And here is my first case study... when your boss asks you to translate small documents because you're bilingual, I would strongly suggest that you just decline for the (good) reason that you are not a translator. Here is now the story of Mrs. X who is a bilingual secretary for a small company. Her boss sometimes asks her to translate small documents, emails, etc., and because she wants to be a good employee, she always accepts. Everything goes well for a while, but one day she is in a hurry and has to go home early. That same day, her boss asks her for another small translation. She is stuck between a rock and a hard place, and because she doesn't want to disappoint him, she uses a computer program. A simple copy-paste, two clicks, and there you are, the translation is done. She gives the translation to her boss and leaves. He starts reading the text, but very quickly realizes that it doesn't make any sense. So he sends the original text and the translation to a professional translator and asks for an unbiased opinion. Within hours, the opinion is in: "this is a computer-generated translation, there is no doubt about it"... Now what do you think her boss is thinking? As a boss, could you trust - or even keep - your employee after this?
I don't know how the story ends, but I would assume the boss is now wondering how often his employee has used this "shortcut", maybe jeopardizing relations with clients, losing contracts or money, having the company's reputation tarnished, etc... And now I am asking you: was that worth the couple of hundred dollars saved?
PS: maybe both of them should have read "The biggest "DON'T" of all" and "Don't: think that your friend can translate because she's bilingual"...
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Monday, September 20, 2010
Do: ask the right questions
Dealing with a translation company or freelance translator for the first time can sometimes be tricky, so here are a few things to make the experience easier for you. There are no secrets per say, you just have to ask the right questions... first to the translation company or to the freelance translator, and then to yourself.
Let's begin with the questions you have to ask the translation company or the freelance translator (and the answers you want to get):
1) How much do they charge per 1,000 words (for an average document without a tight deadline)? (now, most companies will ask to see the document and be made aware of the deadline before they can provide you with a quote, so if your document is very technical and is due tomorrow, the quote will probably be very expensive and some companies may even decline the contract - that's the sign of a good company, which would rather lose a contract than provide you with a substandard translation)
2) Is that per "source" or "target" words? (hands down, you want the answer to be "source")
3) Are there any other costs, like taxes, "filing fees", etc? (that's something you definitely want to know)
4) Is the quote final? (it should be)
5) What are the qualifications of the translators, and do they work into their native language? (at the very least a college/university diploma and three years of experience, and they should work in their native language)
6) Will the translation be reviewed (revised) by another translator? (it should be "yes")
Of course, there are more questions you can ask, but these six should make you feel a bit better about the translation company or freelance translator you might hire...
And now, here is the fun part, the questions you have to ask yourself:
1) Is my deadline flexible? (you might be able to get a better price if you don't need your translation "by yesterday")
2) Is my document technical? (if it is, don't be surprise if the price goes up)
3) Am I satisfied with the answers I got to the six questions from the company?
4) Let's do some math here: now that you know how much they charge per 1,000 words, how many words a day do you think they need to translate in order to make a living? And now, here is the kicker: a translator usually translates between 1,000 and 2,000 a day (some people might do more, but one also needs to have a life and looks after his family too). So here is my question: do you think they are paid adequately? If the answer is "yes", it's all good, if it is "no"... how do you think they make a living? by working another job or by doing more words per day?
Of course, the price you are ready to pay for a translation is important, and like anything else, why would you pay more than you have to? And when you ask different translation companies and freelance translators for quotes, the price range can be quite impressive. But before you decide to go with the cheapest quote, here is the final question: would you go to a dentist because he is way cheaper than all the other dentists around and he can take you this afternoon? Now be honest about this one...
Let's begin with the questions you have to ask the translation company or the freelance translator (and the answers you want to get):
1) How much do they charge per 1,000 words (for an average document without a tight deadline)? (now, most companies will ask to see the document and be made aware of the deadline before they can provide you with a quote, so if your document is very technical and is due tomorrow, the quote will probably be very expensive and some companies may even decline the contract - that's the sign of a good company, which would rather lose a contract than provide you with a substandard translation)
2) Is that per "source" or "target" words? (hands down, you want the answer to be "source")
3) Are there any other costs, like taxes, "filing fees", etc? (that's something you definitely want to know)
4) Is the quote final? (it should be)
5) What are the qualifications of the translators, and do they work into their native language? (at the very least a college/university diploma and three years of experience, and they should work in their native language)
6) Will the translation be reviewed (revised) by another translator? (it should be "yes")
Of course, there are more questions you can ask, but these six should make you feel a bit better about the translation company or freelance translator you might hire...
And now, here is the fun part, the questions you have to ask yourself:
1) Is my deadline flexible? (you might be able to get a better price if you don't need your translation "by yesterday")
2) Is my document technical? (if it is, don't be surprise if the price goes up)
3) Am I satisfied with the answers I got to the six questions from the company?
4) Let's do some math here: now that you know how much they charge per 1,000 words, how many words a day do you think they need to translate in order to make a living? And now, here is the kicker: a translator usually translates between 1,000 and 2,000 a day (some people might do more, but one also needs to have a life and looks after his family too). So here is my question: do you think they are paid adequately? If the answer is "yes", it's all good, if it is "no"... how do you think they make a living? by working another job or by doing more words per day?
Of course, the price you are ready to pay for a translation is important, and like anything else, why would you pay more than you have to? And when you ask different translation companies and freelance translators for quotes, the price range can be quite impressive. But before you decide to go with the cheapest quote, here is the final question: would you go to a dentist because he is way cheaper than all the other dentists around and he can take you this afternoon? Now be honest about this one...
Sunday, September 5, 2010
Do: ask for a second opinion when you have a doubt
You've now sent a couple of documents to a translator, and everything seems ok. He charges you a very reasonable price and he respects your deadlines. And yet, something tells you there is something wrong. The problem is you don't know anyone who could tell you if the translations are good or not. You should not hesitate to get a second opinion. After all, this is what you would do for your health or your finances, so why not doing it for your translated documents?
You have two options when you want a second opinion, but since we've established that you don't know anyone who could tell you wether the translations are good or not, let's go to the second option. You need to contact another translator or translation company and ask them if they would do a "revision" of a document. A revision is a comparison of the source document (your original document) and of the target document (the translation) and, if necessary, the correction of the content and style of the translation. If they accept, send them a sample (the first few paragraphs of one of the documents should be enough, but you can send more if you want) and tell them you want a revision with "track changes" on so that you can see the changes, as well as their opinion of the translation. This shouldn't be expensive, but I strongly suggest that you ask for a quote before you proceed. Once you have received the "revised" document, you can either feel better about your original translator and keep him, or get back to him with the revision in hand and ask for explanations. Of course, one problem you can encounter is if the second translator or company is a bad apple, but we will discuss some ways of avoiding these in a future post.
You have two options when you want a second opinion, but since we've established that you don't know anyone who could tell you wether the translations are good or not, let's go to the second option. You need to contact another translator or translation company and ask them if they would do a "revision" of a document. A revision is a comparison of the source document (your original document) and of the target document (the translation) and, if necessary, the correction of the content and style of the translation. If they accept, send them a sample (the first few paragraphs of one of the documents should be enough, but you can send more if you want) and tell them you want a revision with "track changes" on so that you can see the changes, as well as their opinion of the translation. This shouldn't be expensive, but I strongly suggest that you ask for a quote before you proceed. Once you have received the "revised" document, you can either feel better about your original translator and keep him, or get back to him with the revision in hand and ask for explanations. Of course, one problem you can encounter is if the second translator or company is a bad apple, but we will discuss some ways of avoiding these in a future post.
Saturday, September 4, 2010
Don't: think that your friend can translate because she's bilingual
Nay nay! Being bilingual does not mean that someone can translate. If that were the case, professional translators wouldn't spend years in colleges or universities to learn their skills. Now let's be honest for a second here, and I mean really honest: how many of you can say "yes, I am extremely confident about my grammar and vocabulary skills in English"? Come on, admit it. At the beginning of this article, how many of you wouldn't have noticed anything, had I written "If that was the case..."? And can you honestly make the right choice between "it's" and "its", "they're" "there" and "their", "then" and "than"? If you can, congratulations, and I'm sure you're not the ones I have to convince here, since you probably understand how difficult going from one language to another can be. If you can't, first let me thank you for your honesty, and then, let me address the "yeah, I'm bilingual, I can do that translation for you" myth.
So your friend is bilingual and you think she can tackle a translation for you. I have a few questions. Your friend has two hands, do you also think that she can play the piano? Ok, now the real questions... Where has she learned the other language? At home, at school, in another country? If she didn't learn it in a school environment, stop for a second and ask yourself how she acquired her writing skills (especially her grammar). It takes at the very least a couple of years in a school environment to begin to have a grip on the written language. If she did, how long ago was it? Ten years? Thirty? Do you remember grammar rules you learned in school thirty years ago? And now the question that hurts. Imagine for a second that she did a very bad job and that you get in trouble with your boss or your clients because of her. How are you going to fix this one? What are you going to tell them? That you wanted to save a few bucks? And are you going to tell your friend at all? So I'll close by saying once again that in the world of translation, as for almost everything else, you get what you pay for.
So your friend is bilingual and you think she can tackle a translation for you. I have a few questions. Your friend has two hands, do you also think that she can play the piano? Ok, now the real questions... Where has she learned the other language? At home, at school, in another country? If she didn't learn it in a school environment, stop for a second and ask yourself how she acquired her writing skills (especially her grammar). It takes at the very least a couple of years in a school environment to begin to have a grip on the written language. If she did, how long ago was it? Ten years? Thirty? Do you remember grammar rules you learned in school thirty years ago? And now the question that hurts. Imagine for a second that she did a very bad job and that you get in trouble with your boss or your clients because of her. How are you going to fix this one? What are you going to tell them? That you wanted to save a few bucks? And are you going to tell your friend at all? So I'll close by saying once again that in the world of translation, as for almost everything else, you get what you pay for.
First "Do": be realistic about your deadline
Setting a deadline seems a very easy task, but there are a couple of things you need to know. First of all, it generally takes more time to translate a document than to write it. Wait, what!!?! Yes, it does take more time to translate a document than to write it, and the reason for this is simple: when you wrote your document, you knew what you were talking about. You had a complete understanding of the topic you were writing on, the lingo was not a problem and you had all the background information needed. Now put yourself in the translator's shoes for a second: does he understand the topic, does he know what "KNG" and "PKLT" mean in your report, and is he aware that your company had a different name last year? The answer is probably "no", and the poor guy will spend quite some time finding out what was obvious for you (unless he is not a professional translator - we'll cover that in another article). So when you set your deadline, think about how long it took for your document to be written and allow your translator at the very least that much time to do his job. Of course, depending on the size of your document, some translation companies will divide it among several translators. Your deadline can then be tighter, but you have to double-check with your translation company that one translator (not a project manager or coordinator) will go through the whole document to insure consistency and accuracy.
Friday, September 3, 2010
The biggest "DON'T" of all
Do not, under any circumstances, use a computer translation! This is the biggest "nay nay" of all. In the world of translation, as for almost everything else, you get what you pay for. And just to prove my point, I went to Google Translate and typed in a French sentence (« Même si au premier abord la traduction semble passable, un ordinateur ne peut comprendre et traduire le ton d'un document »). Here is the English translation: *"Although at first the translation seems fair, a computer can understand and translate the tone of a document."* Not only does this sentence sound weird in English, but it should have been "a computer cannot understand". Now, can you image the damage on a 30 page document? I rest my case...
Welcome!
Welcome to "Translation dos and don'ts". This blog is for those who need to hire a translator or a translation company, who currently deal with one, or who are thinking about it. I've finally decided to share my experience of the translation world in order to help you avoid different problems, and answer your questions if possible.
Enjoy...
Enjoy...
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