| Pages in topic: [1 2] > | Is it possible to earn KudoZ without experience? Thread poster: Maria Felipe Maza
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Hello, I'm pretty new at ProZ and I have been told that earning KudoZ was a good way to improve my position on the translators' list. However, I've looked at the questions and they all seem REALLY hard to answer, and they're almost all already answered by some expert. I have less than a year of experience, so, if I decided to answer the question, I would probably spend a long time searching for the term only to find the same one as the expert (if I even find something) and my answer probably wou... See more Hello, I'm pretty new at ProZ and I have been told that earning KudoZ was a good way to improve my position on the translators' list. However, I've looked at the questions and they all seem REALLY hard to answer, and they're almost all already answered by some expert. I have less than a year of experience, so, if I decided to answer the question, I would probably spend a long time searching for the term only to find the same one as the expert (if I even find something) and my answer probably wouldn't be chosen anyway. It seems like a waste of time, time that I could have used for something else. Is it really worth it to try? How could I possibly get my answer to be chosen? ▲ Collapse
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We all have something to contribute with. Do not let anything discourage you. Wish you the best!
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You may be able to give correct and useful answers - after all, every single one of us has some unique knowledge, but please, PLEASE, remember that KudoZ is not about ranking. Rank improvement is a secondary effect of KudoZ, but first and foremost it is about translators' mutual help with terminology. We already have way too many members who treat KudoZ as a pub quiz of sorts, and it's immensely unpleasant to see answers that are totally irrelevant, dangerously wrong, or are mere quotations from... See more You may be able to give correct and useful answers - after all, every single one of us has some unique knowledge, but please, PLEASE, remember that KudoZ is not about ranking. Rank improvement is a secondary effect of KudoZ, but first and foremost it is about translators' mutual help with terminology. We already have way too many members who treat KudoZ as a pub quiz of sorts, and it's immensely unpleasant to see answers that are totally irrelevant, dangerously wrong, or are mere quotations from a dictionary without explanations. Remember that a potential customer may look not only at your rank in the members' list, but also directly at your KudoZ answers. Lots of good answers showing your knowledge may indeed land you a good job, but lots of bad ones may get you disqualified as professionally unfit. ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Don't be discouraged - and there's more to KudoZ than points | Jun 5, 2021 |
I have been a translator and member of this site for over 15 years, yet even now, I would be unable to answer most of the questions I look at! This is because texts can relate to so many different fields of knowledge, and no one can ever hope to master them all. So don't be discouraged by the fact that most questions seem too difficult. In fact, it's good that you recognise the difficulty, because some participants underestimate it and never learn that to translate specialised language well, you... See more I have been a translator and member of this site for over 15 years, yet even now, I would be unable to answer most of the questions I look at! This is because texts can relate to so many different fields of knowledge, and no one can ever hope to master them all. So don't be discouraged by the fact that most questions seem too difficult. In fact, it's good that you recognise the difficulty, because some participants underestimate it and never learn that to translate specialised language well, you need specialised knowledge, or strong research skills, or (preferably) both. As a result, they don't make the effort to improve in these areas and never get better at answering questions. So it's actually a good sign that you understand this already.
To earn a lot of points, you have to be ready to answer questions quickly and be willing to spend a lot of time on KudoZ. I don't know if you know this already, but you can change your settings so that you receive instant email notifications of questions. That can help you to answer more quickly. There's an element of luck involved, because you never know if a question will be about something you know or can find the answer to quickly. In the busier language pairs, which include yours, the competition is fierce, I'm afraid. It's a similar story with FR-EN, which is one of my pairs. I have not gained many points in this pair and rarely answer questions at all; I'm more of a spectator and commenter than an answerer. I try to focus on quality, not quantity, of input because I don't have the subject knowledge or experience that some translators on this site have, and I never will. But I still participate, because I have gained other very valuable things from KudoZ:
(1) Research and problem-solving skills. By reading and analysing other people's answers, you can pick up all sorts of useful tips and tricks to do with Internet research, dictionaries/resources that you might not have known about, and translation principles. These things can help you immensely in your work; they have certainly helped me in mine!
(2) Terms. I have learned a lot of terms and abbreviations by reading KudoZ questions. Sometimes they come up in documents I'm working on, and I think to myself - "I'm sure I've seen a KudoZ question about that!" So I search the KudoZ glossary and often find useful answers.
(3) Getting to know colleagues and finding out which translators are particularly good, and what they're good at. This networking has helped me to gain a small amount of work over the years, as some contributors noticed me and put work my way occasionally. And if I want to collaborate with another translator (agencies sometimes ask if I can recommend someone), I have gained an idea of which translators I feel are best in different fields, and who I would most want to work with on a joint project.
And aside from all of these things, I just find it interesting and rather fun! KudoZ gives me my weekly fix of linguistic stimulation, and often some nice interaction with other translators.
So even if you don't earn many points, I'd say it's still worthwhile participating, because you can gain other things too. Good luck! ▲ Collapse
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| A bit discouraging though... | Jun 5, 2021 |
I've just read this thread with keen interest, because actually I share the same concern as Maria about KudoZ points.
Even though KudoZ forum is more than earning and collecting points on your profile - as Anton and Peter quite rightly said - it remains in any way a question of ranking, whatever your level of experience in your own field of proficiency in translation.
I mean agencies what are used to screening and searching for proper profiles for their projects on the ... See more I've just read this thread with keen interest, because actually I share the same concern as Maria about KudoZ points.
Even though KudoZ forum is more than earning and collecting points on your profile - as Anton and Peter quite rightly said - it remains in any way a question of ranking, whatever your level of experience in your own field of proficiency in translation.
I mean agencies what are used to screening and searching for proper profiles for their projects on the ProZ Directory are tempted to mainly direct their choice to the most KudoZ earned translator, who is not necessary the most seasoned one in a particular technical field of proficiency.
Chasing and accumulating KudoZ points day in day out should never be sufficient to make you the most proficient translator to work on a given project. But, it is though... Desperately.
I think KudoZ forum should be simply a place to share our own (professional) experience and points of view in our language pair in a friendly way and without any spirit of competition and best ranking goal. KudoZ forum should be and remain simply a tool. Not more.
Even though I always enjoy sharing my humble contributions on KudoZ forum, as steadily as I can in my language pair, like the most of us I presume, I must confess that I find it this kind of arbitrary selection from agencies or outsourcers a bit discouraging indeed...
Let's face it: the Translation World is a competitive world like lots of many other professions, as we all are aware of. But if I do love competing, I would even more love competing with fair and square conditions. Not with a somewhat KudoZ points prejudice.
All of that is really discouraging indeed...
[Modifié le 2021-06-06 04:52 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | 3213122 (X)
Luxembourg
Local time: 00:56
English to Romanian
+ ...
| KudoZ points are overrated | Jun 5, 2021 |
Short answer: yes, if you provide good quality answers.
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More points and a better ranking can get you more initial attention, but it is unlikely an outsourcer’s decision will be based on KudoZ points. The content of your profile page will matter much more.
Some outsourcers might also take a look at your approach to answering KudoZ questions.
It should also be remembered that KudoZ is made of fields and sub-fields. Focusing on specific (sub-)domains might be a more e... See more Short answer: yes, if you provide good quality answers.
***
More points and a better ranking can get you more initial attention, but it is unlikely an outsourcer’s decision will be based on KudoZ points. The content of your profile page will matter much more.
Some outsourcers might also take a look at your approach to answering KudoZ questions.
It should also be remembered that KudoZ is made of fields and sub-fields. Focusing on specific (sub-)domains might be a more efficient strategy.
As pointed above, answering KudoZ questions is not only a way to get points and climb the ranking, but also a modality to improve your searching skills, expand your knowledge and impress the audience.
Here is a tip for providing good references to your answers: search for what you think is the right solution to the term question, restricting the search to your specific target language domain (e.g. term site:.es). Scan the results and select the one or two most reliable sources (e.g. online scientific journal, Google Scholar book etc.). ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Post hidden: The author has been asked to edit this post for the following reason: Replies should not stray from the posted topic. When responding to a topic, stick to the topic as introduced. | | Probably not worth it | Jun 6, 2021 |
If you are mainly concerned with raising your directory ranking then for a popular pair like Spanish it is probably not worth it unless you have specialist knowledge. There are people in the directory who have been gathering points for years so you are unlikely to be able to catch up enough to gain a prominent position.
You will also need to be watching like a hawk for new questions to be posted and respond pretty much immediately.
I can think of more effective ways to ... See more If you are mainly concerned with raising your directory ranking then for a popular pair like Spanish it is probably not worth it unless you have specialist knowledge. There are people in the directory who have been gathering points for years so you are unlikely to be able to catch up enough to gain a prominent position.
You will also need to be watching like a hawk for new questions to be posted and respond pretty much immediately.
I can think of more effective ways to use your time. ▲ Collapse
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| Don't waste your time... | Jun 6, 2021 |
I agree with Rachel...
| | | | Kevin Fulton 
United States
Local time: 18:56
German to English
| Knowledge doesn't seem to matter | Jun 6, 2021 |
In the early days pf Proz, one of the first to achieve 1000 points in the German-English section was a well-intentioned gentleman who was a native speaker of neither English nor German. He relied on a minor general German-English dictionary and (often faulty) intuition to offer suggestions, which due to his high Kudoz score, were often chosen as the best response, regardless of their accuracy. He is no longer active in that terminology section, but there are still off-the-wall suggestions based ... See more In the early days pf Proz, one of the first to achieve 1000 points in the German-English section was a well-intentioned gentleman who was a native speaker of neither English nor German. He relied on a minor general German-English dictionary and (often faulty) intuition to offer suggestions, which due to his high Kudoz score, were often chosen as the best response, regardless of their accuracy. He is no longer active in that terminology section, but there are still off-the-wall suggestions based solely on online glossaries such as Linguee not backed up by personal practical knowledge. ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Post removed: This post was hidden by a moderator or staff member for the following reason: Post being replied to, has been removed. | | Suggesting an alternative outlook | Jun 6, 2021 |
I don't know how KudoZ visibility transforms into hard cash because I don't get jobs on proz.com, but the translator part of me always wants new translation problems to solve, and KudoZ is one of the ways I can borrow someone else's problems when not working on my own tasks. KudoZ experience is often disappointing, like when you've come up with a good answer but someone else's bad answer gets the credit, so my take on this is just to keep answering questions for sport without thinking much about... See more I don't know how KudoZ visibility transforms into hard cash because I don't get jobs on proz.com, but the translator part of me always wants new translation problems to solve, and KudoZ is one of the ways I can borrow someone else's problems when not working on my own tasks. KudoZ experience is often disappointing, like when you've come up with a good answer but someone else's bad answer gets the credit, so my take on this is just to keep answering questions for sport without thinking much about the points I earn ▲ Collapse
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neilmac
Spain
Local time: 00:56
Spanish to English
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I'm a quiz person. I like trivia quizzes and in the past have organised them, both for fun and as a paid quiz host. When I first signed up to proz, I approached the kudoz section in the same spirit, to see if I could answer the questions posted, mainly for fun, but partly out of curiosity as a translator. Apparently over the years I have accumulated quite a lot of points, but wasn't aware of this until someone pointed it out to me. And I have learnt a lot of things too through kudoz, and I consi... See more I'm a quiz person. I like trivia quizzes and in the past have organised them, both for fun and as a paid quiz host. When I first signed up to proz, I approached the kudoz section in the same spirit, to see if I could answer the questions posted, mainly for fun, but partly out of curiosity as a translator. Apparently over the years I have accumulated quite a lot of points, but wasn't aware of this until someone pointed it out to me. And I have learnt a lot of things too through kudoz, and I consider it a useful addition to the translator's arsenal.
However, if your main aim in answering kudoz queries is to raise your profile to sway potential clients, I don't think it will do much good, at least not quickly.
[Edited at 2021-06-06 17:34 GMT]
[Edited at 2021-06-06 17:34 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | Daryo
United Kingdom
Local time: 23:56
Serbian to English
+ ...
| Reformulate the question ... | Jun 7, 2021 |
and look at it the other way round:
Can you gain experience as translator without participating in Kudoz?
Yes, you certainly can.
But the advantage of Kudoz is that you will learn faster - from other people's problems, from crap answers as much as from the good ones. And in our profession a good workout for grey cells is never wasted time.
A potential collateral benefit are Kudoz points - more of a symbolic value (not surprising if you check i... See more and look at it the other way round:
Can you gain experience as translator without participating in Kudoz?
Yes, you certainly can.
But the advantage of Kudoz is that you will learn faster - from other people's problems, from crap answers as much as from the good ones. And in our profession a good workout for grey cells is never wasted time.
A potential collateral benefit are Kudoz points - more of a symbolic value (not surprising if you check in any decent dictionary what is "kudos"), and more importantly at some point in future some picky potential client looking for quality might take the trouble to look at your Kudoz answers and like the way you present them.
Give it try, and don't give up easily.
[Edited at 2021-06-07 07:11 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Thank you all for your answers! | Jun 8, 2021 |
First of all, I want to thank all the people who have taken the time to answer my question. However, I've noticed that most of you focused on the good things about KudoZ besides the points. My original question was about whether answering questions was a good way to improve my rank, and seeing the answers, I've concluded that it isn't. I might answer some from time to time for fun, but it's difficult to think of something as "fun" when it's so hard (and therefore frustrating) to find the answer.... See more First of all, I want to thank all the people who have taken the time to answer my question. However, I've noticed that most of you focused on the good things about KudoZ besides the points. My original question was about whether answering questions was a good way to improve my rank, and seeing the answers, I've concluded that it isn't. I might answer some from time to time for fun, but it's difficult to think of something as "fun" when it's so hard (and therefore frustrating) to find the answer.
A special thank you to Laurent Di Raimondo, Rachel Waddington, Giovanni Guarnieri and neilmac for actually answering my question, and to Mihai Badea for his suggestions! ▲ Collapse
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