Freelance translators and quoting
July 13, 2010
Quoting is one of the very first steps of a translation project. With a new prospect, it could mean the beginning of a long-term collaboration and as such, it is a crucial step.
Sending a clear quote is essential. A document giving detailed information about a project means that all parties know exactly what the project will entail and their roles and responsibilities: the translator agrees to deliver so many words on a particular date and the client agrees to pay the price quoted. In order to do this, I analyse the document to assess its difficulty, the time it will take me to translate and how it will fit in with my work schedule. The more complex the document, the longer it will take me to produce the translation and so the higher the per word rate is. This hourly rate calculator is very useful and this wiki on determining your rates also contains interesting information.
I never take into account the competition when I prepare a quote. I decided long ago to remain a neutral observer of the price wars, for a simple reason: that's all I can do. There will always be translators that are in a position to offer much cheaper rates than me, so my unique selling points are the quality of my work, my reliability and my efficiency. So far, this approach has worked for me, but lately, I've had a string of rejected quotes. One was strictly because of rates, another prospective client found someone with more experience than me, another decided to go with a translation agency instead of several freelance translators, another I'm not sure. I asked for feedback from my latest prospect and she told me that she liked my personal approach and my website, which made her feel welcome and aware of my process, but that her decision came down to budget.
I can't help feeling that had I given her a call to discuss her project, she might have decided to pick me. Although her project was straightforward and didn't necessarily need discussing, she clearly values a personal approach and creating a rapport might have made the difference. The other mistake I think I made was that I didn't tell her how interested I was in her project and how I was looking forward to sinking my teeth in it – it required a creative touch, which I love, and I should have emphasised the need for us to have regular communication in order to get the right tone for the translation.
I always aim to make working with me as simple as possible for my clients: people are busy and the less maintenance I require, the more they can dedicate their time to other tasks, which they are generally grateful for. In some cases however, and definitely in this one, speed and efficiency must be put aside to favour a more personal touch: by firing an email with my quote without taking the time to talk to my prospect, I probably lost the "personal edge" she liked when she visited my website. In freelance translation, one size definitely doesn't fit all.
Photo by StartTheDay
Bagsy
July 1, 2010
“Would you like this last bit of summer pudding, Céline?” asked my mother-in-law.
“No, thank you,” said I. “However, I think I will bagsy it for tomorrow.”
Rarely had my in-laws’ dining-room witnessed such outrageous behaviour, which was swiftly condemned by all present. You can’t bagsy pudding for the day after! Was the consensus around the table.
I’ve always loved this very useful concept, which is handily conveyed by the verb “bagsy” in English. There is a French equivalent, preums, (prem’s or preumz, etc), but it is an interjection, which is not as malleable as a verb and is only really useful in the present. So you can imagine my disappointment when my clever move to secure the last bit of summer pudding was firmly denied.
The origin of the French word seems obvious (premier means “first”) and the Oxford English Dictionary tells us that bagsy comes from “bags I” and has examples from 1866 onwards.
Word detective also tells us that
A child in Southern England [...] might exclaim "Bags it" or "Baggsy," whereupon by the sacred code of children the prize is hers. Her London counterpart might say "Squits," and still further north a child would say "Foggy," "Furry" or "Firsy." Other words which seem to work as well include "Barley," "Bollars," "Jigs" and, in Scotland, "Chaps" or "Chucks." Our American friends favour "dibs".
Summer pudding photo by moleitau.
Be-all and end-all
June 25, 2010
I came across the expression "be-all and end-all" in a document, which I chose to translate in French as panacée. I knew it took its origins in a Shakespeare play, but couldn't remember which one, so I went in search of an answer. It was Macbeth:
Macbeth says: If it were done when 'tis done, then 'twere well it were done quickly: if the assassination could trammel up the consequence, and catch, with his surcease, success; that but this blow might be the be-all and end-all here.
What I read next was more surprising:
After years of use, ‘the be-all and [the] end-all’ became shortened to: the Bs and Es. [...] As this was said, over time (if you repeat this fast, you will see), it sounds like ‘the bee’s knees’. Future Perfect
Really? That's not what I found when I researched the expression "the bee's knees" a few years ago. I turned to a more authoritative source and this is what I found:
It’s sometimes explained as being from an Italian-American way of saying business or that it’s properly Bs and Es, an abbreviation for be-alls and end-alls. Both are without doubt wrong. Bee’s knees is actually one of a set of nonsense catchphrases from 1920s America, the period of the flappers, speakeasies, feather boas and the Charleston. World Wide Words
Some words just intrigue so much that people love working out funny, but ultimately wrong, origins. A friend confidently told me this weekend that "loo" came from regardez l'eau, which servants cried before tipping chamber-pots outside the window to warn passers-by. I voiced my scepticism and promised I would look into it. As I suspected, there are many possible explanations for the origin of "loo":
There are several theories about the origin of this common term for a familiar article of sanitary furniture. The first, and most popular, is that it is derived from the cry of "gardyloo" (from the French regardez l'eau or "watch out for the water") which was shouted by medieval servants as they emptied the chamber-pots out of the upstairs windows into the street. This is historically problematic, since by the time the term "loo" is recorded, the expression "gardyloo" was long obsolete. A second theory is that the word derives from a polite use of the French term le lieu (the place) as a euphemism. Unfortunately, documentary evidence to support this idea is lacking. A third theory, favoured by many, refers to the trade name "Waterloo", which appeared prominently displayed on the iron cisterns in many British outhouses during the early 20th century. This is more credible in terms of dates, but corroborating evidence is still frustratingly hard to find. Various other picturesque theories also circulate, involving references to doors numbered "00" or people called "Looe". Ask Oxford
Conclusion: folk etymology is fun, but if you are interested in the real origin of words, you have to be prepared to do a lot of research and to often be disappointed.
Acronyms linked to nimbyism
June 17, 2010
I spent last week in Brighton interpreting during a training course on waste management. When you're interpreting, you need to make very quick choices to make sure the message is communicated efficiently between all the different participants, so when the debate turned to nimbyism (from NIMBY, Not In My Backyard, which describes opposition by residents to a proposal for a new development close to them), I chose to paraphrase instead of using the English acronym. The French participants' reaction? "Oh yes, we have a term for this in French: the nimby syndrome". Here we go again.
Waste management facilities are rarely welcome and clearly stimulate the imagination of people fighting them: try and see if you can work out what these acronyms, all linked to nimbyism, mean.
NIMBY - Not In My Backyard (pas dans ma cour OR pas dans mon jardin)
NIMSBY - Not In My Second Backyard (pas dans ma deuxième cour)
NOTE - Not Over There Either OR Not On This Earth (pas là-bas non plus OR pas sur cette Terre - well done Sibylle!)
ABH - Anywhere But Here (n'importe où mais pas ici - well done Jenny!)
LULU - Locally Unwanted/Undesirable Land Use (occupation des sols indésirable - well done Sibylle!)
NOOS - Not On Our Street (pas dans notre rue)
NIOBE - Not In Our Beautiful Environment (pas dans notre magnifique cadre de vie)
NOPE - Not On Planet Earth (pas sur la planète Terre - bravo jean-paul !)
NIABY - Not In Anyone's Backyard (Pas dans la cour de qui que ce soit - well done Nathalie!)
BANANA - Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anything (non aux constructions, quelles qu'elles soient, où qu'elles soient - well done Sibylle!)
NIMEY - Not In My Election Year (Pas dans l'année de mon élection - well done Nathalie!)
NIMFOS - Not In My Field Of Sight (pas dans mon champ de vision - well done jean-paul !)
NIMTOO - Not in My Term of Office (pas pendant mon mandat - well done Sibylle!)
PITBY- Put It in Their Back Yard (mettez-le dans leur jardin - well done jean-paul!)
CALF - Citizens Against Landfill (citoyens contre les décharges - well done Abigail!)
PEST - Prevent Environmental Suicide Today (empêcher aujourd'hui le suicide environnemental - well done Abigail!)
Photo of the Spittelau incinerator (Vienna) by josylein
Watch your language!
May 12, 2010
The webinar I gave with James on websites for translators went really well yesterday, but at the end, I completely misunderstood a question and ended up giving Really Bad Advice. I was able to correct myself once I realised my mistake.
The question was: “If you’re not able to write perfectly in your second language, should you still write the copy for your website, knowing that it will contain a few mistakes?” Because I was fiddling with my headset, I missed some of the question and thought it was about professional communications with clients. I said that most people are very forgiving of mistakes made by someone writing in their second language and that as long as the client knows this and that the message is clearly conveyed, a few minor mistakes shouldn’t be a problem.
Your website, however, is another matter altogether. As we explained in the webinar, a translator’s website is a shop window: it must be attractive and make the visitor want to know more. It’s the chance to engage with potential customers and present one’s abilities and competencies and as translation professionals, we just cannot afford to have language mistakes in it. Even when writing in our second language, errors will reflect badly on our integrity and attention to detail and this why the English side of my site is carefully proofread by a native English speaker. This includes almost every blog entry – not the small ones, which I’m confident I can get right so long as I use simple language, but definitely the longer ones, which may involve delving into issues a bit more deeply and having to convey more complicated concepts. Typos are one thing, but if I want to be taken seriously as a translation professional, I must show language the respect that it is due.
Bigot
April 29, 2010
So Gordon Brown is at the centre of a controversy for calling a retired resident of Rochdale a “bigot” after she questioned his immigration policy. The leader of the Labour party chose a very interesting word:
1590s, from Fr. bigot (12c.), in O.Fr. "sanctimonious;" supposedly a derogatory name for Normans, the old theory (not universally accepted) being that it springs from their frequent use of O.E. oath bi God. Plausible, since the Eng. were known as goddamns in Joan of Arc's France, and during World War I Americans serving in France were said to be known as les sommobiches (son of a bitch). But the earliest French use of the word (12c.) is as the name of a people apparently in southern Gaul (which led to the now-doubtful, on phonetic grounds, theory that the word comes from Visigoth). Sp. bigote "mustache" also has been proposed as a source, though the sense is not adequately explained. The earliest English sense is of "religious hypocrite," especially a female one, and may have been influenced by Beguine. Sense extended 1680s to other than religious opinions.
Etymonline
This term originally referred to a religious hypocrite, but its use has been extended and designates a fanatical adherent or believer; a person characterised by obstinate, intolerant, or strongly partisan beliefs (Oxford English Dictionary). In French, I would translate it by sectaire.
Let's hope that the party leaders will be able to put the record straight on immigration in the UK during tonight's debate.
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Coworking and hotdesking
April 26, 2010