Some Frequently Asked Questions to be a Translator

Some translation entities, before recruiting any translation staff, set some questions for the candidate. These questions may not only relate to the capacity of the candidate, but also to gain knowledge of candidate's personality, attitude, and other personal criteria, attributable to a successful translation.

Recently, before admitting to be a freelance translator for an Australian company, I was subject to some questions, and would hereby wish to share these questions with those wishing to be a translator or as an additional knowledge for all current translators.

Q: How responsive you are to email?

A: I am living in a world that uses email, even with a friend in an adjacent room. Actually, I do have great knowledge about email; signature, forward, respond, respond to all, delete, checking language mistakes. Actually, sometimes, I can't count how many emails I send and receive per day. I have used emails for three years already. I translate for company in Indonesia, Malaysia and the U.S.A, so I use electronic mail for working in these foreign companies.

Q: How many times do you check email a day?

A: About three to four times.

Q: How often are you online per day?

A: Usually one time (I mean yahoo messenger), so we might need to set a consistent time that you and me can talk via "yahoo messenger."

Q: How many days per week are you online?

A: Five days per week.

Q: Are you using yahoo messenger?

A: Yes, absolutely.

Q: What do you think are the qualities of a good translator?

A: A good translator shall have correlative qualifications/skills/experiences to the document being subject to be translated, speedy typing skills on both the target and original languages, nearly perfect or perfect terminology knowledge of both target and original languages, near native knowledge on the targeting language, patience and stamina, time sensitivity, professionalism-/dignity-oriented sentiment, knowledge in time/stress management and prioritization and finally, commitment to full understanding of the context of the target language.

Q: What does it need to be a good translator?

A: Understand at least 70 percent of the document being subject to be translated, translate with full understanding not just word by word, not accept any translation work beyond one's knowledge/ability, must always be on time or before time, not assigning the work to any third person no matter how she/he qualified, always go beyond expectations, having all relevant credible resources, research tools and specialized person to refer to when stuck with the translation work.

Q: What are your specialization areas of translation?

A: Law, commerce, politics, international relations, philosophy, history, and other humanity and social science fields.

Q: Code of ethics for translator?

A: It is the complete set of rules that determine the morality, ways of work performance, and moral attitudes of work performance of a translator and translation entities. Countries rarely have codes of ethics for translator, but we have international code of ethics for translator.

Q: What does it consist of?

A: Code of ethics for translator is consisted of professional and moral responsibilities, norms, qualification, admission criteria and should-be penalty of a translator. It also determines the qualification and admission criteria, professional and moral responsibilities, as well as the penalty/dissolution of the translation entities.

Q: Why translator needs to adhere to code of ethics?

A: Because it is the tool that determines success of our clients and professional work performance of a translator. It is the methodology that leads translator to quality and professional translation works, and the set norms or maybe penalties that stick translator to corporate and professional responsibilities.

Vicheka Lay is the Assistant Managing Director of Cambodian War Amputees Rehabilitation Society [a Canadian NGO registered in the Province of Alberta, Canada], and a freelance translator for a company in Indonesia. Also, he is currently an LL.M candidate, with specialization in International Law. Vicheka Lay is also an "expert blogger" for the Center for International Governance Innovation, based in Ontario, Canada.

Questions on Cambodian laws, business, politics, and state of affairs? Email me: vichekalay@yahoo.com

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Evaluating The Quality Of Translation: Questions To Ask The Native Speaker Who Is Doing It

If you have ever had something translated, you know that at the end you have to deal with a problem: "How to evaluate a translation if you don't know the language?" (If you knew it you'd probably do it yourself.) The most common way is to ask a native speaker of the target language (i.e. the language which the text was translated into) to tell whether the translation is good or bad.

The problem is that the evaluator often doesn't know what exactly "a good translation" means. Help him or her - set the criteria. Ask these simple questions to the person who is going to judge the quality of any translation:

Q1. Can you tell at once that it's a translation?

The most important question, in fact. If translation is excellent, you won't tell it's a translation. The text reads as if it were written in the language it was translated into. So, if the answer to this question is "No" (or "Really?") - you're lucky! You've come across a brilliant translator. They're pretty rare nowadays... So, skip questions 2, 3 and 4 - just ask the very last one.

If the answer is "Yes" , "Oh, yes", or anything else like "Hm... in a way...", "Maybe...", etc., go to

Q2. Is there anything that doesn't make sense? Are there any words or phrases that sound funny?

If yes, that's the mark of a very poor translation. Some so-called translators, who are incompetent - or just inexperienced - will translate a sentence word by word, so "the end product" makes no sense. A good translator never does so - he or she will always find the right word to use.

Q3. Can you spot any sentences which are hard to understand? Or any phrases you understand - but you'd never put it that way?

The more such sentences in the text, the worse the translator. Poor or mediocre translation can make the text really hard to read and understand. Phrases sound unnaturally, the word order seems to be somehow weird, and sometimes you have to guess what the author wanted to say.

(Let's assume your original text in English was clear and well-written. If it was sloppy and gibberish, the translator isn't responsible for the translation being the same. Translators can't improve the original. Well, you know the principle: garbage in - garbage out.)

But if a good, clear and well-thought-over text turned into something unintelligible, it's most likely because of the above-mentioned word-by-word approach. Well-translated texts always run smoothly, you won't "stumble" when you're reading them.

Q4 Does the translator slip in his grammar?

Poor grammar is a sign of a poor text, whether it is the original or the translation.

Q5 Are there any misspelled words or typos?

Typos and misspelled words are not necessarily a mark of a poor translation. If this question is the only one answered "yes", it means that the work was done in haste and/or the translated text hasn't been proofread properly. It could have happened because of a tight schedule, pressing deadline, etc. But, of course, lack of time doesn't justify misspellings and typos.

Well, as you have probably guessed, the more affirmative answers you get to these questions, the worse. If you hear two or more answers "yes", you'd better not use services of this translator anymore - let him or her gain experience by translating somebody else's texts, not yours.

Alexandra Gamanenko is a senior translator and editor of the Literary Translation Department, which is a part of a Web design studio. It offers localization and translation of websites into Russian and Ukrainian, as well as lots of other useful services.

Learn more -- visit the website www.clever-crayon.com

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