Poll: What would most surprise St Jerome if he were to look at translation today?
Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
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Apr 15, 2018

This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "What would most surprise St Jerome if he were to look at translation today?".

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Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida  Identity Verified
Portugal
Local time: 23:15
Member (2007)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
Other Apr 15, 2018

As it took St. Jerome about twenty years (researchers don't agree on this) to translate from Greek to Latin his first version of the Holy Scripture, known as the Vulgate, he would probably be very surprised with the quickness SOME things get translated today and the technology involved…

 
Concepción Martín
Concepción Martín  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 00:15
Member (2018)
English to Spanish
+ ...
Job insecurity Apr 15, 2018

The lack of association between translators, the huge fluctuations in working conditions, how difficult it is to maintain the standard of living and the low rates... He lived before capitalism.

 
José Henrique Lamensdorf
José Henrique Lamensdorf  Identity Verified
Brazil
Local time: 20:15
English to Portuguese
+ ...
In memoriam
Technology and its creed Apr 15, 2018

St. Jerome was unquestionably a devout Catholic.

He'd be surprised at the technology devised to make translation more efficient, and thence at how one particular so-called CAT tool - via marketing clout - managed to become far more pervasive than religion itself.

No translation client nowadays inquires about their translators' religious beliefs, unless they are particularly relevant to the job at hand. In many countries, such intrusion would be illegal.

Ne
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St. Jerome was unquestionably a devout Catholic.

He'd be surprised at the technology devised to make translation more efficient, and thence at how one particular so-called CAT tool - via marketing clout - managed to become far more pervasive than religion itself.

No translation client nowadays inquires about their translators' religious beliefs, unless they are particularly relevant to the job at hand. In many countries, such intrusion would be illegal.

Nevertheless, having one particular CAT tool brand is often the only essential requirement they actually demand from a translator, anything else being relative. These translation clients immediately label translators who don't have that specific CAT tool as "heretic, not worthy of having their e-mails ever read".

St. Jerome would be surprised at how this CAT tool marketing was far more effective to convert infidels than the Inquisition, and without any bloodshed.
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Jennifer Forbes
Jennifer Forbes  Identity Verified
Local time: 23:15
French to English
+ ...
In memoriam
Other - in the sense of "all the above" Apr 15, 2018

St Jerome would doubtless be amazed at everything in today's world, not only in the field of translation).
About how much has changed (technology and our dependence on it, the vast increase in population) and about how much has not changed (belligerence, greed).


 
Mónica Algazi
Mónica Algazi  Identity Verified
Uruguay
Local time: 20:15
Member (2005)
English to Spanish
Google translate Apr 15, 2018

I can even imagine the picture - St Jerome weeping in despair! https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Guercino_-_The_Vision_of_St_Jerome_-_WGA10922.jpg

 
Anne Schulz
Anne Schulz
Germany
Local time: 00:15
English to German
+ ...
Other Apr 15, 2018

He might be most surprised about how little value is given to translation.

 
Muriel Vasconcellos
Muriel Vasconcellos  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 16:15
Member (2003)
Spanish to English
+ ...
The technology, hands down! Apr 16, 2018

Even more than the pervasive CAT tool(s), he would be blown away by machine translation, as flawed as it is.

 
Gibril Koroma
Gibril Koroma  Identity Verified
Canada
Local time: 19:15
French to English
+ ...
Blown Apr 16, 2018

The venerable Saint will be "blown away" by all these CAT tools.

 
Mario Freitas
Mario Freitas  Identity Verified
Brazil
Local time: 20:15
Member (2014)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
Other Apr 17, 2018

The amazing number of agencies paying peanuts and the amazing number of poor-quality translators that accept low rates to enter the market, and the amazing number of clients who accept low quality to pay less. St. Jerome would probably go back up and give it up.

 


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Poll: What would most surprise St Jerome if he were to look at translation today?






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