Translation Agency File Translator Proofread

(February 3 to 6)

I have just scanned through the Proofread Panasonic files and I noticed that in the French section where previously had 2 files from 2 different translators, there is only one Proofread, the one performed for file French 1. As I do not know the exact reason for this, I am asking you. From my point of view French 2 was one of the best files.

French2 translated it without asking, and French1 is better from a text point of view, which is more important. We will sort out the technical details and formatting issues later. Right now the actual translation is the most important. So you can basically totally ignore French2. I only put it up there for the translators to look at, in case it would be better quality than French1.

I just uploaded some instructions for the PS system, which you should find at the login point. Please tell me what you think. Just curious, when the translator uploaded a translation, were you also sent an automatic message informing you of this? As a proofreader I received such a message and I forgot that I asked the programmer to make this part automatic. Gotta love it!

Enough of complaining, but I plan to eat the Chinese translation and proofread. It is the only (I said finalized) vetting, was hard nut because it has some paragraphing issues [explaining: everything is in form of canvas but that is messing up with the general structure of the file, that is, much info contained in those canvases (TEXT) do not appear in the file if you do not take each and every canvas and reformat using different number of inches, which of course differ from canvas to canvas. Maybe more precise instructions could be developed on this subject as the issue is an important one if a translator uses canvases to maintain figures/pictures in Word, but then the TEXT comes up as CUT or MISSING when looking at the overall file. Initially, I did think text was missing and in the comments I made in the previous vetting I did mention a lot of <cut/missing text]. I thought it is useful for you to know this because another translator/proofreader might get confused by the missing items in the text and take them as such, when in fact they are there, just have to reveal them. Of course, I am waiting for you to give green light on the Chinese and will do the vetting again. However, I did work 1 h on it. Well, this is the working time on it after I could finally figure out in Word where and what can be done in this case, but this is my business (I insist). Secondly, finally both French 1 and 2 stay for vetting? Off the subject, have you had time to open my accounting file yet?

yes I did and I want to write an email regarding your accounting file later. Right now I am trying to get to Cyprus before the ferry leaves, so that I can get back to checking email on my mobile. Just handed out some new work, and this new customer said something about translating into many more languages, so it could possibly turn into a little money earner for us. Right now it's into four languages. As I wrote in a previous email, ignore French2. Concerning the Chinese, I think we usually wouldn't be doing it this way. I was just letting the translators format as they wanted, for the sample. So I'd say this case is exceptional. Hopefully the second proofreader will put it into good shape.

Wow, this is all a bit new to me (Transit PE I mean). To start learning and using a new programme while doing the translation at the same time is going to be difficult and will take longer (especially because I'm also coming down with the flu right now :-( I have so far only translated the small (321 word) Firma file. So if you would like to entrust the rest of the translation to another translator who has more experience with Transit and could deliver the job faster, please by all means go ahead (as I said, I'm a bit slow at the moment because of not feeling so well) Please let me know at your earliest convenience - thank you.

please just proceed (first files in Word, and the last Repetitions file in Transit). More work may come from this customer and I want to translate more often using this software. It is not hard at all and the instructions I prepared are easy. You will earn more than translating normally, even considering the time spent learning.

> Have you made it safely to Cyprus?

it was one HECK of a drive and just now arrived at the port and will have to wait until tomorrow Sunday midnight before blast off. It should take about 5 hours so I should be on Cyprus Monday morning. I think I'll be able to answer the rest of your letter on Monday, as it will require some attention. Maybe what I'll do is I'll give you several accounts, as translator, proofreader, vettor and project manager, so that you can test things out. What concerns modifications, they usually take a very long time, as the programmer has a full time job and they seem to keep him busy 18 hours a day. But it will be fun testing things out. Hopefully we can start using it soon. Have a good Sunday.

another improvement which occurred to me is for the auto email notifications (when someone uploads a file) to be more informative, meaning it should state who (nickname) uploaded the file. For example, if there are two proofreaders, two vettors, and 20 translators on a particular large project. One proofreader might be waiting for a file from a particular translator, for example.

OK Karel - I'll proceed, thank you. I'll do my best to return everything I received to date + the 1700 still due by next Wednesday or Thursday, if that is alright with you and your client.

also, it would be good to send in your files as you complete them (after you proofread after yourself and finalised them), so that the proofreader, and in turn, vettor (person who makes sure nothing is missing and that the formatting is correct) can work on the file while you translate another. If at some point while translating another file you decide on different terminology, it is no problem to update this to an earlier file once it has been already proofread or vetted. It would be good to do the Repetitions.pxf file first, because it is small and in order to start preparing the other Transit files.

how is the progress going with the translation? The customer has now asked me to translate the document into three other languages (eventually four more), and I am translating it through English first, hence through you. I therefore cannot hand the others any files until you get one of them completed. Do you think you could do them one at a time without danger that you might change your mind later concerning some important meanings etc? If you do decide to change something, we can always mention this to the other translators, so that they can update their translation. Note that I still need to proofread the file before forwarding, so please send one of the files as soon as you get it done, and finalised and proofread after yourself. You can Send (export) only one of the files to me, or you can just export both of them. If you export both, simply tell me which file I should consider the translated one.

OK, I downloaded Transit, checked instructions, downloaded the Repetitions file and translated it in Transit. Please note a few things: 1. German to English was a little questionable so some terms in Croatian may not be right on the money because English may not be right on the money... 2. As always is the case with "cut-up" translations, there was no document to compare the terms to and I can guarantee some terms will need to be changed in the documents themselves because it's sometimes impossible to guess the gender of the term. 3. No spelling checker - a big handicap, slowing down the project and lowering exactness. I've attached the Repetitions file and the first business marketing file; I'll wait until you tell me how you want the larger first business marketing file to be translated - with Transit or simply in Word.

I will export your Transit translation into Word before proofread, where the spell check will be taken care of. Small issue. Will resolve all questionable points in the original German to English translation. Would be good if you pointed out questionable points to me by putting comments into < > brackets in your translation. Or send somehow separately. Vesna agreed to do proofread. You have two files to do in Word, and one in Transit. So please do the other Word translation. I will still send you two more files in Transit.

I reviewed the proofreading of the 2 files With all my respect to the colleague who did it....he is replacing-several times- words with another (SAME) words in meaning. I agree on 10% only of his changes For an overall estimate...The job is perfect and I am sure the client will be pleased. Karel...by the way I translate Arabic not Chinese as you mentioned more than once that my language is Chinese I am crossing my fingers to win this project Respects,

so he is not making your translation worse? I will cross my fingers too. I am aware you do Arab and am not aware that I addressed you as if you did Chinese. Maybe I am just addressing a lot of translators, several projects etc., and I slip sometimes, but I do not remember doing such a mistake.

here is the 2nd file. I have had one small problem towards the end, in that from section 200 on in the Target part the numbers have moved backwards one section, so that from that point on Source and Target no longer correspond by section. I am sure you have the expertise to correct this. Best regards,

looks like both files within the second file are fully translated. Are they proofread and finalised after yourself? I will proofread them now and forward them to the other languages.

> Please find the file attached.

here are the rest of the files. Note that there should be no dictionary with this project, so no need to add terms. It has originally been translated from German into English (original German document online if you need), and then proofread by me. What seemed strange or where I was not certain, I followed with a < character, referring to the left either a word or an entire sentence which seemed fishy. If you yourself are not certain of something, please leave comments in < > brackets so we can refer to the German translator, or another German translator. Once you have completed the translation (including the usual proofreading anf finalisation after yourself), it will be exported back into Word, and then forwarded to a proofreader, who can take care of the spellchecking in Word. I will also upload these files to the usual folder online, as a backup. Please confirm receipt and inform me of when you think you could deliver.

Thanks for contacting me personally on this. I would appreciate if you can send me the username and password for the online database, because there were at least ten mails with that earlier, it will be easier to use what you have already chosen. I am generally interested, but do not know if you can afford my price, EUR 30.00 an hour. As usual, we spend the winter in India (this time from November 15 to March 15). This time, our office stays closed between December 21 and January 8. I don't know how urgent this is, so just revert back if it can wait till that time. We have been working so much this year that we both need this break very much. Do you also require a sample translation into German, or are you more interested for me to do assessment only? Sunny greetings from Kerala,

not so sunny greetings from Turkey. I have that your username is X and password Y but I do not have translator information about your language combinations, so it would be good if you could put some basic information in the Translator Form section at the bottom. Or your basic/minimum price, so I know when I can approach you. Been having some work into English lately. Otherwise, will submit the big sample to Panasonic within a few days, so hopefully something will come out of all this work.

1. I have not actually sent you a sample using the View and Bid function in your site, can I test it out with something made up to see the way it actually looks like so I can help the translators better?

do it this way then. Enter the Panasonic tender, peruse the various languages, and then submit a tender to the Arab language, writing in the sample box "This is only a test, please ignore". You can log in again to see your changes. Feel free to put in crazy Rumanian characters or whatever characters you want. You should be able to copy from Word, but your browser needs to handle those characters as well. There is a bug fix I can use, but it would end up erasing all the previous samples, so I must keep it as it is for the time being.

2. At this stage, looking for translators only or for proofreaders as well who will assess the samples? If not looking right now, when is it expected?

I will take care of the assessment process. Basically, once I get enough samples, I approach people who are not too expensive, ask them for their CV, choose one to do some assessments, and proceed until I have at least two or three assessors. This information isn't really for the translators but just for you. But you can use some of it if the translators ask. I am attaching my latest ctrl+m responses.

3. What is the maximum acceptable rate offered by the translator? Calculated by source word/line or page? Are they different if translated from German source or English source? By the proofreader if we need that as well? Of course I am referring to the actual translation, I suppose they will not be paid for the 150-word sample.

The tender should show the tender price I am after, in this case USD/word. It can vary per project. No limit on price, but I'll approach the translators sometimes and ask them if they are sniffing glue. Different languages have different prices, and I always charge the same flat markup rate on top of whatever the translator I choose charges. No, they will certainly not be paid for the translation sample, and my ctrl+m/snippet responses should include one explaining my point of view on this. I am rather stern with anyone who objects to lifting their finger to get in the door with me like this.

4. If translator opens the directory where he/she can take a look at all the files that are to be translated if passes the translation testing process, so if opens the directory, will see a couple of .pxf extension files. They are told to consider only the .doc ones but can ask whether we plan to use Transit with the Japanese translation. Are we?

Yes, I plan to do the wave02 work in Transit in all the languages, but don't want to scare away any applicants, which is why I haven't mentioned it. Okay, will start forwarding you their emails. At least you'll be able to email with others and not only me. Although their silly questions can get pretty annoying.

I am attaching the files duly proofread and I have also synchronised the translations so that the same sections have the same type of phrasing.

okay, checked out your changes, although I still do not see why you insist on maintaining Aktiengesellschaft. Sure, you explained/translated it once in brackets, but why keep using it and why not the translation? One might as well translate every word once in brackets and keep it in the German original. The purpose of this text is to attract customers for our customers, not to be super accurate in translation. As a native English speaker I would not enjoy reading such a long and seemingly gruesome German word. I do not know why you are keeping it there at all. And I know that in contracts and legal documents the "the" is not used, but the previous text was for a website, hence it should be readable and appealing for the reader. This last section may be a binding contract, in which case I can accept not using the "the", but I like to focus more on the purpose of a translation, and not always pat myself on the back that my translation is very accurate. You can check out my overall philosophy at X. Sometimes I'll simply tell a customer that they can't even write in their own language, and it will hamper the marketing translation in the other end (hence I suggest a reformulation of their crap document). I like to focus on the purpose of what I am doing, which is contrary to many agencies. I believe I'm right, of course.

Ok, Karel, no problem! I have quite enough work to do (busy with pharmaceuticals and specalogs+OMM's for Caterpillar) so please, do not feel uncomfortable about Croatian jobs! You may take me into consideration only as your last solution, when Denis is not available or when some medical project is in question. "Some juicy chunks" would be fine but you're aware yourself that a translator is the most efficient and fastest when working within one or two specialized fields all the time. If you want me to proofread, that's ok, but with no obligations on your part! Is Denis from Varazdin? And I think you should not ask Denis to send you anything - he might get impression that you have some combination that's not loyal toward him (mmm, I can't express what I want to say)... but you do understand what I meant, eh?

here are the first files for you to proofread, and another two files totalling around 1700 words should soon follow. When do you think you can get these done? You can find the originals, if you need to refer to them, through download.kenax.cz, Download Pages link, 7007 folder (translations into English subfolder - the original originals were in German).

sorry for the delay, but here are the translation samples. I've had other projects, you said you no longer needed them by the end of January, and I wanted to go through my usual quality control, which means to send the proofread back to the translators to look at. There was also a vetting stage to make sure that nothing was missing, so several processes. And because I had those other projects I guess I let this slip onto the backburner a bit. Anyway, here they are and I believe you should be happy with the text. What concerns the formatting, as we agreed, they are just provided in Word for the time being, and I let every translator do the formatting as they saw fit. If you will want to work together, we can use Trados, or perhaps I can convince you to go with Transit, because my TM expert said that Transit has better filters for these complex programs (InDesign and FrameMaker) and that Trados has particular bugs which must be worked around and fiddled with in the exported InDesign and FrameMaker files (especially in particular languages). But these are technical issues we can discuss later. What concerns price, the average for these five languages is around 0.08 USD/word for translation, with an additional average of 0.03 for proofread. As I stated before, I do not usually charge a markup on top of the proofreads but only on the translation. The total charge then, including proofread and vetting (making sure that nothing is missing and that the formatting is correct) would be around 0.11 USD/word. What regards turnover time, the translators I chose for these samples are the best assessed. I can also continue to look for and test more. Ideally I'd always prefer to use the same translators, but because quality translators often get lots of work from other customers, it would make it difficult to always use the same translators if you want an immediate turnaround. So we would have to talk about exactly what regime you would like to follow. If you will need quick turnaround time, then it is simply a matter of using some of the other translators/proofreaders when the main ones are busy. And it would be good to talk about the translation memory. For example, in Transit, I can develop a dictionary, so when I have to use other translators occasionally, they are well equipped with terminology support, to keep everything consistent and the same quality. All these things we can talk about if you are happy with the quality of the text itself and my price. I will send this email twice. Once with attached files, and once without, as I know that emails with large attachments can sometimes surf around the net for a while before landing at their destination. You will also be able to download the samples from X, in the Panasonic folder. Hope you are happy with these translations. If you will choose another provider, I would appreciate it if you could at least send us a little bit of work. When I first looked at these files they were two pages each and I did not dream they would be so large in terms of actual text, so I spent quite a bit paying these quality translators to provide these samples for you.