German Legal Translation Service (GLTS)

Blog no. 1 28/06/2009  The Translation Business
 
28/06/2009 The Translation Business

As indicated above, on this page I shall be addressing many of the problems which crop up in the evermore important field of translation. In doing so, my main addressees will be my fellow translators and the customer, and I shall endeavour to reveal some of the pitfalls to which both groups are exposed. This information has been gathered in almost 20 years' experience of translation and through conversation with colleagues and the reading of various forums.

The budding young translator is starting off on a career will run into a variety of obstacles after he has gained his first job. Here I shall only be dealing with some of the most serious, it is not intended to be a translator’s manual (that may come in the future!).

In obtaining his first assignment, the translator basically has two choices: he can attempt to find direct customers or he can turn to an agency. In more cases than not, he will have to turn to an agency. In both cases he will be faced with the same problems. He will have to decide whether the obtainable work is suitable for his fields of experience, he will have to negotiate a price having done research on “going rates”, he will have to negotiate a reasonable period for the work to be carried out and he will have to agree payment terms.

Whether he is dealing with a direct customer or an agency will have the following effect:

- the direct customer has a particular assignment which he wishes to have accomplished within a certain period at the lowest possible price.

- the agency will be churning our one job amongst many, will often have a very tight deadline and will pay (or not) usually in accordance with a previously agreed rate.

In the course of the next few months, I shall be dealing with the problems resulting from these general points, what the translator can do to avoid them to the greatest possible extent and what he can do to remedy them once they have occurred.

It will become apparent in the course of the months that, for the translator, it is far more favourable to accept work from a direct customer than from an agency for the reasons which will be listed and which cannot merely be reduced to price.

To take up the information directed towards the customer at that point, it is far more favourable to make the direct approach to the translator than to go through an agency even though it appears to be the natural course for most customers (in my specific case: law firms, lawyers, businesses, the legal departments of big companies) to enlist the services of an agency rather than take the direct route to the translator.

The reasons for this are not quite clear. Sometimes it may just be that elaborate advertising (previously a whole page in the yellow pages) was the draw card, today a posh site on the Internet. On these pages I shall attempt to make clear why anything could be further from the truth.

I hope that you gain from these Blogs and that, if you have any queries, you do not hesitate to contact me under the contact details stated under Contact.
 

Yours
Peter Wilton