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Do KudoZ questions need to be vetted for enough context?
Thread poster: liz askew
Siegfried Armbruster
Siegfried Armbruster  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 14:12
English to German
+ ...
In memoriam
Yes, we can May 2, 2009

casey wrote:
If you're working for an agency, you can't just say, "I'm not going to translate this unless you give me more context."


That is exactly what I'm doing with regards to agencies. Why do you belive that you cannot do it. The text does not become selfexplanatory just because it is routed through an agency.

And I try to use the same approach with regards to Kudoz question, that do lack context. I do not consider myself a so called "point grabber" and I'm quite willing to help -

  • to help people who ended up in a situation where the text they are translating contains parts that are not within their specialty - s..t happens

  • to help people/colleages who are working in the same specialty as I do, are contributing to Kudoz and at the moment need help with a complicated term/sentence etc.

  • to help others or newcomers if they at least try to provide enough context that allows me to understand what they are asking or do answer my query for more context


Askers who do not fall in these categories, i.e askers having no clue about the text they are working on, askers not providing a minimum amount of context etc. do not frustrate me, they sometimes get cynical remarks such as:

"If there is no further context available, you might have to live with the answers already given"

But in most cases I opt for the 3rd option Liz is mentioning.

liz askew wrote:
I raised this point more in support of those translators who are willing to help others but are not given enough context to do so and this leads to frustration, cynicism and the "sod them " attitude.


And in my opinion there is nothing wrong with this attitude.

So in my opinion -

YES we can and we should insist on more context and yes we should say more often NO to jobs without enough context and to askers who do not provide enough context.
 
liz askew
liz askew  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 13:12
Member (2007)
French to English
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TOPIC STARTER
Input and output May 2, 2009

No matter what the query though we all need as much information/context as possible to help.

So even if you have two words in a list, you need to provide part of that list.

Also, if you just want input, rather than an answer to a specific terminology query (which is what I thought the whole point to posing queries was:-)), then maybe post it on a different forum entirely.....i.e. in a thread for discussion.

Liz Askew

[Edited at 2009-05-02 07:09 GMT]
 
casey
casey  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 08:12
Member
Japanese to English
Sorry, liz, I take it back... May 2, 2009

Siegfried Armbruster wrote:

casey wrote:
If you're working for an agency, you can't just say, "I'm not going to translate this unless you give me more context."


That is exactly what I'm doing with regards to agencies. Why do you belive that you cannot do it.


Because I've tried. Some agencies are willing to put in the extra effort to get a better translation and others are not.


The text does not become selfexplanatory just because it is routed through an agency.


I agree 100%.

liz askew wrote:

No matter what the query though we all need as much information/context as possible to help.

So even if you have two words in a list, you need to provide part of that list.


I agree wholeheartedly. Now that I think about it again, we're not talking about the same thing. Sorry.
 
chica nueva
chica nueva
Local time: 00:12
Chinese to English
How about discussing it in the Community? May 3, 2009

liz askew wrote:

Hello there

It is the age old problem!

Lately I have noticed that askers provide a distinct lack of context when posting queries, despite being asked for it on many occasions to help translators help the asker!!



Hello Liz

Have you considered raising it with the Mods in your pair, or opening a thread about it in the French Forum ...

Lesley

[Edited at 2009-05-03 19:22 GMT]
 
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Do KudoZ questions need to be vetted for enough context?






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