Russians for Russia!

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 with a t-shirt that says "Let's cleanse Russia of all non-Russians". Not just non-Russians, but non-native Russians...

This makes me think of the Abercrombie "Two Wong's" row from a few years ago. "Two Wong's Make it White"

So lessons learned? I hope so... but probably not. When you're selling, or even wearing, something with a language you don't understand on it, realize you might be walking around like a complete ass because you're announcing yourself as a proponant for ethnic cleansing.

On a side note... for everyone that has a Che Guevara bag, t-shirt, pin, or whatnot... realize he wasn't the nicest guy on the planet either since he advocated violence as a method to instill socialist ideals. Read the wiki article on him and learn who your hero is.

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The F Word

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.

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Problems with Chinglish Addressed by Gov't

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

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Chinglish

Let speak for it of self I will.

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Translation & Military

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 million to the US government. Now that's probably an inflated figure if this software were available on the free market, but interesting none the less.

The article can be found here: IBM offers military tech donation.

Discuss the finer points of this if you feel like it. Morality of this donation, intelligence, what's the point?

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Those damn tools

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.

Terminology can be done using a standalone tool and a good translator who has experience with a client and field, should know the terminology anyways. And show me a tool that has an effective way to handle Style Guides! Haven't seen one yet. I haven't seen a single tool that can handle all the file types either.

I hate CAT tools. They've only caused misery and cost money. Anyone else sick of these things?

Yeah yeah, I know the sales shpiel spouting the benefits of a CAT tool. For me the drawbacks outweigh the minute benefits.

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Memory Mess

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 they do not always update the Translation Memory with my strings. I have taken to doing the following:

Updating their memory with my "good" version that I maintain at home before starting any new job.

Rerunning the pre-translate on the files.

Rerunning the analysis (I usually win around 5% more 100%s by having a better TM)

They do not ask for an updated TM from me at all. I think they see this as part of the project manager's responsibility, although other clients require delivery of the update TM along with a translation.

Considering a ll this I believe I should be compensated for all my extra effort at some point. Does anyone have any tips on how to broach the subject? Should I even bother to ask since many agencies don't really care nor have the budget for maintenance work? and should I even bother to continue "improving" the translation?

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String length restrctions

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!

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The Poofreader

One day we get a CV in filled with impressive QA credentials and academic background information. They were applying for a QA position of course

Then, 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.

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Unbelievable...

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 ironically expressed, I must admit) explanation that I was paying my bills in the UK and not in Buenos Aires did nothing to change their position, which I deemed so

far-fetched and ridiculous that it was even insulting.

Needless to say, I didn't accept any work from them!!

Has anybody else have such an experience?

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Book Translation

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 the client just wants their book and does not consider this, but I do not believe that much more work come out of this. Should I accept this job? I'm debating whether or not this will be fair to my existing trusted clients.

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Patently Absurd

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 workweeks
Perks and benefits (lease cars, pension plans, sabbatical plans etc.)

Its really no wonder that its so expensive to file patents, they have to pay these guys' salaries! Methinks I'm in the wrong job. These and other EU translators really have it pretty sweet.

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Consistency in Translation

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 in at least 4 different ways. It was done in a random combination of: translation in parentheses, just translation, just English, bold, italic, in quotes etc.etc.

I understand the need to use multiple translators on a project, but come on, this kind of thing is a pretty basic instruction, and if you don't catch this in Edit... your editor's an idiot.

Of course around page 200 it gets really really frusterating for me!

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Too small to bother?

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 translations comes from? I mean are they samples for bigger projects and if so why not clearly state so? I am talking about texts less than 100 words in length.

Can anyone explain this to me?

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The Indian solution

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 function in a different industry (still DTP related though). I get paid more and now I send jobs out to localization companies. All except my former company. They don't get anything, even if they're a competitive bidder.

But still, that its possible to be downsized in such a manner astounds me. If a company is going bankrupt because they can't afford the people, then I might understand why sending work to cheaper countries is allowed, but just to pad their bottom line more? Its a fundamental flaw in most large localization companies, profit at the expense of people.

For those who come across this as well, think of it this way.
1) Do you want to work for a company that considers you that expendable?
2) If the company "can't afford" you, then they're financially unhealthy and you should jump ship anyways.
3) Localization pays crap... you're better off looking for a job in another industry... On average salaries are 20% higher in other industries for similar functions.

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