Poll: I think the quality of crowdsourced translation is... Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
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This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "I think the quality of crowdsourced translation is...".
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| | | | | Mediocre, similar to machine translation | Jan 6, 2022 |
It just adds force to the deep-rooted idea that translation is not a specialized job and that it’s enough to know two languages to translate a document. If you are interested in convincing consumers all over the world they should buy your product, you do not want to come across sounding like one of those “Nigerian” spam emails, you want your marketing materials to sound like in the native tongue, n'est-ce pas?
| | | | neilmac
Spain
Local time: 20:12
Spanish to English
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I suppose it depends on the "crowd" and its components.
However, although I don't have any experience of that kind of thing, I imagine it would likely be mediocre, and exposed to the same risks as machine translation.
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I never accept that kind of translation and I have no confidence in it.
I would rather do postediting of a machine translation, but only myself and 1 proofreader.
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Isa Anzaldo 
Local time: 20:12
Member (2018)
English to Spanish
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Crowd-sourced translation is useful when there are no resources to produce something professional. It also implies a community of interested people, which, in a way, makes it a gift from a crowd to a crowd. Often it's also better than nothing: it can constitute a great contribution where, otherwise, texts would stay untranslated, withholding their information to anyone standing behind the language barrier.
While the suitability of a text or group of texts for crowd-sourced translati... See more Crowd-sourced translation is useful when there are no resources to produce something professional. It also implies a community of interested people, which, in a way, makes it a gift from a crowd to a crowd. Often it's also better than nothing: it can constitute a great contribution where, otherwise, texts would stay untranslated, withholding their information to anyone standing behind the language barrier.
While the suitability of a text or group of texts for crowd-sourced translation depends on the function of the text, the type of text, the audience, and, of course, on the crowd (is there any sort of screening, for example?), it's important to remember that professional translation is expensive and resources are not always available.
So let us not look down on this sort of translation, but instead understand that crowd-sourced translation is just a strategy for intercultural communication.
Professional human translation will continue to be necessary for a long, long time yet. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Samuel Murray
Netherlands
Local time: 20:12
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
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| Option missing: Worse than machine translation | Jan 6, 2022 |
When major social media companies started getting their UIs translated, Facebook decided to go the experiment route (at least in some language combinations). Facebook users were asked to contribute translations, and then other users would vote on the translations. Result: spelling mistakes, grammar mistakes, syntax mistakes, and above all: no consistency in terminology.
| | | | | It is impossible to say | Jan 6, 2022 |
I tend to agree with Isa Anzaldo that it can be better than nothing.
If you use ´screened group sourcing´ rather than random crowdsourcing, and members of the group know the languages and the subject area, then you may get a very good translation.
In a way, that is how the Bible has been translated - committees of theologians and language experts have met and discussed drafts and suggestions, until they agreed on a final version. Here the historical and cultural aspec... See more I tend to agree with Isa Anzaldo that it can be better than nothing.
If you use ´screened group sourcing´ rather than random crowdsourcing, and members of the group know the languages and the subject area, then you may get a very good translation.
In a way, that is how the Bible has been translated - committees of theologians and language experts have met and discussed drafts and suggestions, until they agreed on a final version. Here the historical and cultural aspects are important, and machine translation would be completely inadequate, even if it had existed when some of the great translations were made.
If crowdsourcing means a crowd of self-selected volunteers without screening, then there is no guarantee of quality or consistency. Some will translate far too literally, or be unaware of false friends... In many cases I would rather use one or two amateurs who knew the language and had an idea of what the text was about than crowdsourcing!
Admit it, that is how many professionals began, before there was a lot of formal training. But translation is NOT as easy as many people imagine. ▲ Collapse
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Sometimes, low-profile singers, who perform foreign songs, use transcripts which only vaguely resemble the true words of original text. Nevertheless, with good arrangement, the audience can enjoy listening such performance (music+singer's voice), the text, meaningful or meaningless, is still in foreign language, beyond understanding.
The same happens in the crowdsourcing, if the 'nail of the program' is high-quality print for a presentation or a massive translation of a large collec... See more Sometimes, low-profile singers, who perform foreign songs, use transcripts which only vaguely resemble the true words of original text. Nevertheless, with good arrangement, the audience can enjoy listening such performance (music+singer's voice), the text, meaningful or meaningless, is still in foreign language, beyond understanding.
The same happens in the crowdsourcing, if the 'nail of the program' is high-quality print for a presentation or a massive translation of a large collection of papers. Often, nobody would check the consistency of terminology, completeness and adequacy of parts of translation.
Review of crowdsourced translation is a matter of self-control. From this point of view, the non-reviewed (which is common case) crowdsourcing is similar to MT, and such TMs are often unusable. ▲ Collapse
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| Other: No way to tell | Jan 7, 2022 |
Too many variables. A kajillion of them. I'm not very familiar with crowd-sourced translation, but I'm sure it would be vulnerable to the same pitfalls as machine translation. It would depend on the crowd and the source material. I have seen some decent machine translation when the source text was error-free, the grammar was simple, and the system was thoroughly trained in the subject matter. But those circumstances are not the norm. There is now a trend toward "statistical" MT, based on paired ... See more Too many variables. A kajillion of them. I'm not very familiar with crowd-sourced translation, but I'm sure it would be vulnerable to the same pitfalls as machine translation. It would depend on the crowd and the source material. I have seen some decent machine translation when the source text was error-free, the grammar was simple, and the system was thoroughly trained in the subject matter. But those circumstances are not the norm. There is now a trend toward "statistical" MT, based on paired corpora. Personally, I'm finding some of the results worse than old-fashioned rule-based MT. ▲ Collapse
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As far as I know, I've never seen an example of crowdsourced translation, so I cannot make a judgement.
I would expect it to be pretty dreadful, though.
As far as jobs go, I always skip the ones where a large document will be shared among multiple translators, and they ask me "How many words do you think you can do?", without providing a sample of the source.
| | | | Baran Keki
Türkiye
Local time: 21:12
Member
English to Turkish
I have no experience with crowdsourcing, and I don't wish to experience it.
But I'm just reminded of the time-honoured Turkish saying that goes "Nerede Çokluk, Orada Bokluk"
(which roughly translates as "there is shit where there is a crowd")
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Reading this thread, I was reminded of the old party game, Consequences.
Does anybody remember party games?
Anyway, I would expect that "group" translations would produce similarly hilarious results.
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| Crowdsourcing platforms are like Kuaishou, Douyin, and Tik Tok to some extent. | Jan 7, 2022 |
Crowdsourcing platforms are like Kuaishou, Douyin, and Tik Tok to some extent.
These Apps provide a platform where everyone can share contents with others, though quality of contents is another thing.
However, these Apps make it possible for people to create contents within the sphere of their interest.
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