What could agencies do for translators? Thread poster: Andreas Nielsen
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I am working as a freelance translator and have done so for a couple of years. I have mainly been working for translation agencies and not directly with the end customers.
Most often, I receive only bilingual files for translations without much (or any) information about the customer and/or subject area. Some information I can find myself through research. But I often lack information which is only available to the agency which either fails to collect it or just doesn't share it. Th... See more I am working as a freelance translator and have done so for a couple of years. I have mainly been working for translation agencies and not directly with the end customers.
Most often, I receive only bilingual files for translations without much (or any) information about the customer and/or subject area. Some information I can find myself through research. But I often lack information which is only available to the agency which either fails to collect it or just doesn't share it. This often leads to decreased quality and/or need for revisions which could otherwise have been avoided.
Examples of such information:
- Terms needed to be translated in certains way
- Previously translated material for that particular customer or in that subject area (for inspiration and terminology)
- Customers perfered tone of voice
- Other relevant material (for inspiration and better unstanding of the customer and their products)
I would like to know if I am the only one experiencing this lack of information/context. If not, I am hoping for a debate on what agencies could do in order for translators to provide better translations.
Here are some of my own suggestions:
- Ask customer about: prefered tone of voice and purpose of translation
- Collect and share relevant material from customer (product catalogues, link to website, etc)
- Collect and share important discussions with customers on phrases/terms (and similar) for future reference
- Provide access to previously translated material for that client and/or subject area.
- Provide TM and/or Glossaries specific to the customer and/or subject area
I would very much like to hear what YOU think? And perhaps you have an example on where lack of information had a significant impact on the translation?
The purpose of this is nothing else than just sharing thoughts (which can otherwise be hard when working from home alone ). ▲ Collapse
| | | | Nikita Kobrin 
Lithuania
Local time: 03:43
Member (2010)
English to Russian
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| You are absolutely right | Sep 24, 2015 |
Andreas Nielsen wrote:
I would like to know if I am the only one experiencing this lack of information/context.
I would very much like to hear what YOU think? And perhaps you have an example on where lack of information had a significant impact on the translation?
Andreas, you are absolutely right: the lack of information always significantly impacts the translation quality in a negative way. Good agencies do understand that... those who don't are just bad agencies...
| | | | | Ditto both. You at least research. Many don´t even do that... | Sep 24, 2015 |
Nikita Kobrin wrote: Andreas Nielsen wrote:
I would like to know if I am the only one experiencing this lack of information/context.
I would very much like to hear what YOU think? And perhaps you have an example on where lack of information had a significant impact on the translation? Andreas, you are absolutely right: the lack of information always significantly impacts the translation quality in a negative way. Good agencies do understand that... those who don't are just bad agencies...
[Edited at 2015-09-24 19:31 GMT]
| | | | Tatiana Grehan
United States
Local time: 20:43
English to Russian
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| Maybe I am just the lucky one... | Sep 24, 2015 |
Andreas Nielsen wrote:
Examples of such information:
- Terms needed to be translated in certain way
- Previously translated material for that particular customer or in that subject area (for inspiration and terminology)
- Customers preferred tone of voice
- Other relevant material (for inspiration and better upstanding of the customer and their products)
but I never had such problems. The agencies I work with always provide links to TMs and remote glossaries and all relevant reference materials. As for the preferred tone, it's usually in the brief, which also comes with every new task. If any information is missing, I always ask PMs to provide it and they have never said NO.
To be honest, I am very surprised to hear that there are agencies or PMs, who do not do it as a default, or refuse to do it when asked.
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jyuan_us
United States
Local time: 20:43
Member (2005)
English to Chinese
+ ...
Andreas Nielsen wrote:
Here are some of my own suggestions:
- Ask customer about: prefered tone of voice and purpose of translation
- Collect and share relevant material from customer (product catalogues, link to website, etc)
I think a seasoned translator will know the preferred tone of voice and purpose of translation while he translates the file. It is so self-explanatory and intuitive.
I think you can find the client's product catalogues, links to website, etc online in most cases. The issue is, do you really need to refer to them in your translation? If so, how? in what way?
I guess if you translate in your specialized subject area, you really don't need these kinds of references. Even if you come cross some hard-to-translate concepts, you can find solution by Google search easily nowadays.
So you usually don't need the client to send you many reference materials. If the client does send you several hundreds of pages for you to use as reference, how will you use them? They will not be of any help, but a burden.
[Edited at 2015-09-25 07:08 GMT]
| | | | | What could agencies do for us? | Sep 25, 2015 |
I agree that a seasoned translator can usually determine the tone and style of a document without being told.
While it is helpful if the agency provides the client's preferred terminology, before the translator starts work, especially where a company's own acronyms are concerned, the best thing an agency can do for us is to pay us by the agreed due date, without the need for payment reminders.
| | | | Rolf Keller
Germany
Local time: 02:43
English to German
| Who tells me how to discern the style of all the thousands of texts around me? | Sep 25, 2015 |
Jenny Forbes wrote:
I agree that a seasoned translator can usually determine the tone and style of a document without being told.
Yep. A good translator "lives" in texts of the kind he or she translates.
Example: If translator claims to be able to translate a press release about a new car model, he or she should have read a lot of similar texts plus technical texts regarding technical details about cars plus manuals for car owners plus texts about cars in the daily newspaper. And he or she should be used to read such texts in every day life outside of any concrete work assignments. A person whose interest is restricted to "I just turn the ignition key and then it should be ready for a tour!" will never be able to find the right words resp to produce the desired/appropriate tone. "Native-speaker competence" is not teached at the university ...
OTOH, only an extremely specialized agency can pay personnel that can classify the original texts, let alone the tone. "Looks like an agreement about something technical, may be computer stuff or something electrical. Or, maybe, a small print for customers? Can you translate that till Monday?"
| | | | | Customers preferred tone of voice | Sep 25, 2015 |
Jenny Forbes wrote:
I agree that a seasoned translator can usually determine the tone and style of a document without being told.
While it is helpful if the agency provides the client's preferred terminology, before the translator starts work, especially where a company's own acronyms are concerned, the best thing an agency can do for us is to pay us by the agreed due date, without the need for payment reminders.
Although many translation quality standards require agreement with clients in advance of translation on customers preferred tone of voice, I find good communication with clients is essential during the translation processes.
Soonthon L.
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nordiste
France
Local time: 02:43
English to French
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| the good and the bad | Sep 25, 2015 |
Andreas Nielsen wrote:
Here are some of my own suggestions:
- Ask customer about: prefered tone of voice and purpose of translation
- Collect and share relevant material from customer (product catalogues, link to website, etc)
- Collect and share important discussions with customers on phrases/terms (and similar) for future reference
- Provide access to previously translated material for that client and/or subject area.
- Provide TM and/or Glossaries specific to the customer and/or subject area
You should add:
formatting issues, conversion into MS Words or other editable format
proofreading
final check of layout before publishing/printing
This is all part of the translation process when relevant for a specific project.
Either the agency does this as part of its job (after all the agency get xx% of the money paid by client) = good agency.
Either the agency does nothing and is no more than a mail box collecting applications from clients and dispatchnig them between translators with no added value at all = bad agency.
| | | | Balasubramaniam L.
India
Local time: 06:13
Member (2006)
English to Hindi
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SITE LOCALIZER
Providing sufficient context and references is not a critical issue for me - I can easily locate them myself on the internet, or already have them with me.
But agencies can and should help us. There are many ways they can do so, for one, pay sooner and on time. Most of them have payment cycles of 30 days or more. This can easily create a cash crunch situation for translators if they don't have a cushion of alternative funds. Agencies should pay within a week of receiving the transla... See more Providing sufficient context and references is not a critical issue for me - I can easily locate them myself on the internet, or already have them with me.
But agencies can and should help us. There are many ways they can do so, for one, pay sooner and on time. Most of them have payment cycles of 30 days or more. This can easily create a cash crunch situation for translators if they don't have a cushion of alternative funds. Agencies should pay within a week of receiving the translation, of course with the understanding that you will carry out any changes to the translation up to a reasonable time even after receiving the payment.
The second thing they can do is to identify cheaper ways of reaching the funds to us. Most of them rely on paypal, which consumes about 6% of our earnings. Nowadays many new money transfer systems have come up which are far more cheaper. They can even tie up with their banks to transfer money more cheaply and at better foreign currency exchange rates. But few agencies take the trouble to go the extra mile on this count.
There can be many other things agencies can do for us, but these two things are uppermost for me. ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Some agencies do a lot more than others | Sep 25, 2015 |
Hej Andreas, og velkommen til Proz.com!
I ask agencies for things like that. Some are surprised and not very helpful, but others appreciate sensible questions. They just don't always send fifity pages of support material that may be a waste of time for a specific job.
The client's tone and terminology are not always intuitive - the first complaint I ever received was the comment: 'You have done your homework, and it is probably a very good translation, but it sounds far... See more Hej Andreas, og velkommen til Proz.com!
I ask agencies for things like that. Some are surprised and not very helpful, but others appreciate sensible questions. They just don't always send fifity pages of support material that may be a waste of time for a specific job.
The client's tone and terminology are not always intuitive - the first complaint I ever received was the comment: 'You have done your homework, and it is probably a very good translation, but it sounds far too like our competitors!'
It was marketing, and the Internet was not what it is now, so I had not found so much of the client's own information.
However, he talked me through the text on the phone, and I learned a lot.
Product terminology is another very important area - you can't simply use the dictionary!
There are several good agencies, some based in Denmark and some with branches in Denmark, who provide the information you need and are very happy to collaborate. I am not allowed to name them here, and some are small - the small ones are often very good, but some of the medium-large ones certainly respect you for asking.
I know one at least where they work quite hard at consistency between different translators, or different specialists working for the same client, for instance with IT texts and contracts referring to the IT systems, marketing and so on.
Tailoring the text to the target readers is going to be more and more important, because that is what computers cannot do.
Even between closely related languages, cultural differences can make a text sound strange to new readers, and it has to be adapted.
Best of luck! ▲ Collapse
| | | | Kevin Fulton
United States
Local time: 20:43
German to English
| Numerous reasons for lack of support | Sep 25, 2015 |
One reason for the lack of support by an agency is that the job they've outsourced to you was possibly outsourced to them by another agency. The consequence of this is shortened deadlines and lack of support by your customer. Instead of being one step removed from the end client, the translator is several levels away from the origin, which means that a query might take days to get an answer, perhaps requiring an extension of the deadline. As a consequence the translator isn't likely to get much ... See more One reason for the lack of support by an agency is that the job they've outsourced to you was possibly outsourced to them by another agency. The consequence of this is shortened deadlines and lack of support by your customer. Instead of being one step removed from the end client, the translator is several levels away from the origin, which means that a query might take days to get an answer, perhaps requiring an extension of the deadline. As a consequence the translator isn't likely to get much help, if any.
A second reason for lack of support is that the end customer doesn't know the language of the document – which is why they need a translation. I see this all the time when translating bid specifications.
Example: Company A produces widgets for the automotive industry. A major automaker located in (foreign country) is accepting tenders for widgets and issues a specification. Company A wants to bid on the project and needs to have the specification translated to find out whether bidding makes sense, so they hire an agency or contact a translator directly. Although the translator may have done hundreds of automotive-related translations, he/she encounters an unfamiliar term or abbreviation and sends an inquiry to the agency/customer. In all likelihood, no one will identify this highly-specialized term/abbreviation that may be peculiar to the company issuing the spec.
Sometimes the end customer is arrogant and uncooperative. An agency once hired me to translate a brochure for a company that was just setting up an operation in North America. The document made reference to a proprietary process without going into detail regarding its use. I queried the agency regarding what the process should be called, and what its function was. The response was that the agency should have found someone who was familiar with the company. Henceforth the customer had all its marketing material translated in-house by a secretary – with the expected hilarious results.
A final reason is that the agency is reluctant to contact the client, fearing a loss of customer confidence if the translator isn't 100% familiar with possible in-house or product-specific terminology.
Fortunately all my current agency customers either supply glossaries/Term bases or are willing to send a query to the end customer. ▲ Collapse
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Rolf Kern
Switzerland
Local time: 02:43
English to German
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In memoriam | Another solution | Sep 27, 2015 |
I am active in Switzerland, that to some extent has another (better) translation culture (with exceptions):
- Payment per line of the translation (not the souce).
- Indication of the contact information to the client to be contacted in case of any question (automatic or upon request).
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