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 …

1 - You say you’re a translator, but you can only speak three languages???

Or: You’re a translator, but you don’t know how to say “Best Regards” 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 “Revenge is a dish best served cold” into one single Chinese character? It’s for a tattoo…

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 “XXX” 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 isn’t 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 can’t 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? Aren’t you a professional translator?

14 - There’s no way that could take so long. This text is only about 20 pages long and that shouldn’t 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.