phrase (challenge)

English translation: No, and I would not try

20:05 Feb 19, 2004

English language (monolingual) [PRO]
Tech/Engineering - Mining & Minerals / Gems

English term or phrase: phrase (challenge)

I have a source English text previously translated from Ukrainian. It's atrocious and I can't make any sense of some sentences. Please help.
One sample sentence:
'In the period of ... coal enterprises of general project cost of expenses for their closing about ...(amount plus currency) stopped their activity and are on the different stages of liquidation'

Do you know what the author may have had on his mind???

Monika Sojka KudoZ activity Questions: 704 (1 open) (2 without valid answers) (4 closed without grading) Answers: 980 United Kingdom
Local time: 01:11

Selected answer:No, and I would not try

Explanation:
Send it back to sender. It is not worth your trouble, unless they are paying you one US dollar a word.

Selected response from:

Fuad Yahya

Grading comment

A valid remark. Still, I thought that some Ukrainians might be able to decipher the meaning but I suppose it will remain a bit of a risk to translate a text based on a very doubtful assumption:)
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer

SUMMARY OF ALL EXPLANATIONS PROVIDED

5 +2

No, and I would not try

Fuad Yahya

I agree

Lia Fail (X)

4 +1

Post it on the English-Ukranian or Ukranian-English language pairing

IanW (X)

in the period..., coal companies had general expenses for closing down projects of about ...

Marian Greenfield

phrase

Iryna Maslova

Try...

chica nueva

Discussion entries: 1

Answers

1 min confidence:

peer agreement (net): +2

No, and I would not try

Explanation:
Send it back to sender. It is not worth your trouble, unless they are paying you one US dollar a word.

Fuad Yahya
Native speaker of:

Arabic,

English
PRO pts in category: 4

Grading comment

A valid remark. Still, I thought that some Ukrainians might be able to decipher the meaning but I suppose it will remain a bit of a risk to translate a text based on a very doubtful assumption:)

7 mins confidence:

in the period..., coal companies had general expenses for closing down projects of about ...

Explanation:
after having ceased operations. They are in various stages of liquidation.

I don't do Ukranian, but that would seem to be the idea...

Marian Greenfield
Local time: 20:11
Native speaker of:

English

9 mins confidence:

I agree

Explanation:
I agree, if you don't know Ukranian, the risk is too great of making an error.

However, if you know Ukranian, one possibility is to try to backtranslate, as the structure in English probably maps the structure in Ukranian ( a 'literal' translation). Also consider which words might have alternative translations or meanings.

I have corrected a lot of texts written by non-natives (ES speakers) and it's a nightmare, even the really good ones sometimes express themselves in a befuddled manner.

Lia Fail (X)
Spain
Local time: 02:11
Native speaker of:

English

9 mins confidence:

peer agreement (net): +1

Post it on the English-Ukranian or Ukranian-English language pairing

Explanation:
Post it on the English-Ukranian or Ukranian-English language pairing if you think that it will help.

IanW (X)
Local time: 02:11
Native speaker of:

English

8 hrs confidence:

Try...

Explanation:
In the period of ...coal enterprises of general project (cost of expenses for their closing approximately...) stopped trading and are in various stages of liquidation.

chica nueva
Local time: 12:11
Native speaker of: English

17 hrs confidence:

phrase

Explanation:
May be I'm a bit let, but I'll try to decipher this phrase:
I am quite sure that it was supposed to mean something like this:
During /time period/ it was decided to close down those coal mines, for which the total shut down expenditures were expected to be approx. /amount/. Currently these mines are at different stages of this (shut-down) process.

I'd like to say a word, though, in support of translators in Ukraine (I am one of them, you know). There a lot of professionals working here. The problem is with some outsourcers, who wish to get translations for free or really CHEAP. Thus, instead of hiring an experienced translator, they accept bid from persons (not professionals, apparently), who propose 2 times, 3 times (etc...) lower rate but "make a translation" using machine-translation software (like Stylus, Prompt, etc.). In the end of the day, such outsorcer obtains this "masterpiece" output by a machine, the "translator" gets his Kopeks, and people receiving the text have a headache reading it.

Iryna Maslova
Local time: 03:11
Native speaker of: Russian

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English translation: No, and I would not try

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