15 Things You Should Never Say to a Translator
Regularly, a translator or translation company receives unrealistic requests. We have compiled 15 of them. What is your own experience?
15 Things You Should Never Say to a Translator
(And Which They Unfortunately Hear Way Too Often)
Here are some of the comments I have heard firsthand from potential customers, over my many years working in the field of translation. I think that all translators have heard these at some point âŚ
1 - You say youâre a translator, but you can only speak three languages???
Or: Youâre a translator, but you donât know how to say âBest Regardsâ in Chinese?
2 - I have about 45 pages to get a rush translation on by tomorrow, can you give me a discount?
3 - The document I have enclosed is a PDF created with InDesign. I absolutely need the formatting to be maintained.
4 - US$300 to translate 3000 words? I am not prepared to pay that much. My nephew studied one month in France, he can handle this translation perfectly well for US$50
5 - You are a thief! I know a translator, and he only gets a few cents per word, and you want US$400 to translate 5000 words!!!
6 - My secretary is bilingual and read your translation into Spanish. She thought it was absolutely terrible.
7 - Can you translate âRevenge is a dish best served coldâ into one single Chinese character? Itâs for a tattooâŚ
8 - I need my website www.domain.com translated. Part of it is Flash and the remaining part is dynamic content managed via a database. Please look at the website and send me a detailed quote.
9 - What does âXXXâ mean (word taken out of context)? If you are a real translator, you should know!
10 - What did you study in order to become a translator? Literature? Or: Translation isnât a real job. Or the ever popular: You spend your life sitting at home, working at your computer in your pajamas, and you earn your living doing that?
11 - The document to be translated is confidential, and I canât send it to you, but I need to know how much you are going to charge for it to be translated!
12 - Why are you charging so much when there are free software programs that do machine translations?
13 - Why do you need dictionaries? Arenât you a professional translator?
14 - Thereâs no way that could take so long. This text is only about 20 pages long and that shouldnât take you any more than two days to translate!
15 - Please provide me with a rush translation of this 10-page contract. My customer is waiting in my office to get the document in his language.
