Version control. VERSION CONTROL!!!!

I'm sure translators, PMs, engineers, publishers have all had headaches from improper (or nonexistant) version control. As a translator I experience this often mostly from disorganized clients. They send me a document for translatio and when I'm almost finished... I get a message saying "oops, we sent a previous version of the document, can you just do your translations in this one?" As if its easy to just plunk the translations into the new document. Or they say "our author decided to continue working on the document, can you please incorporate his changes into your translation?"

I've come up with a good thing to say to this: "absolutely, I'll just finish the version I have now, compare the docuemnts and bill the extra hours for comparing and updating the previous version. The agreement we have is for the version I already have, any new versions I will consider a new request. However in fairness I will not apply my minimum charge if it proves to be negligible"

So far it seems to work. Lesson is: don't let your clients push you too hard when the mistake isn't yours. It's OK to work with them, but remember you're working, not volunteering.

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Chinese New Year

A casino was holding a Chinese New Year celebration for which they needed a press release translated into Chinese. Normally this shouldn't be too hard but the result was hilarious. "Free gift for everyone" was translated into "all-day dumpling buffet for all" and "Thursday" was translated as "Tuesday".

I really don't know how that was possible but the proofer was certainly shocked!

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Certified != accurate

Over a year ago we got a request for a certified translation of documents proving the presence of a prenuptual agreement for a client. They were defending themselves against the ex-wife who filed suit in some foreign country claiming part of an inheritance she had no rights to.

As an agency we cannot certify anything. Only a notary public and/or court certified translator can do that. We used a freelancer who is certified for the translation. Of course this also means we can also not make any changes to the translation. Well the hard copies arrived (they have to be hard copies) and we sent them to the client. Time pressure didn't allow for a thorough read-through plus the boss said just send them through. Certified means accurate.

Accuracy was obviously not the case, the client came back the next day having read through the documents himself and said it said exactly the opposite of what was in the original! I was truly amazed that the client was so calm about it. Well we informed the translator, they fix it and a second version arrives in the mail. This time we check it closer and the translator had screwed up all the inheritance figures!

The third copy was finally correct. Suffice it to say, there's no way that client will ever come back nor that we will ever use that translator. Really legal documents must be absolutely correct. A small meaning error might be acceptable but when such a large mistake as entirely opposite meaning is present that means you're simply a bad translator. That and no matter what your boss says, check the work.

Regardless of this project, we've since decided to avoid doing most forms of certified translations and just send the clients that ask for them directly through to the certified translator's directory. Clients that need certified translations are usually one-off anyways (with the exception of a few lawyer-offices who we do maintain contact with).

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Client having a blond day

Client: I have a small translation. Have a look at the label I sent you and translate the missing parts into the target language.

Me: Um, it's already translated, the source language is just longer, that's why it looks untranslated, because of the layout.

Client: I can't tell, but you need to translate the missing parts.

Me: I understand, but it's already translated. All of it.
Client: Listen, I am just telling you what my client told me.

Me: Tell your client to have a nice day, it's all done!
Client: But I can't tell.

Me: Listen...
Client: So you don't want to do this job?

Me: We've been on the phone 10 minutes and there is no job... I guess that would be a no.

Client: OK, I'll get someone else.


Client: I have a small translation. Have a look at the label I sent you and translate the missing parts into the target language.

Me: Um, it's already translated, the source language is just longer, that's why it looks untranslated, because of the layout.

Client: I can't tell, but you need to translate the missing parts.

Me: I understand, but it's already translated. All of it.
Client: Listen, I am just telling you what my client told me.

Me: Tell your client to have a nice day, it's all done!
Client: But I can't tell.

Me: Listen...
Client: So you don't want to do this job?

Me: We've been on the phone 10 minutes and there is no job... I guess that would be a no.

Client: OK, I'll get someone else.

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We have no "____" (fill in the blank)

I love clients who don't even know what they have for translation. The last few weeks I've been dealing with a client who wants a translation of their online ad-system. They prefer using a few archaic tools which really slow the process down so I suggest we get exports from them for translation using standard Trados or SDLX.

They have no export.

I look at the material again and I know very well its based on a database which is (almost) always exportable. I ask if I can get access to the database.

They have no database.

At this point I ask the client if I can talk to their enginerd. Someone there who has admin level access to the site.

Why would I need something like this?

Really, I'm about to give up and just give them an enormously high quote instead of trying to find cheaper solutions but I give it one more shot and explain that I'm only looking out for their best interests (bottom-line). If talking to their technogeek doesn't give me what I need, I will apologize and do it how they asked in the first place.

So I talk to the engineer who says "no problem, it's an SQL database, would you like an export in CSV or XML?"

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Yeah, that's just what the contract says

Getting screwed by the man is always a good story. How about this one. I bring up a few points that are written in my contract (overtime, working hours, bonus etc)... The conversation starts out ok but then I get their excuse.

They begin their argument with "well that's just what the contract says, reality is a little different". Hmm, I bet my lawyer will beg to differ. Well beg is not the right word. Tear off your head and play soccer (football) with your skull is more likely.

I'm a little annoyed, can you tell?

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don't try this at home

I'm not a translator, I sort of stumbled in here. I'm a software engineer. I think the statute of limitations has run on this story.

Years ago the firm I was working for had a European importer. The importer insisted on several changes to the program, beyond just L10n issues. One of the changes was to add a hardware 'dongle'. We only had one of the dongles so I commented the checking code out. In the massive rush to get the software delivered by deadline, we were making code changes the last nite. I discovered that the string (something like 'please insert the copy protection device') was still in English. In a panic, we asked around. Turned out the temp we'd hired to duplicate disks had taken high school German. With a phone call to another friend who knew some German, we thought we'd figured out a translation, stuck it in and went on....

We got an angry call from the importer, turned out our German said something closer to 'please put on a condom (protective device) before using this software'!

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Good PM, Bad PM

Here's a typical tactic from PMs, something that isn't ethical and you should watch out for.

The PMs top priority is delivering on time. One might think it's quality but 90% of the PMs I deal with eventually let quality slide for deadline pressure. They'll tell you the work you're doing is great, is fine, please work faster, more, extra hours and don't worry about the quality, we have proofers for that or "the client knows the concequences". After breaking my back for much extra work I delivered files I otherwise wouldn't because I didn't have time to check my own work. I have emails assuring me that it's ok, don't worry, we're not holding you accountable. Yeah Right! after delivering (and this has happened more than once now, to the point I simply will not be doing so anymore) I get a call from the PM, or more oftern a resource manager, who wishes to discuss my invoice because of the quality of work delivered! Excuse me? I received very specific assurances that I wouldn't be held responsible.

So in this manner a PM can get more work, faster, make the client happy, lower his costs by trying to negotiate a "quality discount" and avoid any responsibility for their actions themselves because they offloaded the pending argument to someone else!

Slimeballs.

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BanK notes

Localization is more than just translation of course. Sometimes it doesn't even involve translation, it just involves knowing your local culture and alphabet. Kazakhstan somehow managed to mess up their own banknotes due to a cyrillic/roman character issue. Talk about a failure to proof!

Follow the link to the BBC story.

Link

And you though they had problems with Borat.

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Baltimore, you know, Europe

Have a good look at the last entry on this list of European travel destinations.

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Partial or complete

Great (sarcasm) phonecall too place today. I had told this client that I would deliver what I had finished up to this point having worked the weekend on a translation. I have delivered several of the documents in the project, but today she calls and asks "where are the rest?"

I'm not sure how it happend, but somehow my partial delivery, which I was very specific that I would only some of the files today, got construed as a complete delivery.

Dang people, read the whole message, not just the few words you want to hear.

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Englishes

The other day I proofread a text done by another translator I do not know. They tried to show off their skills by modifying the title of an exhibition. They improved the title as it would not have been understood in British English - the original was Belgian French. That was an excellent call. Later on, I ran into the North American word "soccer" twice instead of "football". And that bit was going about football in Africa.

Consistency is key, folks!

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We don't understand

Speaking with a client can sometimes by trying. We're trying to teach them the rather simple process of validation. Goes something like this:

- Look at translation, type changes directly into translation overwriting the old text.
- Do not type any comments into the translation, since they will then appear in the final product.
- Make sure formatting appears correctly as well, matching the English where possible.

I think the project is doomed... the first question the client poses is "we don't understand words like 'formatting' and 'highlighting', please explain"

I'm gonna cry.

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Tools of the trade

Why don't Trados and SDLX natively support some of the standard tools!!! SDLX in particular. I don't want to purchase a $400 third-party plugin for Quark just to translate in an $800 translation tool! Regardless of their financial difficulties, Trados should never have sold out. In the future us translators will be taking the punishment for that since there is little alternative (Wordfast? not a good solution for many things, Transit? Hah!)

These companies should really look at the market of popular authoring software and support them all out of the box. And offer patches to support new versions. We translator's aren't software engineers and don't have the time or knowhow to create all the custom filters ourselves. Nor are we rich (SDL should know this considering their pricelists).

It's entirely frustrating to be forced to turn down jobs because my "industry standard" tools just don't facilitate translation!

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Discounts

The common practice of companies asking for discounts on large translations ("We're on a very tight budget on this one, but after all, it will keep you in work for months") always reminds me of the old joke about the foreign legionnaires out in the desert who are told there's good news and bad news. The bad news is, there's nothing left to eat but camel dung. The good news is, there's plenty of it...

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Is this normal?

Is it normal for an agency to send a purchase order for a job, accept translation, then try to negotiate a discount on your rate? I've never had this happen until now and I find it very poor form. I'm concerned they will also be the kind of agency who pays only after 3 months and 2 threatening letters.

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Scripts in sites

When translation agencies prepare projects, they better know what they're doing. I got translated a bunch of files the other day (in SDLX) and returned them promptly and on time. Later I hear from this agency that the translations are incomplete! I double check and my files are compeltely translated.

What happened was the agency didn't think there was any translatable content in scripts and when they rebuilt and delivered the site, every popup and javascipt message was still unlocalized. Then they started looking around who could possible be to blame. Of course it couldn't be themselves. No.

These guys shouldn't t assume they can do projects in formats they don't have experience with just because the list in SDLX has an HTML filter in it. Totally rediculous.

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Lax deliveries

When weekend deliveries are agreed upon, that doesn't mean all files on Sunday night at 2am when the Purchase Order states 3 on Saturday and 3 on Sunday. Just because I'm not in the office doesn't mean you get to be lazy.

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Can someone really be this dumb...

I normally do documentation translation which is delivered in Word or prepared TTX or ITD files (based on InDesign, FrameMaker or whatever other source). A few days ago I get a file from a client asking for a translation of a PDF.

First, PDFs are hard to translate. In fact you basically need to type them into Word, capture the pictures etc. In light of this I ask for more per word when this happens plus a per page rate for DTP.

This particular client, though, just could not understand why its not possible to translate directly in the PDF. "you can type over the text" he says. No you can't. Line breaking and language expansion prevents any kind of typing over on a large scale.

Really. Some people should just not be allowed to use computers. When you don't understand how something works, be willing to listen and learn when I try to explain it to you.

Well... I got my way eventually. Evidently I wasn't the only one who was laughing at him.

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Going Freelance Tips

While this doesn't directly apply to the localization world, there are some really good tips in this article which will prevent tons of the stories that appear on this site.

Tips for Freelancers via Lifehacker

My favorite:
8 "The last guy did it for XXX dollars."

That is irrelevant. If the last guy was so good they wouldn't be talking to you, now would they? And what that guy charged means nothing to you, really. People who charge too little for their time go out of business (or self-destruct financially, or change occupations) and then someone else has to step in. Set a fair price and stick to it.

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Sell before you know!

Evidently its ok to sell a project before you know what the project really involves. And evidently its ok for a salesman who's never had any hands on experience with localization, to sell projects under priced, under standard time, and still with utmost quality in mind.

Evidently sales hasn't heard of the time-quality-cost triangle. Nor has it heard of something called reality.

So yesterday a pilot file is delivered and it goes well. Unfortunately its proven that part of the project takes twice as long as estimated. That's what a pilot's for. Or not. Well deadline stays the same, we just need to cram more work into the same time period. No adjustments to anything are made because of the results of the pilot.

As a result we add more people (which means consistency drops) costs go up because the cheap resources are booked, and of course project price remains the same and margins go down further.

Really, its no wonder that the company hemorrhages people

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