As a translator one either contacts new companies or else IS ASKED by new companies to work for them. In either case the translator is likely to be asked to do a trial/test free of charge. Over more than 30 years I have been asked a million times to do these trials and actually did many. Recently, however, I am getting very tired of those. Why?
Well ... you do those tests = spend maybe hours to do work FOR FREE, have to wait a sometimes unbeliebable long time for the results, and when they finally tell you, you have passed the test, the company discloses "their rates". It then turns out, those are unacceptably low. If I knew in advance those rates ... I would not have done the test.
I now ask companies up front to disclose their rates, since there is really no point in working for free, only to conclude later, that working for the particular company is "out of the question".
To be a FAIR trial, I believe the companies should disclose their rates up front!
Showing posts with label trial. Show all posts
Showing posts with label trial. Show all posts
8/29/2016
6/29/2012
Trials ... again, stuborn shortsightedness
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| Japanese language (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
Yesterday I received a response to a mail I sent to company with which I had contact several years ago, trying to refresh the memory of me. I copy the correspondence, not giving any names. To my mind the other party (company located in India) is asking rather unreasonable things.
Or is it me, who is off the mark???????
My mail specified what I am doing:
Japanese -> German
Japanese -> English
English <-> German translations.
medicine / pharmaceutics / chemistry / science / engineering
patents / manuals / etc.
Upon which I got the response:
Thanks for your mail,we would like to see your translation quality,is it possible for you to do 2 page sample from Japanese to English ?
Me again ->
Trial: I have done that so many times over the past three decades, that I got sick of it.
As a result I picked up some "trials" in various language pairs, fields
and put them on my website:
http://www.einklang.com/Translation%20samples.htm
Please have a look there. I am convinced you will find more than enough material there to judge my capabilities. (naturally, all translations are made by me)
I do understand but as per our company policy we have to evaluate the new translator by giving our sample. Let me know if you are interested or not ?
We request you to deliver it tomorrow EOD.
Thank you, but ...
this text has 1149 characters, which represents approximately 3.2 pages of translation.
I do not do "trials" of this size any more.
AND, this is about business (financial orientation). That is a subject matter I usually do not handle.
In my original mail I indicated roughly, what I am usually working with.
Fine or else do the first 2 pages if you don't wish to do sample we regret to say that we can't add you in our database
Any proper translator is a specialist in some fields but not in others.
If an employer assigns work lying outside the translator's
specialization, it cannot expect proper results.
A barber does not do carpenter work.
Since you are apparently unwilling to recognize this universal truth,
I believe it is indeed safer for me not to be a part of your team.
Sorry for stealing your time.
Thomas Blasejewicz
4/19/2012
Trial(s) ...
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| This is Swampyank's copy of "The Jury" by John Morgan, painted in 1861, and now in the Bucks County Museum in England. More information about the painting can be found here: [http://www.buckscc.gov.uk/bcc/museum/ea_The_Jury.page|inline= (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
Definition of TRIAL according to Meriam Webster:
1a: the action or process of trying or putting to the proof; TEST
b: a preliminary contest (as in a sport)
2: the formal examination before a competent tribunal of the matter in issue in a civil or criminal cause in order to determine such issue
3: a test of faith, patience, or stamina through subjection to suffering or temptation; broadly : a source of vexation or annoyance
4a: a tryout or experiment to test quality, value, or usefulness - compare clinical trial
b: one of a number of repetitions of an experiment
5: attempt
Related to TRIAL
Synonyms: cross, crucible, fire, gauntlet (also gantlet), ordeal, baptism of fire
Well, let's assume, that the translation "trials" are supposed "4a: a tryout or experiment to test quality, value, or usefulness" and NOT what the majority of synonyms suggest: cross, crucible, fire, gauntlet (also gantlet), ordeal, baptism of fire - thereby presuming the "good intentions" of the company requesting the trial.
But, as can be seen from the dictionary definitions, the meaning of the word itself suggests more strongly the notion of "ordeal" instead of a simple test of skills.
That aside there is also the second definition: "the formal examination before a competent tribunal of the matter in issue in a civil or criminal cause in order to determine such issue".
In that case I am the "accused" and the company the prosecutor.
I have to "stand trial", or "face a trial".
As the accused I produce evidence to show my innocence - openly visible for the judge, jury and everybody else.
The prosecution (represented by the jury) however hides its evidence against me.
It just delivers its verdict: you are guilty ("of not being good enough at translation").
Once the verdict has been reached, the accused gets NO CHANCE to defend him/herself, since the evidence against him/her must be for some reason kept secret.
While I laid open my evidence,
the prosecution "covers up" its evidence.
The need to "cover up" = hide, keep secret, itself is VEEERY SUSPICIOUS!
The accused is simply sentenced to death without any evidence and without chance of defending himself.
So much for a "fair trial".
I am sure the people on the prosecution side would LOVE to be treated this way, if they were "in my shoes" ...
The other day I did a trial for a certain company, where it took THREE MONTHS!!! to reach the verdict = "you are not good enough".
Naturally, when I asked whether I may see the actual evaluation indicating all my mistakes, I was told, that information cannot be disclosed.
Below I take the liberty of quoting from a mail correspondence with the coordinator in charge.
Well - no offense, but ... - if it takes them THREE MONTHS to evaluate something like 2 pages of text AND the results much be "covered up" allows me ONLY to conclude, that "they" are neither confident about their work, not competent.
Otherwise they would/should be proud showing their evidence against me.
Quote:
"Not only do I understand, but from a personal standpoint, I more than agree. It is indeed my personal opinion that the amount of time it took on the reviews, regardless of the reasons, is outright ridiculous, and I will say, from a freelancer's perspective, that your evlauation is correct, no matter what company is conducting the trial/review.
As for your results, as you might have guessed, I'm not actually allowed to give out information regarding the review. Unfortunately, they seemed quite adamant about not giving out any information ..."
3/27/2012
Translation samples - the other side
The other day I wrote (quoted from my website) a little something about my views regarding the never ceasing requests for translation samples, often also called "trials".
These always look like tests for the translator.
BUT I have come to think of these things ALSO as tests of the companies/clients requesting these trials.
1) I have been working 27 years as a translator and do not need to test today in order to know what I can do. Samples of my work can be found on my website too.
2) During these long years of work I have often been asked to "evaluate" some translations made by somebody else. If these had been work, it is "natural" that they are several (many) pages long, but there have also been plenty of trials. These were mostly 3-4 pages long. But I usually need AT MOST half a page to get an idea of what that person can (or cannot) do. If I go through the rest of these pages, this will provide me only with some more minor details, or some specific words that may have been used wrongly.
3) When I get something to "evaluate", I am expected to produce an output within hours, or at the latest 2-3 days. However, those "trials" I have been doing are send to some mysterious "reviewer" and it takes something LITERALLY months to get the "results" back. The details of these results are - as I wrote before - are most often kept "secret". If someone (the reviewer) needs THAT much time to come to a conclusion -> I as a translator feel sufficiently authorized to question his/her competence!
4) I also dare to doubt the competence of the reviewer/company when they are ONLY able to evaluate my skills with ONE PARTICULAR text. Anybody who claims to be a professional in this field should be able to evaluate the skills from ANY translation sample.
5) Then I get sample text, which contain mistakes = in the source language.
Thinking positively I could regard these as "part of the trial", intentionally placed there to see if I pick those up.
In case THAT was not the purpose, these mistakes reveal the lack of language skill of the client/company providing the sample. If ther are not able to write in their native language, how in the world do they intend to judge the quality of a certain translation?
Precisely this last aspect provides in MY MIND a red flag for that particular client. If I work for them, they are likely to come up with all sorts of unreasonable claims etc. I have seen this before. More than once.
So, I do a trial and observe how the results come back: this give me a certain view on how much the client can be trusted.
These always look like tests for the translator.
BUT I have come to think of these things ALSO as tests of the companies/clients requesting these trials.
1) I have been working 27 years as a translator and do not need to test today in order to know what I can do. Samples of my work can be found on my website too.
2) During these long years of work I have often been asked to "evaluate" some translations made by somebody else. If these had been work, it is "natural" that they are several (many) pages long, but there have also been plenty of trials. These were mostly 3-4 pages long. But I usually need AT MOST half a page to get an idea of what that person can (or cannot) do. If I go through the rest of these pages, this will provide me only with some more minor details, or some specific words that may have been used wrongly.
3) When I get something to "evaluate", I am expected to produce an output within hours, or at the latest 2-3 days. However, those "trials" I have been doing are send to some mysterious "reviewer" and it takes something LITERALLY months to get the "results" back. The details of these results are - as I wrote before - are most often kept "secret". If someone (the reviewer) needs THAT much time to come to a conclusion -> I as a translator feel sufficiently authorized to question his/her competence!
4) I also dare to doubt the competence of the reviewer/company when they are ONLY able to evaluate my skills with ONE PARTICULAR text. Anybody who claims to be a professional in this field should be able to evaluate the skills from ANY translation sample.
5) Then I get sample text, which contain mistakes = in the source language.
Thinking positively I could regard these as "part of the trial", intentionally placed there to see if I pick those up.
In case THAT was not the purpose, these mistakes reveal the lack of language skill of the client/company providing the sample. If ther are not able to write in their native language, how in the world do they intend to judge the quality of a certain translation?
Precisely this last aspect provides in MY MIND a red flag for that particular client. If I work for them, they are likely to come up with all sorts of unreasonable claims etc. I have seen this before. More than once.
So, I do a trial and observe how the results come back: this give me a certain view on how much the client can be trusted.
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