Those people wrongly named “Language Specialists” are constantly despising and damaging translators’ work and laughing at them (I speak for myself, maybe I’m the only one at Gengo/Lionbridge treated with such hatred) because they are supported by the company.
THREE GoCheck "AT RANDOM" for the same collection (the only one in THREE MONTHS), is that usual and ethical? And what about marking 10 correct words and phrases as errors? What's the point of such reiterate disdain and humiliation?
Even though I won’t translate again in that pair, I would appreciate the experience of other translators.
Thanks.
15 comments
Hello Ballmar, thank you for taking the time to raise this issue. Yes, the way the system works is that it picks up jobs for review at random, and sometimes different jobs from the same collection are picked up.
We hope this helps!
Hello, Katrina, you know that I know and that most of Gengo/Lionbridge translators know that what you state is not true. Rather than to “pick up jobs for review at random, and sometimes different jobs from the same collection are picked up” (your words) what in the last year is done in the ES-EN-GB pair, under the support of the company, is to “pick on someone” (me), despising my work, humiliating and laughing at me.
How would you feel if, again and again, correct words and phrases of your translations be marked as errors and someone told you that “that is how the system works”, “it has been at random”? You, as part of the company, can check that what I’m saying is true, I’m not a fool.
As I explain, I stopped translating in that pair for three months for the same reason: review after review were marked with non-existent errors. “At random” as some of them were reviewed some minutes after being submitted. The intention needs no further clarification.
False reviews for the same collection:
Thanks.
Hello Ballmar,
Thanks for providing us with this extra information. As we explained to you, the jobs that are chosen for review are selected automatically, and it can sometimes happen that these are part of the same collection, but this isn’t something that any individual person would have any control over, much less the LSs.
We understand that you feel that the errors have been marked incorrectly, but we would like to emphasise that in each of these cases, the LS has left a comment with a brief explanation of the error and/or an alternative solution. In the third review that you mentioned, the reviewer has also left several ‘suggestions’ (which provide useful advice without detracting from the overall score) and has left additional feedback saying ‘Excellent work!’
Lastly, we’d like to emphasise that nobody here wants to laugh at you, or diminish you as a professional or a human. We monitor our LS team continuously in the same way that we monitor translators, and if we found any LS to be acting in the way that you describe then we would take action accordingly. Please remember that we’re always here to help and encourage you, and we hope that you’ll feel motivated to continue in ES>EN-GB because your overall scores in this pair are good and it would be a shame to lose out on the work that you’re doing.
If there’s anything else you’d like to raise with us, we’re always here.
Katrina
Hello, Katrina,
No matter how many times you repeat that ‘all is normal, perfect and according to the rules in the perfect world of Gengo/Lionbridge’, you know that I know and most translators know that what you state is not true. The fact is that, along the last year, the company has allowed the mentioned irregularities, otherwise they wouldn't have occurred.
Is not that I feel that the errors had been marked incorrectly but that I state that they have been wrongly marked, as everything that has been marked as error is correct. The comments of the LSs only justify their unprofessionalism and their clear will to damage my work, including the LS who, after having marked as error a non-existent extra space and a correct term confirmed by the customer, he/she qualified the translation as excellent, can't you name it an offensive comment?
The mentioned irregularities in that pair began a year ago and along the year they went in exponential increase: the more re-reviews I requested, the more false errors were marked and the more unfair and unprofessional the reviews were. I have been translating for this company for the last six years and the LSs in the ES-ENGB were correct but now they are not.
No, according to my experience, the company does not monitor what is going on in that pair and yes, it allows the LSs or the quality team to constantly denigrate my work and laughing at me.
I have promised myself that never again will I translate in that pair, begging in the street would be a more respectable and less humiliating option.
Thanks
Hi Ballmar, thanks again for your comment. It’s unfortunate to hear that you’re not happy with the reviews that you’ve received, but we really want to stress that anyone working as an LS for Gengo is trained to categorise errors following company-wide standards and that LSs in all language pairs are continually monitored to ensure that these standards are being applied in a fair and professional way.
We’ve looked into the GoChecks that you mentioned and in every case, the LS provided either an explanation of the error or a suggestion for improvement. If you’d like to discuss these cases further, you’re welcome to submit a re-review request, if you haven’t yet, or to ask the translator community for their thoughts on some the errors that you have had marked, since part of the purpose of the translator forum is so that people are able to ask their peers for advice. We do hope all of this helps.
Katrina
I would like to see some of the errors, so we can all learn something new. It's not easy translating from our native language into the second/third/fourth. In my language pair there are translators who claim to be experts in up to four combinations, to and from their native language, but sometimes when I grab an Edit job or a job already rejected by such translators I can see mistakes a native speaker would never make. We should be humble enough to ask for advice.
Carla, your words do not even deserve a comment.
Hello, Katrina,
What I can’t understand, though, is that you keep saying ‘We’ve looked into the GoChecks that you mentioned and in every case, the LS provided either an explanation of the error or a suggestion for improvement’
If, as I guess, you are not a translator in that pair, how could you assert that the errors marked have not been wrongly reviewed? You said ‘we’, was the other person a real language specialist or someone wanting to support Gengo/Lionbridge’s side? If you both approved of what I mentioned, I can be absolutely sure that none of you have any link with that pair.
Regarding the possibility to discuss all the terms with other translators here, it would only make sense with translators in the same pair and that wouldn’t be possible to verify. Therefore, it wouldn't neither make sense nor drive anywhere.
Since I started working at Gengo/Lionbridge, I’ve translated 1,353,623 units (47,760 completed jobs). How can I, ‘a trusted translator’ (Gengo’s words) for my consistency and good work, suddenly, would become the target of the LSs fury?
As for requesting a re-review, even though I won’t translate again in that pair, I already did it but I got no answer. Maybe because I asked that, as being the last request I was making in that pair, the wrongly marked errors be corrected by real professional LSs and that would have been considered offensive, Consequently, they punished me again with their silence. In fact, I couldn’t care less about it, for the only one in this story with plenty of reasons to feel offended is me.
Thanks.
If the case is really as clear cut as you claim, then giving some examples should be only advantageous for you, shouldn't it? Even if you assume some of the commenters might not be qualified or out to get you, there's also the chance of someone backing you up.
The errors listed include syntactic errors and punctuation, which have nothing to do with the source language. Since you are translating in ES-EN-GB, meaning you are translating into English, any native English speaker would be able to comment.
Hello again Ballmar,
At this stage, we'd really like to emphasise that we've already addressed your concerns at quite some length, as well as providing suggestions to either submit a re-review request, or even have your peers chime in with some perspective. We'd also like to point out that there are several native English speakers among your peers who’d likely be able to offer great insights, without necessarily having to translate in the same language pair as you.
With regards to your responses to other translators on this thread, please note that the forums are public and open for all of our translators to participate in. This is not private correspondence between you and Gengo, and everybody on the forums has a right to share their opinion, as long as it’s in a respectful manner. We’d like to take this opportunity to remind everybody that participating in the forums comes with a set of guidelines that we all have to adhere to:
Do help others—if you can! :)
Do respect your fellow translators and Language Specialists / Reviewers
Don't report urgent technical issues; these go here
Don't make comments that are hurtful, mean or likely to make anyone uncomfortable
Thanks again for your understanding.
Katrina
Hello, Katrina,
As I told you yesterday, the three re-review requests were submitted a week ago, with no response.
You remind me of Gengo’s rules due to my responses to the people commenting on the issue. As a matter of fact, I only answered to one of them. If you read her words, you will understand the reason.
Katrina, your biased attitude towards the issue makes clear your neutrality.
Thanks.
I would like to add myself to the list of people (we should be 4, by now) showing their interest on the matter.
Can we see exactly the texts that have been reviewed unfairly by the LS? Maybe you will find out that we are supporting you.
So after all this fuss, I'm going to sit at Dunkel's table sipping a good draft and giving you the time needed to shows us some of these damaging errors. Not so sure to be so supportive though as we're finnicky as hell and then all this chitchatting about nothing is getting dull.
A bit late to the party, but as someone who also works with this language pair I would also like to see these alleged errors. I have personally not experienced any noticeable changes in the reviews I've been getting (been here since...2010 I believe).