Off topic: Freelance Translator Survey - All Help Appreciated
Thread poster: Christopher Catling
Christopher Catling
Christopher Catling  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 14:20
Spanish to English
+ ...
Oct 31, 2018

Good afternoon Proz community.

I am currently a few months away from completing my master's degree in Translation Studies and have decided to (somewhat tongue-in-cheek) study how useful or necessary a degree in translation really is for working as a freelance translator.

I've decided to use a participant survey to collect data. Therefore, regardless of whether you have a degree in translation studies or not, I hope some you might be able to spend a couple of minutes ans
... See more
Good afternoon Proz community.

I am currently a few months away from completing my master's degree in Translation Studies and have decided to (somewhat tongue-in-cheek) study how useful or necessary a degree in translation really is for working as a freelance translator.

I've decided to use a participant survey to collect data. Therefore, regardless of whether you have a degree in translation studies or not, I hope some you might be able to spend a couple of minutes answering a few simple questions about your experience as a freelance professional translator.

https://goo.gl/forms/Se5nDdrutmJnzjbg1

If you have any comments about the questionnaire, please feel free to write to me. I very much appreciate any input.

Kind regards,

Chris Catling
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Christopher Catling
Christopher Catling  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 14:20
Spanish to English
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Shameless Bump Nov 22, 2018

Hi everybody,

Please, forgive this shameless bumping of my original post.

Many thanks to everyone who has helped me so far. If anyone else is interested in sharing their experiences with me, I will be leaving the survey up for another month. Then the frantic 'dissertation finishing phase' begins.

Once again, thank you very much.

Kind regards,

Chris


 
Maxi Schwarz
Maxi Schwarz  Identity Verified
Local time: 07:20
German to English
+ ...
a couple of things Nov 24, 2018

Translation studies are different in different parts of the world, which may make it difficult to get a true reflection of the state of things. I was a bit bemused in the question of the most and least useful things in our university translation studies, where CAT tools are listed. When I attended university, my electric typewriter was a step up from the manual one, assignments were handed in on paper with professors' comments in red ink, and we used paper dictionaries. I was proudly shown a h... See more
Translation studies are different in different parts of the world, which may make it difficult to get a true reflection of the state of things. I was a bit bemused in the question of the most and least useful things in our university translation studies, where CAT tools are listed. When I attended university, my electric typewriter was a step up from the manual one, assignments were handed in on paper with professors' comments in red ink, and we used paper dictionaries. I was proudly shown a home computer by someone: it was shaped like a box and had the capacity of a modern pocket calculator or less. CAT tools? Bwahahaha.

Fwiw, in several decades of translation I have yet to use a CAT tool - not because I'm old-fashioned but because the type of material I translate rarely lends itself to them. I hope that when this is taught, that use and misuse is part of the course of studies.
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Christopher Catling
Christopher Catling  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 14:20
Spanish to English
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Thanks :) Nov 25, 2018

Hi Maxi,

Just a quick note to say thanks for your input. I've tried to keep the questions as simple as possible to aid with the analysis later. I'm very much focusing on quantitative rather than qualitative data, and this will doubtless lead to a certain loss of resolution. However, your input here may well prove useful when I come to analysing what I have, so thank you.

And, for what it's worth, I generally steer away from CAT tools too. I find that, when I use them, I
... See more
Hi Maxi,

Just a quick note to say thanks for your input. I've tried to keep the questions as simple as possible to aid with the analysis later. I'm very much focusing on quantitative rather than qualitative data, and this will doubtless lead to a certain loss of resolution. However, your input here may well prove useful when I come to analysing what I have, so thank you.

And, for what it's worth, I generally steer away from CAT tools too. I find that, when I use them, I end up producing rather robotic translations which I only have to go and revise later anyway!

Once again, thanks,

Chris
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Freelance Translator Survey - All Help Appreciated






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