Spanish Translation Universe

2010-03-11T01:10:00.001-05:00

Loving listening to the rain

County court interpreter fired over mistranslations

2009-11-21T15:43:00.000-05:00

Seen in The Columbus Dispatch (Ohio):

"County court interpreter fired over mistranslations

Man allegedly made up terms, misdescribed proceedings in Spanish

Friday, July 31, 2009 11:19 PM

A Spanish-language interpreter for Franklin County Municipal Court was fired last month because he couldn't interpret legal terms, possibly jeopardizing the constitutional rights of thousands. "It's the legal standard to hear and understand the charges against you so that you can defend yourself," said Bruno Romero, Interpreter Services program manager for the Supreme Court of Ohio. "It's a critical point."
[The interpreter], 42, made up words, including the Spanish word for "defendant," and guessed when he did not understand legal terms in English, according to court documents."
hard to believe, isn't it? I have over 25 years of experience, and I'm scared to miss a word said or to have to check a dictionary because I don't know the meaning of an obscure word. How can some people who call themselves interpreters jeopardize people's futures just like that! Unethical interpreters give a bad name to our profession, but some hiring practices in the legal system also leave a lot to be desired.

Realistic expectations??? Not!

2009-08-16T19:34:00.005-04:00

Some translation job postings are really too much. Never mind those that pay only 2 cents per word and on top of that require you to have a PhD, a hundred years of experience, CAT tools AND to do a test...look at this one I found on a popular job board: "Need freelancer to take upon this project. Aprox 50,000 words starts 08/17/09 due 08/19/09 by 5pm EST"... What! 50K words in two days? Seriously? I can only smile :-)

Spanish Translation Universe: Crowdsourcing controversy

2009-07-10T22:38:00.000-04:00

Spanish Translation Universe: Crowdsourcing controversy

Crowdsourcing controversy

2009-07-10T22:28:00.000-04:00

I totally agree with ATA... Translators are not valued enough as professionals sometimes. See the latest ATA bulletin and press release:
LinkedIn recently emailed a "customer survey" to translators registered with its social networking site. From the survey's second question, it was clear that the "survey" was an attempt to identify anyone who would be interested in translating LinkedIn texts for free -- or as survey stated it -- "for fun."

The concept of volunteers participating in this kind of group project is called "crowdsourcing." You may have read that Wikipedia and Facebook have also localized their websites with similar projects.

Many ATA members are happy to donate time and expertise to charities and non-profit institutions, and ATA actively promotes contributions to deserving pro bono projects. But LinkedIn is a for-profit company. One can only assume that the company employs programmers, marketers, accountants, and legal advisers whom they pay professional rates.

The company's wish to have career linguists work without pay and yet pay other professionals says a lot about the value accorded professional translation by LinkedIn's management.

ATA has registered a strong protest against this treatment with LinkedIn's Chief Executive Officer. A press release from ATA also noted LinkedIn's apparent disregard for the very professionalism the site claims to represent.

Read ATA's press release and President Jiri Stejskal's letter to LinkedIn CEO.