Does speech recognition affect your word counts? Thread poster: Phil Hand
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Phil Hand 
China
Local time: 09:25
Chinese to English
I'm in the process of learning a speech recognition tool. I'm not completely sold on it yet, but perhaps as I get used to it, I'll switch over for most things. But has anyone noticed a change in the style of their output when they move from typing to dictation?
Most of my jobs are billed by source count, so it shouldn't matter, but I just happen to be doing a target-count job at the moment. It's a consumer survey, so the source text is very informal, and I find that when I'm dictati... See more I'm in the process of learning a speech recognition tool. I'm not completely sold on it yet, but perhaps as I get used to it, I'll switch over for most things. But has anyone noticed a change in the style of their output when they move from typing to dictation?
Most of my jobs are billed by source count, so it shouldn't matter, but I just happen to be doing a target-count job at the moment. It's a consumer survey, so the source text is very informal, and I find that when I'm dictating I'm very wordy. When typing, I automatically select a cleaner sentence form ("I like this"), but when dictating I often naturally come out with a longer version ("This is the thing I like").
I'm just a tiny bit worried that it will have a real impact on my final billable word count, and the client won't be pleased.
Does anyone have any experience with this kind of thing? ▲ Collapse
| | | | Tony M
France
Local time: 03:25
Member
French to English
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SITE LOCALIZER | Not surprising | Jan 13, 2013 |
Let me state from the outset that I have no experience whatsoever of using VR / dictation in my translation work.
But from my own general experience, I wouldn't be at all surprised at this phenomenon, which I have to some extent myself observed when using a CAT, which segments the text automatically.
I find there is a terrible tendency to translate each segment in isolation, which in my case often leads to a too-literal rendering, which usually means clumsy and wordy!... See more Let me state from the outset that I have no experience whatsoever of using VR / dictation in my translation work.
But from my own general experience, I wouldn't be at all surprised at this phenomenon, which I have to some extent myself observed when using a CAT, which segments the text automatically.
I find there is a terrible tendency to translate each segment in isolation, which in my case often leads to a too-literal rendering, which usually means clumsy and wordy!
I am a very visual person, and while concentrating on any given phrase or sentence, I do also like to see the wider surrounding picture.
I can well imagine that a similar mechanism would come into play were I to use VR and dictation — I have seen this to some extent with transcription work, although more often than not I transcribe in the source language and then translate afterwards. But sometimes, for rush jobs, I've been obliged to translate 'on the fly', and even though the situation is reversed (listening to audio and typing in words), I find the result is the same: I don't get the 'broader picture'. ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Some change, but not significant | Jan 13, 2013 |
Phil Hand wrote:
...But has anyone noticed a change in the style of their output when they move from typing to dictation?
Things like e.g. (p. ex. in FR) tend to disappear because it is easier for me to say "for example" than e-dot-space-g-dot or sthg.
Voice recognition required some adjustments in the way I work, but I haven't noticed any change in my wording and/or style. With or without voice recognition, I have always typed/spoken an acceptable first version, and when all is finished, I do rereading without voice recognition. Hence I get both the broader picture (flow and sentence articulation/joining) and an idea of what the translation feels like from a target reader's point of view (wording).
But I agree that it is not for everybody: typing a sentence is different from speaking it aloud.
Philippe
| | | | Claire Cox
United Kingdom
Local time: 02:25
French to English
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| Not noticeably | Jan 13, 2013 |
I used to dictate into a dictaphone when I first started translating in-house in the 1980's and have come back to it via Dragon over the past 5 years or so. I haven't noticed that my dictated texts are longer, though; if anything, they're more natural because I tend to notice if something sounds odd when I say it out loud. In saying that, like Philippe, I always check my translations at least once against the original and then read them through again as a freestanding text, so any wordiness woul... See more I used to dictate into a dictaphone when I first started translating in-house in the 1980's and have come back to it via Dragon over the past 5 years or so. I haven't noticed that my dictated texts are longer, though; if anything, they're more natural because I tend to notice if something sounds odd when I say it out loud. In saying that, like Philippe, I always check my translations at least once against the original and then read them through again as a freestanding text, so any wordiness would hopefully be eliminated at that stage. Then again, much depends on the original text - patents and legal texts tend to be much wordier than a marketing text and you wouldn't want to change that anyway. I do tend to charge by source word for French translations, but charge by target word for some of my German clients, especially those based in the UK. I tend to work on the basis of an expansion factor of 20% for German to English and that usually holds true whether I dictate or type.
I wouldn't worry about it: hopefully your clients will be pleased by the fact that your translations sound more natural!
[Edited at 2013-01-13 11:43 GMT] ▲ Collapse
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David Wright
Austria
Local time: 03:25
German to English
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| Agree entirely with Claire (regards!) | Jan 13, 2013 |
I've been using Dragon for a decade or so now and have learned to dictate in a way that ends up being very close to my final version (though perhaps I speak more "bookish" now." As for actually word counts, I've always had English coming out about 10% shorter than the German original, but that might be a feature of the legal business.
You will probably learn to recognise what structure you will need to use (to refer to Asker's example) and to transform the structure of your source t... See more I've been using Dragon for a decade or so now and have learned to dictate in a way that ends up being very close to my final version (though perhaps I speak more "bookish" now." As for actually word counts, I've always had English coming out about 10% shorter than the German original, but that might be a feature of the legal business.
You will probably learn to recognise what structure you will need to use (to refer to Asker's example) and to transform the structure of your source text into a good target language text at first sight. even if to begin with you find yourself correcting a lot of what you have dictated cos it doesn't sound right. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Phil Hand
China
Local time: 09:25
Chinese to English
TOPIC STARTER | I guess it's just me, then... | Jan 14, 2013 |
Thank you for the replies. Perhaps my issue is still lack of experience with dictation.
| | | | | Does speech recognition affect your word counts? | Jan 14, 2013 |
I have been using Dictation Pro for about 6 months. Initially I had to edit somewhat. The word count when I work now is fairly close to the final version and it does save a lot of time - http://www.deskshare.com/dictation.aspx
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