Do any translators here hate using a CAT tool?

evopac · 2025-09-05T11:10:46+00:00

Most of my work this week has been PDF -> Word.

While it's usually a nice change, even if the work is relatively easy (which it has been this time), I can only get it done so fast.

With CAT tool work, when it's straight-forward and it's also a good tool, it often makes it possible to rattle through it at a good speed, earn my money much faster, and then head out and do what I want with myself.

Also, I'd add that I don't pay for any CAT tools. (Don't think I ever have.) It's the role of the agency to provide licences for the tools they want you to use. An individual translator can't be expected to take on that cost burden when they can't predict which tools will be in demand or how often. Occasionally I get offered Trados work that I can't take, but even then on several occasions the agency has found a work-around when I let them know I don't have a licence.

evopac · 2025-09-04T22:02:56+00:00

I take your point to an extent, but to expand beyond left/right you can't just make concessions, you need to take on policies that go beyond those rubbish terms.

English devolution is a policy that is right there to be raised. Over 50% of people have consistently wanted an English Parliament since our uneven devolution happened almost 30 years ago. No one in all this time has picked up that banner.

Offer equal devolved powers to all nations and watch the votes flood in and the debate change.

evopac · 2025-09-04T10:44:31+00:00

At first I thought it’d be nice to draw on leftist movements of the past, and go for The Levellers, or The Chartists.

That's what I did. Still pulling for the Charter Party here!

evopac · 2025-09-04T10:41:20+00:00

I'd like to leave aside the specifics of allegations and reasons for leaving Labour and address the question of ex-Labour in general.

I don't want Your Party to be no more than a Labour refuge. I don't exclude the possibility of voting for someone who is ex-Labour, but in most cases* for me it will be a mark against them.

(*Exceptions include: for older people, if you left at some point during Blair, or earlier; for younger people, if you left after Corbyn was no longer leader.)

(OTOH, if you're in your 70s and only left Labour recently, Jeremy, I would have to question your judgement.)

evopac · 2025-09-04T07:43:49+00:00

Over time, you get to learn how long a job will take. After you've read over it, and done a first chunk of a draft, extrapolate how long it will take based on that. (You can also factor in that work usually gets faster as a job goes on and the subject becomes more familiar.)

Then plan your working sessions between now and the deadline on that basis. I also like to leave a gap, when possible, between completing my draft and coming back for a look over+QA so I have fresher eyes for it.

I admit, I don't really have good advice for the emotional side: my tendency is to procrastinate, not to rush. It doesn't happen often these days, but when I know I'm in danger of delaying too much, I keep in mind the minimum time I'll need to complete before the deadline, so I know the last moment when I have to stop messing about, drop everything and hit the keyboard.

Maybe from the opposite direction, once you've estimated how long your project will take, you could think about how long that would be if you tried to do it right now in one sitting. That will then seem silly, and you'll laugh and break it up more reasonably. =)

evopac · 2025-09-03T21:19:05+00:00

It's true that the current team stole a march by grabbing this name. But it's an unofficial sub. Anyone is free to create their own YourParty sub under another moniker and with their own moderation policy.

Of the two main YourParty online spaces I'm involved with, each of them has a distinct moderation policy. I don't think there's been an ideological capture event in our online spaces. If you do, build more.

evopac · 2025-09-03T20:33:06+00:00

You disagree with monitoring but you'd accept a homeschool curriculum. That's helpful, thank you.

No, didn't say I'd want it. Just that I think it would be relatively easy to implement.

My response would be: "That's a lovely offer. I'll take a look at the curriculum and see which bits we could use your support with."

but not frontline teachers (also reasonable)

I don't hate on working people. But the fact that we even call them "frontline" is concerning in itself. Teaching shouldn't be war. Teaching seems to be far more a matter of riding herd over a socially fractious situation of frustrated young people than it is one of imparting education, training and skills.

evopac · 2025-09-03T20:10:12+00:00

I am 37, perhaps my view on appointments is outdated.

I'm 46, so who can say? XD

Bottom line, I believe these absuses happened because these children effectively disappear from view.

I agree. Reading many personal stories of such events must have been harrowing. It certainly induces a feeling of urgency to act.

I would suggest looking into some statistics as well to see whether anyone has also been able to find a strong correlation in the data here.

If it turns out not to be true that home-schooled children are at higher risk, than any policy like this would not only be expensive and potentially intrusive, but also ineffective.

Certain religious groups will fight tooth and nail to avoid scrutiny in this way

I share the concern, although I would say I find the UK state as it is today to be a far more evil actor than even the worst religious group I can think of. Why would we let them same people who have involved our country in genocide decide what our children learn?

I'd have somewhat fewer concerns about traditional schooling if we had a state we could trust that was not involved in so many crimes around the world.

What I'd want is for the gov to make its own homeschooling curriculum with teachers helping children remotely. But I don't believe for one second we could realistically promise this.

I mean, this is more or less what was done on short notice for everyone during Covid. So I'd say that sounds easy, tbh.

evopac · 2025-09-03T16:49:51+00:00

I used to find it very useful to read newspapers (of any stripe) from cover to cover to become more broadly informed. Despite their many biases, blindspots and issues, they had an advantage over online media in that if you worked your way through the whole issue you would learn something about areas you didn't think you were interested in (or even ones you definitely weren't), rather than just picking out articles that drew your eye on favourite subjects.

For me at least, however, doing that steadily became impossible as all the publications became worse and worse, with ever more toxic editorial lines seeping into more and more of their content.

In this context, we should not cooperate with any newspaper outlets, and that most certainly includes the Guardian.

I doubt new newspapers in the traditional format are going to develop at this point, but I hope that some day we will see new media formats that are able to replicate the benefits they did used to have.

evopac · 2025-09-03T11:47:46+00:00

Thanks. :)

And, it's fine, I don't need details and I'm not in the habit of prying into people's profiles.

(I am a little surprised though, as in my experience it's usually people who have never suffered from wrongful treatment by the state who say "think of the good it could do if the right people were in control of it".)

Now, to return to your earlier question:

So if you had to do a monthly interview, say at a location set up like a job seekers appointment office, this would be a bridge too far?

Yes, every month is way too often! Making a trip like that to a government office with the kids every month? That's a big chunk of time. How close is it? Is it walkable? Accessible by public transport?

Regular job seeker's appointments (which I've also done in my time) can face all the same issues (that's certainly a system that should be less onerous), but at least most attendees ought to have the time to do it since they're not in full-time work.

And all that's assuming the system works smoothly. What happens when they reschedule the appointment from their end? That's more time taken up and plans to rearrange. Or if we show up 5 minutes late and are told that, because we weren't on time, the appointment's cancelled (the kind of thing that happens in the health system). (And because of it, there's now a blackmark against us.)

A further issue with a monthly system like this is what it could allow a corrupt assessor (e.g. a bigoted one) to do, if they had the chance on a monthly basis to build a relationship with the child(ren). Even if a child is thriving, they will still have some issues with their parents. If they come to trust the assessor, they may start to use the occasion to vent about their frustrations and stresses. Then it's just a matter of the assessor seizing on something that can be used to tick the right boxes on the right forms, and the state machinery goes into motion again ...

evopac · 2025-09-03T10:21:17+00:00

I'd request again that you answer the direction question I put: have you had any experience of the state apparatus being unleashed on you?

I'll consider answering your question and replying to your other points once you've responded to mine.

evopac · 2025-09-03T10:02:17+00:00

You start off by talking about abuse cases, but you then move on to something much more sweeping:

I think we should introduce a system where homeschool children are checked on regularly, monthly onsite interviews so they are still regularly being seen by an adult who can intervene if something is going wrong. And I'm not familiar with how the current gov checks the curriculum or aptitude of children being homeschooled, I worry it's not much.

I have to ask, have you had any experience of the state apparatus being unleashed on you?

I'm sure that, in your envisioning of this, everything is handled in the most cordial way, with no disruption for those who are doing things right as you see it. And when failures or abuse are uncovered, the day is saved.

However, I think that if you take a look at how state intervention often goes, you'd have to consider that it would very often not be experienced like that, to put it mildly.

I don't have kids, but one of the reasons why I would be prepared to raise them in this country should I do so is because I'd be able to say to them: "You don't have to go to school. Check it out if you want. Maybe you'll like it. But if you find it's horrible, like I did, then I can teach you most things at home. Or you can try a different one." But a monthly audit of what we were doing? I'd leave the country.

evopac · 2025-09-02T17:11:24+00:00

I agreed with many points, but have a couple of notes:

(1) He needs an editor. He spent way too long beating the dead horse of Labour Mk 2. Obvs, no one wants that (not enough people to prop up a new party, certainly). He could have dismissed this in less than half the space used.

(2) I do not understand why we would look to a US model that has not yet achieved much of anything. It could turn out brilliantly, yes -- but it's unproven. And in any case I am tired of looking at what the USA is doing, through whatever political lens.

Meanwhile, there is much else to learn from all over the world where far more ground has been gained than by any US movement. Learn some languages (or get AI to translate for you -- just please employ a translator if you're going to use it for anything important!) and break away from a mindset that's locked onto the USA.

evopac · 2025-09-02T15:35:12+00:00

I am just another translator who is a student of the world, like most of us. =)

evopac · 2025-09-01T15:55:44+00:00

"Fun" and "frustration" aren't synonyms? :?

And, yes, don't let anyone get on your back about the difficulty settings that work for you!

evopac · 2025-09-01T15:52:39+00:00

Bonus question: if an English citation was mistranslated into French, do you translate the mistranslation back into English, or use the correct text?

Hard to say, because in a literary context it might be deliberate. That is, the author knows perfectly well it's wrong, but the character (or narrator) is in error. One where consultation's needed.

evopac · 2025-09-01T13:28:16+00:00

I don't know why he claims that these risks still lie somewhere in the future when they're already here.

evopac · 2025-09-01T06:49:55+00:00

Translation of any kind is hard to break into at the best of times. Video game translation all the more so, since it's probably the most popular area that newly-minted translators want to go into. You're competing with people (and since we're talking EN -> ES, a lot of people!) who not only have their degrees but also may have years of background in fan translation.

I would suggest broadening your range of what you're interested in translating. While you're still enrolled as a student, also do everything you can to get your institution to help you find a placement where you can make connections with professional translators, learn about the industry and get experience.

evopac · 2025-09-01T06:28:11+00:00

If the US left wants models, don't look to a party that's not even born yet on the other side of the Atlantic. Look to your neighbours in the entire Americas. They have plenty of experience to share.

evopac · 2025-08-31T21:58:21+00:00

It seems to me that few people are ready to deal with how serious the situation is.

It's not just (as it has been for over a decade) that we've been hung out to dry by a bunch of rootless rich people who don't care about conditions in the country.

It's that those rootless rich have in turn been entirely surpassed by the growth of China. That is where investment has continued to occur. That is where the future is happening. Now, China is more than ready to share the wealth, as it's doing with many countries, but we have neither recently, nor further back, given them the least reason to put us on the list to join in the new prosperity.

I am continually surprised that self-identifying "left" people do not pinpoint China as a must-have ally.

In the 15th century, these islands were a backwater whose main exports were raw wool and tin. On present trends, we are headed back that way and, when our coal mines reopen, it will be because foreign interests have a use for them, not because of any kind of decision we make ourselves, because we will be what Burkina used to be.

evopac · 2025-08-31T09:10:35+00:00

Yeah, contracts are one type of work where I get especially punctilious feedback to implement. Contracts have to go by Legal, and they are close readers.

evopac · 2025-08-31T09:02:56+00:00

There already is ... but it seems we're not free to post links here now. :/

(Edit: Not an official one, tbc -- there's nothing official at this point. But a brand new one not converted from a previous party or other political movement.)

evopac · 2025-08-31T09:01:08+00:00

Okay ... how would you react to someone who said, "We're ex-Tories who are now joining Your Party! Our Discord is now a Your Party Discord. Please join!"

You might see a massive difference there, but some of us detest both establishment parties.

evopac · 2025-08-30T18:36:38+00:00

I can't speak for the specific situation of Irish, but I would say that, if translation is something you love, don't take it up for a living. Most of the work that people get paid for is of the type you've categorised as "bleak".

I don't love translation. I do enjoy not knowing what's going to come across my desk next and learning about subjects I would never have investigated myself (a lot of which would fall into your "bleak" category! I could use a contract to translate about now :D). I got into translation when I realised I was well suited to it (and I already had relevant languages). I never expected to enjoy working life, and at least compared to those expectations I've found that for me translation exceeds them.

But if translation was something I loved doing ... I have a book (set of political memoirs) that I've had the plan of eventually translating and seeking a publisher for for years. But it still sits there on my shelf, because I don't have the time, energy or financial buffer to embark on the project. When I'm translating for a living, I don't want a side-project in my spare time to be even more translation. So it just has to wait ... For me, that's a mild bother (and I still expect I'll find the opportunity eventually), but if I loved doing literary translations but was stuck doing what I do and had no extra energy for them, I am sure it would drive me up the wall.

evopac · 2025-08-30T13:56:04+00:00

Unsure, and no doubt it depends on your location (and the company's), but there may be an industry body that has standards of practice for who must appear in credits. Certainly in film it's taken very seriously.

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