Translation Agency Translator Email Work

Dear Petr Kalkant

I was actually looking at your file recently, having completed some accounting work, and was thinking some remuneration was possible. Primarily because I was able to charge for a proofreading phase, which I was not sure if I would be able to. It took me a long time to get paid for my translation work by Monster so I wanted to wait at least until that, and find out how much I could get away with charging. Then it was so traumatic that I guess I wanted to forget about it. Because the proofreader said he had to spend as much time on yours as a translation, because he could not trust the text (although I am beginning to believe this translator may be too meticulous and high quality to use as a proofreader), I have to give him the full translation price. He tried to get more than that but I did not let him. But I just analysed the situation and the price he demanded was too high, and there were other high costs associated with the project, and my margin too low considering the high volume of work, so there really isn't any room for some remuneration for you. In every case where he complained concerning other translators I asked two other quality translators to analyse his changes and they basically had to agree with him. With your translation and one other translator he complained the most and screamed bloody murder, occasionally sending me samples of absolute translated nonsense. It seems that the Czechs in general were letting quality slip because of the poor quality pre-translations. That was by a translator I used for a very long time but who farmed it to someone else, so he got much less than he asked for as well. Generally, the Czech translation was the most horrible experience I've ever had, and I farm out into many languages. I worked hard and I was certainly not going to dig into my own pocket to pay people just because they "worked". You are delivering a product, not getting paid just because you are sitting in front of the computer, and if your product is not usable or takes too much work to fix it, who is going to pay for it? Certainly not me. So after this I decided that in such cases I will express no mercy. While trying to find Czech translators, I was laughed at by a few people who said it was very difficult to find quality Czech Republic translators. The quality proofreader I used practically had to retranslate the entire document. So I decided that I will have even less mercy with the Czechs, with whom I have grown so impatient on so many levels (waiters, sales staff) while living for 14 years in Prague. I have practically grown ashamed that I was born there and I have gained zero sympathy for that nation.

Anyway, yes, I can give you another chance, but at least from now on I have things set up much better so that I will have more time to check quality at an early stage. Similar problems in the Hungarian and Polish language were only isolated.

Below you will find another project I am working on, and I will use the assessment of translation samples for all future work. I trust that if I offer you more work you will be much more careful and make sure you are not translating just words. Some of the samples he was sending me of your work were truly "bonbonky" and it seemed pretty obvious you were just whipping through as fast as possible and not making sure that this is actually what is being used in the industry. I did not even have a chance to check your translation of the dictionary and have to wonder what you were translating there.

Dear Jane Zhang

I set up this browser based system where project managers and translators etc. can upload and download files between each other, and send messages to each other without knowing their contact details, so I can prepare that for you if there will be a need. That way I will not have to get involved in that last stage, not have to charge for my involvement, and speed things up in the process. But I have to admit this system was not set up for customers and I would feel uneasy opening it up with some of my translators. I guess it depends on how much work there is. I guess the price depends on how extensively you want a final proofread. If you want them to read the entire text again, I will definitely have to offer them something, and my guess would be around one fifth or one sixth of their translation cost, unless it is for very small jobs like this, in which case some minimum charge should apply.

> Thank you so much for your feedback. Could I know the price you want?

Dear Miki Jeon