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Is there a world record for the fastest translator?
Thread poster: José Guedes
Heinrich Pesch
Heinrich Pesch  Identity Verified
Finland
Local time: 15:43
Member (2003)
Finnish to German
+ ...
You have to set up you own competition May 10, 2013

If I understand right you are looking for a speed-competition for translators. If nobody has created one, be the first. It should be easy with nowadays social networks.

Congratulation to anyone who can type at your speed. I cannot, but I don't believe your translations would be automatically inferior to mine or other slow typists. (though I type with 10 fingers, I often hit left and right keys in the wrong order etc.).

When I start a sentence while translating, I have a
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If I understand right you are looking for a speed-competition for translators. If nobody has created one, be the first. It should be easy with nowadays social networks.

Congratulation to anyone who can type at your speed. I cannot, but I don't believe your translations would be automatically inferior to mine or other slow typists. (though I type with 10 fingers, I often hit left and right keys in the wrong order etc.).

When I start a sentence while translating, I have an idea how it will end, but somewhere in the middle I get a better idea and have to adept).

There have always been competitions for typist, but translation is more challenging. You would need a mix of subjects in one source language (probably English) and a jury for each target language. Good luck!
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José Guedes
José Guedes  Identity Verified
Brazil
Local time: 10:43
Portuguese to English
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TOPIC STARTER
That's what is interesting about it! May 10, 2013

Gitte Hovedskov Hansen wrote:

What a weird idea.

How could you possibly establish a world record for something as incredibly diverse as the art of translation? In order to have a world record for anything, surely you must need something specific to measure against. Texts that are submitted for translations will (almost) always be different, as the idea of translating the same text over and over again is, forgive me, ridiculous.

In order to train for a world record, that is generally what you do, isn't it? You practice a specific skill by repeating a specific exercise over and over again, such as swim 100 metres against the clock, eat as many burgers as possible in 10 minutes, jump from the highest point above earth etc. etc. The very idea of practising translation of the same text over and over again to become 'the best' is just plain silly, as you would only need to do your research for that same text the first time you translate it; after that you would not be translating any more, you would simply be recalling a translation from memory.

Apart from this, I am with Nicole on this one!


In the same manner that world records are established for things like music! No one in their right mind would say the fastest guitarist is the best. Everyone knows there are a lot of other factors that are taken into account before declaring someone to be a good musician.

Fortunately, a good translation is easier to evaluate and far less subjective than a song. In a contest for translating speed, the content certainly would never be a poem or something of the kind (or there could be specific categories for that), where a wide array of translations could be acceptable. It would need to be unambiguous, objective content.

Texts of several subjects could be provided, such as General with only day-to-day words such as a story of someone going to the grocery store to buy tomatoes and coming back empty handed or something of the kind. For technical subjects such as finance, the translators could be given a list of the technical words that will appear in the text before they attempted it in order to prepare and measure how fast they can think and type, or maybe not.

Again, this is a subject that should be discussed thoroughly.

Heinrich Pesch wrote:

If I understand right you are looking for a speed-competition for translators. If nobody has created one, be the first. It should be easy with nowadays social networks.

Congratulation to anyone who can type at your speed. I cannot, but I don't believe your translations would be automatically inferior to mine or other slow typists. (though I type with 10 fingers, I often hit left and right keys in the wrong order etc.).

When I start a sentence while translating, I have an idea how it will end, but somewhere in the middle I get a better idea and have to adept).

There have always been competitions for typist, but translation is more challenging. You would need a mix of subjects in one source language (probably English) and a jury for each target language. Good luck!


Exactly!

I would love to, but I don't think I have the necessary resources and, even more importantly, I think the idea might be met with intense hostility by the community, as this topic clearly indicates.

It would indeed be challenging to create fair conditions for such a competition.

Thank you very much for your kind response and everyone else for participating in the discussion. I am going to bed and will answer any replies once I wake up. Have a good night/day.

[Editada em 2013-05-10 06:59 GMT]


 
neilmac
neilmac
Spain
Local time: 14:43
Spanish to English
+ ...
Survival of the sh..... May 10, 2013

I'm never happy with the concept of "best" in most cases. To mangle a phrase, "best" is like buses, there'll be another one along soon. In football, last year it was Barcelona - but this year...?

Signed: "El guepardo de las traducciones".


 
Victor Dewsbery
Victor Dewsbery  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 14:43
German to English
+ ...
World speed record for meditating or music? May 10, 2013

ZeHgS wrote:
Translating (or languages in general) is one of my three passions, alongside with music and, first and foremost, meditation!


Perhaps you could try for a world record in the speed of your meditation, or a world record time for playing a piece of music. In my opinion, they are more suitable for speed records than translating.

Like Nicole, I would be more interested in a world QUALITY record for translation.


 
Tomás Cano Binder, BA, CT
Tomás Cano Binder, BA, CT  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 14:43
Member (2005)
English to Spanish
+ ...
Search for biggest and fastest May 10, 2013

neilmac wrote:
I'm never happy with the concept of "best" in most cases. To mangle a phrase, "best" is like buses, there'll be another one along soon. In football, last year it was Barcelona - but this year...?

Indeed. I was thinking about the same thing right now. Maybe the search for the biggest and fastest is a kind of obsession in Britain and the US, but is less critical in regions like Europe and South America, where people are more concerned about beauty in a wide sense, also in translation.

To me it would be more important to find a great translation, and not the fastest translation, in a translation competition.


neilmac
 
Gudrun Wolfrath
Gudrun Wolfrath  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 14:43
English to German
+ ...
I completely agree with Nicole. May 10, 2013

I am not on the run, I work.

Gudrun


neilmac
 
Ty Kendall
Ty Kendall  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 13:43
Hebrew to English
Yiddish Proverb May 10, 2013

Geshvindkeit iz nor gut floi tsu chapen....Speed is only good for catching flies.

I'd start off by saying that it's not as though I think speed is totally irrelevant in translation. It is. We have deadlines, we have daily capacities, we have angry spouses tired of us staring at pixels. It's just that I don't think typing speed is the most important type of speed.

There's the speed with which you can retrieve words and phrases from the deep dark, half-forgo
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Geshvindkeit iz nor gut floi tsu chapen....Speed is only good for catching flies.

I'd start off by saying that it's not as though I think speed is totally irrelevant in translation. It is. We have deadlines, we have daily capacities, we have angry spouses tired of us staring at pixels. It's just that I don't think typing speed is the most important type of speed.

There's the speed with which you can retrieve words and phrases from the deep dark, half-forgotten recesses of your brain (I'm much faster at this than I once was - practice makes perfect I guess!). There's research speed; knowing how and where to look for enlightenment.

Part of my disagreement with you stems from the fact that I fundamentally disagree with your comparisons (plural, tut tut! ) of simultaneous interpreters and translators, including:

coordinated fingers that attempt to move as fast as the mind can think


I don't think that's what our fingers should be attempting to do. We (as translators) have the "luxury" of time. Why throw it away?

Simultaneous interpreters don't have time because that's the nature of their work. Furthermore, their "product" has less permanence, unless recorded audio-visually of course. The interlocutors listen, process, respond to the "output" and move on. It doesn't require the finesse of the written word. The overriding importance is on accurate transmission of the message, in real time if simultaneous. It's a very different kettle of fish to translation, where the expectations and priorities are somewhat different.

So, personally I'd be more wary of drawing too many comparisons between the two professions myself.

Moving on... I'm also not sure about this...

a good translation is easier to evaluate and far less subjective than a song


Scan the forums, there's no shortage of threads by irked translators who have come to loggerheads with proof-readers or opinionated clients, caused by the subjective nature of their translations.

......................................

I think Tomás touched on this - there doesn't seem to be an appetite for this kind of competition (speed-based) within the field, by and/or for the practitioners (translators).
What competitions there are value quality, not quantity.

N.B. I don't have a problem with a Guinness Record for Speed-Translating per se, many of these "records" are rather "light-hearted" in any case.

[Edited at 2013-05-10 09:50 GMT]
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Christophe Delaunay
Christophe Delaunay  Identity Verified
France
Local time: 14:43
Spanish to French
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Time gained, time waisted May 10, 2013

Gosh! Already 2 pages on this useless, meaningless subject. Do you ask a surgeon, a busdriver, a painter to be fast? I just can't believe the time spent on empty, pointless posts... asking or answering. Like Nicole, rant over. Have a good day!

Taña Dalglish
 
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felicij
felicij  Identity Verified
Local time: 14:43
German to Slovenian
+ ...
The thing May 10, 2013

I can't believe is that you never stop to think about the words and you always come up with the best suitable word in a matter of hundreds of a second.
You must be one lucky guy to receive texts with no grammatical errors and especially no texts translated by Italians into "perfect" English.
I chose this profession to be good (not necessarily the best) in what I studied for. Speed is just an advantage but you just cannot say you can type as fast as you can think (you always think slo
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I can't believe is that you never stop to think about the words and you always come up with the best suitable word in a matter of hundreds of a second.
You must be one lucky guy to receive texts with no grammatical errors and especially no texts translated by Italians into "perfect" English.
I chose this profession to be good (not necessarily the best) in what I studied for. Speed is just an advantage but you just cannot say you can type as fast as you can think (you always think slower) because sometimes one hesitates before he/she decides which word would be better in a certain case.

Now a contest for the GWR in quality translation is something different but also depends on the reviewer's point of view. For one thing I know that in my language there are many words being discussed and "experts" just don't come together which word is better...

My rant is also over.
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Ty Kendall
Ty Kendall  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 13:43
Hebrew to English
Is there a world record for the fastest translator? May 10, 2013

José,
I think the response to this question/thread perfectly demonstrates why there isn't a world record for the "fastest translator".

At the risk of people thinking I'm justifying the question and feeling their wrath - there is also no quantifiable way of measuring the "fastest translator" - by words per minute? Unless you stick within language pairs, that would give a Hebrew-English translator a sign
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José,
I think the response to this question/thread perfectly demonstrates why there isn't a world record for the "fastest translator".

At the risk of people thinking I'm justifying the question and feeling their wrath - there is also no quantifiable way of measuring the "fastest translator" - by words per minute? Unless you stick within language pairs, that would give a Hebrew-English translator a significant advantage over an English-Turkish one, as just one example.

It's not really feasible, and as evidenced by this thread - undesirable.

[Edited at 2013-05-10 10:02 GMT]
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Christine Andersen
Christine Andersen  Identity Verified
Denmark
Local time: 14:43
Member (2003)
Danish to English
+ ...
There are times when a client needs the translation 'yesterday' May 10, 2013

I am notoriously fumble-fingered with a keyboard, but can still help a client out in an emergency. They need a reliable translation - and getting it right at the first attempt really saves time and hassle.

I do it by typing so SLOWLY that I can (almost) manage to do the first check as I go along.

If I need to deliver a short text quickly, then first of all, I read right through the text pencil in hand, and look up anything that needs checking, so that typing is a smoot
... See more
I am notoriously fumble-fingered with a keyboard, but can still help a client out in an emergency. They need a reliable translation - and getting it right at the first attempt really saves time and hassle.

I do it by typing so SLOWLY that I can (almost) manage to do the first check as I go along.

If I need to deliver a short text quickly, then first of all, I read right through the text pencil in hand, and look up anything that needs checking, so that typing is a smooth process - interruptions breed typing errors.

I literally 'make haste slowly' if the deadline is tight or ASAP. Polishing may have to be sacrificed, but then they know to plan better another time...

The other scenario is that the client knows a text will come in on a tight schedule, and asks the translator to prepare in advance and be ready when the source comes.

Don't forget to charge for preparation time, either by setting your rate high enough to cover it, or by adding a surcharge for rushed work.

I prefer to have a good break (ideally 24 hours or more...) before the final proofreading and delivery.
__________________

Remember the old adage: translation can be fast, good, or cheap, but never more than two at a time!

There is nothing wrong with translating fast when necessary - IF you can do it well, and as you are aware, without RSI or unhealthy effects. But it comes at a price - one way or another.
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Alex Lago
Alex Lago  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 14:43
English to Spanish
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You can contact the Guinness Book of Records May 10, 2013

There is no record for fastest translator, as you can see by the responses you've received fast translating is a touchy subject amongst translators however I see no reason why you shouldn't do this if it is something you want to do.

Will it get you more jobs? who knows; will it gain you recognition within the translator community? probably not (as you've seen from the responses you got); will it gain you recognition within the translation agency community? who knows. But the most i
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There is no record for fastest translator, as you can see by the responses you've received fast translating is a touchy subject amongst translators however I see no reason why you shouldn't do this if it is something you want to do.

Will it get you more jobs? who knows; will it gain you recognition within the translator community? probably not (as you've seen from the responses you got); will it gain you recognition within the translation agency community? who knows. But the most important question in my mind is will it give you personal satisfaction, if it will then I say go for it.

If you want to try for this record I see no reason why you shouldn't if it's something you would like to achieve, I would suggest contacting the Guinness Book or Records and suggesting the record to them, you never know they might be interested.

[Edited at 2013-05-10 11:21 GMT]
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Heinrich Pesch
Heinrich Pesch  Identity Verified
Finland
Local time: 15:43
Member (2003)
Finnish to German
+ ...
Instead try laptop throwing May 10, 2013

For creating a new discipline like speed translation you better come to Finland. We have word championships for currying women, throwing mobile phones, catching mosquitoes, sitting with bare bottom in ant-nests etc. You name it.
I myself would like to create a competition for rooting out tree stumps, single and team of two.
Australia would be another choice, don't they have dwarf throwing?

Laptop throwing is still waiting, afaik.


Taña Dalglish
Daryo
 
Woodstock (X)
Woodstock (X)  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 14:43
German to English
+ ...
Finnish world records May 10, 2013

Heinrich Pesch wrote:

For creating a new discipline like speed translation you better come to Finland. We have word championships for currying women, throwing mobile phones, catching mosquitoes, sitting with bare bottom in ant-nests etc. You name it.
I myself would like to create a competition for rooting out tree stumps, single and team of two.
Australia would be another choice, don't they have dwarf throwing?

Laptop throwing is still waiting, afaik.


Is there one for coldest ice bath yet (once you have set the record for "sitting in an ants' nest with your bare bottom hanging out", of course)? Personally, I'm partial to watching grass grow to see which blade wins.

Edited to add: All kidding aside, I think it really has everything to do with cultural attitudes, and this thread is an excellent example of diverse cultural attitudes on a very specific, single topic.

[Edited at 2013-05-10 14:43 GMT]


 
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