Portfolio of a Translator Konuyu gönderen: Iman Tahanan
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Hello to all,
What I always struggle with is that as a translator, how should I present my work so that laymen (to translation) would understand the depth of my expertise.
I mean for some professions such as graphic design, any observer can simply perceive the level of sophistication, at least in terms of effect. However, the translation industry is different.
What is you advice?
How do you solve this problem when negotiating with clients?
Thanks
| | | | Mario Chávez
Amerika Birleşik Devletleri
Local time: 06:55
Üye (Jun 2024)
İngilizce > İspanyolca
+ ...
| Translators don't use portfolios per se | Aug 2 |
Except when a translator is also a DTP specialist, portfolios are not the way we show how competent we are. Normally, translation agencies and employers request a short translation sample (no more than 200-300 words). This is reasonable for well-established, reputable translation agencies and employers.
In both cases, your 300-word translation test (and sometimes writing test) is reviewed by a translator or editor hired by the translation agency or the employer's staff.
... See more Except when a translator is also a DTP specialist, portfolios are not the way we show how competent we are. Normally, translation agencies and employers request a short translation sample (no more than 200-300 words). This is reasonable for well-established, reputable translation agencies and employers.
In both cases, your 300-word translation test (and sometimes writing test) is reviewed by a translator or editor hired by the translation agency or the employer's staff.
Given the abuse of prompt-generated texts out there, I would strongly discourage the use of ChatGPT or anything like it to translate samples or build a portfolio.
Cheers,
Mario Chávez
Iman Tahanan wrote:
Hello to all,
What I always struggle with is that as a translator, how should I present my work so that laymen (to translation) would understand the depth of my expertise.
I mean for some professions such as graphic design, any observer can simply perceive the level of sophistication, at least in terms of effect. However, the translation industry is different.
What is you advice?
How do you solve this problem when negotiating with clients?
Thanks ▲ Collapse
| | | | Yi Cao 
Yeni Zelanda
Local time: 23:55
Çince > İngilizce
+ ...
| Customer Appreciation | Aug 4 |
Dear:
My field of translation is usually from Chinese to English for the local Chinese in NZ.
They usually have had some education in English, therefore, they would usually be able to identify which English writing is considered to be good, which is considered to be of poor quality.
Therefore, they are not necessarily considered as layman who know nothing about the translation/English.
Thanks
| | | | | That's not feasible in case of translation | Aug 6 |
I don't think that you could present your translations in a way which is going to impress the laymen,
IMHO you may do two things:
- provide portfolio of several translations which will provide information to potential clients who know a bit about translation and your language
... See more I don't think that you could present your translations in a way which is going to impress the laymen,
IMHO you may do two things:
- provide portfolio of several translations which will provide information to potential clients who know a bit about translation and your language
- show your work - in the sense of the book https://www.amazon.com/Show-Your-Work-Austin-Kleon/dp/076117897X
In case of translation we would need to show our work at a meta level -i.e. rather describing what we do in a form of written messages, video or podcast, and present the specific challenges and how they were overcome, rather then just showing a list of translations.
I find that LinkedIn is a good platform to do that, in fact I write at https://www.linkedin.com/in/stanislawczech/more often than on my blog. It is simply where the people are. It is not to suggest that ProZ.com is a bad place, but here you will meet mostly other translators and translation companies, while it seems that you want to influence potential direct clients.
Anyway - good luck! ▲ Collapse
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Joakim Braun
İsveç
Local time: 11:55
Almanca > İsveççe
+ ...
Every first assignment is a gamble - on the translator's side as well as the agency's/customer's.
A somewhat professional looking website, and very professional/courteous/charming responses to inquiries, is all that's required. From there on, all that counts is quality and dependability.
| | | | Kay Denney
Fransa
Local time: 11:55
Fransızca > İngilizce
You can put some sample translations on your profile here to show what you are capable of doing. It's very useful: a friend of mine needed a translation in Brazilian Portuguese recently and with the help of a Brazilian friend, we managed to weed out those whose sample translations were not up to par, and contact the one translator whose samples were excellent as well as specialising in the right domain.
It's hard when your client doesn't speak the language you are translating into.... See more You can put some sample translations on your profile here to show what you are capable of doing. It's very useful: a friend of mine needed a translation in Brazilian Portuguese recently and with the help of a Brazilian friend, we managed to weed out those whose sample translations were not up to par, and contact the one translator whose samples were excellent as well as specialising in the right domain.
It's hard when your client doesn't speak the language you are translating into. I would also venture that it's even harder when they speak it well enough to make themselves understood but not well enough to do the translation properly themselves. This is very often the case for those of us translating into English. So now when pitching my services to a potential new client I explain my process, and explain that what they might think is a correct translation actually stinks of word-for-word cr@p. I explain that I welcome questions, so I can explain my translation choices and show them instances of the terms I chose being used in the same way. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Mario Chávez
Amerika Birleşik Devletleri
Local time: 06:55
Üye (Jun 2024)
İngilizce > İspanyolca
+ ...
| Here's a counterintuitive idea... | Aug 6 |
How about posting a small portfolio of bad translations? We've all seen them in restrooms, restaurant menus and the like, we've all laughed out loud at them, poking fun at the poor writing or clunky language.
The idea would go like this: make a small collection (5-10) of these bad translations, set them up with a carousel plugin on your website. Then caption them with a line like this: Translation samples you will not get from me.
Displaying a sense of humor coul... See more How about posting a small portfolio of bad translations? We've all seen them in restrooms, restaurant menus and the like, we've all laughed out loud at them, poking fun at the poor writing or clunky language.
The idea would go like this: make a small collection (5-10) of these bad translations, set them up with a carousel plugin on your website. Then caption them with a line like this: Translation samples you will not get from me.
Displaying a sense of humor could land you a client or two. ▲ Collapse
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