| Pages in topic: < [1 2 3 4 5 6] > | Keep Getting Ghosted By Agencies After I Submit My Test. Should I Keep Trying to Be a Translator? Thread poster: David McAlpine
|
|---|
Dan Lucas 
United Kingdom
Local time: 22:52
Member (2014)
Japanese to English
| Your differentiator is English, not Chinese, so write with care at all times | Sep 16, 2022 |
Jennifer Levey wrote:
And you did impress me. But not in the way you might have hoped for.
This may sound harsh, but Jennifer has a point. You seem focused on your Chinese skills, but your ability to write well in your native language is, if anything, even more important. I cannot evaluate your Chinese, but there are a number of unforced errors in your English in this thread.
We all make a mistake or two, but your posts have multiple issues ("like allot to learn" and "your probably right" were the other ones that stood out for me).
Remember that a key motivator for clients to hire you is their expectation that you will write not only more natural English but also more correct English than a non-native speaker of the language. Sophisticated clients - who may also be those who are prepared to pay higher rates - will be looking for evidence of that in your communications as well as your tests. If you're not in the habit of writing correctly at all times, you may be making mistakes that dissuade them from working with you.
I would also agree with Jennifer that your tone is too informal for business English. If you were translating text for a game that requires informal English that would be fine, but this is a place for professional translators. Busy project managers want assign their jobs to serious and reliable freelancers: attention to detail is key. If a client were to read your posts in this (public) thread, would they be more or less inclined to work with you?
Others have already made valid points about your profile and the desirability of a clear and credible area of specialisation.
Regards,
Dan
| | | | | Murphy’s law | Sep 16, 2022 |
Dan Lucas wrote:
Busy project managers want assign their jobs to serious and reliable freelancers: attention to detail is key.
Sorry, Dan, I just had to.
| | | | Kay Denney
France
Local time: 23:52
French to English
Michael Newton wrote:
In the rare instances when I have been told I did not pass the test, the agencies are totally unwilling to explain why.
It's not that the agency is lazy. If you tell a translator why they failed, chances are they'll come back telling you that no, what they put is right and what you were hoping for is wrong. This happened to me when working at the agency.
The test was a short press release for a company. The translator who'd been doing these press releases for year was no longer available. We needed someone who'd simply continue where the other guy left off, we didn't want the client to realise it was no longer the same translator, because they'd been very finicky until we got this guy to work for us.
So we sent out a test, leaving the name of the company in it and telling the translators that the end client was very happy with the previous translator. All the companies press releases were on their website in English and in French, so it was very easy to find previously used terms.
Most of the translators didn't even bother to look the company up, let alone crib from previous translations, so I just eliminated them. The PM let everyone know whether they had been rejected or retained. Many of those who were rejected asked why, and the PM sent my mini report which mostly just said "didn't use terminology as per client website". One guy wrote back explaining why what he had put was not wrong, and the PM forwarded his email to me "because he seems to have a point". Yes, he laboured each and every correction on his test, showing that his term was right (and yes, it sometimes was right, but the term on the website was not wrong either).
I just told the PM that even if his translation was million times better (which it wasn't), they didn't want to work with someone that bolshie.
| | | | kd42
Estonia
Local time: 00:52
English to Russian
David McAlpine wrote:
I'm also still largely unaware of the industry standards, causing me to second guess all my actions down to weather the emails I write sounding professional enough.
This would be a failed test.
| | |
|
|
|
Jo Macdonald
Spain
Local time: 23:52
Italian to English
+ ...
| Don't be bothered by tests | Sep 16, 2022 |
My advice is not to bother with tests, and if you do decide to do them to gain experience, don't be bothered by testers' results, or the lack of em.
I agree with almost everything Dan said...
Busy project managers want assign their jobs to serious and reliable freelancers: attention to detail is key.
Nobody is perfect, hopefully we're all still learning, and I wouldn't get too hung up about being soo informal, or too formal, or writing proper enough or whatever for the forum.
Be yourself, and if you're an informal kinda guy be that guy and find, or better still create, your own market.
You decide who you want to work with.
Imo tests are pretty much a waste of time.
In over 20 years in the business free tests have resulted in almost zero professional, profitable business relationships.
I have "won" some contracts doing paid tests, but some seriously professional people seem to think it's fine to use a good provider to win a contract then use another one to do the job.
Don't get disheartened by criticism. It's all good if you want to improve. I learnt to live and work with dyslekxya (how do you spill that again?) thinks to ma's rusty mold spell chucker, bit if tat ever packed up Y'd never know now wood eye?
[Edited at 2022-09-16 10:38 GMT]
| | | | Samuel Murray
Netherlands
Local time: 23:52
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
+ ...
David McAlpine wrote:
Through ProZ.com I've been getting contacted by agencies. They will be very receptive at first, responding very quickly, then the moment I submit the test they send me they immediately stop responding. They don't say I failed, they just stop responding.
This is unfortunately a part of this business. There can be any number of reasons for this. For example, they may have had a potential job lined up (or they might have hoped to get that potential job) and now they no longer have it. Or they may have simply been filling up their database of translators. Either way, I agree that it is bad manners of them not to respond, at least. It's a pity we're not allowed to leave Blue Board reviews for agencies that we've done unpaid work for.
| | | | | First time... | Sep 16, 2022 |
Matthias Brombach wrote:
...the usual spelling and grammar errors you find in translations into English produced by non-native speakers of English (in your case: translators from China): Then your contact won't "lose his face" (because you, as a native speaker of English, are clearly unbeatable in English). It's just a cultural matter, I believe. Don't try to be better in your native language than your prospective client, to keep harmony. Remember that it's Chinese translators who do most of the translations from Chinese into English.
[Bearbeitet am 2022-09-15 20:04 GMT]
I see someone suggesting to a colleague to put mistakes in his/her translations... buy hey, there is always a first time! No offence... 
| | | | Sadek_A
Local time: 01:52
English to Arabic
+ ...
Ice Scream wrote: Dan Lucas wrote:
Busy project managers want assign their jobs to serious and reliable freelancers: attention to detail is key. Sorry, Dan, I just had to.
Doesn't seem to have noticed yet!!!
| | |
|
|
|
Metin Demirel
Türkiye
Local time: 00:52
Member (2018)
Italian to Turkish
+ ...
| Tests may be a good method | Sep 16, 2022 |
Baran Keki wrote: I know where you're coming from, but the main reason why bad translators find work is their cheap rates and the fact that the agency has a good, seasoned translator who is willing to turn their rubbish into halfway decent output (as a reviewer/proofreader) at half their translation rate. Tests are not the most effective way of judging one's competence, how else can you explain Palestinian scammers that steal others' CVs and register themselves as translators of various language pairs (to outsource agency jobs to others on Upwork)? Some of them must take tests (imagine an Arab taking a FR>JP test), doubtless they hire someone to do the test for them. You're right though, it certainly doesn't stop them  [Edited at 2022-09-16 05:20 GMT]
I am not so cynical about test translations, even the free ones. I've gotten jobs based on the free tests I've done, so I know it works. Also, if I was to find a good translator, I think I would ask for a paid test first. I still do free tests (very rarely) and I am never bothered. Recently, I was declined by an agency because of a poor test result. The reviewer had done many preferential changes and I didn't bother to challenge it. I don't have the time or energy. It's easier to move on. What I care about is not a test being free or not, but whether the agency seems to be one promising a good collaboration.
| | | | Baran Keki
Türkiye
Local time: 00:52
Member
English to Turkish
| Just out of interest | Sep 16, 2022 |
You seem to be living in a place what most people might call 'a paradise on earth', can't you find something more interesting there than being cooped at home and translating stuff? Isn't there any work in tourism industry?
| | | | Baran Keki
Türkiye
Local time: 00:52
Member
English to Turkish
| Very interesting point | Sep 16, 2022 |
Matthias Brombach wrote:
Remember that it's Chinese translators who do most of the translations from Chinese into English.
[Bearbeitet am 2022-09-15 20:04 GMT]
Do you have any evidence to support this? Could this have anything to do with the (best) rates offered by Chinese agencies? Why would a native English speaker from a first world country learn Chinese to become a CN>EN translator to work with Chinese agencies? What's wrong with Norwegian?
| | | | | Fear and ignorance | Sep 16, 2022 |
Michael Newton wrote:
"Ten years' study of Chinese", "studied at a Chinese university". This will scare off many agencies as they are looking for mediocre translators whom they can pay peanuts.
Yes, but then, who'd want to work for those agencies anyway? Working for higher-paying clients (who are a lot harder to find, I grant you) would mean that you don't have to spend all day and all night slaving away to survive and would be better for your health and sanity, so scaring off the dross is no bad thing. I say, let 'em be scared!
I have seen proz.com jobs for Japanese medical translation requiring the translator to have "at least one year of experience". It takes years to learn how to translate Japanese medical texts. I think the intelligence of PMs is vastly overrated. Most likely they were baristas and PM is a step up for them.
I think ignorance of this profession is rife among people in general (including agency managers, and even some of its practitioners, especially when they're new - including me when I started!) Of all professions, I feel that translation is perhaps among the least well understood, and the irony is that it's all about enabling people to understand. And to those who are destined to learn some of its secrets, it reveals them only slowly over time.
[Edited at 2022-09-16 13:47 GMT]
| | |
|
|
|
| The "most of the translations" part probably can't be verified, but | Sep 16, 2022 |
Baran Keki wrote: Matthias Brombach wrote:
Remember that it's Chinese translators who do most of the translations from Chinese into English.
[Bearbeitet am 2022-09-15 20:04 GMT] Do you have any evidence to support this? Could this have anything to do with the (best) rates offered by Chinese agencies? Why would a native English speaker from a first world country learn Chinese to become a CN>EN translator to work with Chinese agencies? What's wrong with Norwegian?
I do have some evidence. I used to have a customer who'd send me regular jobs from big companies based in China (as well as Japan and Korea). Big, serious, important documents, sometimes featuring big names. All written in some of the worst kinds of English I've ever worked with (they were all translated into what they thought was English). It's impossible that someone who'd been studying the language for 10 years and is native in English could have written something like that. Which kind of makes one suspect that people who live in those countries do most of their translations without hiring laowai or gaijin (don't know the Korean counterpart) and don't care much about the quality of the translations they produce. Seriously, if the top management of Panasonic or Mitsui are okay with translations that are so bad as the ones I encountered, why would anyone in China even bother? The Chinese seem to have the most relaxed take on translations out of the three, so maybe that's what makes China a difficult market
| | | | Dan Lucas
United Kingdom
Local time: 22:52
Member (2014)
Japanese to English
Ice Scream wrote: Dan Lucas wrote:
Busy project managers want assign their jobs to serious and reliable freelancers: attention to detail is key. Sorry, Dan, I just had to.
No objection on my part - my posts are fair game as well.
Dan
| | | | Mihai Badea (X)
Luxembourg
Local time: 23:52
| Crypto is an original American thing | Sep 16, 2022 |
Indeed, it might make more sense to translate from English to Chinese, than the reverse, in this specific field. I could be wrong.
If contacting translation agencies returned no results, you might want to try contacting crypto companies directly.
Methodologically, what you did is wrong. Before carrying out a large scale plan, you need to test your strategy. If it doesn't work as expected, you tweak it; repeatedly, until you get the result you aim at.
My adv... See more Indeed, it might make more sense to translate from English to Chinese, than the reverse, in this specific field. I could be wrong.
If contacting translation agencies returned no results, you might want to try contacting crypto companies directly.
Methodologically, what you did is wrong. Before carrying out a large scale plan, you need to test your strategy. If it doesn't work as expected, you tweak it; repeatedly, until you get the result you aim at.
My advice for you is to get a marketing manual, and try to understand it. There are manuals specifically aimed at translators.
Good luck! ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Pages in topic: < [1 2 3 4 5 6] > | To report site rules violations or get help, contact a site moderator: You can also contact site staff by submitting a support request » Keep Getting Ghosted By Agencies After I Submit My Test. Should I Keep Trying to Be a Translator? | Wordfast Pro | Translation Memory Software for Any Platform
Exclusive discount for ProZ.com users!
Save over 13% when purchasing Wordfast Pro through ProZ.com. Wordfast is the world's #1 provider of platform-independent Translation Memory software. Consistently ranked the most user-friendly and highest value
Buy now! » |
| | TM-Town | Manage your TMs and Terms ... and boost your translation business
Are you ready for something fresh in the industry? TM-Town is a unique new site for you -- the freelance translator -- to store, manage and share translation memories (TMs) and glossaries...and potentially meet new clients on the basis of your prior work.
More info » |
|
| | | | X Sign in to your ProZ.com account... | | | | | |
Login to reply/comment 
Translation news
