Articles for Translators
and Translation Companies
The Translation Profession
4,300+ Translation Agencies! Click Here to Buy the Database!
Educating the
Customers, Redux: Time
Have you experienced the situation where
you received a text from a customer and then were casually,
or perhaps sheepishly, informed that it was needed back
— perfectly translated and/or edited, of course—within
just a few hours or days? And how often has such a text
been especially long and/or complicated?…
Read
the full article…
Debunking a few
myths about translating and translators
Shortly after I became a full-time translator,
an acquaintance asked me what sort of work I do. I told
her that I am a translator. Her reaction was, Aren’t
you lucky that just living here and having learned the
language, you now can translate and make money from
it. I felt insulted because it implied that being a
translator was not a real profession, that anyone who
spoke more than one language could be a translator…
Read
the full article…
Clients to Fire
Yesterday a major French carmaker asked
us to revise a text they'd had translated by an agency
in Slovakia. My Slovakian being as rusty as my Slovenian,
I turned down the offer.
"But the translation was from French into English,
and it's terrible," they replied.
Here's the good part: "Please bill the Slovakians.
After all, it's their fault. Oh, and don't bill them
too much because they have extremely competitive rates"…
Read
the full article…
The Importance
of Effective Communication in the Translation Business
Start with good people,
lay out the rules, communicate with your employees,
motivate them and reward them. If you do all those things
effectively, you can't miss." So said Lee Iacocca,
American industrialist, most commonly known for his
revival of the Chrysler brand in the 1980s when he was
the company's CEO…
Read
the full article…
Translator and
Reporter: A Behind the Scenes Conversation
After months of collaborating
on articles for Contratiempo without ever having met,
when Chicago-based translator Susana Galilea and journalist
Kari Lydersen ran into each other at a fundraiser, they
began an ongoing conversation about the intricacies
of and parallels between their work…
Read
the full article…
The pros and
cons of personnel in the translation business
Are you planning to set
up a translation business? Then there are two or three
fundamental questions you will need to consider if you
want your business to be a success. One of these, and
in fact the most obvious one, is how to attract clients.
However, the marketing effort and insight needed to
tackle the issue of client acquisition is the subject
of another article…
Read
the full article…
Translators'
Attitude to Badly Written Texts:
Freedom and Limitations
It stands to reason that
translators should be responsible for and faithful to
source texts. Sometimes they face badly written texts
containing grammatical mistakes such as wrong choice
words, misspelled words and the like. Similarly, some
other poor texts are crammed with swearwords, misstated
facts or misleading overgeneralizations. In such situations,
the translator should interfere to improve these texts
by setting right what is wrong because it is his/her
ethical and professional duty to convey correct information…
Read
the full article…
How To Make The
Translation Process Less Labour Intensive
Although in fact it ended
only two decades ago, the era of handwritten or typewriter
translations is one that most of us are not nostalgic
about – if they remember it at all. To any modern-day
translator, versed in – and addicted to – the cut-and-paste
functionality of the latest word processing software,
it is almost unimaginable there was ever a time in which
translations were produced with a pencil and an eraser,
or with a typewriter and correcting fluid…
Read
the full article…
Educating the
Customer
What, $35 to translate
that? I heard there are computer programs that can do
the same thing," a potential customer complained to
me once. It wasn't the first time someone had said something
along those lines. "My colleague was very pleased with
your work," another person told me, "but I found someone
who could do it much cheaper." While many customers
don't seem to know much about the translation process,
a surprising number of them do seem to have pretty firm
ideas about who can translate and how much it should
cost…
Read
the full article…
Adding Value
to Translation with DTP Partnership
A search in any translators'
discussion forum will reveal that now and then some
less-informed clients expect the 'translation' of a
rather complex publication will be no less than an exact
replica of the original in a different language. Some
translators simply say 'no' and deliver plain text as
usual. Others, having once stated that their clients
rule, decide to face the challenge... and get frustrated
at first, and desperate later, when the deadline comes
nigh. Here are some ideas to emerge a winner from such
situations…
Read
the full article…
The Power of...
"No"
In the localization business,
missed deadlines, exploding budgets, and mediocre quality
all belong in the same category as root canals and tax
audits—you don’t wish such ills even on your worst enemy
(either because you’re a nice, decent person or because
you’ve learned that evil forces can easily turn against
those who invoke them). So how is it possible that seasoned
professionals regularly engage in localization projects
that they know are bound to suffer from one or more
of these ailments?…
Read
the full article…
Céline’s
10 Tricky Situations Translators Might Find Themselves
In and How To Get Out of Them
Being a freelance translator
isn't just about having the ability to take language
from one culture and turn it into another. As I allude
to elsewhere in this blog, there are aspects of this
career which require negotiation skills and business
awareness. When you start off, for example, or have
a new agency contact you promising a juicy contract,
it can be tempting to bend over backwards to get the
job…
Read
the full article…
Buzzword or Bonanza?
A Translator Reflects on Best Practice
There's no doubt
that "best practice" is a hot topic today. The exact
phrase brings nearly 40 million hits with Google,
including 16 sponsored links related to sales and
marketing, education, research, manufacturing, information
science, health care, and more. Amazon.com lists
over 2300 books with "best practice" as a keyword.
To me it was pretty much just a buzzword. It sounded
good, and I assumed it was an apt description of
the way I ran my business…
Read
the full article…
Globalizing Communication
Recently my career
took a step in the right direction when I was hired
by Ccaps Translation and Localization. With a degree
in Mass Communication, and a specialization in International
and Cross-Cultural Communication, it really was
a fitting move. And I can honestly say that I love
what I do…
The Ball is Yours, Proofreader!
As a soccer fan and
a Flamenguista who grew up watching Zico play, I
can never forget a comment made by a colleague of
mine: “proofreaders are like goal keepers: they
are only noticed when they fail”. Indeed, if discussions
on the translator’s visibility and the awareness
of our interaction (and intervention) with the original
text still generates controversy, imagine the state
of proofreaders’ (in)visibility…
An Invisible
Traitor
A well-known Italian saying declares traduttore, traditore, ‘Translator, traitor,’ implying this sneaky species is congenitally incapable of remaining faithful to the original text. For most people, a good translation is one that looks nothing like a translation. In other words, the translator should be invisible, their work limited to conveying the original’s meaning in a fluent and natural style…
Agencies are
from Mars, Translators are from Venus II:
The Revenge of the Venusians
If there is anyone
among us who has never committed any of the sins
mentioned by our colleague Fabiano Cid, let they
be the one to cast the first stone... In a market
with growing demands, tighter deadlines, more complex
tasks, and extremely delicate relations, it is not
hard to fall into temptation…
Freelance Translator:
The Most Democratic Profession?
I’m old enough to
remember life without the Internet and e-mail.
I actually began my writing and translation career
typing on manual typewriters, literally cutting
and pasting to rearrange sentences and paragraphs.
And I had to physically deliver — in the form of
paper, faxes or even teletype messages and telegrams
— my work output, actually visiting the offices
of my clients and correspondents, in many cases!…
Agencies are
from Mars, Translators are from Venus
"A
Practical Guide to Improving Communication and Getting
What you Want in Your Relationships" is the
subtitle of John Gray’s acclaimed book. It could
also be the title for the survival manual of any
project manager I know. However, what do translation
agencies want, and how much are translators willing
to offer?…
Translating for recipe books and menus
Translating
recipes and menus appears to be a simple task at first
sight, but that is only one's first impression. A
menu looks like a simple food-list, and cookery books
might be considered as a list of recipes with sets
of ingredients and simple instructions. How misleading!
We have been translating cookery books and menus for
many years and we still find this task a challenge…
Read
the full article…
Walk The Dog,
Round The World, Or Sleep?
Some people think that
your run-of-the-mill business gurus provide a great
insight on how to and how not to run a business. I will
listen with interest to what these management prophets
have to say. But I think that I can learn at least as
much…
Read
the full article…
Translator Prerequisites
and the A-Z of becoming a Translator
Your standard of
education must be very high; with very few exceptions,
a degree is essential, though not necessarily in
languages - it is a positive advantage to have qualifications
or experience in another subject. Postgraduate training
in translation is useful…
Read
the full article…
Translation Of
Personal Documents – A Window Into Our Strange World
This article is about
translation of personal documents. Birth certificates,
college transcripts, marriage certificates, divorce
certificates, death certificates. They are called
personal documents because they often have all kinds
of personal things in them…
Read
the full article…
Translation Myths
Translators often
face an uphill battle from misinformed clients who
have misconceptions about translators and the translation
profession. Many times translators have to educate
the clients about the industry in order to debunk
the myths that seem to keep on circulating year
after year…
Read
the full article…
How to prepare
yourself for the challenges as a freelance translator
Some simple questions
- but suddenly not so simple when it comes to answering.
What exactly is your vision? What services do you
want to offer as a freelancer? Do you want to offer
just translation or just interpreting or both? And
if any of these apply, than what language combination,
what field i.e. technical, legal, marketing, financial,
and medical?…
Read
the full article…
Who
Is Responsible For A Translation?
I did an editing job for a customer that I have worked
for a few times in 2004 and 2005. I delivered the job
with some comments, questions and suggested changes
(in MS Word/Track) for the translator. Below, please
find an exchange of messages between the agency's Project
Manager and myself…
Read
the full article…
The Ailments of Global Translating (Part 2)
Infamous Translation Agencies, the Unsolicited Solicited
Emails and Defamation Know-Hows
While
global economy has helped many legitimate businesses
expand, it has also allowed a rapid proliferation
of tiny, bogus businesses that defraud clients and
contractors. This trend is particularly strong in
the international translating market. Anyone can create
an appealing, convincing website, pose as an agency,
and defraud thousands of translators worldwide…
Read
the full article…
The
Ailments of Global Translating (Part 1)
The latest trend is going global for a lot of reasons
but the major one being looking for the cheapest
service and labour, which in turn helped many businesses
grow faster.
For some it is a great thing as they would not have
as much work otherwise and for the other it became
a nightmare as it devalued their work and compromised
the quality standards of the profession…
Read
the full article…
Hints for Translators
The translation market profited enormously from
the globalisation, which took place over the past
decades. How can you profit from this development?…
Click
here to view English version…
Hier
klicken für die Deutsche version…
Legal and Ethical Implications of Translation
Should translators be pedantic and professional or just technical? It could be open to an individual interpretation or a debate if it wasn’t important for the ramifications it has in terms of hidden risks that fraudulent documents may become legalised in the process of translation…
Read the full article…
How
to become a successful freelance translator
After completing their translation training programmes
at higher professional education or university level,
many students can’t wait to set up as a freelance translator.
However, gaining a foothold as a freelancer in a very
competitive translation market may turn out to be a
pretty complicated business. Translation agencies are
not usually keen on contracting inexperienced translators,
business clients are difficult to find without commercial
tools, and the tax authorities won’t just accept anyone
as a self-employed person…
Read
the full article…
Seven
Ways to Leave Your Translation Vendor
Time and time again I speak with global communication
managers who tell me how they've endured poor linguistic
quality and poor project management from their translation
vendor for quite some time. I often hear how they've
been bounced around from one project manager to
another and how they've tolerated the silent treatment
and reactive responses to questions instead of proactive
communications…
Read
the full article…
A
Day in the Life of a Translator
My typical day begins with a walk through the woods
to school. Besides being a very serene start to the
day not least for the dog, and especially if I have
been at my desk since 5 am it has the additional benefit
of allowing me to contra off any chocolate consumed
during a sedentary days translation and also to mull
over any headlines or anything else requiring quiet
contemplation. I often use this time to give translations
or editing a final read-through manic multi-tasker that
I am…
Read
the full article…
Looking
for answers within: an introspective look at professionalism
of translators and interpreters
Why does society at large have such a hard time
understanding? Don’t they know that translating
and interpreting (T&I) is a profession?
What is wrong with this picture? Can we do anything
about it?
In case you are wondering, even though I strongly
believe in the great need for client education,
this article is not about the general lack of knowledge
the public has regarding the T&I profession (and
its members) as is evident by the article cited
–only one of many similar articles that occupy the
pages of mainstream newspapers on a daily basis
…
Read
the full article…
Musings of a Japanese Translator in New York
Minoru Mochizuki presents a personal account of what it’s like to be a Japanese translator making a living in the United States. He then explains why he is grateful to Japanese inventors and TRADOS
…
Read the full article…
Bilingualism
Bilingualism is a sociolinguistic phenomenon that has received much scholarly attention, not only because of its importance in communications but also because of political and demographic considerations that have led many sociologists to brand some languages as major and others as minor in multiliguistic settings. This classification forces African languages into subordinate positions on the grounds that only a few of them have been codified, and fewer still are used in instruction
…
Read the full article…
9 Tips For Increasing Translation Quality While Decreasing Translation Cost
In some cases, there's no win-win situation when you're looking to increase product quality while decreasing cost. Translation is the exception; measures that decrease word count and therefore cost often result in a more precise and accessible translation. Here are some "translator's eye view" tips gleaned from some of my recent projects
…
Read the full article…
Getting Started As A Freelance Translator
After relocating to Colorado and having a child, I wanted to find a career that would allow me to use French and work from home, so I decided to try to make a go as a professional translator. Several years later, I'm certified by the American Translators Association and happily employed by a growing list of regular clients
…
Read the full article…
The language of business – how fluent are you?
In an increasingly global marketplace, it's high time that UK exporters realised the importance of translating or localising their sales websites into foreign languages. Karen Elwis has found a quick test to ascertain readers' current level of expertise in European "commercial-speak"
…
Read the full article…
"Mind your language… or pay the price in Rubels!"
In the past few years, there have been moves afoot in Russia to encourage citizens - young and old - to clean up their language. No mean task considering that Russian, in its daily spoken form, is estimated to contain 50% more swearing than English
…
Read the full article…
"Waiter! There’s an insect of the order Diptera in my soup!"
The following genuine examples are an amusing reminder of what can happen when you don't use a professional translation company...
- On menu of Swiss restaurant: "Our wines leave you nothing to hope for"
…
Read the full article…
"FIST" - First International Strike of Translators.
Only A Fantasy?
This article is at least partly a fantasy. I know all
the reasons why the events I am about to describe are
unlikely to take place in the near future. I will even
examine these reasons in some detail towards the end.
But for now let us simply entertain the idea embodied
in my title and see where it leads us …
Read
the full article…
What
Makes a Translator?
The "prison of language is only temporary…someday
a merciful guard ? the perfect translator ? will come
along with his keys and let us out," Wendy Lesser wrote
in an article, "The Mysteries of Translation," in the
Chronicle of Higher Education in 2002. The following
questions remain, however: Who is this translator? What
does he do? And what skills should he possess? …
Read
the full article…
Translation
Misconceptions
Translation is occassionally taken too lightly by some.
However, translation is in fact a serious business that
should be approched sensibly in order to avoid poor
results. Before starting a project that invloves translation
bear in mind the following misconceptions regarding
translation …
Read
the full article…
Writers Working As Translators
As a writer, translator and editor, I'm intrigued by the elegant ease with which fellow writers can let their worlds slip beyond their words into the translator's world. Having translated books and over a hundred films, from Shakespeare to Hollywood classics, I've seen how easily texts can get dented. Even destroyed…
Read the full article…
Major mistakes when responding to job offers
Wondering why you never got an answer to your e-mail? Sometimes potential clients do not have the time or simply do not need your services. Other times, it could very well be that your message is the real reason. Have a look at the following mistakes to see if any of them sound familiar and find out how to avoid these mistakes in the future…
Read the full article…
MORE FENG SHUI
Feng shui (pronounced "fung shway") is an ancient system for balanced and harmonious spatial design. Rooted in Chinese philosophy and science, it consists of complex rules for determining the favourable placement of buildings, rooms, or furnishings and started out as a way to map out burial plots and tombs. Based on the Taoist laws of nature (the words Feng Shui in Chinese literally means Wind and Water), its theories offer us a way of understanding why certain things occur and how to create a comfortable environment that lets us live and work efficiently and progressively…
Read the full article…
Is something wrong with our profession? Considerations on
translators accreditation processes and standards
It is with an enormous sense of responsibility that I endeavor to discuss an
issue I take to heart, namely the process of accreditation, and homologation of
accreditations in the field of general and specialized translation…
Read the full article…
How many words per
day?
One topic most freelance translators just starting up their business devote some thought
and calculations to, is this: How many words am I supposed to translate per day?
Read the full article…
Source Language
versus Target Language Bias
Aside from a few volunteer projects, my start in the translation profession was with a
private school in Hiroshima where I was employed as a teacher. The English department had
taken on responsibility for a visiting author who was writing a novel about the atomic
bombing. She had amassed a series of transcripts taken from interviews in Japanese with
atomic bomb victims, and she came to us looking for a clean English version. The project
was to take 6 months. Although the department accepted the work, this was its first
venture into translation and there was no one available to deal with the task on a
full-time basis. Knowing of my interest in becoming a translator, I was given a portion of
the responsibility, and eventually the better part of the material ended up on my desk...
Read the full article…
What Every Novice
Translator Should Know
Translation is ultimately a human activity
which enables human beings to exchange ideas and thoughts regardless of the different
tongues used. Al Wassety (2001) views the phenomenon of translation as a legitimate
offspring of the phenomenon of language, since originally, when humans spread over the
earth, their languages differed and they needed a means through which people speaking a
certain language (tongue) would interact with others who spoke a different language…
Read the full article…
Its a Small World
My wife likes to criticize a certain Polish
girl just before 10 AM on most weekday mornings. We never met this particular Polish girl.
Her name is Milena, she lives in Warsaw and works as a weather forecaster on a Polish
station shown on the International Channel in our cable lineup (channel 224 in Chesapeake,
VA). The thing is, Milena is on from about 9:55 to 10:00 AM and Japanese news starts at 10
AM. My wife always complains about Milena's poor taste in clothes, usually in her
trademark mixture of English containing a fair amount of juicy Japanese words, in this
case it is usually "ya da" (hate it), and "hidoi" (ugly)…
Read the full article…
The Changing World
of Japanese Patent Translators
Some 15 years ago when I lived in San
Francisco, a translation agency in downtown called and asked whether I could come to their
office to have a look at a patent. It had been faxed to them by a law firm but they were
not sure whether it was legible enough for translating because, like most translation
agencies, they could not read Japanese. So I took the bus downtown and then an elevator to
the agency's office on Market Street to have a look at what appeared to be a third
generation fax. It was hopeless…
Read the full article…
The Business of
Translating
Translation is a service business, not an
industry or commerce. The basic difference between industry, commerce and services lies in
inventories. Industrial establishments keep at least two kinds of inventory: raw materials
and finished goods. Commercial establishments keep only finished goods inventories.
Service establishments, however, keep no inventories…
Read the full article…
Sorry Guys, You
Can't Win
Some time ago my e-mail included a message
posted by a respected colleague discussing the qualities that made a good translator. The
message read like her own CV. She believed she was a competent professional, attributed
her competence to certain factors and concluded that those factors were indeed universally
applicable requirements. In other words, she firmly believed there is only one road to
becoming a good translator: the road she had trodden…
Read the full article…
What the Guys Said,
the Way They Said It, As Best We Can
It was a PowerPoint presentation, written in
English in the U.S. and translated into Portuguese in Brazil. The client had just called
to say that the translation was unacceptable and they would not pay for the job. Too
literal, the secretary had said…
Read the full article…
Quick Answers to General
Questions
In
case you haven't the time or inclination to read through
all of the articles, or did and now find yourself stumped
as to where you saw some particular idea or suggestion,
or perhaps have a specific question that was not addressed
in detail in the text of the article series, I have
assembled here some common questions and answers, many
inspired by students in my course at the Monterey Institute
of International Studies on the translation profession,
others from correspondence with professional translators
and new entrants to our industry. I hope your own questions
are answered in this article, but if not, please contact
me and I will do my best to provide you with an answer.
And if your question turns out to have general applicability,
it will appear in a future version of this article…
Read the full article…
Professions for
Foreign-Language Users
If after
reading these articles you have decided that translation is not for you, or if after
translating professionally for a while or longer you have decided that translation is no
longer for you, I'll try to offer a few suggestions, some obvious and simple, others
perhaps less obvious and more complicated, for other careers. Learning another language is
a wonderful undertaking, and being able to use it for your career is a wonderful outcome
of all that effort. But sometimes a professional pursuit must become a hobby, and so my
suggestions will include ideas that have little directly to do with foreign language
proficiency. At the same time, as someone who loves languages, I'll bear in mind the
attitude and commitment translators have made to their languages…
Read the full article…
Thoughts for the
Future
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…
Read the full article…
Accreditation and
Standards in the Translation Industry
The translation industry is slowly
climbing a tortured path toward regulation and accreditation in the United States, with
the ASTM meeting now to come up with nationally recognized standards for translation, LISA
issuing its own ideas about what constitutes good practice in localization, and every
translator, translation vendor, translation school, and translation organization adding
thoughts and suggestions to this process. But has anyone stopped to ask if this is a good
idea, if the industry will really benefit from accreditation or regulation, and who might
suffer? That's the point of this article: to take a close look at these two
closely-related issues and explore what I think are some overlooked problems…
Read the full article…
Ethics and
Professionalism in Translation
Whence
cometh the true professionals? Are they born or bred? If born, can
we develop a brain scan system to detect their ability and then
nurture it? If bred, can we identify and then duplicate the ideal
conditions to create a translator? More importantly, what do we do
now, when we cant answer the above questions? And most importantly,
what do we do as freelance translators to become more professional
ourselves and enhance the level of professionalism in our
industry…
Read the full article…
Translators and Translation Vendors
Translators do not work in a vacuum. Work
has to come from somewhere, ultimately from some individual or organization that has
material in one language and needs to be able to read it in another language. As discussed
in the first two articles, most of this material is business-related, often it is software
guides, hardware manuals, engineering specifications, financial reports, legal
transcripts, in other words, material that someone needs for some business purpose…
Read the full article…
Life as a Translator
Few people have
any idea what it is that translators do. Some people argue that translators don't actually
do anything because they are not creating anything new. Most people accept that what
translators do is work, even if they don't understand how translators do what they do, or
for that matter in what kind of environment a translator works…
Read the full article…
The Translation
Profession
So what's it all about? Who and
what is a translator? How does one become a translator? What is going on in the
translation profession? If you are an experienced translator, you might want to browse
this article and then get into the meatier discussions of current and forthcoming
technologies, sticky financial and legal issues, or nagging ethical problems. If you are
new to the profession, or if you are exploring translation as a possible profession,
please take the time to read this article so that you are acquainted with certain basics
about translators and what they do…
Read the full article…
Five Excuses for Not
Hiring a Translator
If a company has its translations
done by just anyone in order to save money, it runs the risk of ending up with an
unprofessional translation as well as wasting valuable time. Having the translation redone
afterwards can only cost more money and take even longer. No wonder translation seems so
expensive!
Read the full article…
How to Choose a Translator Wisely
Translation clients are often buying blind.
They seldom know what they are paying for, especially when buying a translation into a
language other than their own. Translations are definitely not all born equal, a fact to
which anyone who has experienced the pain, amusement or confusion of reading a bad one
will attest…
Read the full article…
A Typical Translator?
Every time the American Translators Associations Translation
Services Directory Questionnaire asks me to list only five languages
(plus one more in additional information), I have to persuade them
that there really are those of us who translate ten or more
languages, in particular Slavic language translators…
Read the full article…
Submit your article!
Read more articles - Free!
Need translation jobs? Click here!
Translation agencies are welcome to register here - Free!
Freelance translators are welcome to register here - Free!
Subscribe to TranslationDirectory.com newsletter - Free!
Take part in TranslationDirectory.com poll - your voice counts!
|
