Articles for Translators
and Translation Companies
The Translation Profession
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How to become
a sworn translator in Spain
Without a doubt, sworn translation denotes a qualification that is respected by clients and the marketplace in general as well as a level of unquestionable ethical and professional commitment...
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the full article…
Ethics 101 for
Translators
We have a question: How should a Christian translator
deal with wrong Biblical references in a work of fiction targeted
at a Christian readership, since the Bible is The Word of God and
target readers are likely to identify the mistakes? The question—or
something like it—was posted by our friend and colleague Betty Spíndola
to a translators' forum sometime ago and we will try to find an
answer to it and a few related issues here...
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the full article…
The state of
the language within the state of the industry
To commemorate and celebrate its 50th birthday this
year, the American Translators Association (ATA) has commissioned
a history of the organization, and by extension – if you will –
a contemporary history of translation in the United States…
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the full article…
On Becoming a
Translator
When Gabe Bokor asked me to write a translator profile
because I could serve as a model for young colleagues, I felt flattered,
confused, and a little bit offended for, even at 47, I count myself
among the "young colleagues" who could use a little bit of advice
from more experienced practitioners…
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the full article…
Navigating in
a New Era: Translators in the Age of Image and Speech
The ways in which translators work, particularly
industrial translators (the term traditionally used for translators
of commercial, legal, medical, scientific, technical, and general
non-literary materials), have been undergoing dramatic change since
the advent of the computer, the Internet, globalization, the growing
use of machine translation and CAT tool programs…
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the full article…
Love Your Work,
Love Your Life: Make it Happen as a Freelance Translator
We decided to write this ebook in response to the
many positive feedbacks we received from freelance translators.
They told us we made their business so simple yet so different.
They said that after implementing our methods, they started enjoying
their working hours while doubling their output…
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the full article…
Peanuts, Monkeys
and Zookeepers
They tell us it’s a free market!
They tell us that if we don't take it, someone else will!
They tell us there are plenty of translators out there, just waiting
to grab the job!…
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the full article…
Working for Translation
Agencies as a Freelancer: A Guide for Novice Translators
The translation profession has recently undergone
three important changes: globalization, professionalization, and
specialization. Not so long ago translators would mainly operate
on local markets, delivering their translations in person. With
the advent of the Internet and e-mail, the profession has gone global
and geographical boundaries have disappeared…
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the full article…
Why Sample Translations
Break All the Rules
After more than thirteen years in the localization
industry with three different language service providers, I continue
to be amazed that we still receive RFPs with requests for sample
translations…
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the full article…
Ethical Implications
of Translation Technologies
Technology has been reshaping the concept and practice
of translation in many aspects. Until some time ago, translators
were expected to be able to work solely on definite source texts
with the exclusive aid of dictionaries. Specialists were called
upon where research references failed or left holes, but, even in
such cases, translators had the chance to develop familiarity with
their source texts, becoming, in many cases, experts themselves
in some fields…
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the full article…
Proverbs and
Translation
Proverbs are extracts of life experiences, and they
can explain much of life. Below are some proverbs taken to explain
some aspects of the translation process…
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the full article…
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?…
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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…
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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"…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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?…
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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…
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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…
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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?…
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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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?…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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 …
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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 …
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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 …
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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 …
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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"
…
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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 …
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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" …
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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 …
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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? …
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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 …
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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 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…
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…
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