The Bottom Line

 
Practical tips for practicing translators.
 
 

Q:

Dear Fire Ant & Worker Bee,

I'm in a quandry. From time to time I receive solicitations and requests from companies that have a Web presence only. Bricks and mortar are so 20^th century! However, most of these companies are unknown to me, frequently based abroad, and often claim to offer a wide range of services that are not always a good match with those I offer my existing clients.

Onshore Offshore

A:

Dear Onshore,

We've seen and tested similar offers. And even as we admire (sort of) the entrepreneurial spirit behind them, we are convinced that the basic pitch is skewed for anyone—client or translator—targeting serious provision of genuine professional services.

The reason is simple.

Cutting out the bricks & mortar overheads may sound like a cool idea for people who know nothing about how translation is commissioned or performed, in this case a team of online marketing experts and a language school operator.

But their business model is flawed.

TextKing's founders say their model, based on the latest web technology, ultra-low overheads and a steady stream of customer feedback, worked well for an earlier venture, Holidaychecks. And why not? It's clear that if your holiday rental is crawling with cockroaches, the shuttle fifteen hours late, the food ptomaine-inducing, well, yes: many buyers who have paid out their vacation money will be rightly indignant and speak up to complain. The vacation broker can then spread their views around and market forces will kick in to set things right.

But translation is different, since only a minute percentage of buyers are actually able to judge the quality of the work they buy.

So if that Portuguese/Chinese/French brochure is scuttling around on hairy insect legs, letting off a vile smell 24/7, with errors in both content and style—how will the buyer know?

Despite the founders' genuine enthusiasm, this looks like yet another database of self-described "professional translators" signing up and announcing the text types they "feel comfortable" with, and committing to deliver their best shot for relatively low prices. The patently fake translator profiles and photos are a testimony to marketing copywriters, not the skills you'll find here. Why? Because the prices are too low and nobody's taking responsibility (read the small print).

Implementing effective QA to create satisfying long-term relationships has been addressed by translation suppliers for decades, with patchy results. Serious suppliers know that the only way forward is raising client awareness and developing continuous vetting processes—at which point a 30% margin is the strict minimum, incidentally.

Our opinion? Aside from beginners looking for experience, sites like these are not where a professional translator wants to be.

FA & WB

Q:

Dear Fire Ant & Worker Bee,

Research N. Relationships

A:

Dear Research N.,

Thanks for the confirmation that courteous, targeted questions are a terrific way to engage with experts who are passionate about what they do—and useful additions to your professional network!

FA & WB

Q:

Dear Fire Ant & Worker Bee,

No Meanie

A:

Dear No,

If you have clearly explained your association's break-even policy—both to individuals seeking special breaks and to the membership at large at your annual general meeting, for example—we see three options:

• Tell members seeking special treatment that such requests must be made in writing. This will free up your phone line for more rewarding and useful work during office hours. Should written requests materialize, answer with one of a selection of prepared responses (have your board vet these beforehand; they should be both courteous and firm).

• Suggest that people who cannot afford association activities give it a miss this year, but start saving up now for more active participation next year. This puts the onus on them.
• For certain events, consider offering members in occasional dire straits an opportunity to participate for free in exchange for on-site labor: arriving at 7.00 a.m. to set up the room, for example, or manning the registration desk. If this can take some of the pressure off other volunteers, it may be a good investment. (If the set-up time is moved forward to 6.00 a.m. they might even manage to scrape up the cash.)

No matter how difficult times are, it is simply not reasonable to let people with ongoing financial problems define your association's priorities and policies. And even less reasonable to have the membership as a whole subsidize them.

FA & WB

Q:

Dear Fire Ant & Worker Bee,

Sick of Peanuts

A:

Dear Peanuts,

We're reading you loud and clear, Peanuts, but admit we find translators who insist on getting upset about low-ballers a tad tiresome.

Translation prices range from 0 currency units a word to, well, the sky is really and truly the limit.

That's the market. And it's up to you to decide where you want to be. If you spend all your time fussing about clients you don't want to work for, you'll likely postpone the analysis and hard work needed to get you there.

OK, highlighting the soft underbelly of big, increasingly shaky suppliers trying to throw their weight around can be entertaining.

An example is Traductor-financiero's skewering of Lionbridge when that industry giant announced an across-the-board reduction in rates for its suppliers in November. (Note: at the time, Lionbridge was already operating at rates far below what most skilled translators demand. Its 2010 results, just published, show another loss—watch that space!).

A seriously entertaining set of exchanges ensued. But that level of response takes a lot of time, and not many people write as well as Miguel Llorens.

May we suggest as a quick and professional alternative the admirably clear "not available" message used by Nick Hartmann, an experienced G>E patent translator in the US:

You can easily make this a "signature" file, sendable in two clicks. And invest the time you save in hunting down more attractive clients.

FA & WB

Q:

Dear Fire Ant & Worker Bee,

Reading Between the Lines

A:

Dear Reading,

We were thinking of translators who (cluelessly or eccentrically) get on an "I know more than anybody in this room, let me prove it now" kick or "Most people including you people are hopelessly corrupt, look at me, I'm pure and good."

An example of the former came when we were involved in negotiating on behalf of translators with an institution in a European country. The representative of a partner association was an intense and terminally indignant tech translator who, rather than focus on the business at hand, indulged in long tirades on the history of the French language and its enemies. A latter-day and far less distinguished De Gaulle on amphetamines came to mind. Negotiators on the other side of the table didn't know what to make of him (neither did allies like ourselves), but it was far harder to be taken seriously in his wake.

In a similar vein, a Swiss colleague has mentioned how some translators lose points when discussing their work with financial experts by insisting on explaining obscure grammatical points (ze eyes glaze over) rather than behaving as walking, talking thesauruses. The latter is far more productive.

And moral purity? At a client dinner several years ago, another translator decided to explain why bottled water was a threat to the third world; he scolded the waitress for not providing tap water, then lectured her (us all, actually) about how article X of law Y required restaurants to do so. And by the way this restaurant's prices were outrageous, and yada yada yada. Not timely. Simply not appropriate.

Sporting exceptionally inappropriate clothes (where creative would be OK) is another example.

Curious, isn't it. You definitely want to differentiate your services to win good clients. But to establish the credibility you need to make your pitch, you have to adopt social behavior that lets you blend in.

FA & WB