Way too many easy (non-PRO type of) medical questions in Kudoz glossary questions
Thread poster: Katalin Szilárd
Katalin Szilárd
Katalin Szilárd  Identity Verified
Hungary
Local time: 16:19
English to Hungarian
+ ...
Apr 15, 2020

I don't know whether other language pairs have experienced that 80% of Kudoz became medical Kudoz recently. Since questions are not asked by translators, there are many extremely easy questions, some of them can be answered without even opening any dictionaries or can be easily found in dictionaries.

A colleague has recently asked:
Doesn't the PRO question rule apply for glossary bilding questions? PRO vs. Non-PRO rule.
It should. And I agree with this colleague.
<
... See more
I don't know whether other language pairs have experienced that 80% of Kudoz became medical Kudoz recently. Since questions are not asked by translators, there are many extremely easy questions, some of them can be answered without even opening any dictionaries or can be easily found in dictionaries.

A colleague has recently asked:
Doesn't the PRO question rule apply for glossary bilding questions? PRO vs. Non-PRO rule.
It should. And I agree with this colleague.

Like:

infection vs. passive range of abduction

Both are counted as PRO questions.

Also:

In medical translation many times not even finding the right translation for a term causes the problem, but from linguistic aspect putting that term correctly into the sentence: taking into account the word order or the linguistic or everyday life (even from medical aspect) differences between the 2 languages.

So having a lot of glossaries doesn't mean those terms can be used correctly the same way as they were translated within the glossary answers, because a term may need to be changed based on the sentence.

Having a big data of medical terms can be misleading.
You need to be a professional translator to be able to use them in different sentences and they may be edited according to the meaning.

So what is the benefit of these glossaries?

Who will benefit from these glossaries?


Because translators who are specialized in the given fields know most of these terms well, because from linguistic and medical aspects they are easy questions, with easy answers, many times even for not specialists. So many specialists don't bother to answer them, also we don't know who will use these glossaries? Will they be used in big data, in machine translations?


Kudoz glossary question - 12:55 Apr 15, 2020


https://www.proz.com/kudoz/english-to-hungarian/medical-general/6795802-to-infect.html

to infect
Collapse


Sanjin Grandić
Robert Rietvelt
Dr. Jozsef Dikter
Tom in London
 
expressisverbis
expressisverbis
Portugal
Local time: 15:19
Member (2015)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
The same in my linguistic pair... Apr 15, 2020

and what it is more blatant is this GBK seems to be variant-centered.
I have answered twice in Covid-19-related questions, if I am not mistaken, but there is no point for me to contribute for this glossary.
As for your last question I asked them myself in the very beginning.

... See more
and what it is more blatant is this GBK seems to be variant-centered.
I have answered twice in Covid-19-related questions, if I am not mistaken, but there is no point for me to contribute for this glossary.
As for your last question I asked them myself in the very beginning.

https://www.proz.com/kudoz/english-to-portuguese/medical-general/6795835-to-infect.html
("Infectar" in PT-BR).
Collapse


Ildiko Santana
Dr. Jozsef Dikter
Tom in London
 
Andrea Capuselli
Andrea Capuselli
Local time: 12:19
SITE STAFF
SITE LOCALIZER
Thank you for bringing up this debate Apr 15, 2020

Katalin Szilárd wrote:

I don't know whether other language pairs have experienced that 80% of Kudoz became medical Kudoz recently. Since questions are not asked by translators, there are many extremely easy questions, some of them can be answered without even opening any dictionaries or can be easily found in dictionaries.

Like:

infection vs. passive range of abduction

Both are counted as PRO questions.

So what is the benefit of these glossaries? Who will benefit from these glossaries?


Dear Katalin,

Thank you for participating in the KudoZ terminology network.

In the last couple of weeks, the terms released have been mainly medical in nature because the terms chosen have all been related to the ongoing pandemic, in an attempt to aid in the general effort to make accurate translations available for volunteer translators, reporters and the general public. The questions released will soon go back to their usual frequency. As per variety, the GBK team tries to find source terms in many fields and a few teams are also aiding in this task (you can see the teams in some of the specialized questions asked).

GBK questions are asked with the aim to find accurate translations for specialized terminology in different fields, and collect those translations in a searchable glossary. The goal is not to provide a dictionary but, rather, a glossary of specialized, recently coined, and/or hard-to-translate terminology; that may not be easily accessible otherwise.

In the case of "infect", you are right, this term wouldn't be labeled PRO and does not belong in Glossary-building KudoZ. I will have a look and make sure this is not happening with other upcoming terms.

I hope that this addresses your concerns. Again, thank you for bringing this up!

Kind regards,

Andrea


Dr. Jozsef Dikter
 
Katalin Horváth McClure
Katalin Horváth McClure  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 11:19
Member (2002)
English to Hungarian
+ ...
Driving traffic to ProZ Apr 16, 2020

Whether it is intended or not is another issue, but one of the effects of posting these trending words as KudoZ questions is that ProZ pages show up more frequently and higher in search engine results. More traffic to the site.

Liviu-Lee Roth
Ildiko Santana
Virág-Lilla Rácz
Dr. Jozsef Dikter
Angie Garbarino
 
Katalin Szilárd
Katalin Szilárd  Identity Verified
Hungary
Local time: 16:19
English to Hungarian
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
These COVID-19 GBK questions should be separated Apr 16, 2020

Andrea Capuselli wrote:

Katalin Szilárd wrote:

I don't know whether other language pairs have experienced that 80% of Kudoz became medical Kudoz recently. Since questions are not asked by translators, there are many extremely easy questions, some of them can be answered without even opening any dictionaries or can be easily found in dictionaries.

Like:

infection vs. passive range of abduction

Both are counted as PRO questions.

So what is the benefit of these glossaries? Who will benefit from these glossaries?


Dear Katalin,

Thank you for participating in the KudoZ terminology network.

The goal is not to provide a dictionary but, rather, a glossary of specialized, recently coined, and/or hard-to-translate terminology; that may not be easily accessible otherwise.



Kind regards,

Andrea


Hi Andrea,

Thank you for your reply.

The problem is that most of the recent GBK terms are not worthy of professional medical translators (or even of translators with any other fields) to answer . Like: antipyretic, contagious, outbreak, panic buying, close contact, super-spreader.

You read these terms and you know the answer within a second. These questions can be easily answered by non-medical translators, or even for somebody who is not even a translator, just knows some English.

With providing the mass of these questions, the aim of Kudoz will be ruined, because such questions should not be counted as PRO questions. Those translators' answers who answered really highly medical questions previously cannot be compared with the answers of above.
They are 2 different categories.
Like in the normal Kudoz: PRO and non-PRO questions

Maybe these easy COVID-19 questions should be totally separated from real PRO Kudoz questions.


Bests,
Katalin



[Edited at 2020-04-16 13:19 GMT]


expressisverbis
Nathalie Bullen
Sanjin Grandić
Dr. Jozsef Dikter
Angie Garbarino
 
Ildiko Santana
Ildiko Santana  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 08:19
Member (2002)
Hungarian to English
+ ...

MODERATOR
Questionable aim Apr 16, 2020

Andrea Capuselli wrote:

...in an attempt to aid in the general effort to make accurate translations available for volunteer translators, reporters and the general public.



As a moderator I have been receiving enquiries and complaints about this recent increase in GBK questions (about half a dozen per day). With all due respect, I find it rather odd that a professional online community for the language industry would promote the notion that laypeople should attempt translating medical texts on their own, using medical terms out of context, instead of seeking out professional assistance. In a global pandemic as severe as Covid-19 we should encourage the public to engage trained professionals with translation needs. Any attempt at medical translation by inexperienced individuals could have serious adverse consequences.
There are plenty of medical resources available to the general public in languages of each affected country worldwide. I don't believe that a ramped up GBK glossary will add any value to existing information already available from reliable sources of medical entities.


expressisverbis
MollyRose
Emily Gilby
Nathalie Bullen
Valentina Del Maestro
Virág-Lilla Rácz
Robert Rietvelt
 
Katalin Szilárd
Katalin Szilárd  Identity Verified
Hungary
Local time: 16:19
English to Hungarian
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
When? Apr 19, 2020

Andrea Capuselli wrote:

in an attempt to aid in the general effort to make accurate translations available for volunteer translators, reporters and the general public. The questions released will soon go back to their usual frequency.

Kind regards,

Andrea


Hi Andrea,

When will the questions go back to their usual frequency?
When you wrote: "volunteer translators", did you mean Translators Without Borders?

You wrote: " questions released will soon go back to their usual frequency"..

Does this mean that there is a medical text/texts that need(s) to be translated and these medical GBK questions are within that text and the translating people/machine (in case of machine translation) do not know these terms?
Why are these texts not assigned as normal jobs to professional translators?
The text that contain these terms do not seem to be an aid for the general public.
Also normally when somebody asks so many Kudoz questions right after each other we know that the person did not deserve that job, because he/she has no clue about the subject.

Specialized translators do not need to ask these questions.

Reporters are paid to do their jobs and the general public receive accurate information based on PAID and PROFESSIONAL translators and reporters' texts.

Regards,
Katalin


[Edited at 2020-04-19 14:10 GMT]


Viviane Marx
expressisverbis
Virág-Lilla Rácz
Dr. Jozsef Dikter
 
Katalin Szilárd
Katalin Szilárd  Identity Verified
Hungary
Local time: 16:19
English to Hungarian
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Shady May 7, 2020

Katalin Horváth McClure wrote:

Whether it is intended or not is another issue, but one of the effects of posting these trending words as KudoZ questions is that ProZ pages show up more frequently and higher in search engine results. More traffic to the site.


I have recently seen more LinkedIn posts about advertising (!!!) COVID-19 glossaries into many languages by some translation agencies and translation related companies as their own.
I didn't check whether they are same as the GBK COVID-19 glossaries or almost the same, but I think translators have the right to know who will use these glossaries.

I asked Andrea Capuselli whether Translators Without Borders would use it. No answer came.
As we all know by now TWB promotes machine translation.

And now I see:

"TWB glossary for COVID-19 - Translators without Borders
translatorswithoutborders.org › twb-glossary-for-covid-19
Apr 7, 2020 - We are identifying key terminology that people use to talk about COVID-19 as well as commonly-used technical terms. We are using this to ... "

Transparency, please!!!


expressisverbis
 
Julieta Llamazares
Julieta Llamazares  Identity Verified
Argentina
Local time: 12:19
English to Spanish
+ ...
Glossary-building KudoZ aim May 7, 2020

Hi, all

Thank you for all your comments and feedback on GBK questions related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The aim of GBK is, and has always been, to create an authoritative glossary of terms available for ProZ.com users, at any stage of their specialization journey. The glossary, just as the terminology help section, will aid those who wish to use it or need to. Highly specialized translators might find it more interesting to participate by, for instance, suggesting which
... See more
Hi, all

Thank you for all your comments and feedback on GBK questions related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The aim of GBK is, and has always been, to create an authoritative glossary of terms available for ProZ.com users, at any stage of their specialization journey. The glossary, just as the terminology help section, will aid those who wish to use it or need to. Highly specialized translators might find it more interesting to participate by, for instance, suggesting which terms they consider should be asked (which is why the different teams were assembled) or providing their best translations for the questions.


As for when these questions will go back to their normal frequency, I'd say soon enough. You might have notice already a decrease in the amount of questions asked per day, and this will go on for a few more weeks.


Kind regards,
Julieta
Collapse


Dr. Jozsef Dikter
 
expressisverbis
expressisverbis
Portugal
Local time: 15:19
Member (2015)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
I might be mistaken, but I notice the opposite May 8, 2020

Julieta Llamazares wrote:

As for when these questions will go back to their normal frequency, I'd say soon enough. You might have notice already a decrease in the amount of questions asked per day, and this will go on for a few more weeks.

Julieta


There is an increase of questions in the EN-PT language pair these last days.
Answers chosen are mostly in Portuguese Brazilian. This can be understood, the Brazilian community is much bigger than the Portuguese one.


[Edited at 2020-05-08 17:12 GMT]


Dr. Jozsef Dikter
 
Dr. Janos Annus (X)
Dr. Janos Annus (X)  Identity Verified
Hungary
Local time: 16:19
English to Hungarian
+ ...
This is not the way to compile glossary! May 11, 2020

I fully agree with all who protest and question the reason for these glossary questions from GBK team, inundating PROZ. (See my comments earlier, sometimes in an angry fashion). This is not the first pandemic/epidemic in the world, therefore there is a very well developed vocabulary/glossary for most of the terms/words in many languages for both experts and lay people. There is no need to reinvent the wheel! The reason to compile a glossary that lay people can understand is a sort of lame excuse... See more
I fully agree with all who protest and question the reason for these glossary questions from GBK team, inundating PROZ. (See my comments earlier, sometimes in an angry fashion). This is not the first pandemic/epidemic in the world, therefore there is a very well developed vocabulary/glossary for most of the terms/words in many languages for both experts and lay people. There is no need to reinvent the wheel! The reason to compile a glossary that lay people can understand is a sort of lame excuse and may be a fraudulent way of getting the help of professional translators, to use/sell(?) for unknown purposes. It is my opinion. So the best way is to ignore these questions, let them hang around "still open" for a while.Collapse


Dr. Jozsef Dikter
Ildiko Santana
Katalin Szilárd
expressisverbis
 
Dr. Jozsef Dikter
Dr. Jozsef Dikter  Identity Verified
Hungary
Local time: 16:19
English to Hungarian
+ ...
A very interesting debate, "both" pro and contra perspectives can have right. May 11, 2020

"Fashion" is probably the keyword here, COVID-19 developed a new "dialect" that linguists shall also acquire, wether or not had or may have that new glossary been misused.

[Edited at 2020-05-11 09:37 GMT]


expressisverbis
 
Katalin Szilárd
Katalin Szilárd  Identity Verified
Hungary
Local time: 16:19
English to Hungarian
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
This is not a debate May 19, 2020

Misusing glossaries and translators' good faith can never be an alternative.
It is not right. It cannot be right. This cannot be the new standard.


expressisverbis
 
Katalin Horváth McClure
Katalin Horváth McClure  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 11:19
Member (2002)
English to Hungarian
+ ...
And on top of this, you cannot even hide those questions May 20, 2020

It is not possible to get rid of the GBK questions on the personalized KudoZ page: https://www.proz.com/kudoz
I went to Advanced search mode, unchecked the checkbox for "Show glossary-building terms", it removes the GBK questions from view when I click "View questions and save settings", but the setting is not saved. If I go to another page and come back to the KudoZ page, the setting goes back to "Show
... See more
It is not possible to get rid of the GBK questions on the personalized KudoZ page: https://www.proz.com/kudoz
I went to Advanced search mode, unchecked the checkbox for "Show glossary-building terms", it removes the GBK questions from view when I click "View questions and save settings", but the setting is not saved. If I go to another page and come back to the KudoZ page, the setting goes back to "Show glossary-building terms" being checked.
This is a problem that has been reported on the Forum weeks ago, I myself submitted a support request about this on April 30. It is still pending. I guess it is convenient to have this bug if someone wants to maximize the eyeballs (and clicks) on those questions.
Collapse


expressisverbis
Katalin Szilárd
 


To report site rules violations or get help, contact a site moderator:

Moderator(s) of this forum
Natalie[Call to this topic]

You can also contact site staff by submitting a support request »

Way too many easy (non-PRO type of) medical questions in Kudoz glossary questions







Wordfast Pro
Translation Memory Software for Any Platform

Exclusive discount for ProZ.com users! Save over 13% when purchasing Wordfast Pro through ProZ.com. Wordfast is the world's #1 provider of platform-independent Translation Memory software. Consistently ranked the most user-friendly and highest value

Buy now! »
Protemos translation business management system
Create your account in minutes, and start working! 3-month trial for agencies, and free for freelancers!

The system lets you keep client/vendor database, with contacts and rates, manage projects and assign jobs to vendors, issue invoices, track payments, store and manage project files, generate business reports on turnover profit per client/manager etc.

More info »