| Pages in topic: < [1 2 3 4] > | 3 biggest painpoints in the translation business? Thread poster: Monika Konopka
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Shai Nave wrote:
That about sums it up.
The inner-working of the translation process has its hardship of course, but I wouldn't consider it to be a pain per se.
The administrative work, although some love it more than others, cannot be classified as a pain either in my opinion because it is (a vital) part of offering a commercial service.
Dealing with unprofessional (or dishonest) entities is the ultimate pain because it manifests itself as various professional and administrative issues (some were already described in this discussions) that tend to end up being time and energy drains, and to me that is the worst.
And we come across these unprofessional and amateurish entities more often these days. They should be in different professions and not bothering us.
[Edited at 2013-10-15 06:27 GMT]
| | | | Elina Sellgren 
Finland
Local time: 17:51
Member (2013)
English to Finnish
+ ...
| Invoicing is fine but.. | Oct 15, 2013 |
My painpoints:
1) Having to justify and explain every little detail in your translation
2) Having to chase after payments
3) Having to deal with formatting (Word has some crazy bugs!)
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And of course, dealing with incompetent people and entities without modesty.
| | | | Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 15:51
Member (2008)
Italian to English
| I've just thought of another "painpoint" (strange word) | Oct 15, 2013 |
Constantly being disappointed to see that there are too many people offering themselves as translators into English whose English is poor - even when English is their native language. I feel sorry for their clients.
[Edited at 2013-10-15 08:58 GMT]
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Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 15:51
Member (2008)
Italian to English
| Ah yes - I was forgetting.... | Oct 15, 2013 |
ElinaSel wrote:
My painpoints:
1) Having to justify and explain every little detail in your translation
2) Having to chase after payments
3) Having to deal with formatting (Word has some crazy bugs!)
Point 1: When asked to justify and explain every little detail in a translation, I am in the habit of replying with an incredibly polite but very long, almost philosophical description describing the thought processes I went through, why I chose a particular word, etc. It usually prevents the client from asking too often !
Point 2: I take a slightly perverse enjoyment in forcing non-payers to pay. It gives me an opportunity to be nasty and threatening in ways that are not normally available in civilised life
Point 3: Ah yes ElinaSel - it really drives me crazy when Word decides it's going to...
(a) change the font for no reason
(b) indent a line of text for no reason and refuse to let me fix it
GRRRRRRRRRR !!
[Edited at 2013-10-15 09:04 GMT]
| | | | Steffen Walter
Germany
Local time: 16:51
Member (2002)
English to German
+ ...
| '3 biggest painpoints' ... | Oct 15, 2013 |
Tom in London wrote:
Constantly being disappointed to see that there are too many people offering themselves as translators into English whose English is poor - even when English is their native language. I feel sorry for their clients.
[Edited at 2013-10-15 08:58 GMT]
... should have been the three biggest pet peeves, then 
(or even just 'three pet peeves')
[Edited at 2013-10-15 09:05 GMT]
| | | | | to answer the asker's question on software | Oct 15, 2013 |
No, I don't think that using automated payment-chasing software is a solution.
Chasing payments is annoying but it's something that fortunately doesn't happen often once you have an established base of clients.
I also find that chasing payments requires different strategies every time and I'm not sure that this would lend well to automation.
Sometimes a client who has been paying you on time for years has a glitch or makes a human error. You would chase ... See more No, I don't think that using automated payment-chasing software is a solution.
Chasing payments is annoying but it's something that fortunately doesn't happen often once you have an established base of clients.
I also find that chasing payments requires different strategies every time and I'm not sure that this would lend well to automation.
Sometimes a client who has been paying you on time for years has a glitch or makes a human error. You would chase payments in a different way in this case than in the case of a client you've only just acquired.
You may also not have seen the payment and may have committed human error yourself.
I think that chasing payments is annoying but that it also needs your personal touch. Sometimes you may want to threaten (in different jurisdictions there will be different ways of doing so).
Sometimes you need to write in another language.
Sometimes you just want to issue a gentle reminder.
If there are so many variations, tackling all of these on an automated system would take just as long as DIY. ▲ Collapse
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Oh yes and "painpoints" is understandable but it is, as far as I know, not an English word. I would agree with Steffen and "pet peeves".
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inkweaver
Germany
Local time: 16:51
French to German
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| Love invoicing but... | Oct 15, 2013 |
1) I hate having to send payment reminders for overdue invoices. I don't want to have to do that. I deliver translations on time or even before the agreed deadline so I think expecting payments to arrive on time is not really asking too much... I stopped working with two clients this year who apparently didn't share this point of view.
2) I hate having to deal with proofread versions of my translations where the proofreader thought it would be a good idea to twist each and every sen... See more 1) I hate having to send payment reminders for overdue invoices. I don't want to have to do that. I deliver translations on time or even before the agreed deadline so I think expecting payments to arrive on time is not really asking too much... I stopped working with two clients this year who apparently didn't share this point of view.
2) I hate having to deal with proofread versions of my translations where the proofreader thought it would be a good idea to twist each and every sentence around just to proof that they actually did something. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate constructive criticism, I am always happy to improve, but making "corrections" for the mere sake of it is simply annoying.
3) I hate formatting. I just want to translate, I don't want to struggle with fonts, indents and what have you. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Nadja Balogh
Germany
Local time: 16:51
Member (2007)
Japanese to German
+ ...
1) Having to translate from almost incomprehensible English. This happens to me a lot because I have many Japanese clients who for some reason (probably cost-related) prefer to have somebody who is almost never truly competent translate a Japanese source text into English and then to have a bunch of (usually competent) translators make sense of it and render the stuff into their own languages (German, French, Spanish, and so on).
2) Time difference - it takes a while to educate new ... See more 1) Having to translate from almost incomprehensible English. This happens to me a lot because I have many Japanese clients who for some reason (probably cost-related) prefer to have somebody who is almost never truly competent translate a Japanese source text into English and then to have a bunch of (usually competent) translators make sense of it and render the stuff into their own languages (German, French, Spanish, and so on).
2) Time difference - it takes a while to educate new clients in different time zones not to call you in the middle of the night.
3) The every increasing number of clients who want to introduce their own little translation tools or whatever - all eating away valuable time. ▲ Collapse
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Nadja Balogh wrote:
This happens to me a lot because I have many Japanese clients who for some reason (probably cost-related) prefer to have somebody who is almost never truly competent translate a Japanese source text into English and then to have a bunch of (usually competent) translators make sense of it and render the stuff into their own languages (German, French, Spanish, and so on).
It is cost-related. I always assumed that it was because English is taught heavily here (although arguably without much eventual success), but the amount of Japanese natives translating into English is astonishing - although the number that are actually qualified to do so is...not. I'm not sure why, but E->J jobs often pay significantly less than J->E ones do. I get from this that Japanese-native translators are willing to work for much less than their English-native counterparts. Ergo, it is much cheaper to have a Japanese native translate into English than it is for an English native to do so.
To put it another way: There are a great many more Japanese people who can write English somewhat decently (like intermediate level) than there are English natives who can read and parse Japanese somewhat decently. I think that this leads to one of those situations where an overabundance of people vying for the same jobs drives down the prices a lot, and makes it more cost effective to just get someone to translate into their second language. Couple that with the fact that the vast majority of Japanese clients and even agencies do not have anyone that can actually read the target text, and you end up with the situation that you have described here.
| | | | Jeff Whittaker
United States
Local time: 10:51
Spanish to English
+ ...
| Translation business | Oct 15, 2013 |
Invoicing is easy - takes one minute - print out invoice, send with translation, write "PAID" on invoice when payment received. Done.
Love PDFs. I don't understand what all the fuss is about. Of course, I do not waste my time trying to convert them.
My biggest complaint is the lack of time clients allocate to translation projects and how difficult some companies make it for you to work with them (endless forms, tests, paperwork, portals, etc.).
Also, most ... See more Invoicing is easy - takes one minute - print out invoice, send with translation, write "PAID" on invoice when payment received. Done.
Love PDFs. I don't understand what all the fuss is about. Of course, I do not waste my time trying to convert them.
My biggest complaint is the lack of time clients allocate to translation projects and how difficult some companies make it for you to work with them (endless forms, tests, paperwork, portals, etc.).
Also, most of the formatting bugs in Word that were mentioned have been eliminated in Word 2007.
[Edited at 2013-10-15 14:26 GMT] ▲ Collapse
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Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 15:51
Member (2008)
Italian to English
Jeff Whittaker wrote:
..... most of the formatting bugs in Word that were mentioned have been eliminated in Word 2007.
[Edited at 2013-10-15 14:26 GMT]
Well, they're back in Word 2008.
| | | | Jeff Whittaker
United States
Local time: 10:51
Spanish to English
+ ...
| Translation problems | Oct 15, 2013 |
Ok, we must be talking about different issues then...
Tom in London wrote:
Jeff Whittaker wrote:
..... most of the formatting bugs in Word that were mentioned have been eliminated in Word 2007.
[Edited at 2013-10-15 14:26 GMT]
Well, they're back in Word 2008.
| | | | 564354352 (X)
Denmark
Local time: 16:51
Danish to English
+ ...
| Three pet peeves | Oct 15, 2013 |
1. People who speak about the mother-tongue principle as if it were a law of nature.
2. Agencies who appear to think they are God's gift to translators.
3. Unprofessional translators.
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