I recently did a rather large translation that had quite a lot of repetition in it. In fact, it would have been perfect to use a CAT tool (that's not a tautology, it's Computer Assisted Translation or something) for. But I didn't.
This document (actually there were 3) would have been perfect for a CAT tool because it had a lot of repetition, both of terms and whole sentences, which is exactly what CAT tools are designed to deal with. I've had some experience with CAT tools: At MAJIT we had some training in TRADOS and I downloaded the free trial to play with for awhile and I've also used OmegaT (I even reinstalled it specifically for this job). Furthermore, this wasn't a case where I would be punished for using it (I've read of some agencies paying less for fuzzy matches and 100% matches, but I have no personal experience of this. Although, I did get an email from a company that apparently does this and wants you to buy a licence to their product as well. This seems to be a major issue that some translators have with CAT tools in general and this agency in particular. I won't name them though because, as I said, I don't have any personal experience. I didn't take them up but more because I had enough on my plate. I wonder how long I can drag out this set of parenthesis, I'd say 'without going off-topic', but it's a bit late. That seems to be it).
However, despite having every reason to and no reason not to, I didn't use a CAT tool because I just don't like them very much. I like the idea of them. They are very cool and can potentially be extremely useful, especially in texts such as the one I had, where there was a lot of repetition and consistency was important (it was a document for a court case). But I don't like using them. I prefer to work off a print out rather than off the screen (I ensure consistency with a piece of paper, a pencil and patience). I also don't like messing around with tags and things (they annoy me, I'm sure I can be trained to use them effectively, etc. but they still annoy me).
So there you have it. I could have used a CAT tool, and it probably would've made things easier for me, but I didn't, for no real reason other than I don't like working that way.
As an aside, when I was writing this it occurred to me that I'm probably not doing a very good job of advertising myself here, what with admitting that I can take a long time and I don't like time and labour saving CAT tools. So I went back and looked at my first post to see who my target audience was. It seems I didn't really have one. Now, I think my target audience is other translators who are at a similar stage in their careers to me. I don't really have any wisdom to share but I hope they get something useful out of it, even if I'm not sure what. Also, I can't get a damn thing done if I spend all day in my PJs.
I use TRADOS mainly for consistency. It also helps you to avoid making errors and omissions in some cases. I agree with you that it is very useful in handling documents like this case. But never ever tell your clients or agencies that you use a CAT tool. As you say, they might ask you for discounts on complete and fuzzy matches, which I think is ridiculous.
ReplyDeleteBTW, if you are considering buying one, I would still recommend TRADOS, because the latest version (2011) has Track Change function, which works like the same function in MS Word. Other CAT tool don't have this.
ReplyDeleteI didn't know that TRADOS has a Track Change function, which would be very useful. I like the layout of TRADOS, in particular the function that allows you to see, at a glance, what you have finished and what you want to check again (I don't remember the terms used but there were green and yellow symbols respectively), but I'm not sure I need or want it enough to justify the expense.
ReplyDeleteYou might want to consider buying it if and when you take another job of this kind from the same client.
ReplyDelete