Languages :: Specialization :: Types of services :: FAQ
WHAT DO YOU NEED TO KNOW TO DO MY JOB EXACTLY IN A WAY I WANT TO GET IT? Except for the text or any other source materials itself I MUST know the following information: - What kind of services you look for? If you provide me with a brochure you may not necessarily need DTP, but simply a translation, which you may either give to your other preferred DTPer (for example, make it yourself) or even use my translation in another way: place it on your website or send as a direct marketing e-mail with no DTP layout. That’s why I need you to mention ALL the services you need for your project. - What is your deadline? Every client wants his or her job to be done as soon as possible. However, if your real deadline allows me to complete the job with my average speed (about 3000 words per day) or even slower, please set the deadline considering your real needs. Don’t say "I need it tomorrow" just to have it done ASAP. Although, if you’re really in a hurry and need me to work extra time to complete your urgent project, it’s also possible either with the help my colleague translators or solely with my own efforts and extra time. However, urgent projects are charged at higher rates. Please see Services or contact me directly for more information. - In what format do you want the material to be delivered? You may supply a text in any format and considering your own needs and plans for the translation I provide you with you may order the materials to be delivered either as *.doc, *.pdf, *.ai, *.ppt, *.txt, etc. or printed on paper, on a floppy disc or as a file by e-mail. That's why I need to know beforehand what is the desired format of delivery. - How you want the job to be delivered? You may order the job to be delivered by e-mail, FTP, by regular mail or courier. This should be requested and agreed before the project starts. Some of the delivery methods involve additional costs that can be added to the final invoice amount. YOU HAVE MY TEXT. WHY ARE YOU ASKING FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION? Sometimes to have a text is simply not enough to provide an appropriate translation. Sometimes maps, drawings, and diagrams are far more effective than a text, where different words, sentences and phrases can be translated in a different ways, and in this case graphics and any additional information provide necessary context for correct and appropriate translations. Marketing and advertising translations appears to be even more context dependent translation areas. Slogans and other short promotional messages, which literally mean something abstract, such a feelings, action devices, etc., can be translated very differently for an FMCG company and a consumer electronics’ manufacturer. That’s why in most cases I would be glad to know (and in some case I'll request) the following information: - Name of the company - Company’s website address - The way and the form my translation will be used in (exhibition leaflet, company’s presentation, website article or information, etc.) - Target audience I HAVE ONLY FEW WORDS/SENTENCES TO BE TRANSLATED. WHAT WILL YOU CHARGE FOR IT? For a small projects, which nevertheless require some time to get acquainted with your requirements, make all necessary pre-translation preparations, to translate the text and deliver it, I have a minimum charge of EUR15 or USD18. I HAVE FRIENDS/COLLEAGUES/EMPLOYEES WHO STUDIED RUSSIAN/UKRAINIAN AND CAN TRANSLATE INTO THESE LANGUAGES. WHY SHOULD I PAY TO EXTERNAL TRANSLATOR FOR IT? If your friend/colleague/employee IS NOT Russian or Ukrainian: It is highly preferred that all translations into a language are made by professional translator, to whom the target language is native.This means that only a person, who uses the language every day for each and every purpose and learned all nuances of a language at mother's knees, able to get any figurative meaning and can properly translate your text without losses in wording, meaning, style, etc. There are of course professional translators, who work into their non-native languages, and there are types of texts, which do not require such deep understanding of a language, but both of them are not as numerous as you can think. If your friend/colleague/employee IS Russian or Ukrainian: In this case you have to take in account the following: - Where do he/she lives now: if he/she lives abroad, then for how long; people living abroad for a few years often lose the language skills, and if the don’t, they at least have difficulties in keeping their native language “up do date” with an in-country used language, which is very important jobs related to new technologies, new sciences and practically every industry and area of human activity that constantly develops. - People, who are not trained as linguists, translators or as other language specialists, are often not so meticulous in their language practice. Finally, their grammar, punctuation and style can be far from perfect. If your friend/colleague/employee IS Russian or Ukrainian professional translator: Then you should turn to him/her for professional services unless you need one more translator to work with you. I HAVE MACHINE TRANSLATION TOOL TO TRANSLATE MY TEXT. WHY SHOULD I PAY TRANSLATOR FOR THIS? So far no machine translation tool can provide translation ready for publication. Best of them will give you a text that needs a lot of human editing/proofreading and others’ translation will require complete human retranslation. So far they only can be used for understanding the general meaning of a text that is not to be sent/published/presented anywhere or to translate very simple texts, such as lists of products, cities, etc. The latter can still require revision and editing. So if this is not what you're looking for you’d better turn to a translator or translation agency. WHAT IS TM (TRANSLATION MEMORY)? I'd like to draw your attention to the fact that there is a huge distinction between machine translation and translation memory tools or software. Comparing to the machine translation tools that translate text on a word-by-word basis and still can't achieve the appropriate and correct target text, TM tools work as follows: as a translator proceeds with translation process, every sentence and or phrase translated is stored in a bilingual database. For every subsequent reoccurrence of a particular sentence, or a sentence fragment, the translator is automatically provided with the translation stored in memory. The translator can then choose to accept this translation if it is a 100% match or edit it in such a way that renders it acceptable. All this greatly reduces time spent on repeated content and ensures that the terminology will be consistent throughout an entire document and in any related documentation translated at a later date. Translator should only edit already stored and proposed by TM tool fragment. Such repeated sentences or even parts of texts are charged at a lower rate and subsequently they reduce the total amount payable. I DON’T WANT ANY PORTIONS OF MY MATERIAL BE USED ANYWHERE. HOW YOU CAN GUARANTEE THAT? You can request that any of your materials will not be disclosed anywhere to anyone. To guarantee this we can sign a confidentiality agreement. WHY SHOULD I USE YOU, FREELANCE TRANSLATOR, WHEN THERE ARE SO MANY TRANSLATION AGENCIES TO DO THIS JOB? To reduce you translation costs. Translation agencies usually have very diversified resources: translators, DTP-ers, localizers, software, equipment, variety of languages and specializations, etc. They are really very effective in handling large multilanguage long-term projects as the project management skills they bring into your project, but for all other translations you can successfully employ freelance translator reducing your costs in average by 3 times simply because of absence of overheads in freelancer’s work. Still you should be very careful when choosing freelance translator as well as choosing a translation agency/company. It is indeed a very good idea to test both of them by assigning a small portion of the whole project first to check their credibility and quality of their work. |
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