An article for translators: Thoughts for the Future

Thoughts for the Future

By Roger Chriss,
Language Realm,
U.S.A.

rbchriss@languagerealm.com
www.languagerealm.com

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So what can we all do to improve our industry and make it a more comfortable place for everyone to work in? If the preceding articles have been too vague or long, or if ferreting out such ideas is too cumbersome, I present here a list of ideas that translators, translation vendors, and others involved in the translation industry should consider. I hope that these ideas take root and welcome suggestions from readers for additions or alterations to this list. I also know that I can do little more than present this list. After all, you can lead a cat to water, but you can’t make it drink (or do anything else, for that matter).

I Hope That Translators Will...

1. Submit their work on time. This remains the number one complaint of agencies and clients, and they have every right to be upset. Translation is not a "better late than never" profession. Get the work in on time and your clients will love you for it.

2. Create translations which are free from errors and omissions. There shall be no missing words, phrases, paragraphs or pages in translations this year. Terminology will either be correct or noted as uncertain. Words and phrases which are difficult to explain will be noted in a "Translator’s Note" at the end of the document. Translators are rendering information from one language to another and know that this process has pitfalls and hurdles. The translator should tell the agency or client about these problems and let them decide what to do.

3. Take the time to educate clients about the issues involving translation, be they linguistic, cultural, social, or philosophical. The client should not be surprised when reading the translated text. The client should be informed, ahead of time, about what to expect and not to expect.

4. Service the client. Clients will be treated with respect and compassion. They shall be informed of all problems and issues involving the translation, by phone or in writing. Translators should express an interest in all parts of the process of translation, not just their own role.

5. Maintain a proper home office, complete with a real computer, current versions of word processing software and other business applications, a fax and modem, and a proper printer which produces clean, clear, crisp, quality text and graphics. Translators complain about the lack of professional treatment in the industry; it’s time they do their part and be professionals themselves.

6. Learn how to use word processing software and the modern conventions in desktop publishing. We all should be putting single spaces between words and sentences, using proper ASCII characters for accents and other symbols, using tabs, tables, columns, and margins correctly, and providing file formats our clients can read.

7. Learn the subtle art of telecommunications and modem transmissions. Agencies and clients complain regularly about translators who can’t deliver work properly to their email accounts or FTP sites. Translators have to be able to deliver their work in a timely fashion. Having a good ISP or corporate Internet and giving translators reasonable access will go a long way to minimizing delivery delays.

8. Go on-line. Translators represent an integral facet of international communication and the emerging global village. They have to be able to talk to each other about what they do and how they do it. Letters are too slow, telephone calls and faxes too expensive. However, on-line, messages and files can be sent and received almost instantly, plus information on virtually any subject imaginable is available for the asking. Take advantage of the on-line universe.

9. Accept assignments for which they have the time and knowledge and turn down all others. Translators should not take jobs if they don’t really have the time to do the work properly or if they lack the requisite background knowledge and experience and reference materials. Translators should refer jobs which they cannot accept to other translators whom they know to be competent and responsible professionals.

10. Abandon their individualistic and perhaps ivory-tower tendencies and recognize that they are part of a complex process and that they have thousands of colleagues around the world. Translators should talk to each other about clients, about technology, about terminology, in essence, about their profession. They should not think of other translators as competition, but as colleagues and brethren, as friends and co-workers, people to learn from and teach to, people to give and receive work from, and as people who are in the same situation. Only when translators start to think and act as a professional group with clearly defined goals and standards will the profession itself be accorded the respect and understanding it so requires.

I Hope That Translation Agencies and Vendors Will...

1. Pay translators within a reasonable amount of time. There is no reason why a translator should have to wait sixty or ninety days for payment. There is no reason why a translator should have to write letters and make phone calls in order to receive pay. Agencies should specify in their independent contractor’s agreements how long payment will take and then make payment within that time.

2. Maintain a presence on the Web. This includes not only an email account or FTP site that translators can use to send and receive translations, but also a virtual space where translators can go to get information such as style sheets, company policies for translators, and other pertinent information for translation projects, such as glossaries, translation memories, or sample documents to use for reference.

3. Have people in-house who understand the languages they deal with. I don’t want to ask someone at an agency about a text and then be told that they don’t know because no one there reads the language it’s in. If an agency is going to do high volume work with a language, they should have at least one person who can read, write, and speak that language. The problems this will solve, the time it will save, and the frustration it will eliminate will more than justify the cost of hiring such a person.

4. Use a standardized independent contractor’s agreement. Every time I work for a new agency, I have to sign a new agreement, after reading and studying it and then deciding if I think it’s fair. We’re all dealing with the same problems and issues in the industry; let’s use the same agreement.

5. Use a standardized independent contractor’s information sheet. Every time I submit material to a new agency, I have to fill out pages of forms. Wouldn’t it be nice if there were one form which everyone used, and then you could just keep copies around your office and send it off as necessary? I think it would be great. After all, the agencies are all after the same information, so why not use the same information sheet? And we could even have this form in HTML format, further streamlining the process of gathering and organizing information on translators.

6. Send detailed information to the translator about the job and how it should be done. Make a style sheet which specifies how to handle such matters as charts, graphs, page numbers, fonts, margins, and so on. This will not only make the translator’s job easier, but will cut down on the time the agency spends answering the phone and explaining such details to the translator.

7. Provide clean, legible, readable copies of the material to be translated along with all other related material. A fax of a photocopy of a fax is not readable, no matter how good a translator might be at decoding information. Moreover, translators are hired to render information and ideas from one language to another, not to decode bad printing or writing.

8. Hire at least one person who is (or was) a professional translator. Working with an agency which considers the translation industry to be just another business is frustrating. The agency should understand the profession and the people in it. The only sure way to do this is have staff who have been professional translators.

9. Define a schedule and then stick to it. No one appreciates being told that a project will start on a particular day and then finding out it has been delayed by a week or two, or even a month. No one appreciates starting a job and then getting told that the deadline has been moved up and the job must be done in three days instead of four. Translators already work under extreme time constraints; the agencies and clients should at least stick to the original terms for the job.

10. Recognize the valuable and vital service that translators provide. Agencies and clients should not be concerned with what title to use for a translator or how to define their role in linguistic or corporate terms. They should be concerned with providing the in-house translator with a proper work environment, including computer hardware and software, dictionaries and reference materials, and understanding and cooperation. They should provide the free-lance translator with fair market price for the work, clear instructions concerning the material, and readable copies of all documents.

I Hope That Someone Will...

1. Start an organization which would not only inform and educate the general public about translation, translators, and agencies, but would also provide information about the current state of affairs in the profession, give advice and council to translators, agencies, and consumers of translations, create just and proper policies, guidelines, and standards for the profession, and develop a set of standards and a system for accrediting translators.

2. Create a solid, stable, and functional translation and glossary management software package for Windows, UNIX, and Macintosh systems. The software would keep track of past documents and identify what you’ve translated before, help build glossaries and terminology lists, actively assist in the translation of material like lists and tables, and exchange data with the same software on other computers, be they on a network or completely separate, as well as with other software on any of the current computer platforms. A Java-based application with support for file translations for standard database formats (dbf, sylk, and so forth) as well as the proprietary formats for Trados, TM2, and Catalyst, among others, would be ideal.

3. Develop a library of current and complete language reference materials. Translators, along with everyone else working with languages rely on the existence of accurate and up-to-date materials to do research and create quality materials. Translators themselves often have to develop their own glossaries and terminology lists. Someone should tap into this vast pool of language resources and create the materials which we all require.

4. Convince the federal government and state governments that while regulation and accreditation of translators might not be a bad idea in theory, the likely result in practice of creating regulations without proper understanding of the professions and input from professionals in all aspects of the industry will be mere chaos and confusion, coupled with a lack of capable and competent translators. Translators should police themselves, avoiding the problems of government-imposed regulation.

5. Perform the academic research necessary to provide a strong theoretical base for the translation profession. Few translators have any idea of what they are doing in terms of linguistics or language. Moreover, few theoreticians (be they linguists, psychologists, or sociologists) can agree on what translation is, how it is done, or what purpose it should serve. Such fundamental definitions would help translators get the professional respect they desire, help agencies and clients understand the process of translation and its value, and help government regulators create reasonable guidelines and standards.

I Hope That Everyone Will...

1. Stop confusing translators and interpreters. Translators deal with the written language. Interpreters deal with the spoken language. A translators cannot necessarily interpret and an interpreter cannot necessarily translate. Moreover, there is no such thing as ‘simultaneous translation’ or ‘written interpretation’.

2. Stop complaining about translation and translators or using them as scape goats. Translation is a multifaceted process involving many people, not just the translator. Moreover, many of the problems people complain about in a translated text cannot be solved without giving the translator permission to rewrite the material in its entirety. Translation is more than just swapping words or converting a phrase from one language to another. And while I certainly don’t want to exonerate all translators for every error ever made, let’s consider the big picture before dumping on the translator.

3. See the value and relevance of translation. Translation is about communication. In the modern world, often called the ‘global village’ or ‘international community’, communication of information and ideas between different languages and cultures is critical for peace, for the development of economies and technology, and for the growth of nations and regions. Translators are a small, but vital part of this process. They facilitate communication between people who want and often must communicate. Their role in this process must be better understood and more greatly appreciated.

All that said, I hope that these suggestions resonate with other translators and motivate would-be translators to consider carefully who they practice their profession and make what improvements they can.