fully understood by Czech speakers who live in Slovakia. I do the same quite often with EN documents translated into Russian and intended for use not only in Russia, but in other countries where part of population speaks Russian: Ukraine, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Israel, USA. Usually you don't need to do anything at all as the text should remain exactly the same, however, sometimes you need to "localize" some things, currencies, for example, or measurement units.



[Edited at 2011-11-14 13:51 GMT]


In Slovakia it is not usual to create different versions for the Czech native speakers who live in Slovakia, as we are talking about 50 000 people which, I dare to claim, can perfectly understand Slovak. It is not either usual to create hungarian versions, even if there is about a half million of native speakers of Hungarian (which is quite more significant amount - the population in Slovakia is five and half millions).
Neither in Czech republic there is usual to use Slovak version, and there live few hundreds of thousands Slovak speakers.

Anyway, if it was true, I'm not the right person to do that, since Czech is not my mother language.

Of course, I can ask, but still waiting for their answer, so...


 


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Difference between translation and proofreading







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