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Should I join an online translation platform?
Thread poster: Joanne Maddocks
Sheila Wilson
Sheila Wilson  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 14:22
Member (2007)
English
+ ...
Rocket science is easy for a specialist with an aerospace engineering background Apr 20, 2017

Robert Edison wrote:
Not all translations warrant that level of checking. You are overestimating the difficulty of the content. We aren't translating patents, contracts, and medical journals on these sites.


I can read and understand the source language, and I am a native speaker of the target language. That and a bit of practice are enough to translate these simple non-specialist texts. Translating a basic restaurant menu is not rocket science.

I don't know. I've always thought that restaurant menus were a job for an expert - a feeling backed up by the excruciatingly awful ones I read every day, many clearly done by humans. Just as I think that tourist guides shouldn't be dashed off any old how just because all the words are "easy".

I guess we're just so far apart in our thinking that we'll have to go our separate ways and agree to differ .


 
Christopher Schröder
Christopher Schröder
United Kingdom
Member (2011)
Swedish to English
+ ...
No! Apr 20, 2017

This is an interesting thread which has challenged a few of my preconceptions. However...

Robert Edison wrote:
You think that just because I am a fast worker who can perform in that type of environment that my translations are of poor quality. You assume this based on what?

It's a fair assumption that someone who works in that environment any more than very temporarily is either very bad or very stupid, because if you're not you'll soon migrate to better-paid work elsewhere.

Robert Edison wrote:
I've found trying to get clients through Proz comparably much more difficult.

I've never had any work through ProZ in a decade; I just come here to be opinionated and act superior like everyone else.

Be aware that most of the agencies using this site are as much "bottom-feeders" as the $5 sites. You really should aim higher. Otherwise, as The Mischa says, you might as well go flip burgers. And why would you want to spend your life dashing off easy texts when you could sink your teeth into something more fulfilling?


 
Mario Chavez (X)
Mario Chavez (X)  Identity Verified
Local time: 10:22
English to Spanish
+ ...
More fulfilling to sink your teeth into... Apr 24, 2017

Chris S wrote:

This is an interesting thread which has challenged a few of my preconceptions. However...

Robert Edison wrote:
You think that just because I am a fast worker who can perform in that type of environment that my translations are of poor quality. You assume this based on what?

It's a fair assumption that someone who works in that environment any more than very temporarily is either very bad or very stupid, because if you're not you'll soon migrate to better-paid work elsewhere.

Robert Edison wrote:
I've found trying to get clients through Proz comparably much more difficult.

I've never had any work through ProZ in a decade; I just come here to be opinionated and act superior like everyone else.

Be aware that most of the agencies using this site are as much "bottom-feeders" as the $5 sites. You really should aim higher. Otherwise, as The Mischa says, you might as well go flip burgers. And why would you want to spend your life dashing off easy texts when you could sink your teeth into something more fulfilling?



I would try a real bratwurst or, better yet, a New York Deli pastrami sandwich.




 
Mario Chavez (X)
Mario Chavez (X)  Identity Verified
Local time: 10:22
English to Spanish
+ ...
$30,000 at McDonald's Apr 24, 2017

The Misha wrote:

Robert Edison wrote:

and I could probably make 30,000 or more if I went full-time.


In the US, you could make that working at a McDonald's. You could make more as a day laborer and way more driving a cab or waiting tables. You really don't need to go into the trouble of learning Japanese to be able to make that kind of poverty line income in an expensive first-world country.

Sadly, this only illustrates the point others have made: stay away from those wretched online sweatshops.


Allow me to share a bit of factual information: McDonald's workers, some of them managers, in New York City, are making less than $15/hour. According to a known jobsite, they make far less: http://bit.ly/2oCKFqe

And $30,000/year is hardly a poverty-line income, Misha. How do I know? I live in America and I know those numbers. Try these statistics for size from UC Davis: http://bit.ly/2oCMBPC

We need to approach life more like a scientist than a blogger, I think.


 
The Misha
The Misha
Local time: 10:22
Russian to English
+ ...
Apparently, we live in two very different Americas Apr 25, 2017

Mario Chavez wrote:


And $30,000/year is hardly a poverty-line income I live in America and I know those numbers.

We need to approach life more like a scientist than a blogger, I think.


Whatever your statistics say, good luck living in NYC on 30K a year, even if you have no family. And I am indeed saying this as a true "scientist" - based on personal experience and observations spanning a quarter century. That's called "skin in the game". But by all means, feel free to rely on your magic numbers.


 
Mario Chavez (X)
Mario Chavez (X)  Identity Verified
Local time: 10:22
English to Spanish
+ ...
Magic? No Apr 26, 2017

The Misha wrote:

Mario Chavez wrote:


And $30,000/year is hardly a poverty-line income I live in America and I know those numbers.

We need to approach life more like a scientist than a blogger, I think.


Whatever your statistics say, good luck living in NYC on 30K a year, even if you have no family. And I am indeed saying this as a true "scientist" - based on personal experience and observations spanning a quarter century. That's called "skin in the game". But by all means, feel free to rely on your magic numbers.


What science are you a scientist in? I brought factual information, not hearsay. You're speaking to a New Yorker.

And let's keep it respectful, shall we?


 
Paulette Romero
Paulette Romero  Identity Verified
Colombia
Local time: 09:22
English to Spanish
+ ...
That's basically poverty... May 1, 2017

Mario Chavez wrote:

The Misha wrote:

Mario Chavez wrote:


And $30,000/year is hardly a poverty-line income I live in America and I know those numbers.

We need to approach life more like a scientist than a blogger, I think.


Whatever your statistics say, good luck living in NYC on 30K a year, even if you have no family. And I am indeed saying this as a true "scientist" - based on personal experience and observations spanning a quarter century. That's called "skin in the game". But by all means, feel free to rely on your magic numbers.


What science are you a scientist in? I brought factual information, not hearsay. You're speaking to a New Yorker.

And let's keep it respectful, shall we?


$30,000 a year in NYC is basically living in poverty. I'm a native-New Yorker too and made about $56,000 a year and I was struggling to survive on that even with no family to support (just me). $30,000 is not an acceptable wage in expensive cities.


 
Arabic & More
Arabic & More  Identity Verified
Jordan
Arabic to English
+ ...
30K in New York? May 1, 2017

New York's forgotten poor: Income needed to survive is nearly 3 times poverty rate

http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2016/11/new_yorks_forgotten_poor_income_needed_to_survive_is_nearly_3_times_poverty_rate.html

From the article:

"The federal poverty level for a f
... See more
New York's forgotten poor: Income needed to survive is nearly 3 times poverty rate

http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2016/11/new_yorks_forgotten_poor_income_needed_to_survive_is_nearly_3_times_poverty_rate.html

From the article:

"The federal poverty level for a family of four was $23,850 in 2014, the last year covered in the report. That is an impossibly low figure on which to raise a family. According to the report, it takes a little more than $60,000 for a family of four to subsist in Upstate New York.

"The Federal Poverty Level (FPL) is no longer a realistic measure of financial hardship in households across each county in the U.S.," the report says. "Developed in 1965, the FPL no longer reflects the actual cost of basic household necessities. Its methodology has not been updated since 1974 to accommodate changes in the cost of living over time, nor is it adjusted to reflect cost-of-living differences across the country."
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Should I join an online translation platform?







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