Here is an idea…
I want to form a team of translators where team members are currently semi-experienced in the field of translating.
This is for fun, for profit and for knowledge exploration.
I, myself is a Chinese/English bilingual, but as you can see my wordings are often awkwarded.
Ideally this translating team is like a three-way language exchange.
As the middle-man, I act as the bridge between the native English speaker and the native Chinese speaker.
With synergy, the native speaker’s Chinese ability will improve dramatically and vice versa for the native Chinese speaker.
Okay, now who wants to be a part of this once in a life time gig?
Techno,
Don’t take this the wrong way, but your written English is so far from being of a professional translation standard (at least judging from this excerpt, and from what you yourself said) that if your Chinese is not spot-on perfect, it’s hard to imagine what you bring to such an enterprise. If your Chinese is stellar, you might be able to work from English into Chinese.
Are you proposing to act merely as some sort of organizer – in which case, you mean you are starting a translation resale business and hoping to get folks who will work more cheaply than “fully” experienced translators? I’m not quite sure what you are proposing.
Frankly it sounds more like a study group to me (not that there’s anything wrong with that). I am not sure, however, why you would need to be the bridge between the Chinese and the English speaker, if both are learning the other’s language. Maybe I’m just not getting it. Can you explain what you propose to do?
Is the field of translation too crowded?
Or more importanly is the field crowded with too many over-qualified translators?
If the answers to the above questions is yes, forming a team of ragtag translator-wanna-be is just another way to kill time.
Part 2 of what I am wondering is if the task of translation is actually a lonely and personal affair? If yes, forming a team may be a good idea.
Further more, if you are able to translate anything all by yourself, obviously there is no need for you to be in a team.
Teams of translators working on different parts of one project can result in inconsistent style, so it’s advisable that each translator in such a team also be responsible for editing the work of the other translators. Also, strict adherence to style and terminology conventions should be followed, and communication lines should always be open. This would be a good strategy for sizeable translation projects, such as university textbooks.
One of my two places of work regularly hires translators for corporate stuff. I’m in charge of this and the first thing I ask a potential translator or agency is whether the work is to be done by one person. If the answer is no, they’re immediately rejected. It’s enough trouble editing some of these so-called “professionals” attempts at writing English without the additional work of cobbling together the work of a “team” of translators into something resembling English. And I’m talking about native English speakers, too. How anyone can manage to achieve advanced qualifications in translation (as some of these people claim to have) and yet be unable to write coherently is completely beyond me.
At one of the companies I translate for, I translate entire articles by myself at one go. Then I submit the completed article for editing by a native speaker of Chinese for content accuracy, and it is sent back to me. Then after further proofreading I submit it to a native speaker of English to check style, usage, sentence flow, logic, etc. Then it comes back to me again for more proofreading. Yet another native English speaker checks it before it goes to print.
That’s because you work for a company doing print articles. The luxury of time.
Typical freelance translation cycle:
Day 1: client calls on the phone. “Um, I have a company introduction of about 20,000 characters/patent on a mechanical bull/packet of six hundred birth certificates, and I need it translated.”
You: (looking at calendar) “Well, it’s Friday afternoon now…when did you need that finished?”
Client: “Oh, Monday or Tuesday would be fine.”
You: “Goodness, that might not work out so well. But I can have it ready by [date].”…
after extended negotiations on timing and price
You: “Okay then, talk to you later.”
You then pump out your 2,000 to 3,000 characters per day until it’s all finished. The client needs it before you’re done, of course, because they can never learn that translation takes time, so there’s no question of having anyone look it over, much less make changes and have them approved by you, etc. etc. The work goes out.
Client [two weeks later]: “I just got around to taking a look at that company introduction you translated, and someone in the office has a question about this sentence…”
You: [deep sigh]
Best thing you can hope for is to be connected with a few folks whose linguistic judgement you trust, for help with those bumps in the road. But overall, it’s gotta be a commercial translation. You do the best you can and then you don’t worry about it too much. The ones who manage to do a fairly good “best you can” stay in business, and most of the others are winnowed out (but not all.)
As it should be, Chris. It hardly ever is, though – our clients invariably go for the cheap option if they get the choice, and I’m talking about multinationals with foreign senior management here, not locals. One translator, one editor and they won’t pay for any more than that. Chabuduoism is not embraced only by Taiwanese companies.
[quote=“ironlady”]Typical freelance translation cycle:
Day 1: client calls on the phone. “Um, I have a company introduction of about 20,000 characters/patent on a mechanical bull/packet of six hundred birth certificates, and I need it translated.”
You: (looking at calendar) “Well, it’s Friday afternoon now…when did you need that finished?”
Client: “Oh, Monday or Tuesday would be fine.”
You: “Goodness, that might not work out so well. But I can have it ready by [date].”…
after extended negotiations on timing and price
You: “Okay then, talk to you later.”
You then pump out your 2,000 to 3,000 characters per day until it’s all finished. The client needs it before you’re done, of course, because they can never learn that translation takes time, so there’s no question of having anyone look it over, much less make changes and have them approved by you, etc. etc. The work goes out.
Client [two weeks later]: “I just got around to taking a look at that company introduction you translated, and someone in the office has a question about this sentence…”
You: [deep sigh][/quote]
Been there, done that, bought the T-shirt!
[quote=“technobabel”]Is the field of translation too crowded?
Or more importanly is the field crowded with too many over-qualified translators?
If the answers to the above questions is yes, forming a team of ragtag translator-wanna-be is just another way to kill time.
Part 2 of what I am wondering is if the task of translation is actually a lonely and personal affair? If yes, forming a team may be a good idea.
Further more, if you are able to translate anything all by yourself, obviously there is no need for you to be in a team.[/quote]
This sounds like the concept of 三個臭皮匠，勝過諸葛亮. However, I personally don’t think it’ll fly. If someone is serious enough about something to actually shell out money for a translation, that person will mostly likely want someone who knows both languages at an advanced level rather than a team of people that still have significant holes in the source or target language.
When you go to get dental work done, would you rather have a single certified dentist working on your teeth or three dental students discussing which way is the best way to go about your cavity. Perhaps at the end of the day, the results are the same, but which option puts your mind at ease?