Client looking for trouble...

luce-neidert · ‎03-23-2018

Amazing! A client just posted requiring a translator to translate an Englist document into French, German, Spanish and Italian.

He should add that he accepts Google translations.

sgoble · ‎03-23-2018

Anyone I know - both of them - are already employed for far higher wages than this guy.

renata101 · ‎04-08-2018

I'm not sure if even a Swiss translator could claim German/Italian/French as a target language combination. But then you've still got the Spanish.

luce-neidert · ‎04-08-2018

Well Renata, I lived in Bern for a while and met many Spaniards who were working in Switzerland. Imagine a Swiss translator who had a mother who came from the French speaking side of Switzerland and spoke French with him, a father who came from the Italian speaking side of Switzerland and spoke Italian with him... Now, he lives in Bern and speaks German as well. He meets a charming Spanish girl and starts learning that language. Everything is possible.

tlsanders · ‎04-08-2018

@Luce N wrote:
Well Renata, I lived in Bern for a while and met many Spaniards who were working in Switzerland. Imagine a Swiss translator who had a mother who came from the French speaking side of Switzerland and spoke French with him, a father who came from the Italian speaking side of Switzerland and spoke Italian with him... Now, he lives in Bern and speaks German as well. He meets a charming Spanish girl and starts learning that language. Everything is possible.

But, your latter two scenarios generally do not qualify a person to translate into those languages. From them, perhaps, but not as target languages.

luce-neidert · ‎04-08-2018

Tiffany, most clients don't know about translation and don't care.

Sometimes, I take the time to answer offers for English to French translation, even when the poor client has specified that he or she wanted an English native speaker. I try to explain to them their mistake, but they don't seem to see the light, or at least they don't take the time to thank me for sharing some great wisdom with them.

jr-translation · ‎04-08-2018

There is one Swiss translator very close to meet this requirements:

"Native level in English, French, Italian & German (1st place in each Upwork's language tests)."

luce-neidert · ‎04-08-2018

See? I was sure this was possible. Does he/she mention a Spanish girlfriend/boyfriend?

jr-translation · ‎04-08-2018

No, but I know for sure he has a close relationship with Google because I saw some of his work.

luce-neidert · ‎04-08-2018

Nothing beats a Google translation if you want to have a shock.

Yet, once in a while, I'm invited to proofread stuff translated from English to French by an English native speaker, and yes, I must admit I sometimes get to have a good laugh....

jr-translation · ‎04-08-2018

They can be fun. I recently had this google translation where the translator read through it and changed some bits but I found sentences like: The time course of excretion of metabolites was on hand IV and V.

We are talking about a client who pays very well and usually trusted the translator. He only had it checked because it was for a very important new client.

Unfortunatelly this happens all the time. On another plattform I offer to check translation for their quality (google or non-native vs. native speaker). Most of the time they were done using some low-cost agency and the quality reflects that. Unless it is clearly written in the job description that the translation must be flawless and done by a native speaker (or close to native bilingual), the client has to pay for the work and some people take advantage of that. The problem is that some clients cannot evaluate the quality and give 5* because it looks like everything is ok.

petra_r · ‎04-09-2018

I recently fixed a translation (for a lovely client and by no means done on the cheap) which contained page after page after page of clangers such as the below (I Xed the names out) - done by someone whose profile said they were a native German speaker in Germany with a law degree from Harvard and an advanced translation degree from Würzburg university. This is just a tiny screenshot of whoppers from just one small section...

wordsalad

ruth_bowles · ‎04-10-2018

Wow Petra, that stuff is painful. Having worked as a quality reviewer on a team for Persian to English, I just sent garbage translations back (not an option for you, I know). Since we all worked on a team, I knew that they actually knew how to do the translations properly. Most of the time, it was that they got away with Google translations. Eventually, everyone figured out quickly that I wasn't going to retranslate that mess......

petra_r · ‎04-10-2018

@Ruth B wrote:
Wow Petra, that stuff is painful. Having worked as a quality reviewer on a team for Persian to English, I just sent garbage translations back (not an option for you, I know). Since we all worked on a team, I knew that they actually knew how to do the translations properly. Most of the time, it was that they got away with Google translations. Eventually, everyone figured out quickly that I wasn't going to retranslate that mess......

Girl swore up and down that the translation was perfect and that there were no mistakes.

It was also full of names having been translated, so the endearment "Honey" became "Honig" - the name "Courtly" turned into the German for polite.... Troy turned into Troja, Earl into Graf......

At times I wasn't sure weather to laugh or cry or both...