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“Many corporations prefer to work with large translation agencies so they only have to deal with one vendor for multiple languages. On the flipside, other corporations like working with very small businesses because of the uncomplicated interaction and lack of red tape.”
–Dagmar and Judy Jenner

The profile of translation clients and their types of projects generally give us hints as to whether they’re better off hiring a freelance translator or a translation agency. How much text do you send for translation at a given time? What kinds of deadlines do you impose on translators? How many languages do you need your material translated to? Do you require services other than the translation itself?

In most cases, hiring a freelancer directly should cost you less than hiring an agency to do a translation. After all, agencies must pay their employees and infrastructure, and costs are expected to increase with a longer supply chain. Under some conditions, though, the translation agency approach may turn out to be more cost-effective than hiring a freelance translator. Most of the savings depend on the cost of your own time as a service buyer.

Let’s say you have an unusually large translation project with a deadline that would commonly be acceptable for a mid-sized text. A translation agency is geared to set up a whole team of translators, so they all work in their normal routine, at their normal rates. The agency often also arranges for text standardization and reviewing, as needed.

If you hire a freelancer to handle this large project alone, s/he’ll most likely have to deal with schedule disruption and overtime work, which usually translate into a surcharge on your end. Some translators hate everything about project management and prefer to work solo no matter what. But it’s common for freelancers to team up with one or two colleagues whom they trust and offer the same kind of “package” agencies offer. If they are truly professional and care about quality, one of the team members will be responsible for reviewing the whole text and checking for consistency and standardization. This step takes time and, again, usually results in extra charges. One of the posts under the cost-time-quality triangle category, “Common scenarios,” has a brief discussion on this and other related topics.

If you decide to set up a translation team yourself, imagine how much of your time you’d spend to recruit and select professionals, provide clear directions, follow up throughout the process, and manage their invoices and payments. You’d normally have to do all or most of this even when you’re working with one professional. Now multiply this work by the number of translators needed to complete the project. On top of that, someone would still have to be responsible for assembling all the pieces and turning them into a smooth and uniform product. This person can be you or someone else you will hire and pay extra for this task. Trust us: it’s not as simple as it sounds. What if you don’t even speak the language?

Similar situations arise when you have to translate a text into several languages, or when additional work is involved, like desktop publishing, text formatting, web editing, audio recording, video subtitling, and DVD authoring. Besides taking care of the project management steps cited above, you run the risk of one vendor having quality issues with another vendor’s delivery, and it may involve delays until all stages of production are harmonized.

Of course, some translators offer services beyond translation proper or may work together with professionals that complement their linguistic work, as Carolina and Bianca pointed out in the case of subtitling and video editing. Also, it’s common to see translators who take on projects that involve languages they don’t speak because they have established partnerships with other professionals who work with those languages. This might involve surcharges or not.

Your best bet is to explain all your needs in detail when you request a quote and see if your service provider is ready to deal with all the stages and languages involved. Resist the temptation to manage complicated projects and save yourself the headache and risk of achieving sub-standard results. Hiring qualified professionals to take care of your projects and having more time yourself to do something else will most likely pay off.

Suggested reading:
-”Should you hire a freelance translator or a translation agency?” — by José Henrique Lamensdorf

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What’s next…

An interesting article by Levent Yildizgoren about the importance of informing the purpose and context of your texts to your translator will reinforce some key ideas we’ve seen under the getting what you want and collaborating with your translator categories.

Audio version coming shortly

I’ve been learning a lot throughout this process, not only by reflecting and writing about this incredibly wide market (and by putting myself in the client’s shoes), but also by consulting other resources and editing guest posts. It has also been very enriching to discuss relevant issues with the few guest writers I’ve recruited and other (possible) future contributors.

Although I still don’t see much interaction through comments, I’ve heard some anecdotes from colleagues who have referred clients to TCZ and how the info compiled here has made everybody’s life a bit easier. That’s enough for me to keep the ball rolling! I hope the word keeps spreading in this new year, so we can reach more and more translation buyers with invaluable information in order to continually improve the relationship and communication between translators and clients. That’s the main reason why this blog exists.

Many thanks to all of you!

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6)      Be available to your translator

I once worked on a large job with a tight deadline for a European agency. I came across a tricky term and wanted to discuss it with my PM. I was in a hurry, so I called him on the phone. No reply. I sent him an e-mail at 1200 GMT and a reminder at 1630 GMT. What I got was a rude reply the next morning: the owner of the agency wrote that I delayed the delivery and pointed out that I should have contacted them on Skype in order to get a prompt reply. What kind of agency has no access to phone or e-mail during business hours, but is always available on Skype? Go figure…

7)      Be flexible

Flexibility is, in my opinion, one of the greatest qualities in a person and in a company. I try to be as flexible as I can in order to accommodate the needs of my clients, but unfortunately I cannot say the same for many of the companies I’ve worked for. Many times I get the feeling that the PMs don’t want to help translators. There is no other way to explain why issues that can be resolved very easily get mixed up in an unnecessary back-and-forth process that results in wasted time from both parties.

8)      Be real and professional

Have you ever worked for an agency whose PMs are also the CEO, the CFO, and the COO of the company? If not, let me enlighten you: there is something disturbingly wrong about it. I don’t really see how the CEO of an agency can act as a translation project manager. I also question the professionalism of such an agency. The same goes for a managing director of a translation company who once appeared in a professional conference in his tracksuit, with his hair all messed up, for an appointment with one of the industry’s leading experts on machine translation (MT) and services. I saw that with my own eyes and I still feel sorry for that MT expert…

9)      Communicate efficiently in English

You may find this difficult to understand, especially if you are not working with agencies outside the USA, Canada, UK, and Australia, but the quality of the English in some of the correspondence I receive is very poor (to put it nicely). Spelling and grammar mistakes in professional e-mails just don’t look good, especially if they are directed at translators, who are trained to spot mistakes immediately.

10)      Be willing to defend the translator

There are times when the client comes back with negative feedback on the quality of the translation they received. In such cases, I believe that the ideal course of action from the translation agency’s point of view would be to complete a third-party review, to politely ask the translator about the issue, and then to provide feedback to the client in order to clarify the situation before accusing the translator of any mistakes that might be just stylistic changes made by the end client. When the occasional mistake happens, most of us are very concerned about that. We all strive to deliver error-free translations, seeking to not jeopardize our relationship with the agency. Yet some agencies prefer to accuse us in order to protect their reputation without examining the issue in detail. In the eyes of such agencies, it’s always the translator’s fault…

It is difficult to find a translation company that follows all 10 points on my wish list. The reasons for that are practical, moral, and empirical. If you don’t have enough capital, you are bound to delay the payments. If you don’t know what’s best for you in the long term, you are bound to make mistakes in the everyday running of your company. If you are not experienced, you are bound to make mistakes that could easily be avoided.

This is true for both freelancers and agencies. After all, we are all business entities and focus on the longevity of our business. The way we choose to act now will, one way or the other, affect our prospects down the road.

I’d love to hear other translators’ views on this. What is your ideal translation agency to work for? Are there any specific attributes on your wish list?

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What’s next…

Translation Client Zone will be on hiatus for the next couple of months. Feel free to check out the archives, leave comments (I’ll still be monitoring them), and contact me if you’d like to collaborate as a guest writer in the future.

Audio version of this text:

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What makes a good translation company to work for, either as a freelancer or an in-house translator? This question comes to me from time to time, but I haven’t found the answer yet. An excellent presentation by Karen Tkaczyk at the 52^nd ATA conference, entitled “How to make translators rave about your company,” made me think about this a bit more. After taking into account my experience with translation agencies, I compiled my 10-point wish list regarding the ideal company I would like to work for.

1)      Educate the end client

There are times when the translator is a point of reference for the language s/he translates into. The professional translator who specializes in a certain field is expected to have good knowledge of the language, slang/idioms, culture, field, etc. Sometimes the end client asks for something that cannot be delivered, for example, to fit a slogan translated into Greek in the same space as the original in English. If I inform the agency that it cannot be done without “chopping” the translation beyond recognition, I expect the project manager (PM) to pass this information to the end client. I have occasionally heard a lot of excuses from PMs, or even agency owners, as to why they don’t want to do that: they are afraid that they may lose the client; they don’t want to “upset the client”; they’ll take it up with them at a later stage (coded response for “not in this lifetime”); they’re willing to find someone else who’ll follow the client’s instructions and won’t mind shortening the target text, et cetera, et cetera. Few translation agencies bother to properly educate clients and explain why their instructions sometimes may jeopardize the quality of the translations.

2)      Aim for a good margin of profit without squeezing the translator for all s/he’s worth

I totally understand that profit is a main concern for every company (and for freelancers, for that matter). What I don’t understand is why so many translation companies choose to make low bids in order to win the contract and then expect to balance the loss by squeezing the translator. I’ve come across agencies in Europe that advertise their services online in a specific area (such as gambling & gaming) and offer extremely low rates to the end client. It is highly unlikely that the agency will be able to cover the rates of a specialized translator.

3)      Know your subject areas

In the same area in which I specialize (gambling & gaming), I’ve come across agencies that have no knowledge of either gambling or gaming. In these cases, a lot of specific questions were left unanswered because the PMs didn’t know what I was talking about. They also wanted to hide their ignorance from the client, so I was left in the dark more than once. Their usual reply was to search the term in Wikipedia… What’s the point of advertising that your agency is the leading specialized provider in poker translation if your sales people (i.e. PMs) don’t know anything about poker?

4)      Be technology savvy

Don’t laugh, but I’ve also come across translation agencies that insisted on using Trados without knowing what Trados is! I got suspicious after a few technical questions and some irregularities. For example, they had no idea of ini files that are needed in order to open .html or .xml files through Tag Editor. Another time, they sent me a 100-word MS Word document for translation. My translation memory (TM) showed 0 no matches, 50 reps, and 20 fuzzy matches. They paid me for 70 new words and 20 reps (no idea how they calculated that). One of the advantages of any TM software, especially to translation agencies, is cutting the cost for repetitions, but there is no point in asking for something that you don’t know how to use.

5)      Pay on time

Good relationships are based on honesty. I am more than willing to accept (or consider accepting) longer payment terms if the agency informs me beforehand. If they claim that they have a 30-day policy and pay me after 90 days, something is wrong. If they have the same 30-day policy and pay me in 10 days, I’ll be more willing to work for them in the future. It’s as simple as that. Yet more and more agencies blame the “economic climate” and delay their payments…

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What’s next…

The continuation of this article is being published in a matter of seconds. Keep on reading!

Audio version of this text:

Before moving on to the experiment itself, let me share a few considerations I found in an interesting essay by Michelle de Abreu Aio, who discusses literary translation between European Portuguese and Brazilian Portuguese. The author observes that the regional differences might indeed lead readers to a total lack of understanding or even the false belief of having understood the text. She claims that translators must go beyond mere adaptation in order to reach the foreign audience with the same linguistic intensity as achieved in the original community.

The experiment

As a graduate student in Translation Studies, I carried out an experiment to check the reception of a short text by a sample of five Brazilians living in Toronto in 2010. They were exposed to two versions of the same text without knowing details on what differences there were or even what the whole experiment was about. One of the texts was in Brazilian Portuguese, and the other was written in the European variant. My intent was to gain an insight into the participants’ opinions and feelings about both versions.

I asked the interviewees to imagine they were in a doctor’s waiting room in Toronto, where they found two informative booklets (of which my texts were a short excerpt). The content focused on how to deal with gambling problems in the family.

Questions and answers

(1) They were first asked to choose their favorite version and explain the reason for their choice. This should come as no surprise to translators: the participants’ favorite text was the one written in Brazilian Portuguese. However, I was actually more interested in the subsequent part of the interview: listening to their reasons and explanations.

(2) I also asked them to list aspects they liked about their preferred text (without ever bringing up the question of regional variants).

(3) Lastly, I inquired what they disliked about the other text—again, leaving out any mention of countries or variants.

This is certainly a tiny sample within a huge market, but the consistent responses are a sign that these Brazilian readers did not identify with the text in the European variant. As you can notice, the differences pointed out by the participants go way beyond just spelling, so the new spelling reform has changed very little (refer to Fabio’s post for more on this issue).

Note that I’m not trying to suggest that Brazilian Portuguese is better than European Portuguese. It’s all relative. If my interview had included Portuguese folks, I’m sure I’d have heard similar comments, except they’d be referring to the text in their native variant as their favorite and listing positive qualities about it. By the same token, they’d have their own list of “complaints” about Brazilian Portuguese.

The bottom line: the variants are just different; and readers from different backgrounds react differently to them. Therefore, each readership deserves to be treated as a group by itself, with its own needs and expectations.

Now, it’s really up to you… Would you rather hear from your target audience that your text is fluent, clear, familiar, and easy to read? Or that it sounds funny, strange, unclear, and not very fluent? It all comes down to your own goals, who you want to reach, and how effectively you want to reach them.

What’s next…

Our guest writer Christos Floros will comment on what he thinks makes a translation agency which is good to work for.

Recommended readings on the topic:
(1) Brazilian vs. European Portuguese Explained for Non-Portuguese Speakers, by José Henrique Lamensdorf
(2) Portuguese Translation: What Clients Need to Know, by Lyris Wiedemann

Audio version of this text:

Here are the nine mistakes discussed by Levent in his text:

1 – Doing it yourself
2 – Relying on machine translation
3 – Not telling your translator what it’s for
4 – Not providing all the details to your translator
5 – Not agreeing on the quality criteria
6 – Not using previously translated documents
7 – Choosing the cheapest translator
8 – Not planning the translation project
9 – Not using plain English in your copy

The Nine Translation Slip-ups to Avoid! is a free brochure. Just click on the link, follow the instructions, and you’ll get a beautifully formatted PDF in your mail box within a few seconds.

I’ll certainly be quoting from this brochure in future posts, as it addresses topics I’ve been meaning to write about.

I have more good news: Levent himself got excited about collaborating with us as a guest writer some time soon. So stay tuned!

As with other resources I find pertinent to share with my audience, this one has been added to the “Useful links” section (on the left).

Enjoy!

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As a Portuguese translator working in Germany, when talking to a prospect about a translation project, I always check if the prospect needs the translation done in a Portuguese dialect that I am able to translate into. I was born in Brazil, I spent the first 30 years of my life in Brazil, and I was educated in Brazil. I have had only limited exposure to European Portuguese (mostly talking casually and briefly to people from Portugal and reading some texts written in European Portuguese) and no exposure at all to other Portuguese dialects spoken in Africa. So I would hardly accept any job offer to translate into a dialect other than Brazilian Portuguese, nor would it be ethical on my part to accept such an offer. And that is what I try to explain to prospects.

Buyers of translation who contact me rarely know that Brazilian Portuguese differs substantially from European Portuguese. Major differences include not only everyday colloquial language (words, style, spelling, even grammar), but also specialized vocabulary. They are still the same language (“Brazilian” is not a language), but with highly specialized dialects. After all, Brazil and Portugal have developed differently in the past two hundred years, and, of course, their separate historical paths have impacted on their local dialects and on the mutual understandability between speakers of each variant. To quote from Bernard Shaw, they are like “two countries separated by a common language.”

It is precisely those differences that make it extremely important for a translation buyer to know which language dialect their text should be translated into. A text written in Brazilian Portuguese will most likely not be understood correctly by an average native speaker of European Portuguese, and vice-versa. Yes, the overall message would, perhaps, be understood, but not the nuances, details and between-the-lines information. It could come across as funny, awkward or even plain wrong. This is an even more important point to consider if communicating effectively is really a top priority. Those who just “want that translation done” may very well hire a Brazilian to translate a text and give the translation to readers in Portugal, or, worse still, commission a native speaker of European Portuguese to proofread a translation into Brazilian Portuguese. Some people have even asked me to translate texts into a fairy-tale entity called “neutral” Portuguese that could be used in Brazil, Portugal or Africa, and I politely turn down the offers, explaining that there is no such thing as “neutral,” or globally “standard,” Portuguese. But those who demand the highest quality in translation and who know that communicating effectively—i.e. targeting the message to the specific audience one wants to reach—is key to the success of a product or service would never want to do such things. And they usually have no problem accepting that a native speaker of Brazilian Portuguese should translate into Brazilian Portuguese and a native speaker of European Portuguese should translate into European Portuguese.

But what about the Portuguese language spelling reform that has been in force in Brazil since January 2009 and in Portugal since mid-2011? The reason behind the spelling reform was to make Portuguese a uniform language globally, thereby making it easier to perform internet searches and understand Portuguese documents on the Web, no matter which Portuguese dialect these were written in. But this is utopia. The spelling reform only changes about 0.5% of Brazilian Portuguese words and about 1.5% of European Portuguese words. Besides, the reform only applies to the spelling, and not to other language elements like syntax, regionally/culturally specific vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation. So this reform will not unify the two variants into one “standard” language—at least not in the current scenario.

And, most important of all, the new spelling reform will not change the fact that translation buyers need a native speaker of Brazilian Portuguese for a translation that will be used in Brazil and a native speaker of European Portuguese for a translation that will be used in Portugal. But this, of course, only applies to translation buyers who really want high-quality translation and effective communication, which—I am sure—you do.

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What’s next…

To further illustrate the importance of dialects, Bianca will share the results of a quick experiment she has carried out with a small sample of Brazilian Portuguese speakers.

Recommended readings on the topic:
(1) Brazilian vs. European Portuguese Explained for Non-Portuguese Speakers, by José Henrique Lamensdorf
(2) Portuguese Translation: What Clients Need to Know, by Lyris Wiedemann

Audio version of this text:

Resource #1

Interpreting and translation are very different activities. The basic difference is that translators work with written texts, whereas interpreters work with oral communication such as in business meetings, conferences, courtrooms, doctor’s appointments, among other situations. While it’s possible for the same person to work in both fields, the dynamics of hiring a professional for a translation job may differ greatly from that of hiring an interpreter.

Targeting buyers of interpreting services, Chris Durban has filled a huge blank with another short and sweet guide endorsed by the ATA: Interpreting: Getting It Right. Just like its twin publication, Translation: Getting It Right, this new resource provides non-linguists with highly useful tips for making smart use of their budget and reducing stress when purchasing interpreting services.

Resource #2

Seeking to help translators draft their own contracts and agreements, the ATA Business Practices Education Committee has put together the Guide to a Translation Services Agreement.

This publication provides not only a customizable model contract in one column, but also enlightening explanations in the second column. While undoubtedly handy for language professionals, it’s certainly useful to translation customers as well.

I’ve also updated my blog post on translation agreements to include the link to this guide.

Many thanks to the ATA members who have put in time and effort to develop these materials.

To help with ease of access, both resources have deservedly been added to TCZ’s “Useful links” section (left column).

Hope you all make good use of them!

Dialects are one of the elements taken into consideration when you do what’s commonly known as “localization.” This term derives from “locale,” which refers to a given geographical, political, or cultural region while also considering this region’s language and local variant.

Some scholars and professionals defend that localization is much more than “mere” translation, because it involves the adaptation of the whole message to fit a particular culture. The article “What Is Localization?” concludes that “localization is like translation but with a cultural twist and a rewrite attribute.” Nevertheless, others argue that the very notion of translation intrinsically encompasses localization: all translations necessarily involve cultural considerations and adaptations. Well, there’s certainly a lot to discuss on this topic—much more than what I have in mind for this particular post. I just wanted to introduce the issue by tackling these concepts and showing how language variants, culture, and translation/localization are interconnected.

It’s only natural that non-native speakers of a language find the divergences between two or more variants of the same language imperceptible. However, as the previous paragraph suggests, differences between countries go beyond linguistic nuances and involve cultural matters. A good, commonly known example is how sensitive language variation is for French-Canadians and for the French of France. Most people also seem to be aware of how different the language spoken in the US is from that spoken in the UK. In addition, there are many other cases of regional language variation, such as Brazilian Portuguese and European Portuguese, the wide array of Spanish variants, various dialects of Farsi/Persian (also known as “Dari” in Afghanistan and Tajikistan), among others I won’t even begin to detail.

The case of Spanish certainly deserves more attention than I can give it right now. But just to mention in passing, the Spanish-speaking countries have reached an implicit agreement on what’s called “international Spanish” or “neutral Spanish,” which works fine under certain circumstances. I intend to address this quite unique scenario in more depth at another time.

Problems with the translation itself

Although language variants are often mutually intelligible to some extent, sometimes the nature of the differences and their high frequency result in uncomfortable bumps in the texts: distractions and obstacles that prevent immediate understanding. For instance, a text that is simple, informal, and direct in one country might sound too formal, harsh, and wordy in another. A translation that doesn’t sound as fluent or natural as the original might fail to appeal to that particular readership. Therefore, a number of aspects of this very text will need to be adapted in order to reach the target readers appropriately and generate the desired results.

Your image and the readers’ attitude

If you are unaware of the importance of regional variants, you might hire translators from different backgrounds as if they were interchangeable. However, mismatching the target variant and audience might undermine the reception of your text and the communication as a whole.

Not taking regional linguistic differences into account might suggest disrespect on the part of the translation buyer or his/her lack of familiarity with the target culture. This often affects the way the audience responds to the text. Readers who are relegated to the position of what’s often called “chance receivers” might not interact with the text in the same way as the primary addressees.

Therefore, being aware of regional linguistic variation is the first step toward producing a translation that speaks properly to its intended readers. By appropriately translating and localizing your texts, you present your brand as culturally aware and earn the respect of your target audience by showing that your business is committed to their particular needs and interests.

Language professionals: a central piece

A serious professional should be ready to deal with language variation issues. It’s the translators’ job to raise the awareness of those involved with translation—from staff in translation agencies to members of professional associations, and translation buyers. For instance, if clients don’t specify upfront the variant they need (which happens more often than we’d imagine), translators are expected to clarify this point before going ahead with the project. I believe most colleagues would agree that it’s unethical of a professional to simply assume his/her variant is the one requested and start the translation without first checking with the client.

If you have two professionals working on the same project, for example, one in charge of the translation and one taking care of editing, avoid hiring people from different backgrounds. Save time and money by respecting regional differences and working with teams of translators and revisers who are prepared to meet the specific needs of the audience you have in mind.

What’s next…

Still on the same page, my colleague Fabio M. Said will discuss a few issues involving translation into European Portuguese and also into the Brazilian variant of Portuguese.

“Lower rates are often charged by novice translators or those who have no option but to work for extremely long hours to make a living. Conversely, more experienced professionals usually charge higher rates, which are, more often than not, proportional to the quality level of their services.”

In a subsequent post under the same category, I briefly analyze the relationship between a professional’s working hours and translation rates. Those who charge peanuts have to work incredibly hard to make a decent living. Moreover, those who have no choice but to work very long hours are less likely to focus on their translations, do exhaustive research, and revise the text until it’s impeccable, among other details that interfere in the quality of their output.

All these arguments seem logical, as quality is a direct result of a combination of attention, research, revision, and expertise, of course. A professional needs to spend time with a text to be able to put all these into action. If time is not available, one will expect a drop in quality. Naturally.

Now what if a “bottom-feeder” intentionally disregards quality because the rate s/he is getting is “not enough” to pay for his/her full attention, proper research, and careful revision? Sad but true, as you can see in this Google Groups discussion. I’ve reproduced the original text (which is a reply to another translator’s message) and highlighted the parts I consider a must-read.

This is an interesting scenario, especially because I believe it happens more often than we would expect. And I don’t mean the intentional “customer suffers” approach. Instead, the real, widespread problem is the circumstantial—and sometimes inevitable—results of low rates, as I’ve described.

This attitude will sooner or later boomerang back at unprofessional individuals like this one and damage their reputation, as Kevin Lossner points out in his comment under a blog post about it. To complement the cycle, I quote Werner Patel’s explanation, found in another a blog comment, of how it can backfire on clients:

“If they [clients] are too short-sighted to realize that they’re only hurting themselves by throwing peanuts at language professionals, they will eventually go out of business due to lack of quality and professionalism.”

There has been good discussion around this topic through blog posts and comments, as seen in Ryan Ginstrom’s and Corinne McKay’s posts, both published in 2008. Still, I thought I should bring this up again by adding a few extra lines about it and making these links available. The subject is a perfect fit for this blog, in harmony with a bunch of previous articles, and I don’t think it’ll ever be outdated.

What’s next…

The upcoming series of posts will discuss cultural awareness issues that are inherent to translation, starting with the importance of taking regional language variants into consideration.