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Translation without CAT tools
Thread poster: blue_swimmer
normann
normann
France
Old school translation with some technology Jul 28, 2014

blue_swimmer wrote:

1) Terminology/glossary tool: are there any tools working with the monolingual files? E.g. with separate source and target files. What is your experience with them?


As far as I know this doesn't exist. Ask your translator to use an existing glossary or to build a small glossary in Excel for each translation (give him a template), and then to check manually, with both files (source and target) open on his computer.

A general desktop search tool, for instance Copernic, can be useful too. It is free.


2) TM creation from monolingual files: i know there are tools that can align source and target monolingual files and create a TM from them. From my experience with WinAlign it's not a flawless process and requires lot of manual review and fine tuning. Do you have better experience with some other tools that would require minimal or no review?


One cannot create a TM, which is always bilingual, from a monolingual file.
I always use Wordfast PlusTools, which is free and simple to use.
Some tweaking is necessary, but one proceeds with 3,000 words/hr.
Proceed with small batches of several files (not too much at the same time).
Once the TM is created, it will be in Wordfast text mode (.txt), a bilingual file which can be read by all applications including Excel. The columns in Excel can be sorted, of course, and used by each translator who is not equipped with a CAT.
If necessary, Olifant (free software) and Wordfast itself can convert the Wordfast .txt TM into .tmx.


3) Terminology extraction tool: which tool is the best in your experience?


Sorry I don't use them.


 
Kevin Fulton
Kevin Fulton  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 10:28
German to English
Two thoughts Jul 28, 2014

To provide one example, Trados was originally developed in Germany in conjunction with industry to handle large volumes of similar and repetitive text and to provide terminology management. Both of these tasks were designed to provide consistency across manuals, GUIs and other texts while increasing efficiency of the translation process. As an occasional editor, I can state without fear of contradiction that the best CAT tool will not make a great impact on the product of a low-skilled translato... See more
To provide one example, Trados was originally developed in Germany in conjunction with industry to handle large volumes of similar and repetitive text and to provide terminology management. Both of these tasks were designed to provide consistency across manuals, GUIs and other texts while increasing efficiency of the translation process. As an occasional editor, I can state without fear of contradiction that the best CAT tool will not make a great impact on the product of a low-skilled translator. And based on my first disastrous GIGO use of a CAT tool in 1998, it's possible to use the wrong terminology with astonishing consistency with such software.

On the other hand, CAT tools are great for handling boilerplate. Legislative acts frequently contain repetitive material in their preambles, and industrial operator manuals have statutorily required safety instructions and statements regarding copyright that vary little from one another. I couldn't count the number of times I've come across "Switch the X OFF before attempting a repair."

If your agency expects to have regular customers with a consistent flow of work, then investment in a CAT tool is unavoidable. If you're going to live from one-off jobs, then it probably doesn't matter.

My second point: Australia ain't the third world, Mate! There are translators in countries with a lower standard of living than Australia who use CAT tools; doubtless there are many in Oz who likewise use them. You need to find them.

I'm not accusing you of bottom-feeding, but you need to examine your market niche.

Is it possible that the rates you are getting/offering aren't attractive enough to get translators with CAT tools to work for you? There are opportunity costs related to taking low rates. There is a rate below which I will not work. For example, every word I translate at 5 cents means that I'm not translating for 15 cents, an opportunity cost of 10 cents/word. The low rate jobs that I'm offered generally tend to be large requiring an extensive commitment, so taking them if I have a two-day gap in work is not an economically viable option.
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Kay Denney
Kay Denney  Identity Verified
France
Local time: 15:28
French to English
First of all Jul 28, 2014

What type of translation are you handling?
If you're doing computer manuals or instructions for washing machines, or catalogues of similar products, or contracts where not much more than the names and titles of those signing are changed, or anything with a lot of repetition, or successive versions of the same document with just bits changed here and there, a CAT tool might be useful.

If it's marketing, advertising, literature etc then there's no point whatsoever.


 
FarkasAndras
FarkasAndras  Identity Verified
Local time: 15:28
English to Hungarian
+ ...
Align Jul 29, 2014

normann wrote:

blue_swimmer wrote:

2) TM creation from monolingual files: i know there are tools that can align source and target monolingual files and create a TM from them. From my experience with WinAlign it's not a flawless process and requires lot of manual review and fine tuning. Do you have better experience with some other tools that would require minimal or no review?


One cannot create a TM, which is always bilingual, from a monolingual file.


Perhaps, but one can create a TM from two (S & T) monolingual files as the OP describes, so I don't see the point of this comment. BTW if we're being pedantic, a TM is not always bilingual. I have made my fair share of multilingual TMs, and a monolingual TM is not out of the question, either (e.g. British/American, or a TM of two different translations of the same text in the same language).

normann wrote:
I always use Wordfast PlusTools, which is free and simple to use.
Some tweaking is necessary, but one proceeds with 3,000 words/hr.
Proceed with small batches of several files (not too much at the same time).
Once the TM is created, it will be in Wordfast text mode (.txt), a bilingual file which can be read by all applications including Excel. The columns in Excel can be sorted, of course, and used by each translator who is not equipped with a CAT.
If necessary, Olifant (free software) and Wordfast itself can convert the Wordfast .txt TM into .tmx.

PlusTools is a really inefficient aligner. There are better options out there, with an autoalignment feature that takes most or all of the manual work out of the process (in the better tools, this is your choice: you run the autoalignment and then you either use the result as is, or you do manual corrections to improve it further; if you choose to do a manual review, it will be much faster than doing it from scratch with PlusTools).
Wordfast itself seems to have an aligner with an autoalignment feature, called the wordfast online aligner.
I align a lot of texts for myself and others. I'm not sure of my words/hr, but it's well above 10,000 for sure.


 
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