| Stranica u temi: [1 2] > | A way of making KudoZ more useful for askers Postavljač teme: Alistair Ian Spearing Ortiz
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The main aim of KudoZ is to help the asker find the most appropriate translation for a given term or expression.
Therefore, why are we allowing members to provide answers in language combinations which concern none of their native languages? 95% of the time, their answers are plain wrong and very often demonstrate a lack of understanding of both the source and the target languages. They also pay little attention to the relevant context and suggest answers which have nothing to do wi... See more The main aim of KudoZ is to help the asker find the most appropriate translation for a given term or expression.
Therefore, why are we allowing members to provide answers in language combinations which concern none of their native languages? 95% of the time, their answers are plain wrong and very often demonstrate a lack of understanding of both the source and the target languages. They also pay little attention to the relevant context and suggest answers which have nothing to do with the subject at hand.
I suggest that we restrict KudoZ answers to:
A) members who are native speakers of either the relevant source or target language (or both);
B) members who live in a country where one of these languages is widely spoken.
What do you think? ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Why shouldn't they be allowed to answer? | May 20, 2011 |
Alistair Ian Spearing Ortiz wrote:
The main aim of KudoZ is to help the asker find the most appropriate translation for a given term or expression.
Therefore, why are we allowing members to provide answers in language combinations which concern none of their native languages?
Why not? The rules even allow members (and non-members) to ask questions on translations being done between 2 foreign languages. We see this all the time. And it's not even against the rules to list a bogus native language.
Imo, it's only poetic justice to open the same floodgates and allow anyone to answer as well.
[Edited at 2011-05-20 12:44 GMT]
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Hi:)
well, I have been living in Spain for 6 years now and obviously I´m not considered a native speaker...by the way I don´t know why some of proz members who live in Spain for the same period or bit longer are considered native..I should check if it´s possible to apply for that:) I imagine it´s..but anyway...I know that actually to be considered a native speaker one should have grown up in the country..but coming back to the topic..Alistair I know what you mean because there are some... See more Hi:)
well, I have been living in Spain for 6 years now and obviously I´m not considered a native speaker...by the way I don´t know why some of proz members who live in Spain for the same period or bit longer are considered native..I should check if it´s possible to apply for that:) I imagine it´s..but anyway...I know that actually to be considered a native speaker one should have grown up in the country..but coming back to the topic..Alistair I know what you mean because there are sometimes even people (at least in my main pair Spanish-Polish) who use only Google Translate to offer their solutions! or other system of finding answers.. and it´s clear that that they don´t even speak Polish! To be precise I´ve met only one person like that..and he/she makes even some ridiculous grammatical errors in Polish...But for example, according to your rule maybe I wouldn´t be allowed to give answers ..(or maybe I would because I live in Spain)..but what about many translators for example who live in Poland and they actually translate into Spanish and are really good at that? If we apply your rule, they wouldn´t be allowed to provide answers..I mean, there are both sides of it and I think that it´s the asker who should know what the more or less correct answer is or isn´t..And if you are so sure that your answers are so good so I don´t understand why you care so much about those ¨such really bad and unaware¨ answerers... And in my case, I give sometimes answers to questions from English to Spanish and neither of them is my native language..but I studied translation at university here in Spain so I sometimes ( not always, I make mistakes because Nobody is perfect:))) ) try to give some reasonable answer...and believe me that I saw translations of some native speakers at university and there were sometimes real errors in comprehension of terms both in English and Spanish because even when you are a native there are many words that you don´t use in real life for example legal expressions that you have to check what they mean in dictionary, even if you are native:)
That´s my humble opinion:)
Un abrazo
Karolina ▲ Collapse
| | | | | No restrictions, please! | May 20, 2011 |
Let each person use Kudoz the way they like and offer the help they can. Now, it does not mean that you can blindly trust Kudoz (or any other non-authoritative resource, for that matter). You must use your professional judgment to identify good answers and use them as the base of your term research.
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Karolina Blachucka wrote:
[snip]
but coming back to the topic..Alistair I know what you mean because there are sometimes even people (at least in my main pair Spanish-Polish) who use only Google Translate to offer their solutions! or other system of finding answers.. and it´s clear that that they don´t even speak Polish! To be precise I´ve met only one person like that..and he/she makes even some ridiculous grammatical errors in Polish...
In my opinion, this goes against the very spirit of helping the asker find out the best translation for his term. If you can't understand the languages involved, your answer will probably do more harm than good to the asker. Personally, I'd never dream of submitting an answer to a Russian-Finnish KudoZ question, for example.
Karolina Blachucka wrote:
But for example, according to your rule maybe I wouldn´t be allowed to give answers ..(or maybe I would because I live in Spain)..but what about many translators for example who live in Poland and they actually translate into Spanish and are really good at that? If we apply your rule, they wouldn´t be allowed to provide answers..
Yes, you'd be allowed to submit an answer because you live in Spain. To be honest, I was thinking of cases like yours when I suggested that second rule. After six years in Spain, your Spanish is probably very good. But a few translators who provide answers in the English-Spanish-English combination (we all know who they are) are neither ES nor EN native speakers... and they live in countries with drastically different languages! I'd say that 90% of the time they have no idea what the question is about, and just suggest some machine translation. This can throw the asker off track.
| | | | | Kudoz, not an authorative source | May 20, 2011 |
Alistair Ian Spearing Ortiz wrote:
This can throw the asker off track.
But let's be clear about this: do you think any serious translator would use Kudoz as the only reference? It is merely a potential starting point of your research when you can't find the solution in your paper resources. Expecting it to be a magic solution for all terminology needs is a bit naïve.
If a translator is thrown off-track in a translation, it would be for using inadequate resources. That is why I firmly encourage the use of dictionaries on paper, and a hell-of-a-lot of them!
| | | | lidija68 
Italija
Local time: 18:32
talijanski na srpski
+ ...
I’m one of those persons. I often give answers in a language combination german – italian (neither of them is my mother tonque), and in that language combination I have acceptance rate of about 58%. I don’t think askers are stupid, in most cases they are able to see if the answer is completely wrong. Sometimes unexpected person knows something useful.
As Tomas Cano Binder said, KudoZ has to be just a starting point of your research
Lidija
... See more I’m one of those persons. I often give answers in a language combination german – italian (neither of them is my mother tonque), and in that language combination I have acceptance rate of about 58%. I don’t think askers are stupid, in most cases they are able to see if the answer is completely wrong. Sometimes unexpected person knows something useful.
As Tomas Cano Binder said, KudoZ has to be just a starting point of your research
Lidija
-english is not my working language- ▲ Collapse
| | | | Natalie
Poljska
Local time: 18:32
Član (2002)
engleski na ruski
+ ...
MODERATOR LOKALIZATOR PORTALA
Alistair Ian Spearing Ortiz wrote:
B) members who live in a country where one of these languages is widely spoken.
What do you think?
I think that this is a wrong approach. I, for example, live in Poland but my main language pair is English to Russian. Should I stop answering questions?
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Natalie wrote:
Alistair Ian Spearing Ortiz wrote:
B) members who live in a country where one of these languages is widely spoken.
What do you think?
I think that this is a wrong approach. I, for example, live in Poland but my main language pair is English to Russian. Should I stop answering questions?
No, not as long as either English or Russian is your native language.
| | | | Sheila Wilson
Španjolska
Local time: 17:32
Član (2007)
engleski
+ ...
Natalie wrote:
I, for example, live in Poland but my main language pair is English to Russian. Should I stop answering questions?
As in every debate, there are two sides of the question and both have merit.
Restricting answerers to their native language and the language of the country where they reside would be far too restrictive. Many, many people here have more than one source language and have worthwhile input to each. If you are English, live in France but have studied German for many years, you may well have the answer to a translation into German.
On the other hand, I agree that someone who proposes answers in 10 languages may be providing very little in the way of useful input to KudoZ.
Perhaps answerers could be flagged if they are answering a KudoZ question in a language that they does not figure as one of their source or target languages. I don't think they should be prevented from answering, but flagging would alert the Asker to look carefully at the answer.
| | | | | May I humbly suggest | May 20, 2011 |
that the real reason most of us answer KudoZ questions is not out of the infinite goodness of our hearts, but:
a) To scratch the itch;
b) To kill the time when we are not working (sure beats watching reality TV);
c) To showcase the skills we have (or the lack thereof).
Take this away - and what's left? Why would we be coming here?
It ain't broken all that bad. Leave it alone.
| | | | | Already implemented | May 21, 2011 |
Sheila Wilson wrote:
Perhaps answerers could be flagged if they are answering a KudoZ question in a language that they does not figure as one of their source or target languages. I don't think they should be prevented from answering, but flagging would alert the Asker to look carefully at the answer.
What you suggested above is already implemented at KudoZ, even if the pair contains either the source or target which you work in and/or is not your speciality nor your working field.
The following message appears for language pairs you don't work in:
The question you are about to answer is not among your language pairs, is this intentional?
Remember that reporting information accurately in your profile will help potential clients find you more easily.
If you need to edit your language pairs, you may do so here.
You may contribute an answer to this question.
And the following message appears for language pair you work in but don't work or specialize in:
The question you are about to answer is not among your general fields of expertise, is this intentional?
Remember that reporting information accurately in your profile will help potential clients find you more easily.
If you need to edit your general fields of expertise, you may do so here.
You may contribute an answer to this question.
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Ambrose Li
Kanada
Local time: 12:32
engleski
+ ...
| Not really implemented | May 21, 2011 |
Yasutomo Kanazawa wrote:
Already implemented
Sheila Wilson wrote:
Perhaps answerers could be flagged if they are answering a KudoZ question in a language that they does not figure as one of their source or target languages. I don't think they should be prevented from answering, but flagging would alert the Asker to look carefully at the answer.
I think there is a misunderstanding here. What Sheila is suggesting is to have the answerer flagged in such a way that the asker and other people reading the question can see, and not in a way that only the answerer will see. It is sort of like the “Specializes in field” flag, but acting in reverse — it would show nothing if the answerer works in the pair, but something to the effect of “Does not work in this pair” if the reverse is true.
I just checked the one question I answered that’s not any of my working language pairs, and I can see that it is not flagged. So Sheila’s suggestion is definitely not implemented.
[Edited at 2011-05-21 09:41 GMT]
| | | | lidija68
Italija
Local time: 18:32
talijanski na srpski
+ ...
| "a bit of" implemented | May 21, 2011 |
No, Sheila’s suggestion is not implemented. But when you ask question, you can pretend answer only from native speakers, and then others are flagged (they are still alowed to answer the question, but there is a warning: doesn’t meet criteria
-english is not my working language-
| | | | B D Finch
Francuska
Local time: 18:32
francuski na engleski
+ ...
| Not necessarily | May 21, 2011 |
KudoZ answers provide a means of assessing the competence of a translator. Somebody who rashly demonstrates ignorance of a language pair by their answers (or their questions) might be doing themselves no favours at all.
However, I have been annoyed, when I have posted questions, to have my time wasted by answerers who either have inadequate knowledge of the language pair, or who are quite ignorant of the subject matter. If the Asker has specified criteria for Answerers, I do wish P... See more KudoZ answers provide a means of assessing the competence of a translator. Somebody who rashly demonstrates ignorance of a language pair by their answers (or their questions) might be doing themselves no favours at all.
However, I have been annoyed, when I have posted questions, to have my time wasted by answerers who either have inadequate knowledge of the language pair, or who are quite ignorant of the subject matter. If the Asker has specified criteria for Answerers, I do wish ProZ would block people who don't meet the criteria from answering.
The criterion of living in one of the language pair countries could be quite difficult, e.g. what about the Spanish linguistic communities in the US? I do think that ProZ should be stricter about people making ludicrous claims about what languages they are native in. I have a blacklist of people whom I will not help with their KudoZ questions because their questions and answers indicate that they are absolutely unqualified and incompetent to translate into English. ▲ Collapse
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