What I actually mean here by “ill weeds” is rotten translations from the #TM (translation memory).  

(For non-industry readers, please refer to my notes on trade jargons at the bottom of my post).

Some time ago, I was asked to take over a rush job using a CAT tool. Lured by a generous express charge, I accepted the job. But soon I regretted having accepted the job. Not because of the tight delivery time but because of the inconsistent and unqualified entries in the TM.

Since it was all about user interfaces, I simply had to use existing terminologies. Even bad ones. Once poor translations are implemented in a machine, they gain citizenship. Unless proper terminology management is applied, you can never eradicate them.

💡As the proverb goes, ill weeds grow apace.

On top of it, there were many false duplicates. I mean that the same word was translated in different ways. Obviously, multiple translators had a hand in it and fed their own version of translations to the TM.

💡As the proverb goes, the TM was truly a jumble of wheat and tares.
Lesson to be learned here: What you need is a good gardener (i.e., project manager) who keeps your property free from ill weeds and tares.

Terminologies
CAT tools: Computer-aided translation tools
The programs store a set (segment or string) of source and target languages as a bilingual database called translation memory (TM) which allows recycling existing translations.

#cattool #computeraidedtranslationtool #proverbs #tm #japanese #english #projectmanager #proverofthemonth