Articles

A “two-cent” story

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This story is about a translator who wanted to earn a living through his profession. He offered his services at an average market rate.

One day, a client asked him to make a small effort by lowering his rate by one cent per word.

The translator’s initial reaction was to get angry and ask the client what she’d do if her own employer – after five years without a raise despite the quality of work delivered – announced one fine day that wages would be reduced by a small amount, say 10%, “because of the economic situation”.

But the translator knew that freelancers cannot compare themselves to salaried employees. So he agreed to lower his rates a little.

All he has to do now is find a bit more work to make ends meet each month. If he’s lucky enough to find extra work, he’ll need to work weekends and late evenings to make up for the missed earnings, sacrificing his social and personal life, not to mention his health.

If he doesn’t find extra work, he’ll end up changing his lifestyle. If he lives in the city, he’ll move to the country. Or if he was foolish enough to found a family despite his precarious situation and therefore cannot move easily, he’ll start by missing out on holidays and days’ out, while waiting to find a new job and say goodbye to his years of training, study and experience.

Each time a client asks a translator to “make a gesture of goodwill” he or she is asking that person to forego a part of his or her life. That’s not business, it’s blackmail.

That is why, when I align with competitors’ rates, I lower my margin but not the rate requested by the translator(s). I’ll probably end up having to change my own lifestyle, unless I can change the world first…

 

The advantages of a small agency (2)

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At Fairtrad, we know each and every one of our translators.

We know off by heart who is more gifted in promotional writing and who is an ace at technical or financial translation. We also know each translator’s flaws, which helps us to adapt projects to customers AND translators.

We only have one contact person between the customer and linguists; information is transparent and relayed immediately. The customer knows from the very outset how the project will be managed and he or she accepts the delivery conditions knowingly. Will it require working the weekend, working overnight, several translators on the job? What will be the consequence on cost and quality? Is the linguist assigned to this customer available to work on the project?  How can we better organise together next time round? What is this translation’s final destination? Is it for informational purposes, internal communication or publication?

We take the time to explain and reply to everyone, and we don’t think that the customer will be offended if we ask questions to better understand the text and his or her expectations. Normally, the text to be translated is also returned to the customer corrected because we are committed to noting any errors, incoherencies or misprints, and bringing them to attention. We care about our customer’s image, and when you care, you point out any shortcomings so that a person can improve. Personally, when a project includes one of my language combinations, I translate some of the documents myself: this allows me to build up a glossary and get a feel for the style, difficulties, time required and important details. I proofread everything a third time. I know the customer’s story, terminology and style of communication off by heart.

Fairtrad is a small agency. We have fewer customers than a large agency, but we have the time to give them special treatment.

Editing and proofreading

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Often clients ask me if I have translations “proofread” by a second linguist.

In fact, they mean « edited » which involves comparing the source and target texts step by step to ensure that the original has been correctly understood by the translator and to check that there have been no omissions or copy-paste errors for numbers and proper nouns. Editing also involves the correction of writing, grammar and terminology. The editor will also standardise style and glossary for large projects which have required several translators. It is therefore a task which must be entrusted to a translator with the same level of skill and who works in the same languages as the translator(s) who first worked on the translation. This service costs on average 50% of the translation rate (if the translation costs 10, editing will cost 5, for a total production cost of 15).

Proofreading, however, simply involves quickly reading through the translated text to correct the most visible style and grammar errors. Comparison with the source text is only carried out to ensure nothing has been omitted, or when the translated text is incomprehensible. This work is often done within an agency by a project manager (not necessarily a linguist) whose native language is the same as the target language but who does not necessarily have a perfect understanding of the source language (it goes without saying that the agency nevertheless charges the client an « editing » rate). If this task is entrusted to a linguist, he or she will charge up to 20% of their translation rate. Proofreading can also be entrusted to someone who is very competent in the field covered by the text (for example, a surgeon if the text describes new surgical instruments). This person will have precise knowledge of the terms and turns of phrase used in documents written for professionals in the sector, even if he or she does not speak the source language (if the specialist has any questions, he or she is put in direct contact with the translator who can explain what was translated and how). In this case, the rate is as high as – if not higher than – the editing rate.

You can also ask request a ‘Super Deluxe’ service: translation + editing by a second linguist + proofreading by a technician/expert. I dream of one day having such a demanding customer!