| Pages in topic: < [1 2 3] > | KudoZ questions posted with insufficient context Thread poster: liz askew
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Eva Straus 
Slovenia
Local time: 04:23
Member (2007)
English to Slovenian
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SITE LOCALIZER | Agree with Nicole - educate new translators | Apr 13, 2008 |
Nicole Schnell wrote:
Educate .... and help. New colleagues often don't know better. That's why we call ourselves a community instead of an ivory tower.
That needed to be said.
| | | | | Another guilty sector... | Apr 13, 2008 |
... aside from the newbies and other discussed above, is surely the harrassed translator who is in a panic and stressed and so a) chucks the posting in without due care, and b) is so caught up in that very context that it seems blindingly obvious and it never occurs to you that a touch of clarification might come in useful (after all, you've been living this paragraph 1000% for the last 90 minutes!). I fall into this cartegory far too often, and fellow translators have had to upbraid me, quite r... See more ... aside from the newbies and other discussed above, is surely the harrassed translator who is in a panic and stressed and so a) chucks the posting in without due care, and b) is so caught up in that very context that it seems blindingly obvious and it never occurs to you that a touch of clarification might come in useful (after all, you've been living this paragraph 1000% for the last 90 minutes!). I fall into this cartegory far too often, and fellow translators have had to upbraid me, quite rightly, about the same lack of context that drives me crazy in other postings. Thank you to all of you for your patience! ▲ Collapse
| | | | Tatty
Local time: 04:23
Spanish to English
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| I do understand the importance of context but... | Apr 13, 2008 |
A lot of times I think the context, especially in legal translation, would be the entire the document, which naturally cannot be posted. This is one case scenario.
The other is that what the asker really wants is to know if you yourself have translated this term before and how you did it. So the asker is looking for a term to immediately strike a chord with you, not for you to look through the internet for it. They especially want to know if you yourself have translated in a documen... See more A lot of times I think the context, especially in legal translation, would be the entire the document, which naturally cannot be posted. This is one case scenario.
The other is that what the asker really wants is to know if you yourself have translated this term before and how you did it. So the asker is looking for a term to immediately strike a chord with you, not for you to look through the internet for it. They especially want to know if you yourself have translated in a document which provided a much better indication of what the term actually refers to. In short, they want to lean on your experience and not your internet search skills. Sometimes, potential answers demand context unnecessarily and the truth is that they are not the best placed to suggest an answer. Having said that, any help is better than none, even if is just a reaction to the term. I know from the times when I have posted that any help was greatly appreciated. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Vito Smolej
Germany
Local time: 04:23
Member (2004)
English to Slovenian
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SITE LOCALIZER | Do you know how shrinks make their living? | Apr 13, 2008 |
Yet, STILL translators do not provide sufficient context
They say (now and then...) "....tell me more..."
If you persist this way, you may even get 4 points (g). Just don't come up with a diagnosis ("has trouble expressing himself, possible speech impediment/stutter?"). After all, this is not what they have come out for.
regards
Vito
[Edited at 2008-04-13 15:39]
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Lia Fail (X)
Spain
Local time: 04:23
Spanish to English
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| he wouldn't be the first | Apr 14, 2008 |
KathyT wrote:
...but what has happened to our esteemed colleague, Kim Metzger?
Those three little 'x'es in front of his name suggest that he has left the site.
Surely this can't be true? That would be devastating news.
I don't post in the forums that often but am an avid reader, and I'm sure I'm not the only person who has benefited from Kim's wisdom and experience through reading many of his posts over the years. The loss would be even greater for those working in his language pairs. I really hope it's just temporary(?) and he will return, pronto!  :-(
Lots of helpful people have left, precisely becuase they are professionals and this site has degenerated.
I looked back though this post becuase I'm EQUALLY irritated by people who post answers and provide no supporting argument.
What's this about the X's ... what do they mean?
| | | | liz askew
United Kingdom
Local time: 03:23
Member (2007)
French to English
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TOPIC STARTER
The fact is that context is constantly being requested by those translators who wish to help new or even old translators!
Some people are just not open to being educated and can be repeat offenders.
Nothing to do with ivory towers - that is just another unhelpful, negative comment. It is a question of pragmatism. If you don't get enough context you can't give a decent answer.
Liz Askew
| | | | | Fully agree that it's not a matter of ivory tower | Apr 14, 2008 |
liz askew wrote:
The fact is that context is constantly being requested by those translators who wish to help new or even old translators!
Some people are just not open to being educated and can be repeat offenders.
Nothing to do with ivory towers - that is just another unhelpful, negative comment. It is a question of pragmatism. If you don't get enough context you can't give a decent answer.
Liz Askew
There's one notorious non-supplier of context in my language pair (EN-DE). He's not interested in "education", saying that it's up to peers to answer his (contextless) questions or to simply ignore them. He's one of the hopeless cases (and I've included him in my list of filtered colleagues).
| | | | liz askew
United Kingdom
Local time: 03:23
Member (2007)
French to English
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TOPIC STARTER | Filtered colleagues | Apr 14, 2008 |
Now that's interesting, how do you do this?
I don't know the IT skills for this, but there are certainly one or two I would like to filter, particularly one who can be rather unpleasant.
Thank you for any IT help
Liz
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liz askew
United Kingdom
Local time: 03:23
Member (2007)
French to English
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TOPIC STARTER | Patient colleagues - another guilty sector | Apr 14, 2008 |
Dear Aceavila
At least you are up to admitting this!
My dear friend and colleague, I won't be putting you in the filtered colleague section!
Liz
| | | | | No IT knowledge required ;-) | Apr 14, 2008 |
liz askew wrote:
Now that's interesting, how do you do this?
I don't know the IT skills for this, but there are certainly one or two I would like to filter, particularly one who can be rather unpleasant.
Thank you for any IT help
Liz
Simply open the KudoZ dropdown menu and go to "Dashboard" (third item from the bottom). On the left of the Dashboard page, you will see an option "Colleague Flags & Filters". Click on it. The column on the left is for colleagues to flag (i.e. you will be notified of all questions of this particular colleague), and the column on the right is for colleagues to filter (i.e. you won't be notified of questions posted by these colleagues). It's a very useful feature (IMVHO). Best of luck!
| | | | liz askew
United Kingdom
Local time: 03:23
Member (2007)
French to English
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER | Thank you LittleBalu | Apr 14, 2008 |
Simply open the KudoZ dropdown menu and go to "Dashboard" (third item from the bottom). On the left of the Dashboard page, you will see an option "Colleague Flags & Filters". Click on it. The column on the left is for colleagues to flag (i.e. you will be notified of all questions of this particular colleague), and the column on the right is for colleagues to filter (i.e. you won't be notified of questions posted by these colleagues).
Liz
 ... See more Simply open the KudoZ dropdown menu and go to "Dashboard" (third item from the bottom). On the left of the Dashboard page, you will see an option "Colleague Flags & Filters". Click on it. The column on the left is for colleagues to flag (i.e. you will be notified of all questions of this particular colleague), and the column on the right is for colleagues to filter (i.e. you won't be notified of questions posted by these colleagues).
Liz
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| | | | | The system will no longer accept the prefix "xxx" in the case of profiles which are still active | Apr 14, 2008 |
Dear all,
KathyT wrote:
...but what has happened to our esteemed colleague, Kim Metzger?
Those three little 'x'es in front of his name suggest that he has left the site.
I apologize for the off-topic-ness, but I wanted to answer KathyT's inquiry. Kim's profile has not been removed. I have contacted him regarding the xxx before his name. The system should no longer accept the addition of "xxx" in the case of profiles which are still active. Thanks.
Best regards,
Jared
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KathyT
Australia
Local time: 14:23
Japanese to English
| Glad to hear it! | Apr 14, 2008 |
Jared Tabor wrote:
Kim's profile has not been removed.
That's great news indeed
Lia Fail wrote:
He wouldn't be the first
@Lia - I know... I've been around here long enough to have been saddened by the exits of several respected colleagues.
Well, I have no idea what was going on there, but I'm thrilled to hear that Kim is still here.
....OK Liz and others - now returning you to your regular programming
Thanks for the bandwidth and apologies again for the diversion.
| | | | Gina W
United States
Local time: 22:23
Member (2003)
French to English
| Very good points | Apr 16, 2008 |
Tatty wrote:
A lot of times I think the context, especially in legal translation, would be the entire the document, which naturally cannot be posted. This is one case scenario.
The other is that what the asker really wants is to know if you yourself have translated this term before and how you did it. So the asker is looking for a term to immediately strike a chord with you, not for you to look through the internet for it. They especially want to know if you yourself have translated in a document which provided a much better indication of what the term actually refers to. In short, they want to lean on your experience and not your internet search skills. Sometimes, potential answers demand context unnecessarily and the truth is that they are not the best placed to suggest an answer. Having said that, any help is better than none, even if is just a reaction to the term. I know from the times when I have posted that any help was greatly appreciated.
| | | | liz askew
United Kingdom
Local time: 03:23
Member (2007)
French to English
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER | Very good points - debatable | Apr 16, 2008 |
Tatty wrote:
A lot of times I think the context, especially in legal translation, would be the entire the document, which naturally cannot be posted. This is one case scenario.
Surely, this is an exaggeration? The entire document?? Just a couple of sentences would suffice, surely?
As for medical translations, you can never have enough context as far as I am concerned and it is irresponsible for translators to post queries of two - three words... See more Tatty wrote:
A lot of times I think the context, especially in legal translation, would be the entire the document, which naturally cannot be posted. This is one case scenario.
Surely, this is an exaggeration? The entire document?? Just a couple of sentences would suffice, surely?
As for medical translations, you can never have enough context as far as I am concerned and it is irresponsible for translators to post queries of two - three words, expecting somebody to magically come up with the answer; previous experience is not always enough to be able to answer a query competently. A doctor would never answer a question about a patient's health, based on a tiny piece of information, without a much broader picture of what was going on.
And, yes, it is often very necessary to search the Net to help a colleague out in the case of medical translations. You only need to look at some of the "off the top of my head" answers by so-called competent translators to realise that it takes a lot more searching to find the most suitable and reasonable answer.
Sure, other fields may be different, but let us not tar everybody with the same brush.
I believe that translators can establish general standards, and one of them is providing enough context for other colleagues to help in the best way possible.
Any other solution is just dumbing-down.
Liz ▲ Collapse
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