Clearly out of their depth
Postavljač teme: Tom in London
Tom in London
Tom in London
Ujedinjeno Kraljevstvo
Local time: 08:47
Član (2008)
talijanski na engleski
Feb 21, 2024

Today in Kudoz we have just the latest example of a translator in my language pair flooding Kudoz with a series of questions about the meanings of specific single words.

Dear colleagues, if you have taken on a job that is completely outside your area of expertise and you have no idea of what the actual words mean, or of how to do your own research, please don't come running to Kudoz hoping that somebody else will do the work for you.


Lieven Malaise
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
Barbara Carrara
Zea_Mays
Rachel Waddington
Tanja Oresnik
Chris Says Bye
 
Dan Lucas
Dan Lucas  Identity Verified
Ujedinjeno Kraljevstvo
Local time: 08:47
Član (2014)
japanski na engleski
Undercutting Feb 21, 2024

Tom in London wrote:
please don't come running to Kudoz hoping that somebody else will do the work for you.

Especially given that you probably undercut serious translators to get the work in the first place.

Dan


Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
Lieven Malaise
Barbara Carrara
Zea_Mays
Baran Keki
Mustafa Baris Erevikli
Tanja Oresnik
 
Zea_Mays
Zea_Mays  Identity Verified
Italija
Local time: 09:47
Član (2009)
engleski na njemački
+ ...
Tell them in Kudoz Feb 21, 2024

There have been cases where I have told this to the OP in KudoZ.
You'll also see people there looking for translations of marketing claims - they have no idea how things actually work in the marketing field and what such work usually costs.


Chris Says Bye
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
Jennifer Levey
Anne Maclennan
Tom in London
P.L.F. Persio
Björn Vrooman
 
Denis Fesik
Denis Fesik
Local time: 10:47
engleski na ruski
+ ...
Similar things have been happening regularly in my feed Feb 21, 2024

Usually it's technical stuff where a person gets to translate a badly written text, most often in Chinglish, and starts flooding KudoZ with individual bits taken from segments, several queries per segment (not single words, no, it's usually not that bad). Whenever I see Chinglish at play, I tend to pay no attention to the whole stream of questions, but if it's something tricky but interesting, I may care to answer a few (like I did a while ago with bits of text about aviation). The asker won't b... See more
Usually it's technical stuff where a person gets to translate a badly written text, most often in Chinglish, and starts flooding KudoZ with individual bits taken from segments, several queries per segment (not single words, no, it's usually not that bad). Whenever I see Chinglish at play, I tend to pay no attention to the whole stream of questions, but if it's something tricky but interesting, I may care to answer a few (like I did a while ago with bits of text about aviation). The asker won't be any better off because of the asker syndrome while I will get more chances to practice translation problem solvingCollapse


Chris Says Bye
P.L.F. Persio
Daryo
Matthias Brombach
 
TranslationCe
TranslationCe
Local time: 09:47
talijanski na engleski
In Italian to English? Feb 21, 2024

In the IT>EN pair one asker has posted two questions this morning. Is that your definition of "flooding Kudoz with a series of questions about the meanings of specific single words"?

Chris Says Bye
 
Lingua 5B
Lingua 5B  Identity Verified
Bosna i Hercegovina
Local time: 09:47
Član (2009)
engleski na hrvatski
+ ...
Are you the “culprit”? Feb 21, 2024

TranslationCe wrote:

In the IT>EN pair one asker has posted two questions this morning. Is that your definition of "flooding Kudoz with a series of questions about the meanings of specific single words"?


Was it you?

Honestly I think it’s stupid opening a topic about an alleged specific person, while this kind of things are happening on KudoZ all the time, since it’s been established. Why or how is it different this time that it merited its own separate topic?

The answerers are no better always fighting and being on some sort of unfounded power trips. And it’s always the same people who answer behaving as if they own the entire KudoZ and like it’s their own private enterprise.


writeaway
 
Tom in London
Tom in London
Ujedinjeno Kraljevstvo
Local time: 08:47
Član (2008)
talijanski na engleski
POKRETAČ TEME
Felt like it Feb 21, 2024

Lingua 5B wrote:

. Why or how is it different this time that it merited its own separate topic?



Because I felt like it. And a large number of people agreed it was worth raising.



[Edited at 2024-02-21 12:39 GMT]


neilmac
P.L.F. Persio
IrinaN
Barbara Carrara
Daryo
AllegroTrans
 
Lingua 5B
Lingua 5B  Identity Verified
Bosna i Hercegovina
Local time: 09:47
Član (2009)
engleski na hrvatski
+ ...
You opened a public topic Feb 21, 2024

You opened a public topic, you received an opinion. Is there anything else I could help you with?

 
As you asked… Feb 21, 2024

Lingua 5B wrote:

You opened a public topic, you received an opinion. Is there anything else I could help you with?

A little courtesy?🤷‍♂️


Chris Spurgin
 
Jared Tabor
Jared Tabor
Local time: 04:47
OVLAŠTENI DJELATNIK PORTALA
Someone using the term help system to get term help... Feb 21, 2024

I checked the Italian to English pair, and as TranslationCe pointed out, there are two questions that have been asked so far today by the same user. I looked up the two terms in term search, and see that these terms have been requested previously, many years ago, with (I think, possibly) similar intent/context, by translators I don't picture people here alleging being out of their depth; they are in fact well-respected and well-established professionals. For at least one of those previous... See more
I checked the Italian to English pair, and as TranslationCe pointed out, there are two questions that have been asked so far today by the same user. I looked up the two terms in term search, and see that these terms have been requested previously, many years ago, with (I think, possibly) similar intent/context, by translators I don't picture people here alleging being out of their depth; they are in fact well-respected and well-established professionals. For at least one of those previous term help questions, Tom himself had proposed a possible answer.

Both of the above mentioned questions from today appear to be "normal" questions, very much in line with what the term help system is for-- getting and giving term help. Just some context, which is helpful outside of the term help system too.
Collapse


Lingua 5B
Chris Says Bye
Jean Dimitriadis
Ma. Alejandra Padilla-LaCour
 
Daryo
Daryo
Ujedinjeno Kraljevstvo
Local time: 08:47
srpski na engleski
+ ...
Leaving aside the specific Kudoz questions Feb 22, 2024

that motivated Tom to start this tread, the fact is that some Kudoz questions are asked by people completely out of their depth, so much that they can't even recognize the right answer when it's staring at them.

Kudoz works well when questions are asked by people who know the subject matter and need help with only few terms, not when askers are completely lost, can't make head nor tail of the whole source text.

But then, who ever said Kudoz was perfect?


Beatriz Ramírez de Haro
 
Yasutomo Kanazawa
Yasutomo Kanazawa  Identity Verified
Japan
Local time: 16:47
Član (2005)
engleski na japanski
+ ...
KudoZ rule 3.7 Feb 25, 2024

Zea_Mays wrote:

There have been cases where I have told this to the OP in KudoZ.
You'll also see people there looking for translations of marketing claims - they have no idea how things actually work in the marketing field and what such work usually costs.


Have you read the rule below?

https://www.proz.com/siterules/kudoz_answ/3.7#3.7

"3.7 Commentary on askers or answerers, and their postings or decisions to post, is not allowed.
Comments or insinuations concerning an answerer's or asker's experience or profile, his/her decision to post a certain question or answer, grade or close a question in a certain way, make a certain glossary entry, etc., are strictly prohibited (whether posted publicly, made directly to the person in question, or made to another site user)."

I think that's why Tom has refrained from telling this particular asker not to post any stupid question(s) on KudoZ. I understand his frustration.

This happens in my working language pair too, and believe me, I was tempted many times to post a comment on KudoZ to tell the asker how incompetent you are both linguistically and making a bad decision to accept a job which is out of your league.


P.L.F. Persio
Barbara Carrara
Beatriz Ramírez de Haro
 


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Clearly out of their depth






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