After a long and busy week, it's time for some Friday laughs! We hope you enjoy this hilarious Spanish-language video that's been making the rounds for a few weeks now. It succinctly highlights some of the regional differences, and thus difficulties, of the Spanish language. Sure, it's widely spoken around the world, but that doesn't mean we all understand each other. We can attest to this: during last year's trip to Chile and Argentina, we struggled quite a bit, especially with food items. Among many, many things, we learned that if you are looking for an avocado, you better say palta in Chile (it would be aguacate for us). Enjoy!
ATA Pricing Webinar Questions: Answered (Part I)
Q: What are the strategies to set minimum rates?
A: Clearly communicate to the client what your minimum rate is. You might add that information on your website if you feel comfortable with that. Then stick to the minimum rate, unless it's a repeat customer who sends you lots of work and who just happens to need one sentence translated.
Q: What is the best strategy to inform customers of an inflation rate adjustment?
A: Clearly state that you have adjusted your rates for inflation on the price quotes that you issue during the first months of the year. It can be as simple as "Please note that my rates have been adjusted for inflation by XYZ." We update our rate sheet, which is publicly available, at the beginning of each year, and post the adjusted rates there.
Q: How do you deal with being undercut by less qualified interpreters when agencies just want to go with the cheapest?
A: That is of, course, always a problem. Unfortunately, you cannot control what others do -- you can only control what you do (trite, but true). Move on to the next client and make sure you communicate the value of your services to the potential client. The goal is to get them to see your value and your abilities, not your price. That said, there will always be clients who just want the cheapest price. We don't work with those clients and neither should you.
Q: Nowadays, the US economy is not the same as 10 years ago. Are you aware that we don't get to make many choices with reference to accepting or rejecting a client's offer?
A: I am well aware of the state of the American economy. However, regardless of the economy, you always have a choice whether or not to accept a certain rate. As a business owner, you have to make some tough decisions, and they include walking away from work that doesn't pay what you charge. Independently of the economic climate, there will always be clients who look for world-class quality and who are not very price-sensitive. Of course the economic downturn has, in general, made customers more price-sensitive in all areas. But if you demand and receive adequate rates, you don't need hundreds of clients. You just need a few good repeat customers, and trust us: they are out there. You have a choice regarding the clients you work with. Let's not take the "free" out of "freelancer." You might enjoy the tough love and brilliant advice regarding pricing in Chris Durban's book "The Prosperous Translator." Down with the poverty cult (Chris's words)!
Q: Do you charge late fees, if payments are not made on time?
A: That's a good one, and it's a tricky issue. We rarely encounter late payers as we clearly define our payment policies up front. However, when people have paid late, we have sent them updated invoices with a late fee. Most folks have provided prompt payment, but conveniently exclude the late fee from the payment. Collecting on the late fee can be frustrating and time-consuming, so depending on the amount owed and how much time you want to put into it, you have to decide whether to pursue it or to just let it go. Your time is the only resource you have, so use it wisely.
Q: A translation agency told me I had to charge them one third of the price they charged their client. Do you know if that is standard practice?
A: I am not sure. Twin Translations works exclusively with direct clients, so we don't know much about how agencies break down their rates. It's surprising that the agency shared that information with you. Perhaps one of our readers can answer this question by leaving a comment below.
Q: What about reductions for repetitions?
A: I presume you are talking about repeated words/segments in translation environment tools. We don't give discounts for those, unless the client wants to pay us for the investment in these tools that we've made and the hundreds of hours we've spent dealing with the software. Also, repetitions still need to be reviewed to make sure the context is correct. For instance, in many legal documents you will find both the word claim as a verb and claim as a noun. The system would recognize this as a repetition, but you still have to review the sentence. We also don't give discounts because we use a computer and not a typewriter -- after all, we paid for the computer. However, we recently did a a project that was a series of handouts which had the exact same information on each page four times. In that case, we certainly only charged once. There was still some formatting involved to make sure the layout was correct, but charging only once was the right thing to do. There's always some room for flexibility.
Comments? We'd love to hear from you.
Spanish-Language Interview: Radio
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| First time doing live radio with co-host Lorena Pike. |
A few days ago, Judy was asked to give a one-hour radio interview for a local Spanish-language radio station in Las Vegas: KRLV 1340 AM. It was a huge pleasure to share a bit of information about our profession with the Hispanic community in Las Vegas. The program is called "Cultura Comunitaria" and airs on Fridays at 5 p.m. Co-host Lorena Pike is a fellow translator and court-certified interpreter. We also discussed the recent significant reduction in pay for certified court interpreters in Nevada. More about that in a future blog post. We hope that you enjoy the recording, even though Judy clearly doesn't have a trained radio voice (and live radio is a bit scary!)-- but can you tell that Lorena does? Click here to listen.
How to Lose a Client in 10 Easy Steps
Most of the time, we are the individuals who provide translation and interpreting services to our clients. Many times, we are also the client because we frequently outsource work to our fabulous colleagues around the world. Throughout the years, through our own mistakes, others’ mistakes and clients' praise and criticism, we have learned a thing or two. We would like to introduce you to our (somewhat tongue-in-cheek) lists of how to lose a client in 10 easy steps. Take it with a grain of salt, but it’s (probably) all happened before.
- Consider the deadline a mere suggestion
Deadlines are for suckers! You don’t even know what time 5 PM Pacific Daylight Savings Time is in your time zone (hint: try www.timeanddate.com). You don’t care that your client’s career depends on her getting this contract translated. Surely she can wait an hour or two for you to finish. It was a tight deadline, so she’s lucky that you finish the thing in the first place.
- Complain about the client on the internet
The internet is a fantastic place to share your frustration about your client, whether you choose to name them (why not?) or just refer to them as “client from hell.” Surely your Twitter followers will back you up on this: your client is a jerk and you hope she loses her job.
- Never apologize for your mistakes
Your customer requested American English and you delivered the project in British English, because it sounds more sophisticated. After the client points this out, be sure to start your e-mail with ‘’Let me explain…” and do not take any responsibility. After all, it’s always the customer’s fault.
- Make excuses
The reason you did not read up on domestic violence legislation in your state for a temporary protection order hearing or the reason you didn’t research airbag technology for an automotive translation include: the dog attacked your computer, the cat peed on your dictionaries, you locked yourself in your garage or you ate bad sushi. Try the excuse about not being able to attach a file to e-mail because your computer had a virus.
- Don’t follow directions
Why bother reading all the instructions? It doesn’t matter that your client is legally obligated to publish forms that are no smaller than 12-point font or that she wanted to save some money by not translating the text highlighted in red. It’s perfectly fine to deliver a PowerPoint translation in OpenOffice format, because you hate Microsoft.
- Don’t turn in tax forms
It’s not important that your client has to have certain information about their providers. You will get around to turning in those annoying tax forms when you have a minute. It really doesn’t matter that your client will get in trouble with the accounting department. Let them sort it out.
- Show up late
Judges are always running late, so you have plenty of time for a venti mocha latte with almond milk. Conventioneers are typically asleep for the first half hour of presentations, so if needed, your booth partner can cover for you.
- Don’t respond in a timely manner
E-mail and phone calls are annoying. You need your mid-afternoon beauty sleep, so it’s perfectly acceptable not to return a customer’s frantic calls until 48 hours later. It probably wasn’t that important anyway.
- Get defensive
You don’t understand why the customer insists on using “happy” when you think the term “content” is highly superior. Tell the customer that he’s just some little cubicle slave who should leave the big language questions to you, the brilliant linguist.
- Have your customer solve your technical problems
Your translation environment tools just let you down, so call up your customer and tell her about your terminology memory troubles. Since you are at it, perhaps she can help you format those pesky text boxes, because the translation doesn’t fit.
Guest Post/Open Thread: Who's the Boss?
I have the distinct pleasure of teaching students in a translation certificate program, and one of my favorite and liveliest discussions comes when we talk about deciding to work for yourself. Since most folks are used to working for companies, everyone knows how it works: you send out résumés, go for an interview, and, if everything goes well, you receive an offer. You look at what they offer, and decide if you will accept the job. Most of us assume that a full-time position will provide us with enough to live on (assuming a modest lifestyle—no Lamborghinis here), and most of us expect things like paid vacations and some sort of benefits package.
But it's amazing how many of us fail to translate this to the self-employment model that dominates our industry. We're pretty good at seeing ourselves as employees, but not so much as employers. Here's the bottom line: we simply cannot expect to be seen as professionals if we do not charge rates that allows us to provide ourselves with benefits that any right-minded professional would expect.
If you were an architect or a CPA looking to work in-house, you would expect paid vacation; paid sick leave; paid holidays; and some employer contribution to health insurance—that's medical, vision and dental. A full package would also likely include long-term disability and life insurance, along with a 401(k). That's in addition to things like paying a share of your Social Security taxes and withholding income tax and unemployment contributions. Employers don't offer these benefits out of the kindness of their hearts: some are required (like taxes) but mostly it's because they know that they need their employees, and that means they need to protect their business by taking good care of them. This applies as well when employee and employer are one and the same.
It's encouraging to see discussions on translation and interpreting business practices lists and blogs take on things like saving for retirement and the importance of actually taking a vacation. But what about insurance? What happens when your main employee—you—can't work because of illness? How about those eyeglasses you need to see the screen or the physical therapy for your aching wrists? Not to mention house fires, hurricanes, heart attacks and the like.
It helps to remember that being a business is not just about providing excellent service, but also being an excellent employer. In all our discussions about "sexy" benefits like vacation and retirement, let's not forget to investigate the basic health insurance offered by most states, or buying a group policy as part of a larger organization with huge buying power (think warehouse clubs, national associations for the self-employed), or even setting up an Health Spending Account. Whatever choice we make, it all boils down to attracting and taking care of our most important professional asset—ourselves.
Caitilin Walsh is an ATA-Certified French-English translator who delights in producing publication-quality translations for the computer industry and food lovers alike. In addition to her longtime service to her local chapter, NOTIS (Northwest Translators & Interpreters Society), she serves as President-elect of the American Translators Association. She brings her strong opinions to teaching Ethics and Business Practices at the Translation and Interpreting Institute at Bellevue College, and chairing the T&I Advisory Committee for the Puget Sound Skills Center. When not at her computer, she can be found pursuing creative endeavors from orchestra to the kitchen.
Fluent in 11 Languages
All translators and interpreters are proud of their hard-earned foreign language skills, usually in one or two languages, but we've never heard of anyone who's fluent in 11 languages. Plus, this kid is only 20 years old. Granted, he doesn't translate or interpret from these languages, but we bet Alex Rawlings would be a fine addition to the community.
Alex's story is truly remarkable, and there's no question that he's extraordinarily talented. We listened to Alex's video in the four languages that we speak between the two of us, and we were quite impressed. We can't judge the quality of the other languages, but we have a hunch they are just as good. We wish the BBC article delved into Alex's life a bit further, as we'd love to know more about him and learn more details about how exactly he has acquired so many languages in his young life.
You can watch the video on the BBC's website.
Alex's story is truly remarkable, and there's no question that he's extraordinarily talented. We listened to Alex's video in the four languages that we speak between the two of us, and we were quite impressed. We can't judge the quality of the other languages, but we have a hunch they are just as good. We wish the BBC article delved into Alex's life a bit further, as we'd love to know more about him and learn more details about how exactly he has acquired so many languages in his young life.
You can watch the video on the BBC's website.
Keep it Simple
Put yourself in the customer's shoes: when you get a speeding ticket, you don't want the attorney you hire to take care of it to bombard you with acronyms and stuff you don't understand. All you want to know is what you need to do to get the ticket off your record. We feel the same way about our roles in clients' lives: we want to solve their problems as opposed to making things more complicated by showing off (intentionally or not) jargon that's meaningless to clients. This seems like a no-brainer, but it's amazing how many service providers cannot get themselves to explain processes in a simple, straight-forward way (several of our CPAs come to mind here). When dealing with your own clients, our advice is to make things as easy on them as possible -- after all, they are not translators or interpreters, and they don't need to be: that's why they have you.
We'd love to hear your thoughts on this!
Webinar: Pricing Strategies for Translators and Interpreters
Here is the presentation abstract:
Pricing is a controversial and complex subject, and it’s one that all linguists need to think about very seriously. In order to make a good living in the profession that we love, it’s essential to figure out how to price our services. It's not about the price someone tells you to charge, but rather what do you want to make and how do you get there.
The webinar will cover:
- How much do you want to make?
- Moral/ethical obligations?
- Brief overview of supply, demand and price
- The peanuts/monkeys phenomenon
- Alternatives to very low prices for newcomers to the profession
- The business case for no free translation tests
- Surcharges (weekend, 24-hour turnaround, PDF, etc.)
- Dealing with adversity
- Adjustments for inflation
Language Access Position: Barton Memorial Hospital (South Lake Tahoe, CA)
Read on for more information:
LANGUAGE ACCESS SERVICES ASSISTANT
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| Department: | LANGUAGE ACCESS SERVICES |
| Schedule: | Part Time |
| Shift: | Variable |
| Hours: | Variable days and schedule, 8-hour shifts |
POSITION OVERVIEW
- Assists coordination with Language Access Services (LAS), including in-house Medical Interpreters, Deaf and Hard of Hearing (DHH) interpreters, telephonic interpreting, remote video interpreting, and written translation system-wide.Assists organization with continuing education of LAS staff; coaches, mentors and develops the skills of LAS staff.
- Provides training to providers and staff, including new employees, on the procedure for requesting interpreters and written translation, as well as on methods for working effectively with an interpreter.
- Follows National Council on Interpreting in HealthCare (NCIHC) Code of Ethics and California Healthcare Interpreting Association (CHIA) standards; ensures services are consistent with the standards of BMH and JCAHO and other regulatory bodies.
- Assists and monitors the interpreter productivity and tracking system.
- Serves as back up for interpreters/translators when necessary.
- Works collaboratively with other Barton University administrative staff and other stakeholders to coordinate the content and scheduling of LAS courses, services and programs; utilizes support services and operates within budget parameters.
- Reports to the Director of Education/LAS Coordinator.
- High School Degree or equivalent. Bachelor’s degree in nursing, business, education, social work, sociology or related field preferred
- Computer literate: Excel, Outlook, Word, PowerPoint.
- Bilingual, bicultural, 40 hour medical interpreting course certificate preferred. National Certification for Medical Interpreter highly recommended or ability to obtain within one year.
- Sufficient computer skills as are required to complete an online application and the pre-employment/annual Net Learning requirements
- In compliance with patient safety standards, must be able to effectively communicate in English; Bilingual abilities preferre
- Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform essential functions of the position without compromising services.
- Prolonged, extensive or considerable standing/walking/sitting
- Considerable reaching, stooping, bending, kneeling, crouching
- Must be able to lift a minimum of 25 lbs.
- Routine Office/Administrative conditions
- Contact with patients and guests under a wide variety of circumstances
- Potential for exposure to the risk of infections and bloodborne and contagious diseases
- Subject to varying and unpredictable situations, including the handling of emergency or crisis situations
- Subject to pressure due to irregular hours, frequent interruptions and stressful situations due to multiple demands
- (1) High School Diploma or equivalent
- Minimum 2+ Years Relevant Experience Required
$100 in Google Adwords
We honestly don't know why Google keeps on sending us so many free certificates for $100 in Google AdWords for new users, but we will take them. As usual, we will raffle off the certificate to a colleague (freelancers only, please) who answers one question correctly. We will e-mail the access code to the winning person so he or she can get started with Google AdWords. The certificate expires March 31, 2012.Here's the question: where was this picture taken? Hint: it was taken in the continental U.S. Give us the state/city/area, and you will win the prize!
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