Ryan Ginstrom has a really interesting post (that links to yet another post) on translation quality. Besides learning the helpful term “chokuyaku” (apparently Japanese for “literal translation”), you can find out about one translator’s novel take on the “you get what you pay for” issue; this translator spends as much time on the project as the client has paid for. If it’s a low-paying client, he works as fast as he can and accepts that the quality is not great. I agree with Ryan that personally I could never do this, but it’s an interesting thought.
Nubbin
Can we make a collective resolution?
As the Dow falls below 8,000 for the first time in over five years, Iceland faces the prospect of national bankruptcy and many Americans can’t sell their homes for what they owe on the mortgage, I think it’s time for freelance translators to make a collective resolution. So far (I force myself to preface any comment about the industry with those words!), it seems that most of us are relatively unaffected by the global economic slowdown; some of us have never been busier.
So, how about if we collectively resolve that we will not complain about having too much work as long as this economic situation continues. When times are good for everyone, I think it’s acceptable to lament how much you’ve been working, or that you turned down multiple projects because you didn’t feel like working overtime. But right now, that seems a little inconsiderate and tasteless; so, let’s save the complaining for when the world’s financial situation improves. I’d rather hear “Fortunately, I have enough/more than enough work” than “I’m so overworked”!
Introducing the Nevada Interpreters and Translators Association
To my knowledge, Nevada hasn’t ever had its own association for translators and interpreters, and we all know what a help it is to connect with our local colleagues! Karen Tkaczyk sent me the link to the recently formed NITA (Nevada Interpreters and Translators Association), which seems to be offering a nice range of events for Nevada-based language professionals.
Update on tags in OmegaT
A while ago, I wrote about both my love of the free and open source translation environment tool OmegaT and my frustration with tags in OmegaT. Since then, I’ve found that the easiest solution, as long as the document doesn’t contain complex formatting, is to save the document as plain text, then translate in OmegaT and then use your word processing program to put the formatting back in.
In order to make sure that the tags are really gone, I save the document as .txt in OpenOffice.org, then open it in a text editor (I use Kate, but any text editor will do) and save it again, then place that file into the source folder in the OmegaT project. This method is especially helpful when a client sends a “Word document” that is actually an OCR of a PDF (talk about tags!!).
An interesting post on client solvency
I’ve been handling a string of rush jobs today, but here is a link to Masked Translator’s excellent new post, When your client goes bankrupt. The information on bankruptcy is very helpful (this was also discussed in a recent ATA Chronicle article) and there is also some very good general information on client solvency and how to keep your cash flow steady.