| Pages in topic: < [1 2 3 4] > | Moral dilemma. What should I do? Opinions needed Thread poster: myko312 (X)
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Peter Shortall wrote:
Nor has it stopped the OP from claiming to be a native speaker of English on the profile page (s)he created here on ProZ within the last week.
... if you were creating a profile so as to seek opinions about rectify a self-created balls-up like this one, you'd probably seek to mask your true identity. I daresay they're not in Moldova either.
I take the whole thing at face value. It's not really what I would consider trolling (where is the winding up? the offence? the provovation? - although some of the replies are) and I'm great believer in that thing about if there's a choice between conspiracy and cock-up, it's usually a cock-up.
| | | | | The bounds of credulity | Jun 6, 2024 |
Charlie Bavington wrote:
... if you were creating a profile so as to seek opinions about rectify a self-created balls-up like this one, you'd probably seek to mask your true identity. I daresay they're not in Moldova either.
The location I can believe, as there are clear signs of Romanian influence on the OP’s English ("from what I know" = din câte știu, sequence of tenses mirroring Romanian with the present where English would use the past, "agency director", etc.) I have more difficulty with the parts highlighted by Zea and Lieven and the consulting of multiple lawyers and psychologists over a job which I suspect won’t have covered the cost of all this professional help for someone who ekes out a living from the rates that Indian agencies pay and yet has enough time on their hands to send "dozens of letters" and make "dozens of calls" about this sorry saga.
Even if the story is genuine and not a wind-up or an attempt to reel in and then make private contact with people who can identify, are gullible enough to believe a tall tale and are easy to manipulate with a conscience as keen as the one the OP purports to have, (s)he seems to have exhausted all the obvious avenues (and then some) and the other parties concerned clearly aren’t… well, concerned, so in the best case, it all seems to be much ado about nothing.
[Edited at 2024-06-06 16:04 GMT]
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Peter Shortall wrote:
... an attempt to reel in and then make private contact with people...
I confess this possibility had not occurred to me. While I took the tale at face value, it is certainly somewhat OTT in its telling, and your idea might explain that aspect.
| | | | Zea_Mays 
Italy
Local time: 09:38
English to German
+ ...
| assuming that the entire unbelievable story is true... | Jun 6, 2024 |
myko312 wrote:
Zea_Mays wrote:
Giovanni Guarnieri MITI, MIL wrote:
send you revised and correct version to the agency and client. I don't think you can do more than this. If you can't provide a correct version yourself, hire an expert to do it. Then, "put a stone on it"... as we say in Italian... 
In this extraordinary consilience of all imaginable worst case szenarios, of course the most important is this one:
"I no longer possess the files with my translation to review the work again" for reasons.
Well, he will have the source files. So he can redo the translation. Or rather pay someone to do it. But I bet the source files have disappeared too.
, I do have the source files, but I thought there is no point in sending the agency the revised translations, if they unwilling to contact the client on that matter and provide them with a revised translation.
... than why did you not provide the agency with a new, flawless translation instead of waiting "a real long time" before contacting them?
The end client is not your business.
You still did not tell us the entire story, still too many gaps there.
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John Fossey
Canada
Local time: 03:38
Member (2008)
French to English
+ ...
| Moral dilemma? | Jun 6, 2024 |
In my opinion, lofty morals have little place in this story. The same person claiming an overwhelming sense of responsibility is the same person who shortly before had no qualms about lying, faking his CV, violating the NDA, knowingly producing an error-filled job, etc., etc. If there is any dilemma, it is not a moral dilemma but a fear of the consequences of his actions. In which case the OP needs to learn to drop it and move on, as was suggested at the beginning of this thread.
Un... See more In my opinion, lofty morals have little place in this story. The same person claiming an overwhelming sense of responsibility is the same person who shortly before had no qualms about lying, faking his CV, violating the NDA, knowingly producing an error-filled job, etc., etc. If there is any dilemma, it is not a moral dilemma but a fear of the consequences of his actions. In which case the OP needs to learn to drop it and move on, as was suggested at the beginning of this thread.
Unless, that is, the whole story is a sham, with an ulterior motive (which I can't quite wrap my head around).
[Edited at 2024-06-06 23:11 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | Baran Keki
Türkiye
Local time: 11:38
Member
English to Turkish
| 'Göt korkusu' | Jun 7, 2024 |
John Fossey wrote:
it is not a moral dilemma but a fear of the consequences of his actions.
Yes, fear (or 'göt korkusu' as we call it in Turkish) appears to be the driving force in this case, but then he seems to have done everything he possibly could to draw attention to his f*ck-ups when he could very easily have got away with it all or let the Indian agency take the blame (and that would've served those f*****s right). The worst that could've happened then was that they wouldn't have paid him, which is what will happen now anyway after all that song and dance he's made.
I think there's something more pathological in this case.
| | | | myko312 (X)
Moldova
TOPIC STARTER | To quickly answer some question... | Jun 7, 2024 |
At the moment I delivered the translations to the agency, I didn't know that there were some mistakes. All of them stemmed from poor reviewing, so they are mechanical errors. My health condition was bad when I was doing the translations, so it was hard for me to really concentrate on every detail. Since I am guilty of using MT, these mistakes include omitted "re-" prefix, wrong word endings, and somewhat inconsistent terminology. (no, I was doing the translations into English)
I des... See more At the moment I delivered the translations to the agency, I didn't know that there were some mistakes. All of them stemmed from poor reviewing, so they are mechanical errors. My health condition was bad when I was doing the translations, so it was hard for me to really concentrate on every detail. Since I am guilty of using MT, these mistakes include omitted "re-" prefix, wrong word endings, and somewhat inconsistent terminology. (no, I was doing the translations into English)
I desperately tried to check the translations once more (again in poor condition), but other events in my life were an obstacle to that. All my thoughts were about just dropping the agency a letter, as well as to the client, to recall the translation IMMEDIATELY or something, because I couldn't dedicate enough time to recheck it. Even the very time I was checking felt wrong because it could potentially be the very same time someone might be hurt because of my translation. I reread my translations twice, but it wasn't a good enough review due to the factors described above. I was in an awful condition. I was afraid to send any letter to the agency, compromising myself, and I couldn't live anymore worrying constantly about my translation and checking it repeatedly. I deleted the files with my translation thinking, "that's enough checking, just calm down." But then I realized, if I know there were some mistakes, and probably there could be some more, some of them of the unknown might be critical. Anyway, sending the agency a letter regarding the poor quality of my translation seemed to be the best moral choice. I hesitated a lot (I overthinked that I might go to prison because of that), but then I finally did it. I was thinking and worrying about my translation all the time, 24/7. Just imagine how terrible my condition and ability to analyze were. And as you know, the agency was unwilling to do anything.
I really didn't think of just sending the agency a corrected version of the translation because I saw that they weren't going to go back to the client with the new revision of translations; they didn't want to lose their reputation due to "minor mistakes." But I absolutely agree that this solution would have been a much better one.
Of course, I am the bad guy in this story. There are a lot of sentences and things you can point at and say, "He is a bad guy; what conscience is he even talking about?" I am not saying that my actions were good in any way, not at all. But I sincerely want to fix the things I've done.
Regarding the dozens of letters and calls, there were plenty of messages to people who indicated on LinkedIn that they work for that company. I sent dozens of requests; only a few people replied to me, only some of them still worked for that company, and only one person was actually able to provide me with the contact of the respective departments. It wasn't like I was spamming them in the bad sense of the word. ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Agree with Giovanni | Jun 7, 2024 |
Zea_Mays wrote:
You still did not tell us the entire story, still too many gaps there.
You cannot know, and I wonder why you feel the need to be so rude. That said I agree with Giovanni.
[Edited at 2024-06-07 09:47 GMT]
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Lieven Malaise
Belgium
Local time: 09:38
Member (2020)
French to Dutch
+ ...
Angie Garbarino wrote:
Zea_Mays wrote:
You still did not tell us the entire story, still too many gaps there.
You cannot know,
The OP quite literally said himself (or herself) that he didn't tell the entire story and even indicated himself the gaps he didn't fill (yet). So we do know, in fact.
[Bijgewerkt op 2024-06-07 09:28 GMT]
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Lieven Malaise wrote:
Angie Garbarino wrote:
Zea_Mays wrote:
You still did not tell us the entire story, still too many gaps there.
You cannot know,
The OP quite literally said himself (or herself) that he didn't tell the entire story and even indicated himself the gaps he didn't fill (yet). So we do know, in fact. [Bijgewerkt op 2024-06-07 09:28 GMT]
we know that he lied to get a job for which he doesn't have the skills, and that now he fears legal consequences, perhaps I was not clear but we don't know there are hidden motives (motives not reasons) no, we don't know, and speculations always surprise me.
But ok, it doesn't matter.
[Edited at 2024-06-07 10:11 GMT]
| | | | Lieven Malaise
Belgium
Local time: 09:38
Member (2020)
French to Dutch
+ ...
Angie Garbarino wrote:
perhaps I was not clear but we don't know there are hidden motives (motives not reasons) no, we don't know, and speculations always surprise me.
Does it really surprise you with such a story? It would be different if he would have told everything, instead of leaving some rather important parts out, or the opposite: if he would have given way less details about his unprofessional behaviour.
I don't really understand why the OP comes here to "show off" with his total disrespect for our profession in an environment still filled with people who take pride in what they do. Hence the "trolling" speculation above, I suppose. He could have limited himself to say that he had reasons to believe that his translation contained some mistakes and that he didn't know what to do about it, but no, he gave a full description of the most awful professional behaviour imaginable, complemented with a seemingly exaggerated and weird sense of remorse.
Let's say all this makes it difficult not to speculate about the reasons behind or even the truthfulness of this communication.
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Lieven Malaise wrote:
Angie Garbarino wrote:
perhaps I was not clear but we don't know there are hidden motives (motives not reasons) no, we don't know, and speculations always surprise me.
Does it really surprise you with such a story? It would be different if he would have told everything, instead of leaving some rather important parts out, or the opposite: if he would have given way less details about his unprofessional behaviour.
I don't really understand why the OP comes here to "show off" with his total disrespect for our profession in an environment still filled with people who take pride in what they do. Hence the "trolling" speculation above, I suppose. He could have limited himself to say that he had reasons to believe that his translation contained some mistakes and that he didn't know what to do about it, but no, he gave a full description of the most awful professional behaviour imaginable, complemented with a seemingly exaggerated and weird sense of remorse.
Let's say all this makes it difficult not to speculate about the reasons behind or even the truthfulness of this communication.
Personally, I think the OP is either:
a) In a state of complete irrational panic, or
b) Making the whole thing up (I'm not saying I think this is likely but, as with any post on here, it is a possibility)
I don't feel the need to speculate about any details the OP has not provided, and I think the OP regrets their actions enough without me piling further judgement on them. My advice to the OP is to stop making things worse and seek help for their anxiety as they are clearly not able to think rationally at the moment.
And, if it is all made up, well I think that's very strange behaviour, but as it doesn't affect me either way I'm not going to get too upset about it.
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| Doesn't matter... | Jun 7, 2024 |
myko312 wrote:
, I do have the source files, but I thought there is no point in sending the agency the revised translations, if they unwilling to contact the client on that matter and provide them with a revised translation.
You do your duty and then, if the agency doesn't do their part, it's not your concern. You have a duty towards the agency, not the final customer.
| | | | myko312 (X)
Moldova
TOPIC STARTER | I didn't creat | Jun 7, 2024 |
Lieven Malaise wrote:
Angie Garbarino wrote:
perhaps I was not clear but we don't know there are hidden motives (motives not reasons) no, we don't know, and speculations always surprise me.
Does it really surprise you with such a story? It would be different if he would have told everything, instead of leaving some rather important parts out, or the opposite: if he would have given way less details about his unprofessional behaviour.
I don't really understand why the OP comes here to "show off" with his total disrespect for our profession in an environment still filled with people who take pride in what they do. Hence the "trolling" speculation above, I suppose. He could have limited himself to say that he had reasons to believe that his translation contained some mistakes and that he didn't know what to do about it, but no, he gave a full description of the most awful professional behaviour imaginable, complemented with a seemingly exaggerated and weird sense of remorse.
Let's say all this makes it difficult not to speculate about the reasons behind or even the truthfulness of this communication.
...this topic to for my remorse. I didn't create it to discuss my moral qualities either. You can even presume that I am a really awful person overall, and that all my other actions in various aspects of my life are terrible—and I'm okay with that, because the story is horrible, and I deserve it.
However, the reason behind creating this topic was very practical—to get advice on how to get the agency's attention on this matter. What will be the next best move?
From the agency's point of view, after my conversation with them, itmight seem like I am a very professional translator, but I am not really sure about my translations (probably that's why they decided not to pay attention to this matter) In reality, I lacked the professionalism and skills to deliver a well-checked and flawless translation. So, I thought sending them a respective letter would be right.
All I want is to do the best I can to ensure the agency really pays attention to this matter, and that the translations are checked before they go into use. Believe me, I had enough self-reflection after my misdeed. I just did.
Charlie Bavington suggested hiring a lawyer to speak on my behalf; probably that would be an answer on how to deal with it further.
| | | | myko312 (X)
Moldova
TOPIC STARTER | It may be true, | Jun 7, 2024 |
Giovanni Guarnieri MITI, MIL wrote:
myko312 wrote:
, I do have the source files, but I thought there is no point in sending the agency the revised translations, if they unwilling to contact the client on that matter and provide them with a revised translation.
You do your duty and then, if the agency doesn't do their part, it's not your concern. You have a duty towards the agency, not the final customer.
but when I think that if something really goes wrong with my faulty translations, I just cannot help but try to do the best I can to prevent bad things from happening. And sending the agency new revision of translation won't gurantee that.
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