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I
must say I am sick and tired of hearing end clients, agency
owners and project managers criticizing translators and editors.
On the other hand, I am equally sick and tired of hearing
translators and editors criticizing end clients, agency owners
and project managers. Finding fault with our neighbor’s
work is very easy, but not very useful, for at least two reasons:
first, we gain very little from criticizing others and, second,
other people usually don’t give a damn about our criticism.
That said,
I do hereby solemnly undertake to no longer engage in criticizing
end clients, agency owners and project managers. But I will
certainly criticize myself and my own tribe, that of independent
translators and editors. A bit of self-criticism, a bit of
mea culpa, doesn’t hurt – provided it is honest
and involves a certain degree of effort to abandon the ways
of the sin. No, I think I will do better: instead of self-criticism,
I will write a list of resolutions. We are still far from
New Year, but that doesn’t matter. Any time in the year
is a good time to make decisions. My midyear decisions. I
have always seen myself as an innovator.
I
promise the last thing I shall do before delivering a job
is spellcheck it once more.
Once, I decided to make a last-minute change in a translation
for a U.S. agency where nobody understood a word of Portuguese.
I did a global search and replace, as a consequence of which,
I changed not only the word I wanted to change but the innards
of a longer word as well. Don’t ask me which: I prefer
to forget these things. Then the DTP people formatted the
text and submitted it to the final client, who knew Portuguese
and almost had a heart attack. Had I spellchecked the job
once more before delivery, I would have spared the client
a great deal of embarrassment and myself a great financial
loss. Since I am at it, I also promise I will never do global
changes again.
When
editing someone else’s job, I promise I shall never
make a change I cannot justify with something better than
“because it looks nicer this way”.
One of the most irritating things to any professional is to
see their work full of changes for which there does not seem
to be any reason or purpose. If the client is abroad, the
project manager often can’t read Portuguese, has no
idea of what is going on and doesn’t know what to do.
The translator gets angry and all the editor has to say is
“well, it looks better this way”. You cannot justify
all changes with grammar and the dictionary. However, you
should at least try to maintain consistent syntax, or to improve
coherence. After having started using such terms, little by
little, I am developing a set of very clear and precise rules
on how to improve the quality of the translations I edit –
not to mention the ones I do myself.
I
shall not run amuck over editor’s changes.
If an editor makes an acceptable change in my work, I will
accept it. If the change is unacceptable, however, I will
contact the project manager and try to explain very clearly
why I do not agree. No reason to start every comment I make
with something like “the stupid nit-picker…”
I will just try to quote evidence to support my position.
For instance, Brazilian spelling is regulated by law (2623/55,
as amended) and the applicable regulation is shown in every
dictionary. Have a look at rule 53 and see that it fully supports
my punctuation. If you have not read rule 53, open your Brazilian
Portuguese dictionary and have a look at it now. You may be
in for a surprise.
I
shall check my translations for correct formatting.
Long ago, I decided I would learn to format a document properly
using Word. Nothing fancy: Word is not QuarkExpress and I
do not provide DTP services. But things like using tabs and
tables appropriately and formatting indented paragraphs, instead
of using paragraph marks and spaces, things like that. If
you don’t understand what I mean, that means you should
spend a good afternoon with an introductory book on the use
of Word for Windows. When you finish the translation, search
for two consecutive spaces in the Brazilian text. Except in
the case where the two consecutive spaces are used at the
end of a sentence (and all sentences) and the text is in English,
there should be no double spaces in the entire text. We often
hit the spacebar twice or more between words and many of us
do not delete the supernumerary spaces before delivering the
job, resulting in a text that looks like a piece of Emmenthaler
cheese. Spaces in the beginning of lines or before paragraph
marks or tabs are also bad practice. By all means, learn to
use tabs. And never use a hyphen where you should use a dash,
please. But also try never to use two hyphens were you should
use a dash. The nice people who will edit or DTP your work
will be grateful and, perhaps, remember you in their prayers.
And there is a better chance of the client remembering you
for future jobs.
I
shall respect the typographical conventions of the target
language.
Numbers in English follow the NNN,NNN.NN rule while in Portuguese
it is NNN.NNN,NN, regardless whether we are counting dollars,
reais or camels. I will also respect conventions regarding
capitalization and punctuation.
I
shall not accept jobs I cannot handle.
Let the clients (or the project managers) bang their several
heads against the wall, if they so desire, but I won’t
accept a deadline that is too close. I won’t listen
to claims it is an easy job either, because I know there is
no such thing. I won’t listen to claims that a “draft”
will do, because I know that the guy who says he wants the
job “for information only” is exactly the guy
who will later say I did a lousy job – and charged good
money for it too. Of course, this means that I shall learn
how to make realistic estimates of the time required to do
a job. Never more will I look at it and saying “oh,
well, looks like I can make it.”
I
shall make a point of having everything agreed in writing.
I don’t mean clients are dishonest. But the best way
to prevent misunderstandings is to have everything agreed
in writing before you start working: rates, delivery dates
and quantification. If the count is based on the source, have
the word count made and agreed to before you start. If the
client insists on a word count that is a bit lower than yours,
don’t argue: different MS Word versions give different
word counts. Just take small differences as a fact of life.
If the difference is large, investigate the matter. If the
rate is high enough, sometimes even a low word count will
be acceptable. In that case, don’t complain. If the
final pay will be too low, don’t accept the job. But
the main point is that things must be in writing and very
clearly stated. When you receive the client’s instructions,
read them very carefully. Horrible monsters often hide behind
apparently harmless verbiage. Finally, never accept that anything
the client says is there just “as a matter of form”.
This is exactly what the client will ask you to read very
carefully when time comes. Then, if the final agreement is
an e-mail message, print it and hang the printout where you
can see it. Having everything agreed in writing, checking
the agreement very carefully and having it before your eyes
all the time are some of the best ways to ensure customer
satisfaction. And, as you know, the happy customer is the
customer that returns.
I
shall always charge as much as possible and do the best possible
job.
I will always try to get the highest possible pay for any
job that comes my way. But, once I accept the job, I will
forget about the rates and do the best translation I can.
I will never provide a second-rate translation on the grounds
that it is already too good for the rates I am getting. This
is counterproductive, because later on when somebody is looking
for a good translator, they will probably offer the job to
the guy who submitted the best translation, not to someone
who submitted a translation “compatible with the price
paid”.
I
shall not lie.
If I cannot deliver the job on time, I will just say “Sorry,
I underestimated the time I needed for this translation.”
Nobody will believe that the brand new HD crashed once more
yesterday.
I
shall double-check my translation for “translationese.”
Translationese is that strange language you only see in translations.
There is no reason for a translation to look weird. If you
are working into English, for instance, look for things like
“The legislator of our fatherland found it to be a good
thing to allow such action, being that under the previous
legislation it was held to be illegal”. If you are working
into Portuguese, you should try to find stuff like Suficientes
dados não estão disponíveis para que
pudéssemos tornar nossas ações consistentes
com… There is no justification for that. Also, look
for things that don’t make much sense to you, because
if it doesn’t make much sense to you, probably it won’t
make any sense to the reader.
I
won’t try to “improve” the original.
I am very proud of my work as a translator and I don’t
feel the urge to show those who read my translations how good
of an author I am. So, I don’t try to “improve”
the originals entrusted to me for translation. In the beginning,
I often tried to improve originals, even adding something
when I found it of interest or deleting stuff I considered
useless. I no longer do it. With the deadlines I have, I hardly
have the time to produce a decent translation. And, in any
case, people who read the translation are entitled to know
what the author said, not what I believe he/she ought to have
said.
I
won’t quarrel with my client because of different preferences
as to vocabulary or syntax.
If the client wants to change the text, let them do it. I
have sold it to them and now it is theirs. That is one of
the reasons why I don’t like to sign my translations.
Finally, I reserve the right never to work for that client
again – provided I can find a better one, that is.
I
shall not contradict my client.
If the client says his sister could do the translation, I
will keep my moth shut. If the client says his cousin has
a program that can translate it, I won’t disagree. If
the client says that upon my insisting on charging unreasonable
prices he will ask his daughter to do the job, I will very
politely say “Sorry, that is the absolute minimum I
can charge” without a shadow of sarcasm in my voice,
hang up the phone and let him fry in his own lard.
I
shall not bad-mouth my colleagues, but I shall point out errors
in bad translations.
I will never say, “You should not entrust Mary Doe with
this translation: she is practically illiterate!” even
if I know for sure she is the mother of all jenny asses. However,
I will tell the client I do not consider mandate of security
a decent translation for mandado de segurança, no matter
who said it was.
I
shall not play games with rates and terms of payment.
I will not accept a job unless the client and I are in perfect
agreement as to rates and terms of payment, and the client
understands exactly what they are paying for. Agencies know
exactly what they are doing, but most end clients do not have
a clue. For instance, if you are dealing with Brazilian clients,
there is a very good chance they think a lauda is equivalent
to a page of their text, which is not. Some agencies pay based
on the source text, others pay based on the translated text
and this is something that must be agreed on beforehand. And
whenever something has been agreed, I will stick to it very
carefully and strictly. For instance, if the agreed payment
is not in my account on the agreed date, the client will hear
from me first thing in the morning on the following day.
I
shall never call myself a “free lancer”.
I find this derogatory. A free-lance is a mercenary soldier
and I am not a soldier of fortune. I am a professional translator
and do my best to behave as required by my professional status.
And, finally…
I
shall not grumble.
I am very sick and tired of translators, editors, agency owners
and project managers who keep complaining about everything,
long hours, low pay, unsympathetic and dishonest clients and/or
suppliers - everything. I consider complaining a waste of
time and energy. Let’s invest all the time and energy
we have into improving our lot.
Vera and Danilo Nogueira are both Brazilian
and live in São Bernardo do Campo, São Paulo.
They have been dealing with languages since they got married
back in 1967. Currently, in addition to translating and editing,
they provide CAT-tool training. They are also developing a
series of technical glossaries in their areas of expertise,
focusing on finance. |
