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A translation iteration experiment: looking for English-Spanish & Spanish-English translators
Thread poster: Tomás Cano Binder, BA, CT
Tomás Cano Binder, BA, CT
Tomás Cano Binder, BA, CT  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 20:54
Member (2005)
English to Spanish
+ ...
Jan 26, 2010

Dear colleagues and nevertheless friends,

Have you ever done an iteration experiment with MT tools available on-line to see how the system fared? I have very often submitted a Spanish text to be translated into English, to take the English result and translate it into Spanish, and so several times. Most of you have surely repeated the same experiment "just to see what happens," and surely have seen the text "destroyed" in a couple of iterations.

Now, have you ever wonde
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Dear colleagues and nevertheless friends,

Have you ever done an iteration experiment with MT tools available on-line to see how the system fared? I have very often submitted a Spanish text to be translated into English, to take the English result and translate it into Spanish, and so several times. Most of you have surely repeated the same experiment "just to see what happens," and surely have seen the text "destroyed" in a couple of iterations.

Now, have you ever wondered what would happen with human translators? Would the result be better or worse? How much of the original meaning, register, and style would get lost in the process? Would the message still be there in full in the final text.

Would you help me do the experiment? I would like to do this with 10 translations between English and Spanish, done in a series by a different translator each time. The idea is to take an English text on a current topic from a magazine (so that we all very much know what it is about), have it translated by a translator into Spanish, take the result and have it translated in the opposite direction, and iterate the process 10 times.

Initially I would not publish the text to be translated or its translations. It all would be posted in this forum after the process is finished. The translations would be anonymous: only I would know who did what translation, and I will delete this information from my system once the experiment is finished. The idea is just "to see what happens".

Would you be willing to participate? Just send me a message via Proz.com's messages or express your interest in this forum.

Thank you very much for considering it!
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Penelope Ausejo
Penelope Ausejo  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 20:54
English to Spanish
+ ...
I'll do it Jan 26, 2010

I'll do it Tomás!

 
Tomás Cano Binder, BA, CT
Tomás Cano Binder, BA, CT  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 20:54
Member (2005)
English to Spanish
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Thanks Penelope! Jan 26, 2010

I just thought that I'd mention that the text would be relatively short. Just some 150 words or so is more than enough for these purposes I reckon.

Also, to make this as aseptic as possible, I would not participate in the translation as I would be aware of the initial text and this knowledge would probably influence the result. My only role would be to coordinate the delivery of the piece to the next translator and publish the results.

Thank you everyone!

[Edited
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I just thought that I'd mention that the text would be relatively short. Just some 150 words or so is more than enough for these purposes I reckon.

Also, to make this as aseptic as possible, I would not participate in the translation as I would be aware of the initial text and this knowledge would probably influence the result. My only role would be to coordinate the delivery of the piece to the next translator and publish the results.

Thank you everyone!

[Edited at 2010-01-26 09:07 GMT]
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jacana54 (X)
jacana54 (X)  Identity Verified
Uruguay
English to Spanish
+ ...
Sounds interesting Jan 26, 2010

I would be happy to do English to Spanish.

And I'd love to see what happens!



 
Noni Gilbert Riley
Noni Gilbert Riley
Spain
Local time: 20:54
Spanish to English
+ ...
Count me in Jan 26, 2010

Looking forward to it.

Noni


 
Tomás Cano Binder, BA, CT
Tomás Cano Binder, BA, CT  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 20:54
Member (2005)
English to Spanish
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
For Spanish-English? Jan 26, 2010

aceavila - Noni wrote:
Looking forward to it.
Noni

Noni, would you mind doing Spanish-English?


 
Rosa Plana Castillón
Rosa Plana Castillón
Spain
Local time: 20:54
English to Spanish
+ ...
Count me in, Tomás! Jan 26, 2010

Interesting experiment.

 
Peter Riccomini
Peter Riccomini  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 20:54
Spanish to English
+ ...
Happy to do Spanish to English Jan 26, 2010

The title says it all.

 
Tomás Cano Binder, BA, CT
Tomás Cano Binder, BA, CT  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 20:54
Member (2005)
English to Spanish
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Smashing! Jan 26, 2010

Thank you very much guys! I hope we can make a nice team soon. So far we have:

English into Spanish (3 people): Penélope, Lucía, Rosa
Spanish into Spanish (2 people): Noni, Peter


 
Aradai Pardo Martínez
Aradai Pardo Martínez  Identity Verified
Mexico
Local time: 12:54
Swedish to Spanish
+ ...
I want to play with you, guys! Jan 26, 2010

I'll do an English > Spanish version, if that's ok.

Saludos a todos!


 
Kelly Bennett
Kelly Bennett  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 20:54
English to Spanish
+ ...
Spanish to Engish Jan 26, 2010

Hello Tomás,

I too would be happy to take part - what an interesting experiment!


 
Noni Gilbert Riley
Noni Gilbert Riley
Spain
Local time: 20:54
Spanish to English
+ ...
Yes of course, Tomás Jan 26, 2010

Spanish-English

btw Have you considered the continental divide issue?


 
Tomás Cano Binder, BA, CT
Tomás Cano Binder, BA, CT  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 20:54
Member (2005)
English to Spanish
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Status Jan 26, 2010

aceavila - Noni wrote:
Spanish-English
btw Have you considered the continental divide issue?


Smashing. So we now have:
English into Spanish (4 people): Penélope, Lucía, Rosa, Aradai
Spanish into Spanish (3 people): Noni, Peter, Kelly

More people interested? There's still plenty of room at the back!

Yes, indeed I gave the continental thing some thought, but I think we will be fine as I will try to avoid texts referring too much to local or regional matters, every-day objects, and food. Thanks for the hint!


 
jacana54 (X)
jacana54 (X)  Identity Verified
Uruguay
English to Spanish
+ ...
Or... Jan 26, 2010

we could all try to produce a mid-Atlantic version



 
mediamatrix (X)
mediamatrix (X)
Local time: 14:54
Spanish to English
+ ...
Spanish to English Jan 26, 2010



MediaMatrix


 
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A translation iteration experiment: looking for English-Spanish & Spanish-English translators







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