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Simplest way to get freelancers up and running with a CAT tool?
Thread poster: Mark Daniels
philgoddard
philgoddard
United States
German to English
+ ...
. Feb 9, 2016

Mark Daniels wrote:

Actually, a shocking number of translators still work without them.


I wish you knew how offensive and patronising this sounds.


 
Christopher Schröder
Christopher Schröder
United Kingdom
Member (2011)
Swedish to English
+ ...
Hmmm Feb 10, 2016

Surely if they wanted to use a CAT tool, they would?

So the issue here is not finding a free tool but how to change the minds of people who have made the decision not to use CAT.

Why would you want to do that? Shouldn't you respect their choice?

Shocking as it may seem to you, an awful lot of translations don't benefit at all from CAT. Quite the opposite. Which is why there is still a huge market for old-skool translation.

I think you're on a h
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Surely if they wanted to use a CAT tool, they would?

So the issue here is not finding a free tool but how to change the minds of people who have made the decision not to use CAT.

Why would you want to do that? Shouldn't you respect their choice?

Shocking as it may seem to you, an awful lot of translations don't benefit at all from CAT. Quite the opposite. Which is why there is still a huge market for old-skool translation.

I think you're on a hiding to nothing.
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DorothyX (X)
DorothyX (X)
France
Local time: 12:22
What I did Feb 10, 2016

I had to work with experienced but low-tech translators who didn't use (and didn't want to use) a CAT-tool. You just can't get them to do that, and there is not enough work for litterature-only translators. Solutions:
- for Word documents: the most convenient way was to pretranslate the document with WF Classic, hide the original text in the pretranslated version and send both to the translator (original version + pretranslated version), and to say them to open both side by side in two dif
... See more
I had to work with experienced but low-tech translators who didn't use (and didn't want to use) a CAT-tool. You just can't get them to do that, and there is not enough work for litterature-only translators. Solutions:
- for Word documents: the most convenient way was to pretranslate the document with WF Classic, hide the original text in the pretranslated version and send both to the translator (original version + pretranslated version), and to say them to open both side by side in two different windows. And then to work on the pretranslated version. After receiving the completed work, you'll only have to check it and then to clean it in the TM.
- another way is to copy all segments into Excel, if necessary pretranslate, and then having them working on this Excel sheet. (although they won't like it).
- alignment after translation is also an option, but only if no TM has to be used.
- last option: let them work in the way they want, but give them a TM in Excel which can be used as a reference (by using the Search option).
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Christine Andersen
Christine Andersen  Identity Verified
Denmark
Local time: 12:22
Member (2003)
Danish to English
+ ...
How I started... and I am truly grateful! Feb 10, 2016

Mark Daniels wrote:

Well, I am not talking about "hiring cheap non-professionals", that's rather putting words in my mouth. There are a number of translators who started out with my agency who had a natural aptitude, whom I trained in CAT tools and helped become very able translators after they learned what dynamic equivalence was and about the need for idiomatic expression in the target language. While they worked for me (and some still do) I paid them well above the average rate for this market. So I rather call it "investing in people" - it's good for me and it's good for them.


That is precisely how I came into the translating business. I was employed in-house, and although I had done a few translations and taken some training, I really did not have a clue compared with what I learned later. The chance to learn and practice turned me from an amateur to a professional, and did wonders, by the way, for my self-esteem and life in general. It really made translation a viable way for me to earn a living.

So all respect from here if you are doing what my employer did.

He did not 'respect' my original dislike of CAT tools - or maybe he did, but I still had to get over it and use them. (Back in the last century) I put up with Déjà Vu until it seized up with a whole cookery book shortly before the deadline, and then we all panicked... Trados Workbench 3 was a far cry from the latest Studio with all the bells and whistles. But I soon became grateful, once I got the hang of the things.

Later on, I personally have found that with my own customised setup and perhaps imaginative use of the advanced features, there are very few texts where a CAT is not an advantage. I organise terminology in it, and even use my CAT 'backwards' to avoid repetition when the text is becoming TOO repetitive or stereotyped.

Asking how to get people up and running 'without too much expense' is just being realistic, because it is still an outlay before you can start earning money. I used Wordfast Classic for a while, and found it easy to get up and running as a backup in the days when Trados updates were a pain and it regularly had hiccups over Java... So Wordfast may be a good way to learn the basics and get comfortable with them. I don't know about the other CATs.

You sound as if you are going the right way, so I hope the investment in people pays off for you all. Best of luck!





[Edited at 2016-02-10 10:51 GMT]


 
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