Educating the Customer by Brett Jocelyn Epstein hat, $35 to translate that?

I heard there are computer programs that can do the same thing," a potential customer complained to me once. It wasn't the first time someone had said something along those lines. "My colleague was very pleased with your wor ," another person told me, "!ut I found someone who could do it much cheaper." "hile many customers don't seem to now much a!out the translation process, a surprising num!er of them do seem to have pretty firm ideas a!out who can translate and how much it should cost. I'll never forget the #riday night when a customer e$mailed me a !unch of documents at %& p.m. with instructions to have everything translated !y Monday morning. 'e had not as ed me if I was availa!le to translate that wee end, if I was proficient in the field the documents covered, or even how much it would cost. I wrote him !ac within the hour (yes, I was actually wor ing then anyway)* to tell him that !ecause his assignment was a wee end rush +o! it would cost more than usual, and he sent me an angry response in the middle of the night. "I suspect that you and I have vastly different ideas a!out wor ing together," he wrote. ",here is no way I am paying that amount." In May, at the annual conference for the -wedish .ssociation of /rofessional ,ranslators, translator 0avid 1umsey gave a lecture a!out the 2nited -tates translation mar et. -omething he mentioned was that one reason why the .merican mar et is large !ut underdeveloped is !ecause there are pervasive myths there a!out what e3actly translation involves. Mr. 1umsey mentioned that many .mericans !elieve that translation is simply "typing in a foreign language," and others thin anyone can do it (say, the secretary whose grandpa came from /uerto 1ico, or the 4hinese chef at a restaurant*, and still others have heard that there's translation software that's +ust as good as, or possi!ly !etter than, actual people. Mr. 1umsey may consider these false !eliefs .merican, !ut the fact is that they are not uni5ue to the 2nited -tates. Many translators I've spo en to, whether from -weden, 6ngland, the 2nited -tates, or elsewhere, have shared tales a!out customers who claimed they'd go find "some student" or "as the foreign neigh!or for help" rather than pay a professional translator to do the +o! properly. ,he more customers now a!out what translation means, the more they understand why they ought to pay for high$5uality wor .

If so many translators have stories li e these, the 5uestion then !ecomes how to educate customers a!out what translation really is and why it is worthwhile to pay for professional services. ,o start off, translators can include detailed information a!out their !ac ground, their wor methods, and their opinions a!out translation in any mar eting material they use, including their we!sites. ,his sounds o!vious, !ut there are people who thin that their +o! title means enough on its own, or that since translation is necessary and important, it can sell itself. "hile some customers may simply s im over whatever you write and instead +ust re5uest an estimate, many are curious and will read the te3t. If you have !een to law school and speciali7e in legal te3ts, for e3ample, or if you have translated a do7en novels, or if you have attended programs in translation, or if you wor ed as an engineer for %5 years !efore !ecoming a translator of technical manuals, announce those facts and descri!e what they mean for you as a translator8 potential clients will !e impressed and will now that you clearly are 5ualified for the +o! and will e3pect to !e paid accordingly. 9ou can also write a!out why translation is important and how your services will help the customers. If you translate grades for students who want to apply to study a!road, point out that you are certified, or if you wor primarily for corporate clients, tell them that if they e3pect to sell products to customers in other countries, it is essential that the language on their we!site or in their users' manuals is correct. :ive e3amples of poor mistranslations that they should want to avoid, and remind them that without good translation, their customers won't trust in the 5uality of their products or services. ;y the way, ta e that advice yourself, too, and ma e sure your own we!site is flawless8 if necessary, hire a copy editor to review any foreign$language pages you have written. .nother step we translators can ta e is to turn down any assignments that are outside our fields of e3pertise. It is tempting to want to accept all +o!s and to want to convince customers that we are e3cellent all$around translators, !ut honestly telling people that you wor only on medical documents and never on poems, or that you are comforta!le with genealogy !ut not with contracts, ma es them more aware that each translation is a specific te3t with its own re5uirements and that special s ills and nowledge are needed. <ust as a heart surgeon wouldn't thin of treating a patient's allergies and a professor of =ictorian literature wouldn't dare teach a physics course, neither should translators attempt wor on su!+ects that are far out of their own fields. ,hat doesn't mean, of course, that translators can't learn a!out new areas and add new speciali7ations, !ut it is not professional to endeavor to do that in +ust a couple of days, and if you don't do a good +o!, you will not only have lost a customer, !ut also anyone he would have recommended you to. If

you turn down an assignment, try to recommend a 5ualified colleague for it. ;oth your colleague and your customer will appreciate it8 the former may reciprocate !y referring customers to you for +o!s in your field, and the latter will remem!er the e3tra service you provided and may return to you with other assignments in the future. -omething I try to do whenever I receive a shoc ed response to an estimate is to write a polite e$mail in which I e3plain what is involved in translation and how I arrived at the price. If a lot of research is re5uired in order to find specific technical words or if the assignment re5uires you to wor nights or over a wee end, tell the customer. If you are e3pected to complete a large +o! in a short period of time or if you will have to go to a university li!rary to use reference !oo s that are only found there, e3plain that. 0on't !e shy a!out saying how many hours you anticipate a translation to ta e you or a!out descri!ing what the wor will demand of you8 most people don't understand what goes into a translation and they may, as Mr. 1umsey said, view it as merely "typing in a foreign language." I have more than once told customers how long their documents would ta e me to translate, how much ta3 I would pay, what amount would !e left over, and how much that e5ualed per hour of wor . -ome people were definitely surprised at the minimum wage the fee they offered me turned out to !e, and they understood that the prices I named weren't +ust randomly chosen !ut that they had !een carefully considered. >thers were interested to learn that a translator didn't +ust sit down at a computer and loo up words in a dictionary for a few minutes and then the assignment was finished. It is unfortunately easy to ta e a service for granted when you don't now what it really involves. In his lecture, Mr. 1umsey offered some other ideas. 'e suggested that translators should provide information a!out different languages and cultures, which would presuma!ly help those who !elieve that the world is monolingual, and reduce the ris s for customers. ;y reducing the ris s, he meant that translators and translation agencies should !e prepared to provide free consulting and editing, have third$party reviewers, and other language$related services. I personally am not sure that offering cheaper prices or free translations is the !est method, as people are often reluctant to start paying for something they initially received for free or at a reduced cost, and people don't always value what they don't pay for. ;ut I now that some translators li e to attract customers with low prices and then convince them to remain customers, even as the prices are increased, !y doing good wor . ,he more customers now a!out what translation means and what 5ualifies a translator to ta e on a given assignment, the more they

understand why they ought to pay for high$5uality wor . It's true that some people will always want to ta e the cheap route, regardless of what that means for their documents, !ut others will reali7e that doing something right usually means paying for it. -o ma e the choice easy for your customers !y giving them as much information as you can a!out your !ac ground and e3perience, a!out what translation entails, and a!out your pricing system. . customer who really cares a!out his documents and who has !een educated a!out translation is less li ely to waste your time !y arguing that his friend or a computer program could do the +o! +ust as well and for half the cost. .n educated customer is more li ely to choose you and your services, and to gladly pay for a +o! well done.