Comments on: Care and feeding of a translator

By: rave hentai master

rave hentai master — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 05:19:15 +0000

By: Yeah, right… « Musings from an overworked translator

Yeah, right… « Musings from an overworked translator — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 19:23:53 +0000

[...] for in at least a year and a half. Part of me wants to refer them to Corinne McKay’s post on the care and feeding of translators, but in the end I decided it just wasn’t worth it and simply deleted both e-mails from my in [...]

By: Janine Libbey

Janine Libbey — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 19:24:44 +0000

I agree with Glenn’s comment that most PMs’ lack of experience as translators has a negative effect on their dealings with translators since they don’t really understand the challenges involved.

It’s a great post that serves both PMs and translators as a guide on how to have a better, more productive working relationship.

By: Corinne McKay

Corinne McKay — Wed, 28 May 2008 14:46:54 +0000

Kevin, thanks for your comment! Yes, as Glenn commented above, I think that the root of the issue is understandable from the PM’s point of view; especially at larger agencies, I think that most PMs are working long hours for, in general, a lot less money than the translators they hire. On the other hand, the reality of the industry is that most people who are better than adequate are regularly turning down work already. I love your point about “unconditional willingness to make a block of time available;” it’s as funny as it is true!

By: Kevin Lossner

Kevin Lossner — Wed, 28 May 2008 11:14:36 +0000

Right on target! I find it a frustrating waste of time to receive inquires like “are you available to translate X words by Tuesday” with no details whatsoever about key job parameters like format, text type, etc. Mind you, the PM may consider these few extra keystrokes in an e-mail message to be unnecessary until I have indicated my unconditional willingness to make a block of time available, but that’s not an approach to take to persuade me to fit something else into a very tightly coordinated schedule. Providing all the information up front – preferably with copies of the relevant documents to enable firm quotation – saves everyone time.

By: The GITS Blog » Treat your translators well

The GITS Blog » Treat your translators well — Mon, 19 May 2008 01:21:52 +0000

[...] McKay has another good post, this time on the care and feeding of translators. Here she argues that the translators you want are already busy, so hiring them is really doing [...]

By: So Misunderstood, Part III

So Misunderstood, Part III — Fri, 16 May 2008 15:37:12 +0000

[...] With the right training and attitude, project managers can have a much more rewarding experience in their dealings with translators. Corinne McKay, in her always insightful blog, Thoughts on Translation, gives us important tips on the Care and feeding of a translator. [...]

By: Marianne Reiner

Marianne Reiner — Thu, 15 May 2008 16:18:39 +0000

Hi Corinne:

Great post! I think I will kindly refer some of the PMs I deal with to your post….!
Best,

Marianne

By: Glenn Cain

Glenn Cain — Thu, 15 May 2008 14:06:17 +0000

Corinne,

Excellent points. Project Manager “bedside manner” is so overlooked in the industry and following your points would go along way to bridging the gap.

From my experience, so many project managers are overworked, underpaid, and what’s more, haven’t been freelancers themselves. They just want to outsource their projects and leave the office at a reasonable hour. Rarely do they look beyond their small handfull of translators to work with someone new, and when they do it’s on a big rush project, which leads to the problems in your second bullet point.

Also I don’t larger agencies trying to foster an appreciation of translation and translators among their project managers. Many PMs begin as language people or translator wannabes, but get burned out churning out projects and then go onto other industries, because they don’t end up using their language skills in their job.

Thanks for the great post!