Reading the clues

For a sum of money, translators can buy a list of translation agency addresses to spam with their CVs. This is not the famous one that has been around for quite some time, but a new one. Some linguistic clues on their website allude to the established one, so I suppose they are trying to imitate the success of the original.

Is it worth it? Judge for yourself. I find another certain linguistic clue quite telling about their attitude to quality. From their FAQ:

Are there any hidden fee's?

No, you will only pay for the database one time and you will have access to the guide for life. There are no hidden or recurring fee's. We don't feel it's very professional to have hidden fees.

Well, personally, I don't feel it's very professional to show a total lack of understanding of apostrophes if you're selling a language-related service.

Client with keen grasp of the essentials

Sometimes clients commission a translation job without really knowing what is involved. This was certainly not the case with this job which appeared on an internet forum:

Buenas tarde, andaba buscando alguien que me pudiera ayudar a traducir las descripciones de [...], a ingles. la traduccion consiste en expresar en ingles exactamente lo que dice la descripcion de las [..] que ya tengo. asi como la traduccion de los temas vistos en cada [...]. todos los documentos ya los tengo, nomas es cuestion de traducirlos.

{Hi, im looking for someone who could help me translate the descriptions of some [...] to english. the translation consists of expressing in english exactly what the descriptions of the [...] say. also the topics covered in each [...]. i already have all the documents, its just a question of translating them.}

So easy! I mean, client already has the documents! All you have to do is express what they say in English! All translation assignments should be so straightforward.

Frequently asked questions about translating

A recent ProZ forum thread discussed sticky topics to answer questions asked time and again—often by newcomers who aren't aware that countless past discussions and advice on their query can be accessed by searching the forums. (I discuss this specific one here but of course it occurs in virtually every internet forum, discussion group, bulletin board, etc.)

The example cited was "How do I convert a PDF to Word/How do I translate a PDF with Trados/How do I count the words in a PDF?"

It started me thinking: what questions are in this category? IMO:

1. How can I work with PDF files?
2. How can I get translation (or interpretation) jobs?
3. How much should I charge? How can I get paid?
4. What about TRADOS?
5. Can you believe how little they're offering for translation job XXX?

#1 as above.

#2 is often asked by recent graduates in the field who find that their theoretical preparation assumes the text. For the first time, they're faced with the step that precedes it; namely the search for the text and the need for it to be translated. Also sometimes asked by those with different backgrounds who, having been asked to do one translation, discover that translation is such a good fit for them that they would like to do more. Another category, which can intersect with either of the above, is those who would like to translate a book and wonder how to market the translation to a publisher.

Some variants of #3 include those who are setting up their business, those who've been asked to do a task which varies significantly from what they have done in the past, and those who find themselves asked to translate or interpret for the first time. Payment issues break down into two broad categories; forms of payment (especially international methods of transferring funds), and extracting payment due from a reluctant payer.

#4 includes those who wonder what a CAT tool is and what it's good for, those who have an idea but wonder whether it's worthwhile for them, and those who've just been faced with their first request for a discount for repetitions or a client-provided memory. And of course asking the question in that form presupposes that TRADOS is the only CAT tool (which it isn't, only the most hyped one).

#5, unlike the questions that precede it, is rhetorical, and asked more often by veterans, who know what a proper rate of payment is.

¿Güeir du dei tich dat?

I was unable to apply for a nice little "translation" job posted today at ProZ because the outsourcer restricted bidding to credentialed translators. But the job consisted of writing out some 200 words of Spanish phonetically so that a non-Spanish speaker could pronounce them. En-TONN-sehss loh kay may pray-GOON-toh ehss DONE-day say tee-TOO-lah OO-noh pah-rah EH-ssoh. KRAY-oh kay loh SAY ah-SAIR mooey byehn AHOON-kay seen TEE-too-loh. Ee TOO kay oh-PEEN-ahss?

Como convertirte en cliente consentido

1. Encargarme traducciones de textos interesantes, de temas interesantes, sean ésas:
   
   
   
   • de textos bien escritos, o bien
     
   • de textos mal escritos de manera que mejorarlos constituye un reto interesante y divertido.
     
   
   
2. Tener sexto sentido para mandarme trabajos voluminosos cuando me falta trabajo, y pequeños (o ninguno) cuando me encuentro ya muy atareada.
   
3. Felicitarme por la calidad de mis traducciones (sin dejar de llamarme la atención en caso de un posible error). ¡Gracias! Ya sabes quien eres, no hace falta especificar el nombre (ya que ésta es una bitácora anónima).
   
4. Remitir el pago en un plazo que se cuenta en ¡minutos! (Sí, no es una exageración. El acontecimiento que me motivó a redactar esta nota fue un pago que acabo de recibir en un plazo de 64 minutos después de la entrega del texto.) Si se trata de horas, eso no me cae mal tampoco. Acepto días, también. Semanas, si es que son pocas. Cuando ya se trata de meses, el trabajo afuerzas tiene que contar con otras cualidades muy favorables para compensar.
   
5. Recomendarme con otros amigos y conocidos como tú.
   

Translators: Learning from architects

A common query and topic of discussion at translator forums and on translator lists is whether the customer is always right. How should a translator respond when the client insists that the translation must adhere to a faulty glossary, lets a reviewer who is non-native or unacquainted with the subject matter alter or add to the translation (thereby introducing errors), or insists that wrong terms are the right ones?

Perhaps we should take a cue from other professionals. This quote is from an interview with architect Frank Gehry:

"I don't know why people hire architects and then tell them what to do," Mr. Gehry says. "Architects have to become parental. They have to learn to be parental." By this he means that an architect has to listen to his client but also remain firm about what the architect knows best, the aesthetics of a building. This, Mr. Gehry says, is what makes an architect relevant in the process that leads to a completed building. "I think a lot of my colleagues lose it, lose that relevance in the spirit of serving their client, so that no matter what, they are serving the client. Even if the building they produce, that they think serves the client, doesn't really serve the client because it's not very good."

In a similar way, I believe that a translator does not serve the client by bowing to pressure to introduce known errors.