This came in the other day on 23:30 Japan time. The company is located in New York and I would have to check the time difference:
"I have a potentially crazy question to ask you...would you be able to turn around 2 Japanese patent applications, one of 4597 words and the other of 2255 words, by 7:45AM tomorrow? More feasibly, would you be able to turn around at least the larger patent application by 7:45AM tomorrow?"
My first response:
Good morning (3 am!) from Japan
Thank you for your job offer, but ...
with all due respect - the requested due date is very unrealistic!
Having a short look showed approximately 23 + 12 pages of translation.
Together that would be 35 pages of PATENT SPECIFICATION, which is a lot more difficult than ordinary text.
In a few hours???
Maybe even asking for a discount rate?
I am not capable of working that fast (being busy with other work anyway).
I would like to meet the person who actually CAN do that.
Even if somebody says s/he CAN produce that much patent translation in such a short time ... I would not trust that person/translation.
Please ask ANYBODY working in ANY patent office about the feasibility, and more importantly the trustworthiness of the produced translation.
Sorry, but I cannot help you, even if I wanted to.
And my professional pride demands that I DO NOT accept work, when I cannot take responsibility for the results.
When the other party agreed, I added a little metaphor:
No problem and no harm done.
It is simply amazing how little the people who are asking for this kind of work actually KNOW about what is involved in translation -- or else CARE about it.
To put it in a little (distorted, sorry) perspective:
Let's say someone asks a construction firm to something like the Empire State Building - in two weeks with a budget of 8.75 USD.
I can see the exhilarated president of the construction company ...
And naturally everybody would agree that this absolutely normal ....
*************************
One of my grandfather's favorite sayings was“Use the right tool for the job”
―common-sense advice that applies to a wide range of situations.
Unfortunately, as Mark Twain observed, common sense isn't very common!
9/15/2012
Relevant information
Today on a translator site a job posting read:
"One of our client is having requirement for technical English to German Translation.
Domain: Technical.
File Type: Word (pdf converted)
Words around 1500
Please mention your best rates for this job."
Its technical. OK.
What kind of "technical"? Subject matter?
No indication at all.
How are you then supposed to provide your "best rates" (meaning "peanuts"!) for this job.
If you ask a construction firm:
"Let's build something. Give me a price."
What kind of answer would you expect???
"One of our client is having requirement for technical English to German Translation.
Domain: Technical.
File Type: Word (pdf converted)
Words around 1500
Please mention your best rates for this job."
Its technical. OK.
What kind of "technical"? Subject matter?
No indication at all.
How are you then supposed to provide your "best rates" (meaning "peanuts"!) for this job.
If you ask a construction firm:
"Let's build something. Give me a price."
What kind of answer would you expect???
Attention ... Scam
Good evening
The other day I got a phone call and was asked to do a Japanese-German translation (patent specification).
Stupid as I am I did that over the weekend and finished it ahead of time.
Yet, after I delivered the translation there is no more response from that "company".
Faxing (address says France) etc. shows that there is no such place/phone/person.
Naturally, I am not getting paid at all.
BEWARE of:
International Patent-Translation Bureau (IPTB)
Italian - Spanish - Portuguese - German - French - English - Russian -- Chinese - Japanese - etc.
100 rue Royale
F 78000 Versailles
Tel: 00 33 9 51 40 92 36
Fax 00 33 9 56 40 92 36
The other day I got a phone call and was asked to do a Japanese-German translation (patent specification).
Stupid as I am I did that over the weekend and finished it ahead of time.
Yet, after I delivered the translation there is no more response from that "company".
Faxing (address says France) etc. shows that there is no such place/phone/person.
Naturally, I am not getting paid at all.
BEWARE of:
International Patent-Translation Bureau (IPTB)
Italian - Spanish - Portuguese - German - French - English - Russian -- Chinese - Japanese - etc.
100 rue Royale
F 78000 Versailles
Tel: 00 33 9 51 40 92 36
Fax 00 33 9 56 40 92 36
Dipl. Ing. W. LOPO
bppui1@aol.com
This is a scammer = criminal
8/29/2012
Perfect ...
On one of the many translator sites at which I am registered a job offer was posted.
It said there:
"We need someone who will translate, proofread, and edit all of your work into ... or from ... into English. Everything must be perfect every time. If you can provide a favorable rate, we can try to give a high volume of work."
This came from an American company.
Don't they say in ENGLISH (!): "Nobody is perfect" ???
And, naturally, the "favorable rate" most likely means "peanuts" ...
So, who of the superhuman translator heroes out there wants to work for peanuts?
Please raise your hands.
It said there:
"We need someone who will translate, proofread, and edit all of your work into ... or from ... into English. Everything must be perfect every time. If you can provide a favorable rate, we can try to give a high volume of work."
This came from an American company.
Don't they say in ENGLISH (!): "Nobody is perfect" ???
And, naturally, the "favorable rate" most likely means "peanuts" ...
So, who of the superhuman translator heroes out there wants to work for peanuts?
Please raise your hands.
8/06/2012
Unpaid repetitions .....
This morning there was a job offer on one of those translator sites.
It says there:
"There are 2866 words of which 1526 unpaid repetitions."
Yet, I suppose, those "unpaid repetitions" will need to be worked into some sort of file or delt otherwise with in a fashion, that requires human time and effort. Then "unpaid repetitions" means "unpaid work".
Naturally, the job offer continues:
"Payment is made within 60 days via Bank transfer for EU accounts or Paypal for non EU accounts (company located in France).
Please note we do not pay Paypal fees."
It takes half an eternity to get paid AND the translator has to bear all the burden of transfer fees.
Funny, if I as a customer order something over the net etc. *** I = the customer *** have to pay postage, handling and bank fees. Naturally.
So, why for heavens sake do I as a service provider have to cover all those expenses for the client; who is not even my direct client ?????
It says there:
"There are 2866 words of which 1526 unpaid repetitions."
Yet, I suppose, those "unpaid repetitions" will need to be worked into some sort of file or delt otherwise with in a fashion, that requires human time and effort. Then "unpaid repetitions" means "unpaid work".
Naturally, the job offer continues:
"Payment is made within 60 days via Bank transfer for EU accounts or Paypal for non EU accounts (company located in France).
Please note we do not pay Paypal fees."
It takes half an eternity to get paid AND the translator has to bear all the burden of transfer fees.
Funny, if I as a customer order something over the net etc. *** I = the customer *** have to pay postage, handling and bank fees. Naturally.
So, why for heavens sake do I as a service provider have to cover all those expenses for the client; who is not even my direct client ?????
Rate? --- No problem!
 |
| Patent drawing of flight simulator by Rougerie (France - 1928) (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
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| Japanese Language Book (Photo credit: born1945) |
The other day I was asked, whether I can translate FOUR related patent specifications, 2 from Japanese and 2 from English, into German. The Italian company (CAESAR SRL) wrote in its mail:
"We evaluated this job as:
- 5055 words from English / - 4000 words from Japanese
approx. qty: 9055 words / fixed price: € 780,00 --> 0.086 Euro/Word"
0.08 Euro/word for a patent specification from Japanese to German???
A few days after I reclined the offer, I got a mail from "wagner-international", asking me, whether I can do PRECISELY the same job (J-G portion only).
That made me celebrate. WONDERFUL!!!
Apparently nobody else is working for so low rates (for material of this complexity). And I told Wagner so.
That company says of itself: "We specialize in cost–effective, expert communication and media solutions ..."
Meaning: we squeeze every last drop of sweat and tear out of the translator to provide clients with CHEAP (the magic word of our time) product.
If it kills a few (thousand) translators ... well, that is their problem.
On the other hand ...
I got an inquiry --- by telephone! --- about a patent translation from France.
Once I had a look at the text, got a better readable PDF file here in Japan and told them my rate (the due date was fixed up front), the person at the other end of the line said: Rate? -- No problem!
That was not a translation agency, it was a patent office:
International Patent-Translation Bureau (IPTB)
On the one hand you have the agencies (sounds like "agent" from the movie "Matrix") that try to cheat and possibly kill translators,
and on the other hand you have companies knowing that some things simply have their price.
Opting for "cheapest is best" will run people/companies into trouble sooner or later. I have seen it many times ... those companies for which I was too expensive receive claims from their customers and then ask me (or anybody else) to have a look at the tranlation and "brush it up a little" ...
Oh, how stupid!
7/28/2012
It's HOT ... too hot for the equipment ...
 |
| Weather (Photo credit: Jen SFO-BCN) |
Personally I ride my bicycle for excercise even in this weather.
However, when I cam home last night and wanted to continue my translation work, the monitor shortly lit up and then simply faded out. By that time temperature was already down to I guess 29 to 30 degrees.
So I had no choice and used my note PC to do some work and came to the conclusion, that the monitor has finally reached its life span.
However, I also noticed, that TWO digital clockes showed missing digits in their display.
This morning I tried (with little hope) and switched my monitor on --- and it worked.
Apparently the weather was too hot for my equipment!
The monitor yesterday had suffered a heat stroke.
I also noticed, that the ventilation fan of my computer seems to be working VERY hard.
I have to finish one translation today.
It seems I have no choice to turn on the air conditioning to keep my equipment online. And that in the face of the current insufficient electricity supply.
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