Poll: Does the request for a test translation deter you from proceeding with a potential job?
Michaël Temmerman Costa Rica Local time: 16:05 Member (2005) English to Dutch + ...
comparison with other professions is tricky in this case
Jan 7
Yaotl Altan wrote:
When we visit the doctor, do we ask him/her to do a test?
Medical practice is a protected profession, just like legal practice. Not just anyone can call himself a doctor or a lawyer. However, every single person on this planet that believes he speaks a foreign language pretty well can call himself a "professional translator".
And like someone pointed out already, diplomas don't guarantee good quality.
As long as anybody can claim the "translator" title, the real professionals will have a hard time...
[Edited at 2012-01-07 03:17 GMT]
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When we visit the doctor, do we ask him/her to do a test?
Of course not, but then we do know that the doctor has spent 10 years studying and that a large part of that is in situ experience.
It does not make sense to me to compare doctors and translators. However, for medical translations, give me a doctor translator any day !
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Yaotl Altan Mexico Local time: 17:05 Member English to Spanish + ...
Translators too.
Jan 7
Nikki Scott-Despaigne wrote:
Yaotl Altan wrote:
When we visit the doctor, do we ask him/her to do a test?
Of course not, but then we do know that the doctor has spent 10 years studying and that a large part of that is in situ experience.
...
Right, many translators have spent years studying and translating too
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Ty Kendall United Kingdom Local time: 23:05 Member (2011) Hebrew to English
Agree with Yaotl
Jan 7
Let's not devalue ourselves, there are plenty of other people and non-translators doing that for us.
Yes, due to the de-regulated nature of translation it's not quite the same as other professions, but that doesn't mean that a translator shouldn't be of equal value to a doctor, especially if the translator has spent years and years studying, and years and years acquiring a language, sometimes "in situ".
Yes, there are cowboy translators out there who do nothing but damage the image of the profession, but let's not pretend there has never been a cowboy doctor or lawyer....
There's good and bad in everything, good doctors, bad doctors, good translators, bad translators, good lawyers, bad lawyers.....
...the vaunted professions in medicine and law should not keep being put on a pedestal...they are nothing special and it's somewhat self-deprecating to place yourself below them.
There are plenty of reasons why you probably shouldn't compare apples and oranges (translators and doctors/lawyers), but quality, professionalism and length of study are not the base upon which you should try to build an argument.
The funny thing is that the same translators who happily acknowledge our inferiority to doctors and lawyers here are the same ones who would be the first to cry foul if someone said "you're just a translator".
[Edited at 2012-01-07 09:16 GMT]
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Muriel Vasconcellos United States Local time: 15:05 Member (2003) Spanish to English + ...
It's the agencies that ask for tests
Jan 7
Direct clients don't. I try to focus on direct clients. I don't have time to take tests.
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eur0tec Germany Local time: 06:05 English to German + ...
depending on which category
Jan 18
NO, if category 1: the short and relevant text is posted for everybody and no longer than 100 - 200 words by an outsourcer with 10+ LWA 5.0
YES, if category 2: where you receive an email like this ("... Please find a sample text attached, which we would like you to translate for us by Thursday, 12 noon GMT ...") and the sample is way over 600 words from an outsourcer with only 1 LWA 5.0 under a different name than the one used in the posting (I wonder how they managed to do that)
Conclusion, both "YES" and "NO" are right. Just -like with everything- use your logic to judge, which one has a slight chance to be a scam.
Category 1 uses the same text for all applicants to compare the performance while category 2 probably asks as many applicants as they can get to translate a different portion of a large project to just paste them together. As in the above case a 50 EUR value. Imagine this x 10 or 20. Nice profit.
You can ask me for more details about the cat 2 posting I mentioned (just happened today)
[Edited at 2012-01-18 03:42 GMT]
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