| Pages in topic: < [1 2 3 4] > | Moral dilemma. What should I do? Opinions needed Thread poster: myko312 (X)
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Zea_Mays 
Italy
Local time: 03:06
English to German
+ ...
| too much is too much (it's Kafka year) | Jun 6 |
Rachel Waddington wrote:
Zea_Mays wrote:
who finds that this story is not credible?
Why on earth would anyone make it up?
My gut tells me that there is "too much" and oddly all going wrong in this story.
The guy had a fake CV, got a big translation job from an agency he apparently hadn't worked for before, wasn't able to do and check his translation "for some reasons" (instead of quitting), but knows that "there are no critical errors", and - ta-da - doesn't have the files anymore "for some reasons" (what a coincidence). Another coincidence: the field is medical, where errors can have serious consequences. I can't think of any translator who would have delivered that translation.
The agency, "from what he knows"/"there are reasons to think" (how does he know this?), did only a machine QA="people who don't know the languages from/into which the translation is being done" (?), and that "files would be going directly to the client". AFAIK, medical translations are generally not treated that way, to the contrary. And if they are actually treated that way, they are not critical.
Then again, he fears "there are critical errors" (before he said he knows there are not) and "after a really long time" emails the translation agency director to tell her there are errors in his translation. As she apparently did show an irresponsible approach, he contacts the direct client. But the agency director must have convinced them that he was a spammer, knowing he was not, and finally she had considered his emails as spam too. Yes, for sure!
Can you imagine what would have happened if this story was true?
(And lawyers who tell you to do nothing because their job is to protect you? LOL)
[Bearbeitet am 2024-06-06 07:53 GMT]
| | | | Baran Keki
Türkiye
Local time: 05:06
Member
English to Turkish
| Just because you're paranoid... | Jun 6 |
It's possible that the OP might be suffering from an extreme case of OCD. His translation might not even be as bad or erroneous as he describes here. His sketchy CV might be bothering him (after the event), but I don't think anybody would admit that they've done a disastrously bad job and would go to such lengths to track down people on the net who he thinks might be associated with the end client.
That said, mental health for translators is an important matter, which ultimately affects yo... See more It's possible that the OP might be suffering from an extreme case of OCD. His translation might not even be as bad or erroneous as he describes here. His sketchy CV might be bothering him (after the event), but I don't think anybody would admit that they've done a disastrously bad job and would go to such lengths to track down people on the net who he thinks might be associated with the end client.
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| | | | myko312 (X)
Moldova
TOPIC STARTER
Driven my moral obligation and conscience, I've sent a letter to the agency with the full disclosure.
| | | | myko312 (X)
Moldova
TOPIC STARTER | That's insane, I absolutel agree with that, | Jun 6 |
Zea_Mays wrote:
Rachel Waddington wrote:
Zea_Mays wrote:
who finds that this story is not credible?
Why on earth would anyone make it up?
My gut tells me that there is "too much" and oddly all going wrong in this story.
The guy had a fake CV, got a big translation job from an agency he apparently hadn't worked for before, wasn't able to do and check his translation "for some reasons" (instead of quitting), but knows that "there are no critical errors", and - ta-da - doesn't have the files anymore "for some reasons" (what a coincidence). Another coincidence: the field is medical, where errors can have serious consequences. I can't think of any translator who would have delivered that translation.
The agency, "from what he knows"/"there are reasons to think" (how does he know this?), did only a machine QA="people who don't know the languages from/into which the translation is being done" (?), and that "files would be going directly to the client". AFAIK, medical translations are generally not treated that way, to the contrary. And if they are actually treated that way, they are not critical.
Then again, he fears "there are critical errors" (before he said he knows there are not) and "after a really long time" emails the translation agency director to tell her there are errors in his translation. As she apparently did show an irresponsible approach, he contacts the direct client. But the agency director must have convinced them that he was a spammer, knowing he was not, and finally she had considered his emails as spam too. Yes, for sure!
Can you imagine what would have happened if this story was true?
(And lawyers who tell you to do nothing because their job is to protect you? LOL)
[Bearbeitet am 2024-06-06 07:53 GMT]
But unfortunately this is true. I said, from what I know, there were no critical mistakes. But I haven't checked the translation thoroughly enough.
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myko312 wrote:
I said, from what I know, there were no critical mistakes. But I haven't checked the translation thoroughly enough.
Well, you really should be taking the time now to check it properly to see if all this fuss is necessary.
| | | | Lieven Malaise
Belgium
Local time: 03:06
Member (2020)
French to Dutch
+ ...
myko312 wrote:
Driven my moral obligation and conscience, I've sent a letter to the agency with the full disclosure.
But that same conscience didn't stop you from lying about your credentials in the first place, delivering a terrible work while you must have been fully aware of the importance of your text from the beginning and finally breaching an NDA.
That doesn't really add up, does it?
| | | | | Many things don't add up but still happen | Jun 6 |
Lieven Malaise wrote:
That doesn't really add up, does it?
As Dan Lucas said, people are strange sometimes. We can just take Boeing as an example of people who should have known better: secret software hidden from the FAA and pilots that crashed two planes. Door plug that blew out because they have no proper safety procedures. Whistleblowers ignored, disciplined or persecuted. Senior management caring only about the bottom line (which has now been blown out too thanks to their incompetence), neglecting safety across the board while lying to the public that everything is fine.
If someone had told us ten years ago that Boeing would degenerate like this in the future, would we have believed them?
A bottom-level 'translation agency' hiring an incompetent 'translator' for a medical text sounds entirely plausible in today's translation industry. It's the whole chain that is responsible, not just the final link.
| | | | Baran Keki
Türkiye
Local time: 05:06
Member
English to Turkish
I think the OP should be congratulated for his candid disclosure instead of being publicly bashed. He seems to be genuinely regretful of his actions.
Maybe something good will come out of this? Maybe the best rate Indian agencies will be exposed for what they are? Maybe this 'bad' translation will make the end clients finally understand how the translation agencies in certain parts of the world actually operate, i.e. no proofreading, no revision, not checking anything other than doing a si... See more I think the OP should be congratulated for his candid disclosure instead of being publicly bashed. He seems to be genuinely regretful of his actions.
Maybe something good will come out of this? Maybe the best rate Indian agencies will be exposed for what they are? Maybe this 'bad' translation will make the end clients finally understand how the translation agencies in certain parts of the world actually operate, i.e. no proofreading, no revision, not checking anything other than doing a simple machine QA, cutting corners wherever they can, showing no care whatsoever for quality etc. etc.
That's how they operate here as well. The translator's work is directly sent to the client without even doing a spellcheck (providing it hasn't been already done by the translator himself). They get away with errors and bad quality for as long as the client doesn't complain, and surprisingly they very rarely complain!
So, the silver lining here could be that this translation might be the one that will f**k the best rate agencies in the backside, and do us all a huge favour. How about that?
[Edited at 2024-06-06 10:40 GMT] ▲ Collapse
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| So much for turning over a new leaf | Jun 6 |
Lieven Malaise wrote:
But that same conscience didn't stop you from lying about your credentials in the first place
Nor has it stopped the OP from claiming to be a native speaker of English on the profile page (s)he created here on ProZ within the last week.
| | | | Zea_Mays
Italy
Local time: 03:06
English to German
+ ...
| gaps in this consilience of so many worst case szenarios | Jun 6 |
myko312 wrote:
Zea_Mays wrote:
My gut tells me that there is "too much" and oddly all going wrong in this story.
The guy had a fake CV, got a big translation job from an agency he apparently hadn't worked for before, wasn't able to do and check his translation "for some reasons" (instead of quitting), but knows that "there are no critical errors", and - ta-da - doesn't have the files anymore "for some reasons" (what a coincidence). Another coincidence: the field is medical, where errors can have serious consequences. I can't think of any translator who would have delivered that translation.
The agency, "from what he knows"/"there are reasons to think" (how does he know this?), did only a machine QA="people who don't know the languages from/into which the translation is being done" (?), and that "files would be going directly to the client". AFAIK, medical translations are generally not treated that way, to the contrary. And if they are actually treated that way, they are not critical.
Then again, he fears "there are critical errors" (before he said he knows there are not) and "after a really long time" emails the translation agency director to tell her there are errors in his translation. As she apparently did show an irresponsible approach, he contacts the direct client. But the agency director must have convinced them that he was a spammer, knowing he was not, and finally she had considered his emails as spam too. Yes, for sure!
Can you imagine what would have happened if this story was true?
(And lawyers who tell you to do nothing because their job is to protect you? LOL)
But unfortunately this is true. I said, from what I know, there were no critical mistakes. But I haven't checked the translation thoroughly enough.
Well, you could complete the story and tell us
why you accepted the task,
why you did not quit instead of delivering bad work,
why you don't have the files anymore,
how you know the agency only does machine QA - and what this machine QA consists in -,
why you waited a real long time before contacting the agency,
what critical errors you fear making some examples,
and if you have legal costs insurance.
| | | | myko312 (X)
Moldova
TOPIC STARTER | I've never said that, | Jun 6 |
Lieven Malaise wrote:
myko312 wrote:
Driven my moral obligation and conscience, I've sent a letter to the agency with the full disclosure.
But that same conscience didn't stop you from lying about your credentials in the first place, delivering a terrible work while you must have been fully aware of the importance of your text from the beginning and finally breaching an NDA.
That doesn't really add up, does it?
my actions were beautiful and so on. I fully admit my guilt. As I said, the reason for all of this wasn’t greed or something like that. But what happened, happened. I’m just trying to prevent negative consequences for others. Even if I did wrong in the first place, that shouldn’t stop me from fixing my misdeeds and becoming better, should it?
Of course, the full story of how on Earth it happened will explain a lot of things that seem weird, like why I no longer have the files, what happened during my review and so on. All the things that are seemimpossible to expain at first glance in this situation.
But, excuse me, I just cannot think about it any longer right now. Maybe later. Probably this story will be useful to the community, for wannabe translators, etc. But I should take care of the faulty translation at first.
| | | | Dan Lucas
United Kingdom
Local time: 02:06
Member (2014)
Japanese to English
Zea_Mays wrote:
Can you imagine what would have happened if this story was true?
...one of the crazy things about our profession is that this story could, actually, be true.
Anybody can just appear out of nowhere and take on a translation that they are entirely unqualified to tackle.
And in this case they did.
(Well, if it happened at all.)
On a more serious note, this is why a verifiable identity and a proven track record is so important to the good clients.
Regards,
Dan
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send you revised and correct version to the agency and client. I don't think you can do more than this. If you can't provide a correct version yourself, hire an expert to do it. Then, "put a stone on it"... as we say in Italian... 
| | | | Zea_Mays
Italy
Local time: 03:06
English to German
+ ...
Giovanni Guarnieri MITI, MIL wrote:
send you revised and correct version to the agency and client. I don't think you can do more than this. If you can't provide a correct version yourself, hire an expert to do it. Then, "put a stone on it"... as we say in Italian...
In this extraordinary consilience of all imaginable worst case szenarios, of course the most important is this one:
"I no longer possess the files with my translation to review the work again" for reasons.
Well, he will have the source files. So he can redo the translation. Or rather pay someone to do it. But I bet the source files have disappeared too.
| | | | myko312 (X)
Moldova
TOPIC STARTER
Zea_Mays wrote:
Giovanni Guarnieri MITI, MIL wrote:
send you revised and correct version to the agency and client. I don't think you can do more than this. If you can't provide a correct version yourself, hire an expert to do it. Then, "put a stone on it"... as we say in Italian...
In this extraordinary consilience of all imaginable worst case szenarios, of course the most important is this one:
"I no longer possess the files with my translation to review the work again" for reasons.
Well, he will have the source files. So he can redo the translation. Or rather pay someone to do it. But I bet the source files have disappeared too.
, I do have the source files, but I thought there is no point in sending the agency the revised translations, if they unwilling to contact the client on that matter and provide them with a revised translation.
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