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Poll: Do you think DeepL is something for human translators to worry about?
Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
Dominic D.
Dominic D.
Local time: 21:06
Serbian to Russian
+ ...
So... Apr 7, 2022

...what's your current situation in terms of the "health of the industry" - is demand/rates in decline? Have you observed agencies increasingly noticing/restricting the MT trend? Just yesterday one of the agencies I occasionally work with put an MT restriction clause in the assignment T&Cs that prohibits MT under pain of forfeiture of remuneration.

 
Rodrigo Bovino
Rodrigo Bovino  Identity Verified
Brazil
Local time: 16:06
English to Portuguese
+ ...
No Apr 8, 2022

No.

It's just a tool for simple stuff like " my house is yellow", for complex stuff or technical work people are needed.

You can't translate a contract or technical stuff with DeepL without MTPE and research.

Cheers


Anna Gorska
 
Tom in London
Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 20:06
Member (2008)
Italian to English
Like me Apr 8, 2022

Gerard Barry wrote:

..... unless you're fortunate enough to translate genuinely interesting texts....


That's what I do. Deepl plays a very minor role in my work as a translator.


P.L.F. Persio
 
Evgeny Sidorenko
Evgeny Sidorenko
Russian Federation
Local time: 22:06
English to Russian
+ ...
What are we taliking about Apr 8, 2022

Many MT-related posts make me wonder if their authors have ever done any PEMT jobs. Becuse if they have and experienced what kind of 'product' often comes out of even simple, not 'genuinely interesting', texts, they would not be panicking about MT taking their jobs. Try it and see for yourself. There's still a huge gap between unedited MT and even 'upper medium' quality translation for a large variety of texts, subjects and contexts, and I just can't see how it can be closed, or how the much cri... See more
Many MT-related posts make me wonder if their authors have ever done any PEMT jobs. Becuse if they have and experienced what kind of 'product' often comes out of even simple, not 'genuinely interesting', texts, they would not be panicking about MT taking their jobs. Try it and see for yourself. There's still a huge gap between unedited MT and even 'upper medium' quality translation for a large variety of texts, subjects and contexts, and I just can't see how it can be closed, or how the much criticized PEMT jobs can contribute to it becoming better.Collapse


P.L.F. Persio
 
Gerard Barry
Gerard Barry
Germany
Local time: 21:06
German to English
. Apr 9, 2022

Tom in London wrote:

Gerard Barry wrote:

..... unless you're fortunate enough to translate genuinely interesting texts....


That's what I do. Deepl plays a very minor role in my work as a translator.


I would suggest that you are very lucky. I've rarely translated texts that were remotely interesting to me.


Tom in London
 
Daryo
Daryo
United Kingdom
Local time: 20:06
Serbian to English
+ ...
Every translator SHOULD BE WORRIED Apr 11, 2022

about the hype surrounding DeepL (and similar "translation devices").

Much good is it going to do for translators knowing how limited MT is if the general public is made to believe that it's some kind of panacea.

You have just to read comments by people who haven't got a clue about translating, who really believe the inflated PR nonsense about MT in general!

Not to forget those who simply couldn't care less about the real usability of MT and just piggy-bac
... See more
about the hype surrounding DeepL (and similar "translation devices").

Much good is it going to do for translators knowing how limited MT is if the general public is made to believe that it's some kind of panacea.

You have just to read comments by people who haven't got a clue about translating, who really believe the inflated PR nonsense about MT in general!

Not to forget those who simply couldn't care less about the real usability of MT and just piggy-back on the hype in form of "PEMT" jobs that are in effect translating for half or less of the already severely deflated "usual prices".

As for DeepL becoming a real replacement for translators? It's probably going to happen, in some more or less distant future, but even then not totally.

As of NOW, the hype IS the real problem.
Collapse


P.L.F. Persio
 
Dominic D.
Dominic D.
Local time: 21:06
Serbian to Russian
+ ...
Well? Apr 12, 2022

Not sure why your DeepL experience is so poor, but I'm just doing a relatively simple text on a building automation system (a 2-pager) and hardly need to change anything in it, as the translation is spot-on in 97% of segments. So this does make me somewhat anxious over the future of my job. But this is from my native tongue into English. The other-way-round situation is usually a bit more complicated, but the performance is still great and a huge productivity improvement.

And no, I'
... See more
Not sure why your DeepL experience is so poor, but I'm just doing a relatively simple text on a building automation system (a 2-pager) and hardly need to change anything in it, as the translation is spot-on in 97% of segments. So this does make me somewhat anxious over the future of my job. But this is from my native tongue into English. The other-way-round situation is usually a bit more complicated, but the performance is still great and a huge productivity improvement.

And no, I'm not ignorant of quality. I've successfully worked in the industry for 7 years before the MT times.
Collapse


Gerard Barry
 
Gerard Barry
Gerard Barry
Germany
Local time: 21:06
German to English
. Apr 13, 2022

Dominic D. wrote:

Not sure why your DeepL experience is so poor, but I'm just doing a relatively simple text on a building automation system (a 2-pager) and hardly need to change anything in it, as the translation is spot-on in 97% of segments. So this does make me somewhat anxious over the future of my job. But this is from my native tongue into English. The other-way-round situation is usually a bit more complicated, but the performance is still great and a huge productivity improvement.

And no, I'm not ignorant of quality. I've successfully worked in the industry for 7 years before the MT times.


I agree with you. Many translators are Luddites who don't want to face up to the fact that they are not as irreplaceable as they think.


Evgeny Sidorenko
Jorge Payan
Stephen Emm
 
Andreas Baranowski
Andreas Baranowski  Identity Verified
Japan
Local time: 04:06
Member
Japanese to German
+ ...
Why worry about the inevitable? Apr 18, 2022

Machine translation, whether DeepL or any other brand, will ultimately do what fast food did to restaurant cooking or digital photography to bromide photography. Although vastly inferior, I predict it will find acceptance on the merits of cost performance and acceptable fulfillment features – acceptable in the opinion of users. In the same way as fast food is a bad joke compared with the skills of a trained chef and digital will never deliver the nuance of bromide, machine translation will fin... See more
Machine translation, whether DeepL or any other brand, will ultimately do what fast food did to restaurant cooking or digital photography to bromide photography. Although vastly inferior, I predict it will find acceptance on the merits of cost performance and acceptable fulfillment features – acceptable in the opinion of users. In the same way as fast food is a bad joke compared with the skills of a trained chef and digital will never deliver the nuance of bromide, machine translation will find its place and ultimately acquire an overwhelming market share. It’s just a question of time.Collapse


P.L.F. Persio
Jorge Payan
 
Tom in London
Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 20:06
Member (2008)
Italian to English
Discerning Apr 18, 2022

Andreas Baranowski wrote:

, machine translation will find its place and ultimately acquire an overwhelming market share. It’s just a question of time.


....leaving the more discriminating part of the market to those of us who also never eat junk food.



P.L.F. Persio
Jan Truper
Baran Keki
Beatriz Ramírez de Haro
 
Baran Keki
Baran Keki  Identity Verified
Türkiye
Local time: 22:06
Member
English to Turkish
2017 Apr 18, 2022

This question was asked in 2017, when I left my job as an in-house translator to become a freelancer. Since then I've been making at least 3 times more than what I earned as an in-house. I was never offered MT jobs, and frankly I've never been interested in them (to me they seemed like more complicated jobs than regular translation). So, does this make me a Luddite?

P.L.F. Persio
Dan Lucas
Beatriz Ramírez de Haro
Peter Shortall
 
Andreas Baranowski
Andreas Baranowski  Identity Verified
Japan
Local time: 04:06
Member
Japanese to German
+ ...
A matter of self-perception Apr 19, 2022

Tom in London wrote:

....leaving the more discriminating part of the market to those of us who also never eat junk food.



Since there are at least as many discerning translators as there are proz.com accounts, the same number of translators will simply be competing for fewer jobs.

BTW, I didn’t mention junk food at all. It’s fast food. For the discerning translator who wants to know the difference, here’s a link. Buon appetito.
https://foodtolive.com/healthy-blog/fast-food-junk-food-difference/


Jorge Payan
 
Metin Demirel
Metin Demirel  Identity Verified
Türkiye
Local time: 22:06
Member (2018)
Italian to Turkish
+ ...
No Apr 19, 2022

Baran Keki wrote:

This question was asked in 2017, when I left my job as an in-house translator to become a freelancer. Since then I've been making at least 3 times more than what I earned as an in-house. I was never offered MT jobs, and frankly I've never been interested in them (to me they seemed like more complicated jobs than regular translation). So, does this make me a Luddite?


As far as I know, they are easier and simpler than most regular jobs, so they enable everyone and their mother (speaking a foreign language) to enter the translation market. But if it's more complicated than regular jobs, then it's good for us. Because the laymen (and their mothers of course) are scared of technology like the plague.

[Edited at 2022-04-19 21:16 GMT]


 
Tom in London
Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 20:06
Member (2008)
Italian to English
Plague Apr 20, 2022

Metin Demirel wrote:

.....e the laymen (and their mothers of course) are scared of technology like the plague.


Technology like the Plague would scare me too.


Christopher Schröder
P.L.F. Persio
 
Dominic D.
Dominic D.
Local time: 21:06
Serbian to Russian
+ ...
Yeah, so anyway... Apr 20, 2022

For those of you who are in fact, out of prudence or pessimism, factoring in the possibility of becoming jobless (or with severely reduced income levels) within the next 5 to 10 years - what is your plan B? I've been having the vastly unoriginal idea of getting seriously into interpreting and/or voiceovers/narrating. Also -- lo and behold -- becoming a writer.

 
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Poll: Do you think DeepL is something for human translators to worry about?






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