Redmondian Insight Enterprise

THREE DAYS IN THE LIFE OF A TRANSLATOR
               My work as a translator occasionally throws up problems related to quality, ability, and price. Here are three examples of what can arise between where I sit, in Canada, and clients and suppliers in Asia. (Names have been changed to protect the identities of those involved.)
               In scenario 1 below, a client asks why the original script in Thai and my translation in English do not show a word-for-word correspondence. I started with her comments and added a few colours to clarify my response, which follows after the Thai copy.

Scenario 1

               When I am working at a translation, I am usually under a certain amount of time pressure, and cannot afford to experiment with alternative phrasing for very long. Thus, I read a sentence in Thai, extract the meaning, and then try to render that meaning as fully and accurately as I can in English. It is the universal meaning I care about - not a particular wording in the source language. And so extra verbiage tends to get discarded.

A translator in Hong Kong offered to work with us in translating from English to Thai. I asked her to send some samples of her work. Here is my reply to her submissions.

Scenario 2

Clients need to know that what they are getting from our company is the highest standard of language available within their constraints of time and budget. This is why even I do not attempt to do translations from English to Thai; I know Thai well enough to judge others’ efforts, but not enough to produce superlative work on my account. I shall always have to hire native Thai speakers for the occasional job in which Thai is the destination language, because I do not trust my own command of Thai idiom and phrasing. As for Thai to English, I do that - always - myself. If I am overwhelmed with work, I have no choice but to decline a job. When I cannot find time to translate, I automatically do not have time to check someone else’s translation either.

               There are times, fortunately quite rare, when a client wants to know why I charge a particular price. In this case, the client expected the same price as in previous jobs. Here I explain why one price cannot always apply to similar types of work.

Scenario 3

               I do not have preset prices based on word or page counts. Such a fixed standard can lead to disputes over minor details of spacing, line length, and repetition of text, whereas the most important determinant between me and my client should not be numbers but trust. My best clients trust me to quote them fair prices job after job, year after year.
               My usual method is to see the work, reply with a quotation, and wait for approval (or do a bit of haggling first). A few precious clients (e.g. Art4D) let me go ahead and accept whatever price I quote to them afterwards. If only all dealings between human dealings could be as easy!