tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-331524532007-05-16T15:47:49.492+02:00The PostmasterBlogger88125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33152453.post-73252649654427928612007-05-14T09:54:00.000+02:002007-05-14T10:19:46.683+02:00

Buyer beware! Especially corporate purchasers for companies shouldn't necessarily take the word of their suppliers at face value. In the UK retail shop Burton's sold a t-shirt that had a right-wing Russian slogan on it but the supplier had claimed it said something closer to "be proud of Russia". Burton's Racist Russian Gaffe So now there's a good amount of people in London walking around

The Postmastertag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33152453.post-49241680627716040682007-04-23T10:45:00.000+02:002007-04-23T10:47:05.605+02:00

Here's a great little clip regarding one of the most versatile words in the English language. This probably shouldn't be played through your speakers at work unless you want to "show your character" to the rest of the office.

The Postmastertag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33152453.post-11518306539852331582007-04-05T12:58:00.000+02:002007-04-23T10:30:01.717+02:00

Let speak for it of self I will.

The Postmastertag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33152453.post-58949044198927459892007-04-23T10:22:00.000+02:002007-04-23T10:28:17.940+02:00

While some of the funniest and most painful translations I've ever seen come from Chinglish origins, at least there's recognition of the problem. Here's a little article from CNN which brings hope in ending these hilarious travesties. Chinese officials crack down on bad English

The Postmastertag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33152453.post-69922055055997340402007-03-05T17:14:00.000+01:002007-04-07T23:52:12.731+02:00

I am Argentine, and I have been living in the UK for a year and a half now, working as a freelance English-Spanish translator. A few months ago I was contacted by an agency from New York, and everything went well till we discussed my rates. Their opinion was that, since I was from Argentina, I should charge them Argentinean rates, which are 5 times lower than those in the UK! My (rather

Anonymous Postertag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33152453.post-1156255927532771632006-08-22T15:49:00.000+02:002007-04-03T21:26:14.583+02:00

Ever type lunch when you mean launch? Welcome to the Joys of Localization. This is about the industry where we pretend to know all about everything but really know little of anything. This blog is meant to be a shared effort, so come on by, write a comment and let me know if you want to be added to the writers list. It will remain anonymous but not confidential, afterall anyone can read it. So

The Postmastertag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33152453.post-16314412304730501952006-08-21T21:21:00.000+02:002007-04-03T21:23:31.555+02:00

Welcome to The Joys of Localization, the place to share your translation industry stories with the rest of the industry. Read the posts, share the joy! Our other Joys: Military Service Retail Real Estate

The Postmastertag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33152453.post-6403030117042814432007-04-03T20:31:00.000+02:002007-04-03T20:42:15.852+02:00

Whether you like it or not, one of the major currents in the translation industry at this time is the use of translation software for military purposes. Communicating in a warzone is a necessity. There's evidently a lot of money in developing this technology but out of the goodness of their collective heart (or is it out of political motivation) IBM is donating translation software valued at $45

The Postmastertag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33152453.post-83979234028871616992007-03-22T18:29:00.000+01:002007-03-22T18:29:58.012+01:00

I can understand translation tools are necessary for certain clients and situations such as leveraging huge previous projects, but I really regard these things as necessary evils. They slow me down, and don't have any added value to me as a translator. They cost a lot of money, make me charge less for my work and cause innumerable technical nightmares which aren't compensated for 99% of the time.

Anonymous Postertag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33152453.post-32241793788932150022007-03-12T09:47:00.000+01:002007-03-12T09:47:38.641+01:00

One of the agencies I work for keeps insisting that I use their Translation Memory, out of which nearly 30% of the segments give 100% matches, but of which the quality is so low that I can not in good conscience use them as they are in the final translation. Until now I have been updating these strings myself without being paid for the corrections, but it is getting rediculous, especially since

Anonymous Postertag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33152453.post-33382553041676214102007-03-07T10:59:00.000+01:002007-03-07T10:57:56.293+01:00

We are working on a website localization for a new client. I asked them if there are any string length restrictions to consider. They answered: yes, the translated file should not exceed 64 kb... I instructed my translator to make translated strings as long as possible, that'll teach them!

Anonymous Postertag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33152453.post-5893121886651968912007-03-05T22:44:00.000+01:002007-03-05T22:44:57.718+01:00

One day we get a CV in filled with impressive QA credentials and academic background information. They were applying for a QA position of courseThen, smack in the middle of their resumé, their job description said "poofreader". Yes. Look closely. "Poofreader". I'm not sure what a poofreader does. Read poofs?Better not let this guy poofread your CV.

Anonymous Postertag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33152453.post-36325107781627388402007-03-02T10:04:00.000+01:002007-03-02T10:05:00.971+01:00

I have recently been contacted to perform a translation of a book into Spanish and I have never done this type of work before. Their offer was OK, around the 0,05 € per word which for the volume is not bad. My problem is that it will take me "off the market" for several months while I do the translation. The deadline is rather tight so I can not space other translations into this time. Of course

Anonymous Postertag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33152453.post-92014895513408404072007-03-01T10:38:00.000+01:002007-03-01T10:38:30.250+01:00

I recently heard from a friend of mine about how much translators who work for the European Patent Office get compensated, both in pay and benefits. I'm not sure how much is true but I hear its ridiculously high compared to the typical translator. Perhaps that's my jealousy speaking...High salaries (I'm speaking of €60.000+)Tax exemption!!! salaries are gross=net!32-36 hour workweeksPerks and

Anonymous Postertag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33152453.post-17629337532291095482007-02-15T13:32:00.000+01:002007-02-15T13:33:03.231+01:00

PMs really need to depend on their resources but also make sure to hold them responsible for the quality of the translation. I was working on a format QA (not linguistic at all, I don't speak Estonian) and came across an obvious concistency error. One that I can't believe would be left to a non-linguistic QA to catch.The style in which terms which appeared in the UI this manual was for was done

Anonymous Postertag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33152453.post-69163368758306093142007-02-13T07:10:00.000+01:002007-02-11T11:29:02.254+01:00

Hello, I'm here seeking feedback and views on this, because I thought it might mean something. An agency has been sending me all these kinds of small jobs in various subjects on a daily basis. I have accepted the first two, but then I thought it is time consuming and not rewarding at all. I was also puzzled by the fact that they keep coming every day.I was wondering where this flow of small

Anonymous Postertag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33152453.post-52847475878289795022007-02-09T10:35:00.000+01:002007-02-09T10:41:27.772+01:00

Several localization companies are still moving production operations to India. Last year I fell victim to this trend and was being told my job was redundant. 7 years working for this major localization corporation, watching and helping it come up from a small player, and they treat me like this? Ultimately it was the best day of my life. I stepped out of localization and into a different

Anonymous Postertag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33152453.post-90407920411205389792007-02-08T16:37:00.000+01:002007-02-08T23:53:25.339+01:00

There's pretty good money in working with lawyers usually, but they really have no idea how much time certain things take, especially when they fax things to you. I've worked with this one office for several years now and still I receive requests to "translate this by tomorrow" and then my fax machine prints out enough paper to have killed a small tree. I normally enjoy educating my clients and

Anonymous Postertag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33152453.post-13837570826109813852007-02-05T22:13:00.000+01:002007-02-05T22:29:02.394+01:00

I have a problem with a translation agency that keeps sending additional instructions after I've started a job. I've been very polite in humoring them, but now its getting enough. Why can't they just get their shit together and have a process created before sending out the job to me?! Then to top it off they don't want to compensate me when their changes require work to be redone. I'm getting

Anonymous Postertag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33152453.post-1170431952556602662007-02-02T16:59:00.000+01:002007-02-02T18:27:15.646+01:00

I was recently contacted to translate (Port» Eng) medical records (nurse’s & Dr’s notes)- highly vital information, on an urgent basis and (4-5000 words)at .05USD/word, which was already a great favour from the agency’s part. As if the extremely low price for the amount of responsibility weren’t enough of a concern, more than half of the total text was handwritten, in chicken scratch! After

Anonymous Postertag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33152453.post-1170417341610524582007-02-02T12:55:00.000+01:002007-02-02T12:55:41.616+01:00

I've just received the vendor contract from a company which has something strange in their payment policy. Until now, companies who paid always bore the cost of a bank transfer themselves. Now this company is different and wants to charge me for sending me my money?! They will send a cheque for free, but of course cashing an American cheque here in Europe is rediculously expensive as well.I'm

Anonymous Postertag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33152453.post-1170346477571744572007-02-01T17:14:00.000+01:002007-02-01T17:14:37.570+01:00

I'm having some trouble with this unbelievably unethical company in California. Several months ago they had me translate a document which only now comes back with a request to fix a few parts. It is obvious they did not have the document edited after translation and that their client caught these errors. Now, they're always late with payment, never very prompt on responding to my queries... I'm

Anonymous Postertag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33152453.post-1165500074086938622007-01-28T15:01:00.000+01:002007-01-31T18:14:58.020+01:00

A perfect description of this client is the word "asshat". Somehow it encompasses everything this person is. I have a client who is constantly screaming for higher quality (when, honestly he's getting what he pays for). But of course we try to accommodate the client because there's no such thing as a client we don't want. Or so the bosses tell us. So we put together additional quality checks and

Anonymous Postertag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33152453.post-1166013016939888772007-01-29T13:23:00.000+01:002007-01-31T18:09:40.836+01:00

Here's a prime example of what can go wrong if you assume Englishes are compatible. Picture this article appearing as is in the NYT or WSJ. Laughter ensues. At least the author's name wasn't Ben Dover... and no... he wasn't talking about fairies, just ferries. Credit where credit's due: This article was written by Jon Cronin of the BBC. Follow the link for the full story. "Get to Dover early.

The Postmastertag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33152453.post-1169112917971268172007-01-30T10:35:00.000+01:002007-01-31T17:27:32.326+01:00

A super hypocritical company just tried to negotiate a rate by using the "Euro is too expensive" argument. I'm always wary of this type of tactic since it pretty much tells me that they're not asking enough from their clients for services requiring European labour. Regardless of their dubious profitability status, its also just poor form. Most of these companies also didn't bitch when the Euro

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