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Discussion for ProZ.com & TAUS present: The Great Translation Debate session (2011): It makes sense for translators to share translation memories

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Stephanie Mitchel
Stephanie Mitchel  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 10:54
French to English
It's complicated. Sep 29, 2011

The issue of TM sharing is not black-and-white, and I've come to the conclusion that it's most appropriate for collaborative projects on which several translators are working at the same time - in that case, sharing can save everyone a lot of time and headaches. When it comes to working in sequence, though, where an agency stores a TM and has multiple contractors using it over time, quality can be compromised, as I have experienced from both sides, because the in-house person may or may not be q... See more
The issue of TM sharing is not black-and-white, and I've come to the conclusion that it's most appropriate for collaborative projects on which several translators are working at the same time - in that case, sharing can save everyone a lot of time and headaches. When it comes to working in sequence, though, where an agency stores a TM and has multiple contractors using it over time, quality can be compromised, as I have experienced from both sides, because the in-house person may or may not be qualified to maintain the TM (specialized in that field, given adequate time to do active maintenance, or even expert enough in the software). Then the issue of where errors originate can become clouded. As a final point, it's annoying as a freelancer to be told I have to stick with a TM and then discover that there are things I don't like stylistically, or disagree with outright and have to correct, because ultimately I am signing off on that work by submitting it. So things like that need to be worked out with the PM ahead of time or during the project, and translators need to be compensated for their time.

[Edited at 2011-09-29 13:56 GMT] ▲ Collapse
 
Wulf-Dieter Krüger
Wulf-Dieter Krüger  Identity Verified
Local time: 21:54
English to German
+ ...
It's not complicated, it's tricky Sep 29, 2011

I totally agree with Stephanie and would like to emphasize the issue of the false 100% match firend, that at times in the extreme case could be drivel, however, you're not supposed to go against it plus the TM manager not wanting to listen.
I have been in situations where it worked using Skype/without Skype, however the better result was achieved using Skype
 


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Discussion for ProZ.com & TAUS present: The Great Translation Debate session (2011): It makes sense for translators to share translation memories






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