As a English to Nepali translator , I have been doing a lot of editing jobs for a while. Not that I enjoy doing them. But they come from my regular clients, and I can’t put down their requests. Of course, there is no problem with doing an editing job. But the problem is the quality of translation provided and the amount of effort you put on them. Sometimes, it seems as if you are retranslating the whole stuff. And some clients even ask you that you provide them with a QA report.
When I do these works, I continually have this bad feeling that someone is doing the job that should have come my way. I don’t want to sound a Mr. Know All. Nor do I want to claim that I am the best Nepali translator. But when the bad translations come my ways wanting to be patched up, I feel my profession is being threatened. And when you feel your profession is being threatened, you just have to speak up.
Some translators that I edit are ludicrously complex to edit. On one hand, nothing about their translation boasts of any quality. On the other hand, as I go on translating, it becomes evident that these ‘experts’ don’t have any command over the source language. I have a recent interesting experience with the top rated proz.com Nepali translator. I am picking up this specific example because this person is on the top. He translates ‘partner with’ as ‘start a partnership business’ ‘shared’ as ‘established a partnership business’, ‘dear’ as ‘beloved’. This translator does not begin a sentence with a subject. I report this on the QA sheet, and this person defends with ‘word … is used which doesn’t required here and also one required bracket is removed.’ Nothing else. And I have to smile when I read a part of his foolhardy comment- ‘which doesn’t required here’. I also have to raise some important questions.
- Who is hiring them?
- Are they being hired on the basis of his ‘best rates’ only?
- Is a standard hiring process followed when hiring them?
- Is the whole thing helping the agencies? Or the industry?
Any project managers, could you please answer?
