It Had To Come Out
I’ve just answered to a LinkedIn question. What a great way to start the day?
The question is here.
Here is my answer:
Some translators, and some of them not necessarily as bad as you might think, are lured into thinking that they will get more work by accepting these low rates. What they get is more stress, and less money to pay their bills. What will happen to them in an age of recession?
This kind of treatment goes beyond the problem of ensuring quality. If I was accepting these rates, for whatever reason, I would deliver the same quality as I would do for 10 times the amount. But it’s a matter of how you value yourself and your work in the world. For me, 0.02 cent per word is not pay, it’s slavery that tries to pass off for pay.
Editing machine-translated copy raises the same kind of problems. Some of the mistakes produced by translation software can be very subtle and require exactly the same level of proficiency and skills as if the translator was doing the job him/herself.
So you have my answer: I never accept, and indeed would never even consider looking at this kind of rate, and translators (I mean real, professional translators) are doing themselves a disservice by encouraging this practice and putting themselves on an equal level with machines.
Honestly!
Tags: Translation
August 27th, 2008 at 5:13 am
Linguistics, is one of the most complex if not challenging of the service industry. As a professional, the ‘fee’ {we shan’t look at where the monies go – life, bills etc} often times reflects professioanlism, and it should’nt be compromised just because the market is dishing recession rates to the masses or testing the grounds to lower service over marketability.
Mercedes will not lower its price just because oil prices are augmenting daily. Nor should professional translators, and interpretors accept pittance for what they’ve acquired over the years of experience, and education.
August 27th, 2008 at 8:48 am
And clients -at least my clients- are not necessarily looking for cheap labor. They want a service that is within their budgets, that’s for sure, but their budgets are not always that small when good service and quality are what they are looking for.
No one is in business for altruism. And no one will plead our cause, it’s up to us to demonstrate our value and fight for our right to live and work.
August 27th, 2008 at 9:47 am
Exactement! Well said. Bon courage Nadine @+