Can you English?

I've enjoyed a bit of a break for the past few days and a chance to catch up on reading. Being the proud owner of a young wire-haired vizsla, Quodian's Aristos, who has a number of tests ahead of him in the coming year, I've got a strong interest in dog training. Many years ago I started with the methods of the Monks of New Skete for my old German Shepherd, but these are not enough for a young hunting dog with a sensitive temperament and very specific requirements for hunting tests to pass before he's permitted to breed. Unfortunately there are few hunters or dog trainers near Berlin who have experience with these Hungarian dogs, so at the present time we rely on advice at a distance, lots of books, online research seminars and hope for the best.

One of the fortunate discoveries we've made online are the training methods promoted by a Danish expatriate, Mogens Eliasen, who has very effective approaches which engage a dog's intelligence and avoid the harshness which can ruin a sensitive breed like the vizsla. Mr. Eliasen has written a number of books on the subject of dogs and dog training and translated at least one from Danish into English. I enjoy his writing very much not only for its good content, but also for its entertainment value. However, his work has one glaring deficiency which I have found in a number of other reference works lately. Like too many other non-native speakers of English, he has obviously relied on his own limited mastery of the language and failed to seek professional assistance in editing his work. So sometimes when reading it, I laugh, cringe or scratch my head in puzzlement at some of the things he tries to say but which are not entirely understandable to someone who doesn't speak Danish or at least a related Germanic language. The books are good on the whole, and the information is some of the best that I have found for dog training, but with professional editing it would all be so much better.

As translators most of us probably have similar experiences. Although Mr. Eliasen's English makes me cringe at times, it is at the better end of the scale, and very little if any of his core message is lost. However, the same cannot be said for many letters, user guides and other documents I see from customers who think they have a good command of English and that their work "just needs a bit of touching up". When I am told that there is no German original for some horrible bit of text I've been asked to look at, I get a sick feeling in my stomach. In many cases, the authors or their colleagues fail to understand what the problem is, because they can understand the text better than I can. Of course they can - it isn't English. It is German using bits of English and pseudo-English to replace the German words. The pseudo-English is put through a mental filter that is often difficult to grasp even for someone with a long acquaintance with the language. I've been using German actively now for over 33 years, and I can understand any German text whose English equivalent would not be inaccessible to me. But Denglisch is another matter entirely. I put it in the same category as all the hundreds of odd English pidgin dialects spoken around the world and consider it about as useful and appropriate in the professional world.

As a consulting liason between a German software company and its partners and subsidiaries in a number of other countries, I saw all too many cases where poor communication in English was unhelpful to the company's reputation and hindered its product sales. Along with considerations of professional reputation and marketing, there is the more important aspect of product liability to consider. Unclear, poorly written or badly translated instructions can mean considerable damage awards against a company, and not just in US courts. I recently had the pleasure of translating seminar materials for use in Germany where numerous local examples of product liability due to unclear instructions or defective instructions translated from defective manuals supplied by a foreign manufacturer were cited. So the idea of blindly relying on a company employee who spent a semester or two abroad in Canada or the UK with "translating" critical documentation as many companies seem to do, is truly fraught with risk. Many "professional" translators contribute to this problem as well by seriously overestimating their ability to translate into the languages they learned later in life. But regardless of where these translators or non-native writers fall on the ability scale, just like native speakers who write and translate, they should not ignore the importance of good editing services. If you are lucky, doing so will only make you look amateurish.

Setting your price

I've always enjoyed reading Danilo Nogueira's online essays and other contributions. He has a lot of common sense and expresses his ideas in a refreshingly clear way. Today I ran into a piece I hadn't seen before: his essay written in 2003 on the subject of pricing, which is just as relevant today as it was five years ago. I won't comment on it - he says everything I could and says it better. Follow the link and enjoy reading!

Other fees from the German JVEG

My previous post on the Judicial Remuneration and Compensation Act (JVEG) discussed the "standard" rates for translation services. However, there are other reimbursable expenses relevant to translation work, which are covered in Section 7 of the law. Here is my translation of its provisions:

Section 7 - Reimbursement for other expenditures

1. Out-of-pocket cash expenses not cited in particular in Sections 5, 6 and 12 are also reimbursed to the extent that they are necessary. This applies particularly to the costs of necessary representatives and escorts.
2. For each of the first 50 pages of photocopies and printouts produced, the reimbursement will be 0.50 euros per page and 0.15 euros for each additional page; the production of color copies or color printouts is reimbursed at 2 euros per page. The amount of the allowance is to be calculated uniformly for the same matter. The allowance is granted only for copies and printouts from official files and court records insofar as their production is necessary for proper preparation or processing of the matter, as well as for copies and additional printouts which are produced at the request of the party contracting the service.
3. For provision of electronically saved files in lieu of the copies and printouts cited in Paragraph 2, the reimbursement will be 2.50 euros per file.

So according to this, if I am requested to prepare a 10 page certified translation for a local court, in addition to my fees for translation and certification, I would add 50 euro cents for each page of the copy submitted. This would probably be 10 euros (assuming the translation has the same number of pages as the original), because a copy of the original is attached to the translation in such cases.

These reimbursement rates, though intended for the specific context of work with German courts and public prosecutors, are reasonable points of reference for work in other areas where hardcopies or large numbers of files are to be provided. They are by no means overly generous when one considers the time involved, the cost of toner, ink cartridges, etc. I would apply these as standard rates for materials any time hardcopies of a translation are requested, and in cases where I am asked to juggle or process a large number of files, I think a per file additional charge may not be inappropriate. This would be a useful way of distinguishing between a 1 file job with 5000 words and a 100 file job with the same word count. Of course the primary CAT tool I use (Déjà Vu X) handles large numbers of files very well (much better than Trados 7.5 & earlier versions), so I might not be inclined to assess a full € 2.50 per file, but there is still more work involved, so the principle is certainly worth considering.

Standard rates in Germany: the JVEG

There is occasionally a lot of grumbling to be heard among translators about "just rates" and the desirability of "standard rates". For some reason a lot of the grumblers seem to be French or otherwise lost in a Neo-Marxist fog which my mind can't quite penetrate. Aside from the sheer impracticability of trying to regulate an international market which can operate largely by e-mail and money transfers by any means, notions of "just" may vary considerably. Translation is a business like any other, and a successful business here depends on a lot more than just linguistic skill. If a translator can't or won't deal with these other factors to make the business successful and insists on thinking like an employee, then it's time to get an in-house job somewhere or move on to another field. On bad translation days, dog training sounds pretty good to me.

In any case, this Mecca of standard rates does in fact exist in a few areas. In 2004 the JVEG (Justizvergütungs- und -entschädigungsgesetz, Judicial Remuneration and Compensation Act) replaced the previous more generous law governing payment for translators, interpreters and others providing services. The new law provoked fury in some quarters, as it forced rate reductions of 30% or more on many service providers. Although the new law allows for higher rates to be charged for particularly difficult texts, in many jurisdictions, the bean counters insist on paying the minimum rate uniformly, and invoices for higher amounts have to be collected by a lawsuit.

Section 11 of the JVEG specifies the conditions for compensating translators. Here is my translation of that section:

Section 11 - Fee for translations

1. The fee for a translation amounts to 1.25 euros for each 55 keystrokes or fraction thereof in the written text. If the translation is considerably more difficult, in particular due to the use of technical terms or due to poor legibility of the text, the fee increases to 1.85 euros; in the case of extraordinarily difficult texts it is 4 euros. The target language text is the standard for the number of keystrokes; if, however, Latin characters are used only in the source language, the number of keystrokes in the source language text is the standard. If counting the keystrokes is associated with excessive effort, their number is determined by taking into account the average number of keystrokes per line and counting the lines.
2. For one or more translations which are part of the same order, the minimum fee is 15 euros.
3. Insofar as the service of the translator consists of reviewing documents or telecommunication recordings for specific content without the need of preparing a written translation for these, the fee received will be that of an interpreter.

Section 9, Paragraph 3 of the JVEG specifies that interpreters are to be remunerated at a rate of 55 euros per hour. Mind you, not everyone gets this rate, certainly not if doing court work through an agency. I remember berating one friend of mine a few years ago for driving through a snowstorm in her old car while 8 months pregnant to make 15 euros per hour while her agency billed 55 euros per hour for her services. I really think a more reasonable distribution of the fee would have been appropriate in that and other cases.

According to my calculations using my rate equivalency spreadsheet, the basic line rate of 1.25 euros in target text for German to English is equivalent to 18.5 euro cents per source word, which at today's USD exchange rate is USD 0.26 - an acceptable, but by no means outstanding rate on the European market.

Some of you reading this and other recent posts on rates in Germany may see the rates as low. In some cases I certainly do, particularly with regard to the published agency rates. Offering high quality specialist services one can usually do better with agencies that have good marketing skills. Others who are scratching for USD 0.10 or worse in my language pair may think of this as "pie in the sky", but trust me - it isn't. If you offer good quality, market your services in a reasonable way and stand firm on your prices, you can do much better than that even if you live in India. I am very sure of that, because I know what some of my customers are paying to appropriately qualified specialist translators in India. At a certain level of quality or above, good rates should and can be considered as independent of local conditions in today's Internet market.

Report on translation, editing and interpreting services by the BDÜ

Although I find the "Honorarspiegel" deficient in many ways, the recently published report by the BDÜ (a German translators' association) on the average rates its members reported for translation, editing and interpreting services is ground-breaking in many ways. I am not aware of any other source of data where one can obtain such specific information categorized by customer group, for example. And average rate information found elsewhere, for example on ProZ, suffers from the fact that, although the reporting base is large in some common language pairs, the worldwide distribution of the data makes it of limited value to the local market in some cases. The BDÜ data is specifically relevant to the markets worked by the members of the organization, which are primarily constituted by German agencies and direct customers in Germany.

Only language pairs involving German are listed, and data are only reported where at least 5 persons submitted information in order to ensure a certain level of anonymity. The customer groups in the report were

• Agencies
• Direct customers in the judicial system and public authorities
• Colleagues
• Private individuals
• Direct customers in business & industry

The average highest rate, average lowest rate and most frequent rate were reported. Line rates reported are target line rates and word rates are source word rates. The number of data points for each reported value was also indicated.

An example of the line rate data in euros for the language pair of personal interest to me (German to English) is:

...... High Low MFreq
Agency 1.05 0.87 0.95
Dir IB 1.51 1.19 1.33

For those interested in additional data for this language pair or rate information on other services or languages, the report can be ordered online as of the beginning of 2009 from the BDÜ website. The cost is € 15.00, which is very little to spend for a useful piece of business intelligence. The report also includes a discussion of how to understand this information in the proper context and use it for one's own rate calculations.

German regionalism in the crosshairs

One of the problems regarding sworn translations in Germany is that there is no guarantee that they will be accepted for official purposes if the certifying translator is registered with a different state. In some cases, certified translations have even been rejected if the translator was sworn by a different regional court in the same federal state. In Austria, by contrast, certified translations from sworn translators are accepted anywhere in the country.

In practice, there are relatively few objections raised, and a translation certified by a translator sworn in Bavaria will probably be accepted in the Saarland or North Rhine Westphalia, etc. But as is too often the case with life in Germany, there is the uncertainty of bureaucratic confusion and scope for abuse by some arbitrary, petty twit who hasn't had enough coffee.

With regard to certified translations that may end soon. In the member forums for the German translators association BDÜ, the head of the Berlin-Brandenburg group commented a few days ago that the question of whether a translation certified by a translator from one region will be accepted in another region should be resolved in the very near future. Changes in the law are expected at the federal level, which would make a certification in one state valid in all other states. However, he also noted that this was to have taken place on the 12th of December, and here we are somewhat later... as they say here, "gut Ding braucht Weil".

A riveting task

I hate certified translations. After my partner's official change of address from the Saarland nullified her authorization to certify translations for official purposes, I decided to obtain such authorization myself from a German federal state that doesn't care where I live. Bavaria is very progressive in this respect, while Brandenburg (where I actually live) has been unable to get its act together in the past two years and pass a law regarding the authorization of translators and interpreters for official purposes. As a consequence, here and in some other states, no new persons have been sworn since the German High Court in 2007 decision forbade doing so based solely on administrative rules (a law is now required in each state).

So anyway, after a little paperwork, a short trip to Munich and a nice chat with pleasant court officials with charming accents, I became a court-sworn translator for Bavaria. Some people think of this as a great career move to get more work at decent rates. (German courts have a defined payment schedule which is more reasonable than one encounters with many clients - really bad copy can be charged up to something like 4 euros per line, though the base rate is only 1.25 euros per line.) I didn't really care about that; I'm drowning in work, and I was rather hoping this wouldn't attract more. I just wanted to be able to help out certain favored clients who occasionally require certification from a sworn translator and do a bit of pro bono work for people from English-speaking countries who are crazy enough to get married or divorced in Germany. (The bureaucracy is amazing. We've had our rings for four years now, and we still haven't gotten things sorted out.)

Now comes the hate part. Given the relative scarcity of translators with particular specialties like mine who can do sworn translations, I have in fact attracted some of that extra business that I didn't want. That's OK, because I've gotten to know some very fine new clients that way, and I just say no to more of the boring, routine stuff that anyone could do. Doing a few pages of a certified translation, attaching it to the original or a copy, stamping, signing and sending it all off by registered mail is a nice break from time to time. What I dread are the big translations that need certification. They hurt my wrist. I have yet to find a reasonable way of fastening a thick stack of papers together in a way that ensures it cannot be tampered with. My current procedure (suggested by the retired metallurgy professor next door who took me into his workshop to deal with a particularly nasty case) involves riveting the whole mess. I use a hand punch on all the paper, then drive a rivet through the hole and hammer the thing down on a small anvil. Maybe I should have been a blacksmith instead of a translator. I know that lawyers and notaries have better ways of dealing with this, but given some of the legal restrictions here in Germany, I'm going to be very careful before adopting any of their methods. A good solution to the problem might be found with a quick cross-post to the BDÜ member forums where surely hundreds before me have faced the same challenge. But when the task is merely an occasional irritant, once a week or less often, rather than a daily nuisance, these things tend to be forgotten in the daily tumult and drag on....

NordicTrans hits the bottom

Our colleague Jeff Whittaker was kind enough to draw attention to a press release announcing new, low prices from NordicTrans in response to the current economic crisis. Very interesting.

There are many ways to process that information. I could call the company an opportunistic bottom feeder for offering translation at below what I do (given today's exchange rate with the euro) when including proofreading by a second native speaker, but since I doubt that the quality a big agency can deliver at that price will every be any threat to me, I won't. For those translators who think that the sky is falling and prices with it, I'll agree that this is probably sound evidence of that: it's hard to afford a monkey at three cents a word when you're only grossing eighteen cents. Mistresses and Maseratis ain't cheap, and I for one am not about to give up my hard-earned profits to the undeserving just because they can't afford their winter heating bills. That would be bad business.

In any case, according to the press release, this represents the bottom of the scale pretty much. I do know of a few kitchen table wannabe agencies that charge about the same (well, a bit higher usually, given the exchange rate), maybe even a few pennies less in some extreme cases. But indeed, this is more or less rock bottom I think. Those who are a few levels down on the outsourcing food chain should think about this and consider it carefully in their "marketing strategies".

No mercy for PDF jobs!

I'm always amazed at the BOHICA attitude of many translators and agencies when it comes to PDF documents submitted for translation. As we all know, these usually involve considerably more effort to produce a document which often falls short of the original in terms of the quality of its layout or other factors. I've addressed this issue in the past by lecturing on handling PDF documents at conference in Berlin together with an expert on the subject, the German/Swedish/English translator Peter Linton, as well as publishing a short article on including OCR in one's business model and providing some guidelines for post-OCR workflow and QA that cover PDF and other formats.

To many people in our industry are hesitant to charge for the real nuisance involved in working with PDF documents of all kind, and they do end customers a great disservice by not educating them in the fact that PDF is not a valid format for translation. The number of ignorant queries from translators in online forums asking how to use Trados on PDF files indicates that this lack of knowledge is probably pandemic in some parts of our industry as well.

Aside from the fact that I have added many additional thousands of euros to our revenues for conversion work I had to do anyway simply by charging normal hourly rates for the effort, there is another big advantage to insisting on significant PDF surcharges (10 to 25% in my case). When the client knows exactly how much more a PDF job will cost, the "missing" original document in MS Word or other usable formats is often miraculously found. This happened to me again this morning. Last night I informed an outsourcer than an OCR conversion would take several days and cost at least an extra 400 euros, and this morning - wonder of wonders! - her client managed to find the original file, saving everyone much hassle and allowing those involved in the project to get started right away. A meek acceptance of the format without insisting on an extra charge would not have led to the result, and in a document with very complex tables, the end result for a team project with a tight deadline would have been a real disaster.

Citation management with Zotero

For years now, I've been collecting information on translation tools and techniques for my own purposes or to summarize as little guidelines for my partner, friends, colleagues and others. As I embark on a few somewhat more ambitious projects of this nature, the collection of data will continue to grow beyond its already enormous proportions. It is maintained, for the most part, as semi-organized bookmarks in Firefox and a myriad of folders scattered across various hard drives and partitions. Not the best solution, really.

So I was rather excited this morning to discover Olivia Judson's review of citation management tools for research in this morning's NY Times. One tool, Zotero, is a free Firefox add-on which sounds ideal for imposing more order on my web-based research and enabling me to keep information sources straight. It has information capture and search features, note-taking, integration with OpenOffice and MS Word, and interface in more than 30 languages & a lot more. I suspect it will also be a useful tool for keeping track of information sources for large translations.

Quotes to support your marketing

Tonight I found another technique for adding to one's marketing portfolio which I found rather inspiring. Katalin Horvath McClure, a Japanese/Hungarian/English translator did something rather clever on her ProZ profile. She asked her clients various questions like "why did you pick me?" or "how did you find me?" and posted a couple of nice answers that are basically good plugs for her services. This is a nice variation on posting spontaneously received feedback (usually good) and trying to fish for such feedback (bad karma in my opinion).

This question technique of hers could be a good way of getting nice quotes to add to your web site or marketing brochures. It's useful to ask such questions even if you don't want to use the information this way; I get a lot of contacts, but the callers or persons sending e-mail often do not tell me where my contact information was obtained. I like to know this, because it gives me a hint about what means of "spreading the word" are working and which ones are not.

Be proud of your rates!

Jill Sommer reposted an editorial on fee negotiation that is very worthwhile to read. I think it offers a good and honest way of dealing with price objections and helping customers to understand the value of services which you offer (assuming, of course, that they do have value).

Templates for quicker DVX project setup

One of the things that does get on the nerves of some Déjà Vu users is going through the Project Wizard to set up a project each time some little file needs to get translated. Some people get around this by having a "master project" with all the settings for a particular client; small new jobs get added to this as they come along. Somewhere I read a suggestion to create a template with all the settings for a particular client and copy this template into each new project folder and use it.

Today I was reading the "SDL Trados Studio 2009" review on the Tracom blog which described a number of questionable "advantages" of Trados (when I saw the comment about the over/under arrangement of segments being superior to an SDLX/DVX/Across/MemoQ columnar arrangement, I wondered what they were smoking). One point, however seemed plausible: the ability to "plunge right in" (more or less) and translate a file without a lot of preparation, then clean it, deliver it and write the bill. "Gee," I thought, "Maybe that's right."

I thought about it for a while and decided to try a little test. I made a DVX "template project", with no client or subject area specified. I saved it in my main folder for current projects. Then, with an eye on the second hand of my watch, I opened a folder with a little press release I have to translate, pasted in a copy of the template, double-clicked the icon to launch DVX, then I opened up the Project Explorer and used the drag & drop technique to add the file straight from the desktop folder (rather than use the program's internal navigation - I'd never tried this before, but I thought "why not?"). Then I right-clicked the file listed and imported it. The whole process took well under one minute. Now if I feel like assigning it to a client or categorizing the job, I can do so quickly via Project > Properties...

What was that about "plunging right in"? If I try to assign client or category attributes in Trados the whole process will probably take longer. Or not - I don't really care any more. This is just another typical example of unsubstantiated assumptions used to justify continued kowtowing to an abusive "market leader". That said, I do agree that other tool vendors could do a lot to simplify their project setup processes, and they could certainly do more to explain shortcuts. I hope one day they do.

Improving profiles

This morning I got a pleasant surprise. I stumbled out of bed and went down to the office where the computer was still running and waiting for me to resume last night's project. As a "warm up", I decided to check out one of the current whines on ProZ about how rates are going down the toilet, the world is ending, etc. where I discovered the latest contribution from a young French translator whom I (and others) had advised a few months ago to rework his profile to improve his public visibility and possibly contacts by clients. He thanked me very nicely in public and claimed that the number of contacts he receives has increased four times, implying that the rates offered or negotiated had improved. I think most of the changes he made were actually suggested by other people, and he deserves the credit in any case for making them. (I took a look at the profile again, and there is still a lot he can fine-tune I think, but he's smart enough to figure that out now that he understands the principle.) Not everyone is so flexible, and many people insist on including information in a profile or CV that does them more harm in marketing services than good. Months ago I had a delightful exchange with a translator in Romania who emphasized the same aspects of family life that I take pleasure in; it took some convincing to persuade her, however, that expressing one's commitment to the roles of wife and mother will not get you more veterinary translations. Last time I looked at her public profile it was much more professionally focused and had a few slightly daring statements that brought a real smile to my face as I read them. I hope her incoming work has quadrupled too.
I don't know any magic recipes for online advertising. I seem to be good at it without trying that hard in the same way I used to get a response rate around 16% for direct mail actions to sell computer stuff where common wisdom said 1 to 2% was to be expected. But if I tell you why this works, I'm just guessing. I believe that there are certain general principles that apply to all of us most of the time with regard to marketing, but the fine-tuning will always be an individual thing to work in the best way. If someone tells you something is good or bad, think about it for a while before you act. If the person giving advice is very experienced, s/he is probably right, but really understanding that advice in your personal context may lead to a better solution than the one suggested by the "expert". Don't be afraid to experiment and measure the results. A year ago I started making certian changes to my online profiles and actions with the goal of improving the quality (not the volume, which is an unfortunate side-effect) of contacts by potential clients. I measure the results in terms of (1) Google rankings and (2) page traffic. My Google rankings for keyword combinations I care about have improved (though they are not always where I would like them to be), and the page traffic on my ProZ profile. has increased about seven-fold. Traffic on my business web site has also gone up, but I don't pay close attention to those numbers, because I'm embarassed by the fact that I've had a major site upgrade ready to go in two languages, and I've been too busy to upload it. Now I have to rewrite the whole thing to update it before it goes live. Just not enough hours in the day....
With regard to those Google rankings, I was asked recently by a colleague in Portugal how to go about improving them. Once again, I'm not an expert. I just try things and see what works. There are lots of "how to" guides on the web for search engine optimization (SEO), and I'm not about to summarize or regurgitate them here, not only because the subject bores me, but also because I have heard so much contradictory advice over the years that I am really not sure which of it to believe. So here's what I do:

1. I ask myself what my "perfect prospect" (like maybe a chemical company with an in-house DMS system for which the documentation needs translation in my case) would use for keywords when looking for a service provider using Google.
2. I incorporate those keywords in a reasonable way in my profile or other web page. I do pay some attention to advice from the more plausible SEO guidelines, but I don't follow them slavishly. This is a game to me, and I have more fun if I can play with the "rules" as I like.
3. I wait a while (days, weeks), then I do a search and see where I come up on the hit list. In some simple keyword combinations I really care about, my entries come up one or more times in the top five hits currently. In other cases I'm buried several pages back, so obviously I haven't perfected the process. But then I'm so busy dealing with all the inquiries I do get that it really doesn't matter.
   

All the myriad formats

This morning's e-mail included the 129th Tool Kit newsletter from Jost Zetzsche with its usual collection of interesting and generally useful information. The most interesting item in this edition is the mention that ECM engineering is offering an annual subscription to all its special filters for € 195 (about USD 250 currently). While this still isn't chicken feed, it can quickly pay off for translating projects that include formats such as

• Indesign®
• XML
• Visio®
• Excel®
• Photoshop® CS, CS2, CS3
• Illustrator® 10
• Illustrator® CS (11)
• Illustrator® CS2/CS3
• CorelDraw® 11
• CorelDraw® 12
• CorelDraw® X3 (13)
• CorelDraw® X4 (14)
• Syscat

Why Excel and XML are on the list is a mystery to me; maybe that is for the benefit of translators who don't have ordinary CAT/TeNT tools. Many of these tools also now include InDesign filters in various stages of maturity, but since these files are often sill a problem, I welcome alternatives. As for the others, I personally don't know or use any CAT/TeNT that can handle them. I have partners who use CorelDraw filters (maybe even these ones - I never asked) from whom I could probably beg a conversion favor, but that's not much of a business model, so if I decide to get serious about expanding the range of formats covered by our services, this is probably the way I'll go. And of course I'll charge a suitable premium to offset the cost of the subscription.

TO3000 update: first invoices issued

The process of migrating to the new project administration and billing platform has been a slow one due to a lack of time. Nonetheless, with the help of the quick start information in the help file and a bit of fiddling, I was able to set up several clients manually (I plan to try a mass import later), configure their price lists and locale info and issue a few invoices for completed jobs. Everything has been much easier than expected so far, though it's also very clear to me that I could be doing all this much more efficiently. Still, it's already working better for me than LTC. Being able to adjust the RTF invoice template in a word processor is so much nicer than messing around with Crystal Reports. If I can just find a way of cloning the locale information so I don't have to individually customize the decimal, thousand separator settings and date formats for every German and Swiss client, I'll be in Heaven.

Hiding file content in MS Word and RTF files for translation

We frequently receive jobs in which some part of a file is to be excluded or where tables are included where the customer wishes to have the target text written adjacent to a column with the source text. Some of these jobs are straightforward to deal with, others less so. After a particularly nasty assignment with a mix of tables, colors and untranslatable notes embedded in the middle of sentences, I decided to write a short set of suggestions to share with some of my clients so that they can prepare certain jobs more effectively, saving me time and saving them money. If it can be of assistance to anyone, feel free to download the guidelines here. Suggestions for improvement or addition are very welcome.

Impressum

One of my major pet peeves in German to English translation is the unfortunate tendency of some people to translate "Impressum", the term used to refer to the page where legal notices and various other company information such as company registry numbers, tax IDs, editorial responsibility or credits, and contact information is posted, as "Imprint". I challenge anyone to find me a web site created by native English speakers for a company in the English-speaking world that uses this term. Depending on the content of the page, it is usually called "Legal notice and info" or something along those lines. Translating "Impressum" as "Imprint" simply comes across as incompetence to a native speaker of English or is at best merely confusing.

Oddly enough but somehow typical, many German companies insist on adopting this travesty because so many other German (or Austrian or Swiss) companies use it. Virtual lemmings....

Evidence II

It's been a very busy week, so most of my intended posts are still somewhere in the editing queue. (Yes, I do sometimes edit what I write, as hard as that may be to believe!)

However, the responses to my earlier post on Rod Walters' portfolio suggestion have caused me to think about variations on and refinement to this approach that might be suited to different purposes. I would like to share a few of these ideas and encourage others to suggest better ways for particular situations.

In the comments on the original evidence post, Michael mentioned that the portfolio approach had not worked in the past. What would interest me is why it didn't work with a particular audience. That's the point where I thought of some of the brochures I translate for customers which target specific solutions in specific sectors: document management and archiving for tax accountants, as opposed to a general brochure on the same topics for all areas of business. As freelance translators we are often encouraged to specialize, because this improves our earning potential and usually also improves the quality of our work because we develop deeper expertise in an area. What better way to demonstrate that expertise and focus prospects' minds on the areas you really want to work in and presumably do best than by making a targeted portfolio emphasizing those areas?

I have a strong interest in GRI sustainability reporting, for example. I simply love translating that stuff, even though some of it is just hot air and propaganda. If I want to attract more business in this area or in related topics for environmental issues or (in the case of the stuff I enjoy most) transportation, I could put together a portfolio which might include:

• a profile of myself, including my relevant scientific education, involvement with environmental organizations and general experience in this area translating reports for major organizations
• samples of translations in this area taken from public sources
• a link to an online glossary on the subject created from specialized corpora and other sources (I've actually been working on one of these for a while, but I haven't given much thought to how, when or where - or even if - to make it publicly available)
• relevant certificates related to the specialty (I don't have any in this case, just thought I'd mention it. If you are looking to do translations for elder care and you've got lots of relevant degrees and certificates, actual images of these in the back of a portfolio might be interesting. And so on.)
• articles you have written on the subject or references to them

All of this should be well-organized in an easily distributed format with appropriate indexing or navigation of some sort if it is of any significant length.

I responded to Michael that I had understood the portfolio concept as a way of avoiding the test translation issue, and while I still look at this as a possibility, I think my memory played tricks on me here, because it was probably intended more as a way of getting prospects interested in the first place. Whether things go from there to a test translation request is another matter to be dealt with separately.

In any case, I do think that a careful focus of the material in a portfolio will make it more effective. Rod did in fact suggest one's chosen fields for the portfolio, but maybe it would be better to take this a step farther and do one portfolio for patent work, one for chemistry, another for technical marketing (or whatever fields are relevant for you).

Evidence!

In an online discussion of how to "break through the endless Catch-22 of gaining experience", Japanese to English translator Rod Walters had an excellent suggestion. He noted that real evidence of the ability to translate well is generally more compelling than "experience". Given the miserable work I have seen from some translators with decades of experience, I would have to agree with this.

Rod suggests preparing a portfolio of translations in one's chosen fields and hawking it relentlessly with prospects, showing it on your web site, in a distributable PDF and as hardcopy. While this is a rather "obvious" suggestion, I'll bet that only a small minority have gone to the trouble of putting together such a portfolio. It is an excellent alternative to the foolish practice of doing free test translations.

A matter of choice

Unlike the people who speak them, all languages are not created equal, nor are the opportunities associated with them for language professionals the same. I was reminded of this again in a recent online discussion in which a translator expressed her outrage at being assessed a minimum charge by a translator for performing a trivial service. She publicly expressed her outrage at the thought of being charged for something so "unimportant" (but it was important enough to call up and make an urgent request that those two words be formatted bold and the months-old job be re-sent to the client ASAP) and mentioned, among other things, that she looks forward to being "honest" (I read that as "vengeful") the next time this person asks for a reference. She went on to mention how "easy" it is to find good translators and replace this one. Well, honey... I've got news for you. It's easy to find outsourcers with a bad attitude toward the value of a skilled translator's time, and she may just have replaced you and moved up-market.

The persons involved in this dispute work in the English-Spanish language pair. Now I've had the impression for a while that somehow the world turns differently in that pair and that it's more dog-eat-dog compared with the kinder, gentler environment of my language pair German & English. But then on the low end of the market for German I once heard the same sort of statements. Maybe it's just that these zookeepers don't value the monkeys to whom they feed peanuts and that translators who charge what they are worth (if they are worth much) get a lot more respect.

But this little flare-up of online indignation reminded me of a decision I made 34 years ago, which I had largely forgotten, but which has proven to be one of the most accurate professional assessments I ever made. Kids aren't as stupid as we oldsters sometimes want to think they are. The decision was my choice of what foreign language to learn in high school. In Southern California, where I grew up, the general consensus was Spanish being the only "logical" choice, because it is so "useful"? "Useful for what?" I asked. Useful for giving orders to the gardener or asking for directions in certain parts of town? Certainly. Useful if you aspire to some sort of community service job? Probably. Useful if you aspire to work at the cutting edge of research and development? Most likely not. As a kid I simply judged what I saw on the bookshelves of my local technical library. That was the Millikan Library at CalTech, where I spent many of my Saturdays from age 10 onward browsing the bookshelf contents for biology and chemistry, with occasional forays into the floors for other technical disciplines (usually playing hide-and-seek or up to other devilment with other kids involved in the weekend education program for kids at that time). There I saw a huge quantity of scientific books and other publications in German and a number in French and Russian, though comparatively few. I don't remember seeing any in Spanish, and the very nice Mexican student that I shot pool with one afternoon was learning German to support her career ambitions in science. So that pretty much settled my choice. If a medical career had been my ambition, I might have made another choice, but then again perhaps not. Once again, the basic science for the profession would require a command of German to explore many important sources. So I still would have chosen that language, followed later by another language appropriate for whatever community I chose to practice in. If I had moved to Africa on a mission wiith Doctors Without Borders, Spanish wouldn't have done me much good. In Ecuador on the other hand, very much so obviously.

So the next time some kid pipes up in a public forum announcing his or her calling to a career in translation or interpretation and asking what languages are "in demand" and should be studied (that in itself seems a sign of the sickness affecting our market-driven economies), I'll remember my choice long ago and the reasons and suggest that they consider their other interests and the languages that are important to these, and the places they might want to live and work, and base their choices on that more than what is currently "hot". Years ago I was told that my knowledge of Russian was "worthless" and that the country would never have any commercial or scientific status again. Now I see a different situation, even if the competitive environment for Russian translators isn't easy.

My choice of German has turned out to be a very fortunate one for me personally. Germany has a long history of scientific and technical leadership, and it is still one of the leading exporters in the world. Most of that world does not speak German, and despite the willingness of Germans to learn other languages, the "natives" will never develop enough foreign language competence to cover the effective demand in a way that will secure contracts and keep them out of product liability fiascos due to bad documentation. So for someone like me who is actually interested in a lot of what Germany does, makes and exports, being a translator of German is sort of like winning the language lottery. But then at age 13 I knew it would be that way, even though I expected to spend my life in a lab.

Another cool translator's web site

Necco Enterprises Inc. is a small company specializing in Brazilian Portuguese translations. For many years, I have used their resource page for Déjà Vu, but I had never looked at the main site before. It has a really unique feature: a wandering navigation menu! At first I thought someone had been sloppy in designing the page layouts, but it was very quickly apparent that this was a deliberate design feature that works. Check it out!

Training resources

Things at the Universität des Saarlandes have certainly changed since I was an exchange student there more than half a lifetime ago. At the time I was impressed by the wonderful liberal arts, language and archeology courses; now these have largely been gutted I'm told to make way for everything having to do with computers and technology. In 1981 the teaching in computer science there was so hopeless (and the cigarette smoke in the classroom so thick) that I gave up on those courses and learned to read Sumerian inscriptions instead.

Things might be different if I were a student there today. In the areas of language and translation technology, the university seems to be a real center of excellence. Part of the services it provides to the wider world is an excellent resource web site for instruction in translation, localization, language technology, project management and many other issues important to professional translators. This free material is useful not only to instructors but also to autodidacts. Check it out at: http://ecolotrain.uni-saarland.de/index.php?L=1. The material is available in four languages: English, German, French and Spanish.

Advice for DVX users working with Trados projects

There is a lot of information available in the discussion lists and online forums on how to use Déjà Vu X (or other tools) to do projects involving Trados uncleaned files. Yet the questions still come up frequently. (I wonder about some people's research skills, though language barriers do complicate matters in our international profession.) In the past I have put together a few summaries of Trados-related procedures to assist my colleagues or educate clients. These are currently being revised, expanded and collected in a larger opus on small-scale project management which I hope to complete sometime next year. In the meantime, here are links to the existing information for those who may need it and haven't found it elsewhere yet.

Handling Trados projects for MS Word and RTF files in Atril's Déjà Vu X

This instruction set shows one approach to translating DOC and RTF files when the client wants the work done in Trados but for technical or personal reasons one prefers to do it in DVX. Some common problems and possible solutions are also discussed.

Translating SDL Trados TTX Files in Déjà Vu X

This guideline describes how to translate the standard TagEditor format (TTX) using Déjà Vu.

Proofreading and editing Trados projects with Atril's Déjà Vu X

This five page overview shows how to use DVX to simplify the often onerous task of proofreading uncleaned Trados files.

MultiLingual

Since beginning this narrative I've found so many wonderful and useful resources in the course of my research. One find for today is MultiLingual, which calls itself "the information source for the localization, internationalization, translation and language technology industry". There are a number of offerings, including a print magazine (with a very affordable digital version with a free sample online) and free guides to localization, writing for translation, project management and other useful topics. The guides are obviously supported by advertising, but the content is good. The sample of the digital magazine has a nice review of Jost Zetzsche's TranslatorsTraining.com which goes far beyond anything I intended to write on the subject, so I recommend you go read it. Subscribers to the magazine receive 8 issues per year and a resource directory.

I'm fairly sure I must have run across this publication before at a trade show or when considering whether to attend Localization World (MultiLingual is a partner in producing that event). However, like many things, this was forgotten in the crush of daily life and mountains of work. In any case, I'm glad I've got the most interesting guides on my hard drive for reference now, and I'll probably end up forking over the ten bucks for a digital subscription. But first I have to get back to work....

The Great Administration Platform Migration Odyssey

Since 2004 I have used the LTC Organiser from The Language Technology Centre Ltd. to handle my translation project organization, invoicing, customer records management, financial reporting and other related tasks. At the time it was the best option I found for what I wanted to accomplish as a single translator who needed to manage team records for outsourcing (Projetex had not been released yet) with an interface which I found superior to TOM (Translation Office Manager).

Although the package made my administrative work much easier and I used the reports to great effect in my business plans which I had to submit to banks when we decided to build a house, I was never really satisfied with the product. There were many little bugs which were never resolved, such as the "tab bug" in the quotation view of the last released version, which would clear the data for an entire line item if one tried to tab between fields. I had serious doubts about the LTC programming team, which were fully confirmed when I was in discussions with the company about beta testing the new Worx product in 2006 and I was suddenly informed that the availability of that online tool would be delayed by about 9 months. The fact that top management had been unaware of problems in the development team up to that point says a lot. I am a former software developer, and I've been part of that game since I was ten years old. Any company that has so little oversight of its development is best avoided. Maybe they have their act together in the meantime, but I really don't care any more. The fact that close associates of mine had support issues with the product for years (though whose fault that was I really don't know, the company had excuses for this too) sort of closed that book for me.

We recently decided to migrate to one of the most popular tools for freelancers to do their admin and accounting work, Translation Office 3000 a k a TO3000. God only knows where the 3000 comes from - maybe it's an inside joke to say that the software is 1000 years ahead of its time. I can't agree with that, but I will say it's pretty good. I've owned a license for several years, but I never did more than play with it, because when I got it, we still did the occasional bit of outsourcing. After we finally stopped giving in to end client requests to manage projects for languages we don't work with and some Murphy's Law experiences with good translators we sent work to made us quote Poe's raven when it comes to outsourcing, the product suddenly became very relevant. When the LTC Organiser was discontinued last year, I realized it was just a matter of time before I would upgrade to the latest version of TO3000 and leave LTC behind. So a few months ago, I downloaded the fully-funcional demo version 9 onto my not-so-new-anymore laptop and tested it. I immediate realized that the workflow for setting up price sheets and quoting jobs was far better than what I have suffered with for four years, and many features which irritated me in version 7 had improved. And the templates for invoices, quotation forms, etc. are all RTF files, so my partner can update them if I don't feel like doing the work. With LTC I had to get Crystal Reports to customize my paperwork if I didn't feel like paying the company a zillion GBP per hour to do it for me.

So I played for a few weeks, decided that TO3000 was the future and promptly forgot about it in a blizzard of work. With the end of the year coming up, however, I want to make a clean break, and my partner has promised to help with a backlog of invoices to be written that goes back to last spring (we are very, very busy), and she doesn't want to waste her time with the old system. So I ordered the upgrade and got the license key today.

This was the point where I started to get nervous. I switched laptops about a year ago, and the other day I tried to install my legal copy of Abbyy FineReader 7 (yes, I know I'm out of date) on the new laptop, because I no longer use it on the old one. No dice. It was an upgrade from version 6, and I have long since lost the v6 files and license info on yet another laptop that died in a spectacular way, so basically I'm screwed as far as that Abbyy license is concerned. One of these days I'll contact tech support, and I'm sure the nice folks there will have a solution for me. It'll be a while, because I've got projects that will keep me distracted for a while.

So after my FineReader experience, I figured I would not be able to install an upgrade on a machine which had never seen version 7. When it worked without a hitch, I screamed "BLESS THESE PEOPLE!!!" so loudly that Monique thought something was seriously wrong. On the contrary. I love those rare instances when a tools provider gets it right. They know we are licensed users, so there's no bullshit about the upgrade key working. I was prepared for a long, complex correspondence with AIT to explain about the change of computers, etc. - but I don't have to waste my time. I wish every company were that customer-friendly.

My database from the test phase into which I had already entered a master price list and a few clients was taken over by the upgrade, so my work a few months ago wasn't in vain. With our client base and my schedule I assume that transferring all the relevant data will take me a few weeks at least unless there's a clever import function I haven't found out about yet.

Since there is a lot to do before the system is completely in place, I'll be posting updates regarding the individual phases to give an overview of the process. I'm sure I'll have a few false starts - or maybe a lot of them - since I have not spent a lot of time learning how to use the software up to now. General impressions were more important. So now, Dear Readers, you'll be able to follow the progress of a practical setup for an overly busy translator more or less in realtime. We'll see how it goes....

Déjà Vu X as an editing tool (for Trados jobs too!)

Déjà Vu X (DVX) from Atril is probably the most powerful, feature-rich, stable CAT tool on the market today. Its use as a translation tool is discussed widely - its use as an editing or proofreading tool less so. There are two ways in which editing is done with DVX:

• in bilingual tables (RTF or HTML exported "views" from projects)
• in the DVX Editor (unlicensed version of the product) or any higher version

The first method is something I do often, providing a commented RTF file with particular segments to which I want to draw attention or a bilingual table of the entire text of one or more files for easy proofreading by clients. Any changes made to the translation can be easily re-imported into my project, checked for acceptability, then applied automatically, after which I can update my TM with just a click or two of the trackpad.

If you work with translators who have DVX but you don't have the tool, you can ask then to make you an "External View" export as an RTF or HTML table. Another option, if the Workgroup version of DVX is available, is to export a bilingual Trados RTF file which you can also review, edit and translate if you have the right tools. (I suppose this would include "Trados-compatible" tools such as Wordfast, but I've never tested this idea. Since segmentation is performed basically the same in MS Word I don't see why it wouldn't work.) Atril has a brief guide for editing "external views" which is available here.

Another option for those without a DVX license is to work with the Editor (unlicensed) version of DVX. This can be obtained simply by downloading and installing the latest DVX version from Atril's Web site. Here once again you are dependent on working with someone who has a license of some sort for DVX who prepares the material to be reviewed. There is a short manual describing its functions which is available here from the Atril web site. No access to TMs or termbases is available here, but the Lexicon can be created (manually, no import) and edited for use in performing terminology QA. The comment function also works, making it easy to give feedback on changes. Spellchecking with the DVX or MS Office module works. The powerful filter function in the context menus of the source and target areas do work, allowing you to review the use of a term or phrase throughout the entire document or project (if you are in the all files view) in a second.

So much for explaining editing for non-DV users. There are also important editing capabilities of DVX of which many licensed, experienced users are unaware. In terms of economic potential, I would rate the ability to import, edit and comment Trados bilingual files as being the greatest. One colleague of mine refused to edit bilingual files for years when requested to do so by agency clients. What she didn't know was that she can quickly import these files into a DVX project where they can be reviewed, changed as necessary, commented (the comments can be exported as one of those external views described above) and re-exported as a "new, improved" bilingual RTF, DOC or TTX file. Once again, I suppose this would work for files created with tools that use Trados-compatible segmentation, but I've never tried it. There is a trick to getting the entire target content in RTF/Word files to import: the "fuzzy match rating" of No Match segments must be changed from zero to some higher integral number. Full instructions for how to edit bilingual Trados jobs are available in a short (currently 5 page) guide I write and made available on the "How To" tab of my ProZ profile or here. This will not allow you to make up for deficiencies in Trados, such as skipping numbers and dates. These will need to be fixed in the uncleaned files using an appropriate text editor, TagEditor, etc. Also, be very, very careful of codes, especially those for segment boundaries. Changes in segmentation must be performed with the Trados (or Trados-compatible) tools themselves. However, for purposes of YOUR TM, you can combine or split segments as you like without affecting file integrity.

When editing those Trados jobs in DVX, you can make perform quality checks using terminology, filter functions, etc. and give extensive feedback using the DVX comments feature. The ability to export comments as an RTF table is probably one of the most valuable features for me. It allows me to get away with ignoring requests to use standard feedback forms in Excel or Word, which would otherwise slow down my work too much and interrupt the flow. Clients find the exchange of information using these tables to be very convenient.

The ability to take on review jobs and give convenient feedback (the comment feature in TagEditor sucks - if the end client doesn't use Trados, there is no convenient way that I know of to pass on feedback and get answers) is a huge advantage for DVX users. This can be done independently with DVX Standard or any higher version. (If you're a cheapskate, you could always use the Editor and have a friend with a DVX license create the projects and export the files, but a real professional will license tools once they prove useful and the ROI is good. However, this might be a useful thing to do in a company where just a few people translate regularly and others may review occasionally.) This increases the range of projects that DVX users can handle and increases earnings potential for those who have excess capacity.

Jost Zetzsche's Tool Kit newsletter

What can you get for USD 15? Maybe a decent meal at an inexpensive restaurant. A paperback book probably - hardbacks cost more. If you need a consultant to help you deal with a problem on your computer or to advise you on how to work more efficiently, expect to pay a lot more. Or not. For just 15 US dollars a year, Jost - the author of the Translator's Toolbox, co-creator of the Translator's Training web site, author of user manuals for popular CAT tools and more - offers a biweekly advice letter with lots of useful tips. Click on the icon link above to find out more. I've received two issues so far, and the information is very worthwhile - one tip applied is worth the price of the year's subscription.

Practical use of corpora in acquiring or enhancing a translation specialty

For a long time now, I've had an interest in the use of text collections in particular subject domains as a means of developing specialized terminologies for my own use or the use of my clients. When I found my first practical guide on the use of bilingual corpora for terminology development, I immersed myself in the topic with delight, bought myself a license for Trados MultiTerm Extract and began to mine a lot of my past work to upgrade the termbases I had been creating for years.

There are, however, other useful applications of corpus linguistics for working translators. One interesting approach is described by Maher, Waller and Kerans in the July 2008 issue of the Journal of Specialised Translation in an article titled "Acquiring or enhancing a translation specialism: the monolingual corpus-guided approach".

The article discusses absolutely practical ways in which working translators can use concordancers and desktop-based indexers to acquire or enhance linguistic expertise for special subjects in their target languages. The target readers for the article are

• novice translators seeking to specialize
• experienced generalists who want to go "up market" with a specialty
• translators who wish to enhance their subject-area expertise for a special client
• translators working in a team who need to harmonize their use of language

The basic differences between concordancers and indexers are explained, and specific tools are mentined (the freeware AntConc concordancer from Laurence Anthony and the commercial, but inexpensive desktop indexer Archivarius). A concordancer looks up and aligns keywords (generally in the KWIC or keyword-in-context view) to allow you to see how they are used and identify patterns; frequency assessments and other functions are also available. A desktop indexer works like Google or any other search engine, except that it allows specific folders on the user's computer to be selected, so special text collections can be searched in a focused way.

After reading the article, I downloaded the tools and tested them. I was very impressed. Archivarius is much better than Copernic, which I have used for some time - a key difference is that it can deal with morphology in 18 languages. I personally only care about two of these, but it ought to make many translators happy. A 30-day fully functional trial with 99 launches is available, and individual licences range between about 20 euros for students and 45 euros for businesses. (Maybe a freelancer qualifies for the 30 euro "personal" license - that wasn't clear to me when I looked at the web site. I'll find out, however, because I will license this tool!) Dealing with morphology means, for example, that I can search "gleich" and get "gleiche", "gleicher", "gleichen" and "gleiches" in German.

The article has a nice discussion of access to free, readily-available texts. I also discovered in my research that there are large corpora covering specialist domains available for free in some languages. The American National Corpus is one example - I found a Berlitz travel corpus there with over a million words. Not my interest, but for someone who specializes in tourism or wants to, this is probably useful. The authors put together a special corpus for corporate financial reports using publicly available documents, and other examples were given.

The discussion of sampling adequacy is very valuable in my opinion. This is a question which has nagged me for a long time; the several books on the subject of corpus linguistics which are in my library dance around this issue and never commit to hard numbers that I can do something with. I am grateful to the authors for sticking their necks out and saying, for example, that while 40,000 words might be an adequate basis for a language teacher wanting to get started in a specialist area, a translator's linguistic questions probably won't be usefully addressed with less than about 250,000 words, with 500,000 being the point where things really start to get good.

The authors use a practical model of a high-quality base or "substrate corpus", which is carefully selected, cleaned of reference lists, non-linguistic content, extra spaces (these screw up frequency counts for phrases not to mention their identification) and maintained plus Q&D (quick-and-dirty) corpora, which cover specific topics for a current job, etc. Q&D corpora of a million words or more can be assembled in minutes using online corpus collectors, such as the Sketch Engine. The article gives good, practical advice on blancing these two types of resources and how they can and should be stored on your hard drive.

The discussion of "fair use" is thoughtful. I agree with it, but others, including some lawyers, may not. These topics get debated in public forums a lot, and have been the subject of articles in professional journals as well where intellectual property issues regarding translations and translation memories are raised. For those with an interest in such topics, there is enough out there to keep you busy reading for months. I tend to be cautious and share resources only when I am sure no legal objections will be raised.

The authors offer practical advice or storing and organizing corpora, including the importance of naming conventions for files and maintaining a log of corpora. This advice should be read carefully, as it reflects some hard-won experience.

In their conclusions, the authors emphasize that this appoach not only has value for compensating uneven or insufficient knowledge of a field, genre or register, but it can also be important for counteracting source language interference for people like me who live in the country where the source language is spoken and do not have daily contact with speakers and the culture of the target language. That's a valuable point, because many of us have observed such problems with ourselves or others. (If you haven't, you're either a hermit or just incredibly dense.)

Given how often the question of specialization and how to acquire it is raised on forums like Translator's Café or ProZ, I think the article can help an enormous number of translators improve their situation. I particularly appreciated the clear language of the article and its example-based, practical advice. Many people, especially those coming to translation from other career or edicational backgrounds than languages or linguistics, who try to investigate the topic of corpus linguistics get snowed under to quickly in a blizzard of academic bullshit. This is an article that you can read in an hour and apply in a useful way in the next hour.

German-English dictionaries for welding and soldering

I'm often asked to recommend German-English dictionaries for various subjects, since my partner and I are fanatical collectors of references in many areas. So from time to time I will discuss some of the references that have proven very useful in practical work and perhaps a few that haven't.

The Dictionary of Welding by G. R. Lohrmann is one of those bargains I found on eBay. I think it cost me three euros or so there. Amazon.com (the US site) wants $51 for the dictionary. I think I got a much better deal, but I've gotten so much use out of the dictionary in the four years I've had it that it would have been worth it to pay the full price. Which, by the way, is much less if ordered from the German Amazon.de site :-) The dictionary is small - my hand just about covers it - but in translation jobs involving welding equipment and procedures, it has come through for me most of the time. There are about 5000 terms in the German to English part and another 6000 in the English to German section without a lot of filler. The cover, by the way, is not hardback, despite what the American Amazon link says - it's vinyl. All the better for sticking the thing in your pocket if you want to take it with you for a construction site interpreting job or some such thing. Published in 1998, the book is a little dated, however. According to the publisher's web site, a new edition is planned for release in September 2009. I definitely plan to get it and maybe put my old copy back on eBay.

The same publisher (DVS Media) also offers the Dictionary for Electronic Soldering by Mikhail Kudish- its availability seems to be better on the German Amazon siteor from the publisher, but I find this dictionary less valuable. Its production values are much worse - it is just a long typewritten vocabulary list in alphabetical order, the quality of the binding (paperback) is worse and the material is already 18 years old. It's probably due for an update or at least a serious DTP facelift. Still, if you need a German-English soldering terminology, this is probably it. General engineering/technical dictionaries will have the basic terms, but probably not as much specialist detail as you'll find in this reference.

Getting one's online presence right

There are a number of ways for a freelance translator to let the world know s/he is alive and ready to take on interesting, lucrative work. Some of these (in no particular order of importance) include:

• public profiles on translation portals
• a business web site
• a blog related to one's business or at least mentioning it enough to matter
• published articles, glossaries, tools and other info
• participation in public translation and terminology forums
• e-mail signatures

and probably others I haven't thought of. Which of these points is most important? I have no idea. In one way or another, all of them (except the blog, which is very new) have attracted business for me personally. I think the "right" online presentation or mix of presentations will be a very individual thing. It's easier to say what won't work (having no presence being near the top of the list) than to say what will work best for you.

There are numerous portals and other venues where translators can post public profiles or enter themselves in directories where potential clients might find them. Most of these are free, though in the case of the commercial portals, paid memberships give one a better ranking in the listings as well as offer other benefits. I maintain profiles in quite a few places (more than I can remember honestly), but over the years, the two listings that have brought in the most business for me have been those at ProZ.com and Translationzone (the SDL Trados site). The latter has declined in value as the site has become more of a marketing venue for Dark Side technology, but I have had some excellent business from direct clients and agencies looking there for a Trados user with my skill set. Overall, however, ProZ has brought the best result, with new contacts from my profile at least each week and in some weeks nearly every day (and sometimes it seems like every hour). The sheer size of the platform means a lot of traffic and a lot of opportunities, some of them even worthwhile. There is a lot of confusion and criticism of this and other portals by translators who see lousy job posts at dumping prices and fail to understand that this isn't where the action is at for the successful translators. In fact, I forgot to mention "quotations submitted in response to online job posts" to the list above because it has so little significance to my business. When I submit a quote (at my prices), I usually get the job (and if I don't I can often guess who got it in certain fields - it's a small world with a limited number of good people in my favorite areas). What accounts for this success in quotation and the fact that I am usually to busy getting contacted to initiate contacts myself: my profile. It is very useful to browse the profiles of other translators to see how they present their information. One example I found recently which I really liked was from a German to Italian translator, Stefano Incerti. It's not the most extensive or complete one I've seen, but it presents his information well. I might have taken any one of a dozen or more examples of good ProZ profiles I know (hm... maybe I'll write a "favorites list" some day to help others who might be looking for ideas for their own online profiles). The reason I mentioned Stefano is that I really wanted to mention his web site.

I see a lot of web sites for agencies and translators. Obviously, some will be good, others less so. I found Stefano's site appealing because of its good aesthetics, easy navigation and unique way of presenting information about himself and his services. The site is trilingual, and he even includes a little status indicator to tell you if he has capacity or not. I wasn't familiar with the text analyzer he linked, so I appreciated finding it there. His web site is arranged very differently than mine and others, truly original as far as I can tell, yet very functional as well. If I were to "steal" his concept and re-do my site according to it, I would make changes, not because I find anything wrong, but rather because I am who I am and he is who he is. I think this is a great site that works for him. If he translates half as well as he maintains his public presence and follows other basic business principles, he must be thriving.

Web sites are an important marketing tool for translators. How important. I suppose I could wander over to my billing computer and do a quick summary of all the business I've done in the past four years with direct clients and agencies who have found us on the web site I slapped together quickly at the end of 2004 and have scarcely had time to update since then. Let's just say it paid for the effort. My site is long overdue for an overhaul both in its content and its aesthetics, but it works. I'm sure others work better. Another site that I really love is from a local British colleague whom I've never had the pleasure of meeting, Victor Dewsbery. Web designers will find a million "wrong" things to nitpick there, but I think the site is fantastic. The content is great, and it reflects topics that are important to Victor as a person and a professional. I use his reference list for the English names of German laws there all the time. The navigation doesn't bear the mark of genius (from what I've heard of his work, maybe he reserves that for his translations), but it's absolutely clear and easy to use in two languages. I really don't think you can improve on his site for absolute usability.

Along with web sites there is the issue of owning your own domain and using the mail server from that domain for your professional e-mail communications. I know there are lots of good translators out there who use AOL, gmx, Yahoo and other free mail accounts - even Hotmail - but many people see these as a sign of amateurism. As silly as it may sound with domains being so cheap and easy, having your own domain for a web site and e-mail gives an impression of greater seriousness despite what those who don't have one may think. Given the low cost and good ROI, it's rather stupid not to do it.

Blogs are less frequently used by translators but are growing in popularity. One of the most interesting is Corinne McKay's Thoughts on Translation. I don't know what impact blogging has had on her business or that of any others, but the fact that agencies are also getting into the act indicates that the medium is being taken seriously. I would be very interesting to hear about results from someone. I do mine for fun and as an alternative to some of the portal forums, which can be so full of information and interactions that one can't find a lot of desired information buried in the trash. I'm fascinated by the potential of this medium for communication and education and looking forward to seeing where it leads.

Published articles, glossaries, tools and other info: I do a lot in this area. So do others. I find it fun to share this way, and it's also my way of returning favors for all the information that has been shared with me. Sometimes the most useful things in business are free despite what I said in my TANSTAAFL post. My efforts here have probably given me more credibility than I deserve, and I encourage others to share their knowledge and skills in this ways both for the common good and for personal profit. Yes, things like my ancient insurance glossary on ProZ really do bring in new business. I would do more of this if I had time, not because I need the extra business (though it might help to focus what comes in on what I like most), but because it's simply enjoyable.

Participation in public translation and terminology forums like KudoZ and others is a great way to learn, network with colleagues and show your strengths in various areas. This can lead to direct business opportunities in some cases, but the general benefits of networking, like helping to overcome the isolation of what can sometimes be a very solitary profession, are more important than any deal. Anyone who doesn't understand the value here probably hasn't tried it or hasn't found the right forum: the BDÜ, ITI and other professional organizations have their own forums, so not everything out there is on a commercial site.

We all send e-mail. Including an e-mail signature with your business contact information at the bottom of many communications is another way of letting people know what you do and how to find out more. For example, a signature I often use for communication in English is:

Best regards,

Kevin Lossner
Simmer-Lossner Translations & Consulting GbR
Specialist translators for German -> English
Dorastrasse 9, 16540 Hohen Neuendorf, Germany

[T] +49 3303 / 508857
[F] +49 3303 / 508859

Inquiries:
translation@simmer-lossner.com (response receipt)
translations@simmer-lossner.com (no response receipt)

Internet: http://simmer-lossner.com
http://simmer-lossner.blogspot.com/

It's stored in my Outlook settings, so I can use it automatically or insert it easily in a message. This is a useful, "gentle" way of letting people know what I do and how to contact me if they want me to do it. Speaking of which, I need to end this novel-in-the-making and get back to the doing bit.

How To Reduce Your Localization Cost by Up To 40%: 30-minute Speed Primer For Translation Buyers

This is another little masterpiece from Robert Kloiber at Academy Translations in Australia.

The guide is 16 pages long, and like the other one (the guide to technical writing for translation), it is well-written and easy to understand for persons of any level of technical sophistication. It is a superb overview and learning tool for end customers, agencies and translators on how to approach the process of localization and what one's expectations should be. There are a few gaps in the current version - for me most notably the no mention of test scripts for reviewers to follow when checking an interface (as opposed to automated test scripts) and nothing about virtual machines as a testing environment - but all the information presented is spot on for establishing effective, efficient localization procedures and saving time and money. Translators who are considering getting into localization or localization consulting should have a careful look at this. (I won't get into the marketing issues involved in this - that's another can of worms.)

Robert tells me that he has other useful guides, which will be released "on a drip feed" on his blog (which is a work in progress at the moment). If they are of this quality, they are worth watching for!

TANSTAAFL!

This acronym, popularized by Heinlein in the 60's, translates to "there ain't no such thing as a free lunch". It can be applied at many levels to translations and the profession of translation.

I was reminded of it today when I looked saw a comment on the ProZ forums in a thread giving advice to a woman beginning her career as a translator. It has been running for quite a while, and numerous colleagues have made useful suggestions and given encouragement. Today I read a comment about how hard it is to start out because one is competing against so many experienced colleagues. I was a bit baffled by this statement, especially as it came from someone in a language pair I know to be in high demand and which also pays very well. So I took a look at the poster's online profile and found something like the following:

Expertise	Detailed fields not specified.
Rates	Slobovian to English - Standard rate: 0.08 EUR per word 25 EUR per hour
KudoZ activity	Questions answered: 5, Questions asked: 3 Easy / 150 PRO
Translation education	Masters degree in translation
Experience	Years of translation experience: 1. Registered at ProZ.com: Apr 2006.
Credentials	N/A
Memberships	N/A
Software	N/A
About me	I graduated in Slobovian before successfully completing an MA course in Translation.

Would you hire this person to do your translation? I certainly would not; perhaps she has built a good clientele through other channels, but given the complete lack of time investment to tell the world what she has to offer, I suspect not. So yes - it will be hard starting out that way, and it will be hard working that way even with years of experience most likely. How can you expect the customers who have the kinds of texts you enjoy and do best to find you when you don't tell us what those topics are. I'm a chemist among other things, and I love doing chemistry-related translations. I make that very clear in my public profiles and other marketing efforts. As a result I get a lot of work that I am highly qualified to do, and I love it. God only knows what kind of scraps will be offered to someone who makes no effort to find something better or tell the world what to offer. And that at unprofessionally low rates. Experts in Slobovian (not her real language) typically make double what she's asking from a good agency and triple to five times as much or more from direct clients who appreciate quality. Too many people who register with online translation portals expect a "free lunch" and wonder why the jobs offers don't come rolling in or why their quote submissions fail. One suggested remedy is to improve the speed of access to posted jobs through paid memberships, but this alone won't do it. The disgustingly obvious rule that applies here and almost anywhere else is that nothing comes from nothing, and you must be willing to think, learn and apply what you learn to take control of your business activities, or you and your clients may never be satisfied as much as they could be.

The principle applies to translation consumers as well. The opportunity costs of cheap or free translations are huge - far greater than the people pursuing this path realize at first. I won't start on this topic - it is covered with great thoroughness in free brochures from the ATA, ITI, BDÜ and other organizations. However, I think that we as translators can offer our clients an important service by educating them with regard to these opportunity costs. However, first we must understand them, and when I see "colleagues" doing free translation tests (stupid) before even discussing rates with a prospect (even stupider) and posting rates that I wouldn't pay to my cleaning lady, I don't think all of us are in a position to do this.

How To Write For Translation: The Essential Technical Writer's Guide

I discovered this 36-page PDF gem while visiting the relaunched web site of an Australian partner of mine, Academy Translations. It's available as a free download through a little request box in the sidebar.

The booklet is a nice, concise overview of important issues, not a detailed technical treatise on how to write. As such, it is also an excellent reference for others involved with documentation and translations projects... including translators.

Some of the advice to technical writers, such as the controlled use of language, is just as valuable to translators as it is to original authors. I long ago gave up hope that more than a small fraction of the people writing the technical documentation I translate will follow these principles. There are a few delightful exceptions, but very often I find five synonyms or more in a source document, which good technical style and clarity would require to be reduced to a single term in the English translation. Or the writers fail to understand the proper use of lists, with bullet lists used to explain key ordered sequences, followed by similar instructions in an ordinary paragraph, where the steps are no longer immediately recognized as distinct. Although I often use other methods, I think the style advice for writing documentation is very good.

The booklet also discusses design aspects, such as the use of authoring software, appropriate templates, text formatting and allowing for text expansion, and the importance of style guides and terminology glossaries are expressed. As far as style guides and glossaries are concerned, anyone who translates much is aware that too many clients do not provide such material, and that source documents are often very inconsistent in both respects. Taking this from a translator's perspective, I see it as an opportunity rather than a liability. Keep your own short style guide handy, and submit it for approval as part of a quotation. This is likely to have one of two results, both of them positive:

• the client will accept your suggestions, probably be grateful for them, and you will look like a pro or
• the client will provide the style guide information that should have been given to you in the first place.

In the case of a software manual where the names of buttons are written in various ways (Cancel, "Cancel", Cancel, Cancel, , Cancel, etc.) in the same document, I expect the first reaction.

When glossaries are not provided by clients, they have long been part of the "add-on business" or extra service I provide. Depending on the scope, budget and schedule of the project, a terminology project sometimes precedes the translation itself. At the very least, a glossary of terms I want the client to be aware of for purposes of review and possible discussion is submitted with the delivery of the translation. These lists often become the start of the previously neglected corporate terminology.

The guide goes on to give advice on collateral and marketing material, including tips for DTP programs used to produce such material.

Writing online help is covered, with similar issues to conventional documentation (style guides and terminology).

Web site translation issues and tools are presented, and the final sections (which are much too short) cover brand issues and what to do when thnigs go wrong.

The guide is certainly worth its price and more. I found it a refreshing read in exactly the sort of clear, simple style it encourages. Most importantly, it got me to thinking again about what I do right in my work and where my attention should be focused for improvement.

Less than "perfect"

Here it is again - Sunday night at 9 PM (yes, I know the time at the bottom of the post says otherwise, but I can't figure out how to reconfigure it from PST to CET) and another mass spam mail arrives from one of the world's "leading" translation agencies with a rush job of about 3000 words to be delivered by 5 p.m. tomorrow. Legal stuff requiring some attention to detail. It's always the same with this company and a few others in their league that I dealt with in the early days of my life at a translator. Lots of text, short deadline and usually a crap rate offered. (I'm not even sure what they think my rate is any more. I have ignored them for so long that I'm sure their idea of what I'll work for - not counting the rush charges for most of the stuff they come up with - is off by 50 to 100%.) One of these "big boys" recently announced a new "quality assurance policy" which basically states that they won't be doing proper proofreading and/or editing of translations any more. When I got a request a few weeks later asking me to do "spot checks" of a huge document but spend no more than an hour (or maybe it was two) on the review, I just shook my head and hit the DELETE key.

For all their fancy downtown offices in major cities around the world, I really think these zookeepers give translation a bad name, and I generally don't consider it worthwhile to deal with them and their bureaucratic nonsense. For me at least, the best agency relations are those with smaller "boutique" shops that really care about their customers, whose managing directors still personally visit customers whose accounts don't run into the millions and who understand that quality is fundamental to their survival. I work with a lot of small agencies, and most of them are delightful people to deal with. I wish I could say the same for the other end of the spectrum, though there are individual exceptions.