“la parole exportée”

A friend of mine -not a translator- was accurately commenting about my previous post, that few people really know how to use spreadsheets.

So why should professional translators be savvier than the rest of the population?

Professionals, be they translators or other, do not get much of a say in this. When your client determines that it’s more productive or cost-effective for them to use spreadsheets instead of word processing files for their copy, if you want to retain that client, there isn’t much you can do, but to learn to use a spreadsheet. Hence my surprise, and the post. The good news is that you don’t even have to learn the rich features of the spreadsheet, since you are using the tool to do something that it isn’t even meant for: word processing.

One of the downsides with that policy is that a spreadsheet has none of the comfort of a word processor. When other factors allow it, I export columns and translate them in a word processor, then re-export the translated copy. This is still quicker than applying my translation memory procedures to the original spreadsheet file.

Another major problem I see is that by cutting up copy such as a marketing pitch, into cell-size bits (one or two sentences long), you run the risk of breaking the flow of ideas and end up translating in a very mechanical way, losing sight of the forest (the overall pitch) for the trees (each separate cell). That entails even more post-editing, since you want to adapt your client’s content to the feel of the foreign language and market.

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In this case, the client is a translation agency, the only one I work for. Our relationship is the result of a special situation; I don’t work for agencies as a rule.

So this is part of the brief that came with a translation project:

Please translate all text from column A - and ensure that your translation is also divided into separate cells, as per the source.

My (friendly, yet slightly hurt) reply, when delivering the project:

Do you really think that I don’t know how to use an Excel file? :))))

Client’s reply:

you’d be surprised how technophobic some translators are!!

Seriously!

I’m a member of the baby boomer generation, albeit from the second half… and very soon, you’ll read about how I began my career, with a pencil and a rubber…

But technology has been with us in the form of computers and software for most of my working life, in many diverse forms (using software, translating it, translating its documentation in various forms). I have used spreadsheets for literally ages. I keep track of projects, accounts, even Christmas menus in Excel (I must admit, though, that I strongly object to the use of spreadsheets for translations, hum hum, that will be our secret).

Anyhow I would assume that since their inception sometime back in the… let me see… 80’s, the standard professional translator would be able to use if not to create files using the Holy Trinity of office tools: word, spreadsheet and presentation software.

And in 2008, you’re giving me instructions on how to use Excel?

I want to cry…

A while ago, I discovered the WordPress Photo Dropper plug-in. Basically, what the plug-in does, it finds photos that have been uploaded to Flickr and are available for some limited uses. Many bloggers seem to use it now.

I thought it was a good idea to leave a comment on the photo page, thanking that person for the picture and telling them where I had used it. I got good responses from most members, and everything was fine.

Until a couple of days ago, when I received a dry comment from a third-party telling me that one photo had been stolen (from him), and to please delete it. I checked all the links provided by the third-party to support that claim and deleted both the photo (a nice one, I must say) from my blog and my comment from Flickr.

The owner of the photo is exercising his rights (I’ve decided that he’s he), and that’s absolutely right. Except that I had used that photo in good faith, and his tone didn’t encourage me to either congratulate him for a good picture, or even give me any desire to buy it.

I deleted everything, photo, comment on Flickr and comment to my blog, e-mail and all. I’m out of the loop now.

People who have their contents or products stolen are right to be mad about it. I’d probably be murderous if I found this happened to me. But reflecting upon it, and seeing how things are developing on the web, and everything in life is a lesson, I see this as a sadly missed opportunity for the owner. Given that the idea of that picture was really a good one, I think he could have handled this in a better way, at least as far as I’m concerned. Like: invited me to buy his photo, to look at his other photos, etc., still asserting his rights to them. Had he allowed me to side with him, I would have bought his photo. Instead, I feel as if I’ve been labeled as part of a gang of photo thieves.

A good lesson for the future, maybe…

How important is translation for your marketing?

I had previously missed this e-mail because it was caught by my e-mail account’s spam filter, and I noticed the heading just as I was deleting the whole lot in one go.

But thanks to spamming stupidity, it was here today again and I opened it.

Yes I know this was risky, considering some recent experience, but I am of a curious disposition and willing to take risks, and how could I resist the lure of this heading?

Nous avons beaucoup de programme de la lange FRANCAISES!

Because most of my readers are anglophones, let me try to be creative -I just love allowing myself to make mistakes!- and craft a fairly reasonable equivalent:

We have many program of the ENGLISHES langage!

In other words: three linguistic errors, and one formatting error in a 9-word heading.

Interestingly, the organization that blasts these e-mails out has a website, and I checked it. They use the same marketing hype there, but it has been edited and looks slightly better. Pity they haven’t thought of updating their marketing e-mails.

Now I have two unrelated questions, and your answers will be greatly appreciated:

1. Would you feel confident to buy some expensive software products in your language version, from a provider that crammed 4 errors in a 9-word heading?

2. And incidentally, would you feel confident to buy some expensive software from a provider that offered (for some) up to 95% discounts on the *standart* (their mistake, not mine) price?

If you value your foreign customers, how do you show it to them?