Il Segno di Caino - The Translator's Hall of Shame

We Get Letters: TransPerfect is Still TransAwful

2010-07-27T00:07:00.000-07:00

Since we first wrote about TransPerfect more than three months ago, we’ve heard from numerous translators who have their own stories of horror to tell.

Liz Elting = the Dark Lord of the translation industry?

Well, there's a lot of competition for the title actually....

TransPerfect’s new “strategy” for cheap, quick translations is crowdsourcing (as a translator makes clear in one of the comments below, TransPerfect now breaks up virtually all translations and sends pieces of them to multiple translators at the same time) coupled with a demand that translators provide deep discounts for CAT-tool “matches.”

As a business model, it sounds like utter panic to us. Does anyone actually still think TransPerfect is capable of providing quality translations?

From a July 27, 2010 job offer for English to Spanish (rush – same-day delivery):

I have an new translation job for you for, EN> ES.
2213 words
This is due 7/27 by 8am EST
I could pay $100 for this job.

So: less than $0.05 per word for a rush job (and, of course, TransPerfect will provide a transaltion memory and will insist that fuzzies and 100% matches be discounted or subtracted from the word count).

“How low can we go?” the translator asks. We can't be sure yet, because TransPerfect is still digging.

Another translator tells Il Segno:

[Y]our blog helped me finally make a decision regarding my relationship with TransPerfect....

When I first began working with TransPerfect, it seemed to be a very serious company. Their rates were low, but not as low as many other companies, and within what I considered the "bare minimum" I would be willing to accept.... My first jobs with TransPerfect were smooth ... and I received a check within 30-45 days. I worked with them a few times and was happy with their professionalism.

Unfortunately, much of this has changed. My first negative experience was last fall, when they wanted some help with a huge project they were distributing among translators. I took some files and translated them, I believe, well. A few days later, I received a startling e-mail stating there were some quality issues with my work and to look over the comments of the proofreader. When I looked at the documents, I realized that the majority of the documents with which they had a problem and which they wanted me to review were a)not the files I had translated and b)proofread by someone with no knowledge of the document's subject. TransPerfect wanted me (reduce my invoice) because they had associated my name with files I had not translated and with which an unqualified (for that field) proofreader had issues.

This is when I began to realize there was a problem, especially with distributing files among several translators, getting the assignments confused, and ensuring that the both the translator and the proofreader understood the subject of the translation....

Since this incident, I have noticed many other things that indicate the company's commitment to quality is not what it once may have been. There are many mass e-mails sent asking for availability; sometimes these blast messages seem personalized, but, when you write to give your availability, you receive no reply. The translations being offered are many words in a short amount of time (sometimes only hours), for very little money..... The company continually tries to lower the rates being offered, wants translators to complete impossible translation feats in little time (all jobs seem to be rush jobs now), now requires WordFast for most jobs, and has a habit of splitting jobs (even those that are large but not huge) among translators in order to complete them more quickly, rather than giving one translator a couple of more days to ensure uniformity in the translation....

My biggest complaint with this company is the lack of respect for the translator. Recently, I was sent a mass e-mail about a job. I answered and offered my availability. The project manager responded, sent the files for me to approve, and we had a discussion via e-mail to confirm rate and deadline. Everything seemed agreed upon, so I set aside the time and waited for the Purchase Order, which never arrived. After an hour, I e-mailed the project manager to ask him to send the PO or to let me know if he had given the job to someone else so I could accept other jobs. Two days later, I am still waiting to hear from him. I wish I could say this was an isolated incident, but, unfortunately, this is the second time this has happened, with two different project managers, and I am afraid this will mark the end of my association with this company.

And, finally, a former employee offers this insight:

As a former employee, I am in agreement with your article on TransPerfect; however I don't think putting up the names of individual project managers in the comments serves your purpose.

With the exception of Amy DiTrani, none of the others have been there longer than 3 years. They work 12+ hour days and are often called in over the weekend. They are underpaid ($35-$50K in one of the most expensive cities in the world). They themselves are unlikely to make excuses for the company. The sales people undersell the jobs and hand them over to the project managers, who then have to find someone to translate it. They have to meet a stated mark-up of 2.1 (or the sales people get no commission) and an implicit markup of 3.1 (or the project managers get no bonus, which many count on to balance their checkbooks at the end of the quarter). Their profit centers (which is where their bonuses come from) are docked $300 for every faulty PO and other slip-ups.

While it may not seem like it from the outside, most of the project managers who work at TransPerfect are victimized by the company at least as much as the translators. For one, they can't say no or press delete when a new message comes in, asking them to turn 40K words around overnight for a budget that leaves only 4 cents per word. Linking their names to TransPerfect makes it seem like they are the problem, but they are but cogs in the machine.

We have no difficulty believing that TransPerfect treats its sales people and project managers badly, using punishments and “incentives” that sound like a cross between the robotic excesses of 1980s Japanese-style corporate management and the personal charm of Gordon Ramsay (the “F-Word,” indeed). But that doesn’t get them off the hook.

No more “we were just doing our job”; no more “we’re just foot soldiers.” If they have direct experience regarding the rot in TransPerfect’s human and business model, they should stop helping the business exploit translators.

Or, better yet, they need to mount a serious media campaign to let the public know what TransPerfect is, what it stands for, and how it is harming translators and the translation profession.

So we say again, write them and make your position clear:

Liz Elting, CEO: lelting@transperfect.com / Amy DiTrani: aditrani@transperfect.com / Anne Fang: afang@transperfect.com / Anne-Claire Lord: alord@transperfect.com / Cristina Farelo: cfarelo@transperfect.com / Hyojin Park: hpark@transperfect.com / Jennifer Adie: jadie@transperfect.com / Jennifer Bucci: jbucci@transperfect.com / Michael Petrigliano: mpetrigliano@transperfect.com / Pearl Leo: pleo@transperfect.com / Sara Hutchison: shutchison@transperfect.com / Sung Ha Lee: slee@transperfect.com / Zachary Eldridge: zeldridge@transperfect.com

Faligi Editore: Apparently, Lincoln never freed the translators...

2010-07-08T04:06:00.001-07:00

The Aosta, Italy-based Faligi Editore is a perfect example of the Italian saying: "Se lo conosci, lo eviti!" ("Once you know what it is, you stay away from it.")

Though Faligi boasts of its "plurilingual" capabilities, the English version of its website is the usual non-native-speaker hack job:

We publicize new talents and human thoughts by breaking down the linguistic barriers! To read Faligi Edition books means ‘reading and knowing innovative books’.

While "breaking down the linguistic barriers," Faligi is also busily breaking down the profession of literary translation. What follows is a report by a translator who recently attended one of Faligi's "courses" (the post is available in Italian here).

For those who may not be familiar with Faligi Editore, I’m writing to bring them to your attention—with the hope that I can keep my fellow colleagues (or anyone interested in literary translation) from wasting their time.

Though it isn’t my specialty, literary translation has always fascinated me. As a result, and in order to get to know the field better, I participated recently in one of the “Creative Meetings” that Faligi organizes from time to time.

This meeting (they call it a “workshop,” but it only lasted three hours [Faligi charges 140 euros to attend this "meeting" ~ IlSdC]) was intended to introduce translators to the way literary publishing operates, give aspiring literary translators an inside look at that world, and provide Faligi with the opportunity to select a few hopefuls as translators for its books. In that context, let me mention some of the points I found most striking:

- Faligi publishes translations of books by Italian authors (they mentioned the example of Marco Polo¹), in order to export Italian literature in various foreign languages and make it more widely known in the world.

- Asked why they assigned these translations to Italian-speaking translators, the response was (and here I quote the organizer of the meeting): “Because it’s very difficult to find native-speaking English, French, or German translators” (!?!) and because “it is high time we put an end to this mentality that translators should only translate into their native language. Our publishing company is located in the Valle d’Aosta, which is a bilingual area. In my case, I’m quite used to expressing myself in two languages and that’s the way it ought to be for everyone.” Notwithstanding various observations regarding this point, the woman who led the meeting was adamant.

- Faligi allows translators to use CAT tools (citing Trados as an example) to translate the books it publishes (!?!!!). I made a few comments about the practice, but the organizer pretended not to have heard me.

- Potential translators are required to complete a “brief” test: about 40 cartelle or just under 13,000 words (yes, you read that correctly) to be done at home and returned to Faligi. It goes without saying, obviously, that the test is unpaid.

- Faligi then selects the fortunate translators and assigns them one or two books to translate in the first year. Payment is made solely on the basis of royalties which, if there are any, are paid in the year following the translation.

- Faligi’s policy is not to pay on the basis of the cartella (typically a “page” of 2000 characters ~IlSdC) but, for our information, just in case they ever decide to do so, they supplied us with a breakdown of sample rates. The listed rate for Italian=>English, for example, ranges from between €6-12 per cartella (obviously before taxes!).²

Alongside the many other advantages of working with Faligi, the publisher offers translators an additional “opportunity”: to be listed in their Translators’ Forum, which Faligi describes as a genuine “display window” for the translator. (In fact, if you take a look at the portal, you’ll find one single name listed over and over—two in a few cases.³)

Once the “Creative Meeting” was concluded, I felt extremely lucky that I had decided to participate solely out of curiosity, that I already have a reliable source of income, and that it hadn’t cost me either much time or a long trip to attend the workshop. What made me sad, though, was to see all the young men and women who had come to Chivasso (near Turin) from all over Italy (Macerata, Rome, Puglia, even from Messina in Sicily) for a three-hour meeting whose content was what I’ve just described—in other words, for an encounter that had nothing whatsoever to do with the words “professionalism” or “opportunities.”

More than anything else, this message is intended for them: take my advice and save yourself three hours of thumb-twiddling.

-------------------------

¹ As long as we’re talking about “Italian authors” and about an editor who purports to be knowledgeable in the field, it seems worth mentioning that Marco Polo did not write his own memoirs but, rather, recounted them to Rustichello da Pisa while they were both in prison. Rustichello then deployed liberal artistic license in creating his own versions of the tales. And he wrote in French. (~IlSdC.)

² This dismal rate works out to roughly €0,018-0,036 per word ($0.022-$0.044/word). Outside of the third world, by way of comparison, a decent rate would be at least four times higher than Faligi’s lowest offer. (~IlSdC.)

³ Indeed, for the Italian=>English combination, Faligi lists only two translators, Paola Levante and Anna Giustozzi, both of whom, incidentally, also translate into French. Ms. Levante, however, is a true linguistic wunderkind and evidently translates to and from Italian, French, English, Spanish, Russian, and Latin. (~IlSdC.)

Faligi Editore - L'inculata Rampante

2010-07-08T02:38:00.000-07:00

Read the English version here.

Voglio portare FALIGI EDITORE all'attenzione di chi non la conoscesse, onde evitare perdite di tempo a colleghi o chiunque sia interessato alla traduzione letteraria.

Benchè non sia il mio campo, la traduzione letteraria mi ha sempre affascinato e, allo scopo di conoscere meglio questo mondo, ho partecipato (di recente) all'incontro definito "Il Traduttore Letterario" che Faligi Editore organizza periodicamente.

Questo incontro (loro lo definiscono 'corso', ma dura tre ore) vuole fare conoscere il modo di operare delle case editrici, avvicinare gli aspiranti traduttori letterari a questo mondo e mira a selezionarne alcuni a cui affidare la traduzione dei libri FALIGI. Voglio elencarne di seguito i punti più eclatanti e senza senso:

-si tratta di tradurre libri italiani (hanno fatto l'esempio di Marco Polo) verso una lingua straniera, allo scopo di far conoscere ed esportare la letteratura italiana nel mondo.

-Alla domanda perchè affidarlo a madrelingua italiani, la loro risposta è stata (parole dell'organizzatrice): "Perchè è molto difficile trovare traduttori di madrelingua inglese/francese/tedesco, ecc. ecc..(!?!) e poi è ora di "finirla" con questa mentalità di tradurre solo verso la propria lingua, la nostra casa editrice è valdostana, una terra bilingue, io ad esempio sono abituata ad esprimermi in due lingue, tutti dovrebbero fare così".

Alle varie osservazioni che si potevano fare su questo punto, la signora è stata irremovibile.

-La casa editrice permette l'uso di strumenti di traduzione assistita, facendo l'esempio di Trados, per tradurre i libri (!?!!!). Sono seguite altre osservazioni dalla sottoscritta a cui la signora ha fatto orecchie da mercante.

-Viene dato un 'piccolo' test: 40 cartelle circa (avete letto bene), da fare a casa e restituire. Ovviamente il test, non so se c'è bisogno di dirlo, è gratuito.

-Dopodichè FALIGI selezionerà i fortunati e affiderà loro uno/due libri da tradurre per il primo anno. Il pagamento sarà solo mediante il meccanismo delle royalties che, eventualmente, si percepiranno a partire dall'anno successivo alla traduzione.

- FALIGI ha scelto di non applicare la tariffa a cartella, comunque per nostra informazione, se mai dovesse pagare anche a cartella, ci fornisce un elenco con le tariffe tipo, in cui leggo che la tariffa per l'inglese, ad esempio, va dai 6 ai 12 euro, lordi ovviamente!

-FALIGI oltre alle suddette vantaggiose condizioni offre anche un'altra 'opportunità': essere inseriti nel loro portale traduttori, che per i traduttori è una vera e propria 'vetrina'. (Infatti se si va a vedere si trova sempre un solo nome, due in alcuni casi).

Dopo l'incontro mi sono ritenuta fortunata ad aver partecipato al solo scopo di interesse, di avere le mie fonti di reddito e di ... aver fatto poca strada e perso poco tempo, ma la cosa triste è stata vedere ragazzi e ragazze arrivare a Chivasso (Torino) da ogni parte d'Italia (Macerata, Roma, Puglia, addirittura Messina) per un incontro di tre ore e dai contenuti che ho accennato, che tutto hanno a che vedere tranne che con le parole 'professionalità' e 'opportunità'.

E' specialmente a loro che mi rivolgo: evitate lo sbattimento.

Lingo24.com: 1000% Profit! (just not for translators)

2010-07-01T01:19:00.000-07:00

In case you needed more evidence for the proposition that massive online jobbers like Lingo24.com ~~are a total ripoff~~ offer virtually no advantage to professional translators, here's a clear example. It didn't take Sherlock Holmes to dig up the following facts, either.

Recently, Lingo24 posted an announcement on ProZ.com. Since ProZ continues to allow outsourcers to name their price, Lingo24 was able to include these helpful "budget and payment details":

We can pay 10 GBP per 1000 words (very easy texts). Applicants should send their CVs to alina.ungureanu@lingo24.com.

On Lingo24's site, meanwhile, here's what they tell the public:

Our minimum charge is £50/€60/$80 and our rates for translation start from £100/€120/$160 per 1000 words.

The offer is inherently offensive (the equivalent of €0.01/word), but what's truly appalling is that Lingo24 has no qualms about paying its translators one-tenth of what it charges its clients -- or, to put it another way, Lingo24 makes a ONE THOUSAND PERCENT profit on the translator's work. And that's at a minimum.

Don't agencies need to add something to their rates-to-translators in order to cover costs and overhead? Of course they do. But when an agency is charging end clients 1000% of what the translator is earning, that's not called fair profit. It's called shameless exploitation.

It's no accident that job posters like Lingo24 keep turning to ProZ.com in their search for desperate translators willing to be squeezed like lemons -- they're essentially partners in the same nefarious, bottom-feeding approach that is putting experienced, professional translators out of business.

Like every single agency organized on a similar business model (low cost is the only marketing lever worth talking about, while translators exist solely to be exploited), Lingo24 boasts that it has "top linguists at your disposal." Well, no they don't, either. Not for €0.01/word. (And why is it that end clients so often fail to recognize that agencies like Lingo24, who pay peanuts, are selling them the work of monkeys?)

What's more, Lingo24 wants you to know that it is "proud of its entrepreneurialism and is always on the look out for new opportunities."

Right. Opportunities to abuse translators and to reap unfair profits. Definitely something to be proud of, Lingo24.

TransPerfect Translations - Not Quite Perfect After All

2010-04-12T06:56:00.000-07:00

It'd be tough to find a mass-distributed publication in America that's more right-wing or capitalism-friendly than Reader's Digest, but Margaret Heffernan's chirpy little article on Liz Elting and TransPerfect Translations ("The Leader in Global Language and Business Services") is even more fawning than usual.

I'm sure it's just because I'm evil, but it strikes me that RD's TransPerfect-love-fest-and-Liz-Elting-beatification-project article bears all the earmarks of a plant, the sort of corporate shill-work-for-pay for which the publication has already earned itself a certain reputation.

But let's assume I'm wrong. Let's assume TransPerfect's publicist didn't write the article and pay Reader's Digest to publish it. Let's assume Margaret Heffernan really did interview Liz Elting and that RD really did send celebrity photographer Melanie Dunea to capture Elting in her "Sex & the City" drag, all so the magazine could name her an "inspiring person" and wax sycophantic about how "Her Company Spells Success in More Than 100 Languages."

None of that's really the problem.

The problem is what Liz Elting doesn't tell you in her amazing "we invented it in our dorm room at college" rags-to-riches story. What she doesn't tell you is that one of the main reasons that Liz Elting and Phil Shawe raked in $221 million in 2009 is that their corporate policy is (1) to pay translators as little as possible and to maintain constant downward pressure on fees and (2) to work hard to create new and inventive ways to pay translators less, including forcing them to use proprietary CAT software and translation memories (which, in turn, become the justification for imposing additional discounts on their work).

TransPerfect may be "the" leader in global language and blah blah, but it's also a leader in perverting the client/translator relationship through its practice of imposing take-it-or-leave it fees on translators, who have little or no bargaining power in the transaction.

I'm not a big fan of the ProZ Blue Board, which deserves to be renamed the Brown (Nose) Board, but it's worth noting the number of 1s and 2s (on a "likelihood of working again" scale of 5) that TransPerfect earned from its translators between January 2009 and the present: 24%.

In other words, while Liz Elting was doing all she could to keep her clients happy in her busy, busy days as wife, baseball mom, and capitalist paragon, one-fourth of her employees were pretty disgruntled.

And that's hardly a shock. TransPerfect is the Wal*Mart of translation: huge, omnivorous, aggressive, and worker-unfriendly. (And isn't it always the case that workers wind up being the wrench in the wheel of corporate greed?)

Don't think it matters? Think again. Wal*Mart has taught the entire retail industry just how much you could abuse people who needed jobs and get away with it. What do you think TransPerfect is teaching translation outsourcers about how to work with translation professionals?

Sure, Liz Elting and Phil Shawe haven't gone quite so far as to take out "dead peasant insurance" on their "linguists" in the finest traditions of Wal*Mart. At least, I assume they haven't. Perhaps someone should check.

But here's a verifiable fact that I find both chilling and significant: In Heffernan's entire 850-word grovel, including her Q&A with Elting, one important word never appears: "translator."

Not even once.

Marketing Mania - Professional Is as Professional Does, Forrest

2010-03-24T02:57:00.000-07:00

Christina Terrell of Marketing Mania Voice Casting & Audio Production Services -- "The Place to shop for professional voice talent and audio production services" -- would like to pay you $300 US to translate 5000 words from English to Italian.

That works out to $0.06/word or €0.04/word, which actually makes Marketing Mania (based in lovely Bokeelia, Florida) "the Wal*Mart of professional voice talent and audio production services."

If you're shopping for a translation job, though, you should probably try a different store in the mall.

Meanwhile, Ms. Terrell has some other demands for you. None of your slimy translator tricks, trying to get away with using CAT tools: "Absolute [sic] NO SOFTWARE TRANSLATIONS," she says, capitalizing like sixty. "Literal translations are not desired. Human translations are extremely important to us."

Well, it's always good to know that a client has some standards.

And harken at this: "Turn around from assignment will be required withn [sic] 48 hours. The deadline on the form is not exactly accurate as we are still going through major revision work on this [text]. It can be sooner or later than the deadline indicated in the form deadline below."

Who works like that? The 14 mooncalves who have already bid on this job (who obviously haven't got a thing to do with their time if they can accept a 48-hour turnaround on more than 20 cartelle with a deadline that might be sooner, might be later, might be whenever the heck Marketing Mania gets it into its head to send you the file)?

Even though I don't know Christina Terrell or Marketing Mania, I'm going to go out on a limb here and bet you a buck on the following proposition: When a prospective client contacts Marketing Mania, I'll bet that Marketing Mania tells the client what its services will cost -- and not the reverse. I'll bet you can't call Marketing Mania up and say "I'd like 5000 words of voiceover and I'll pay you $300 for it." I'll bet, if you did that, that Christina Terrell would laugh.

At Marketing Mania, they're "experts," after all. They're professionals. They expect to be treated accordingly.

Translators, on the other hand, fall into some other category. Possibly the same one that includes chinchillas and indentured servants.

Yep. It's a mania all right.

101translations/Adverbage Ltd.: The *uck of the Irish

2010-03-23T02:56:00.000-07:00

Does the Ireland-based 101translations, "a division of Adverbage Ltd.," employ Cruella De Vil, as its name would suggest?

Maybe not, but Giovanni Giusti, Deirdre Nuttall, and Bellinda Zabcic clearly have a bone to pick with translators.

In their 22 March 2010 job posting on ProZ.com, they start out with this cheerful greeting:

"Important! Before you complain about the rate please read on."

The rate, in fact, is abominable and complaints are more than justified -- but not solely for the cash involved (paid in 101translations' local currency: peanuts).

The offer is additionally outrageous for the gobbledygook that follows:

"[Y]ou should only apply if you have ALREADY TRANSLATED this content for someone else and you only need to change the data for us, as we will need the translation of all the fields, even those that are not filled in - and those are the vast majority."

I'll admit it. I couldn't swear to be able to tell you exactly what that means. Perhaps the sentence was machine translated.

Still, the gist is clear: "This job is available only if you can do a pre-translation with a CAT tool that contains all of the terms in our text (though the translator can't possibly know in advance what those terms are) and, thus, are prepared to accept the super-discount that we have already included, for your convenience, in the price indicated below."

Note, meanwhile, that the document to be translated is a .pdf scan, which means that the translator must first perform an OCR on the scan (followed by the manual correction of all the errors in character recognition that typically result). Only at that point can the document be used with a CAT tool.

I'm with 101translations, though. Don't complain. Abstain.

ProZ.com - Proposal for Reforming the Jobs Board

2010-03-20T01:55:00.000-07:00

Following up on the late-February “Translators’ Petition Concerning ProZ.com’s Job Policies,” the "PropoZals Working Group" and some 50 cosponsors have formally submitted the following proposal to ProZ.com's Henry Dotterer.

Let's keep our fingers crossed for some real change at ProZ!

Proposal for a Reorganization of Proz.Com’s
“Translation Industry Jobs” Board

to: Henry Dotterer, Proz.Com

from: The 51 Proposal Cosponsors and the PropoZals Working Group

date: 19 March 2010

Our overriding desire in drafting these proposals was to encourage ProZ.com to continue to act in ways that serve translation professionals and provide “comprehensive ... services, resources, and experiences that enhance the lives of members.” Given that a significant number of translators and interpreters in many different language combinations confirm that ProZ.com’s job postings contain detrimental working conditions or fail to offer them a living wage, such goals are not being met.

ProZ.com is considered influential in the translation industry. Because of that influence, ProZ.com is in a unique position to establish ethical standards for the translation community and to create trends that will become established throughout the industry. With that in mind, and pursuant to the “Translators’ Petition Concerning ProZ.com’s Job Policies” signed by 844 translators and interpreters in February 2010, the following proposals are intended to respond to the adverse conditions identified in the petition.

1. Job-Posting Form

a) Outsourcers should no longer be permitted to indicate the price they are offering or intend to pay for a given translation or interpreting project, and that portion of the job-posting form should be eliminated.

b) Outsourcers should not include pricing or rate information anywhere else in the body of their job posting. To that end, job postings should be monitored and removed, if necessary.

c) Outsourcers should be advised clearly of the reason for such changes on the form they use to post a job.

d) Pursuant to c), above, we propose that ProZ.com feature the following statement prominently on its job-posting form: “ProZ.com has removed pricing information from the job-posting form because we believe that translators, as professional service providers, are in the best position to determine their own rates, which vary according to type and format of the text involved, the subject matter, the level of urgency, and the technical expertise required, among other factors. ProZ.com is convinced that quality in translation is ensured not by seeking the lowest rate available but by choosing skilled, competent translators. In keeping with the years of commitment and training required to become qualified professionals, translators and interpreters deserve adequate compensation for their work.”

2. Emailing of job offers to individual translators/interpreters using ProZ mail

a) Because of the above policy—that outsourcers may not indicate pricing information or maximums in their offers to translators and interpreters—we propose that the same vigilance be extended to first-contact email messages initiated by outsourcers using the ProZ.com messaging systems. In initiating first contact with a translation professional via such messages for the sole purpose of soliciting candidates for a project, outsourcers may not indicate specific price ranges, limits, or maximums. ProZ.com already possesses the ability to monitor system messages for violations of ProZ.com policies (the profile message form itself states: “Messages may be subject to review or vetting by site staff”); thus, we propose that ProZ.com extend such monitoring to messages initiated by outsourcers for the sole purpose of soliciting services from one or more translation professionals.

b) In addition (or, if the above proposal is not accepted, in the alternative), we propose that ProZ modify the warning language (“Rules for sending profile messages”) that accompanies the email form to include: “Outsourcers initiating first contact with a translation professional for the purpose of soliciting services may not indicate specific pricing, price ranges, limits, or maximums in their messages.”

3. Translator Education/Continuing Education

a) In keeping with its commitment to enhance the lives of translators and interpreters and contribute to their professional preparation, ProZ.com should immediately undertake the following efforts/programs:

i. Create an information sheet for translators/interpreters that clearly explains the importance of establishing and maintaining a living wage and of resisting low-rate offers/downward rate pressure. This information should be sent to every existing member, whether paying or not, and should be sent in future to each new member immediately upon signing up. Thereafter it should continue to be prominently visible—perhaps on the member’s profile page, for example.

The information sheet should include a consideration of the damage done to colleagues and to the profession by consistently accepting low-rate offers or setting below-market rates for a given language combination; further, it should emphasize, in a profession made up of independent freelancers, that the individual translator/interpreter bears a fundamental responsibility for ensuring that living wages continue to exist for her/himself and for other translators and interpreters.

(We propose this because: we are aware of numerous translators who found ProZ at the beginning of their careers and assumed that the low-rate offers on the jobs board were normal for their language combination. Not knowing any better, and trusting in ProZ.com’s authority, they set or lowered their rates accordingly.)

ii. Initiate and continue a public-education program, potentially including periodic online seminars and conferences, whose purpose is to inform translators and interpreters of the importance of setting their own rates and working conditions and offering strategies for managing and resisting downward trends, low offers, and pressure to accept rates that do not afford a living wage, including a consideration of the damage done to colleagues and to the profession by consistently accepting low-rate offers or setting below-market rates and of the fundamental responsibility that the individual translator/interpreter bears in ensuring that living wages continue to exist for him/herself and for his/her colleagues.

iii. Initiate and continue a public-education program aimed at outsourcers, potentially including periodic online seminars and conferences, whose purpose is: 1) to educate agencies and translation/interpreting clients of the importance of respecting the right of translators and interpreters to set their own rates and working conditions; 2) to offer strategies for managing and resisting downward trends on the part of their end clients; 3) to inform outsourcers about how to recognize and choose professional translation-service providers; and 4) to provide practical information regarding how to identify and communicate the level of quality that is appropriate for any given project.

iv. Provide, free to paying members and at low-cost to non-paying members, ongoing online seminars and conferences in the marketing of translation and interpreting services, preferably adapted for local conditions.

v. Pursuant to ii, iii, and iv above, establish a “Continuing Education” program on ProZ, offering credits to translators/outsourcers who attend/complete such training, fungible in the form of KudoZ points, discounts for future purchases or conferences, or in some other way.

vi. Modify the ProZ.com “Professional Practices for Language Service Providers” pledge with language that reflects the signer’s: (1) commitment to establishing his or her own rates and working conditions and (2) recognition of the fundamental responsibility borne by the individual translator/interpreter in ensuring that living wages continue to exist for her/himself and for other members of the profession.

4. Corporate Image/Interaction with the Translation Community

a) Establish a ProZ.com translator’s blog, hosted on ProZ but moderated and written independently, that offers up-to-date information from working translators and interpreters regarding the translation industry and provides education regarding pricing, rates, and managing and conducting business as a freelancer.

b) In order to counter the negative impression that ProZ.com condones low rates and encourages agencies to take a use-and-discard approach to translation professionals, begin to work regularly and interactively with existing translation bloggers, online translation journals, Facebook groups, translators lists, etc. to upgrade ProZ.com’s corporate image. We specifically propose that ProZ.com take measures to respond to concerns that “ProZ doesn’t care,” that “ProZ is only in it for the money,” etc., specifically in the area of protecting the livelihoods of individual translators and interpreters. (NB: We do not argue that any of these impressions is necessarily true, but we do argue that they exist and that ProZ.com should address them.)

c) Reduce the ability of ProZ.com monitors to stifle criticism and dissent among ProZ.com members, creating a clear, accessible channel by which legitimate complaints and useful suggestions regarding ProZ.com’s services can easily “rise to the top” and be considered appropriately.

Skystats Ltd. - Urgent, Technical EN>German-Polish-Portugese-Swedish for Less than Peanuts

2010-03-19T02:08:00.001-07:00

Translation Times reports the following ProZ.com announcement as their "Job Offer of the Week":

We need some translation work on urgent basis & regular basis there after.
English to German-Polish-Portugese-Swedish Translation: URGENT

We have some 500 product descriptions and some site banners and ads that needs translation.

It is mostly technical and repetitive.
Our target price is $1500 to $2500 per pair.

No per word math please.

Product Description and other details: 21 days.

It is around 750 web pages. Word Count is approximately: 215,000
Unique words: 133990 (Product description) and rest repeat.

NO MACHINE TRANSLATION PLEASE.
Only Native speakers!
So, if you're from India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Japan, Korea, please do not bid. As we need native speakers and writers.

Writes Translation News: "We did the math for you, and if you were to get paid the maximum rate of $2500 for the 215,000 words (not the unique words), you would be making $0.011 per word. If you got the low end of $1500, your per-word rate would be $0.0069. Any takers?"

The outsourcer is a mysterious organism known as Skystats Limited, which may or may not be based in Australia. Skystats registered on ProZ in August 2009 but lists no contact information or website.

Please note the comments below as well, especially the one written by Anne-Sophie: "Maybe the people at Proz should put some limits to the kind of offers being published." Gee. Ya think?

------------------

joy mo said...
I'll be more interested to know if anyone actually applies for the job. The low pricing game is partially some translators' fault. They are either incompetent or shortselling themeselves by accepting jobs like this.
MARCH 17, 2010 3:08 PM

Daniel said...
LOL - "No per word math please."
That's hilarious. Even if you get the $2500 and only count the unique words, it still comes out to under 1.9 cents a word. And you'd have to translate 6,380 unique words every day for 3 weeks straight!
Are you sure this isn't a joke? ;)
MARCH 17, 2010 3:42 PM

Krzysiek said...
It's not a joke. I received this job. I was wondering whether I'm really bed at maths or they put something wrong. I couldn't believe it!
MARCH 17, 2010 4:23 PM

Anne-Sophie said...
Maybe the people at Proz should put some limits to the kind of offers being published. If it were for a good cause (like an NGO or something like that), but it's not!
MARCH 17, 2010 6:00 PM

Screengates Consulting: It's an Honor Just to be Nominated....

2010-03-15T05:25:00.000-07:00

Screengates, the "Story and Film Development Consultants," with offices in Dubai, Berlin, and (natch) Hollywood (though they use a UK email address and are registered in Cardiff, Wales), makes this promise to clients:

Screengates will sculpt your story into a compelling cinematic concept, then develop this concept into a captivating screenplay tailored to your budget. We'll then find a production company for your film.... We'll present the screenplay along with production specs to the producers you choose, then help you engage the right one.... Our business model is simple: first develop a concept and script, then source the right production company.

Now, I don't know how much Screengates' clients are accustomed to paying for all that high-end, fancy-sounding "developing" and "tailoring" and "sourcing," but I have news for anyone who intends to use Screengates to commission a translation:

They haven't got the vaguest idea what translations cost or how to work effectively with a translator. (And that's despite their promise
that "All of our script translators are professional screenwriters
translating into their mother tongues").

Recently, Jonathan Gainer of Screengates posted an announcement on ProZ.com seeking an IT>EN translator for a "dramatic screenplay." In the exchange of emails that followed, he took pains to specify that

I’m expecting a very elegant translation. By elegant I mean that the translation should be completely free of grammatical, spelling and formatting errors, and feature dialogs which rhetorically re-create the characters in English. The characters should ‘feel’ authentic, and use language that is a near equivalent, both rhythmically and colloquially, to their speech in the original.... I’ve attached a paragraph expressing my thoughts on dramatic translation.... If we work together, it is quite important that you be extremely careful in your final checking of the screenplay. You work will not be going to an editor, so it has to be error-free. If working according to these specifications might be problematic, please refrain from taking the job. This may sound rather severe, but I like to be very upfront about expectations in new relationships so that there are no misunderstandings.

The message edges right up on presumptuousness, but it's still within the limits of acceptability. Besides, a client who recognizes quality and knows precisely what he wants is a very good thing. Naturally, when the requirements are as stringent as that and when the product must be ultra-perfect, the translator can rest easy, right? He won't need to remind the client that prime quality commands prime rates, right?

And especially not when (as Gainer revealed) the screenplay in question is based on a novel by one of Italy's best known post-war writers and critics--one known for his dense and demanding prose, right?

Wrong, wrong, and wrong.

Screengates' offer for 100 pages? €1000.

Actually, "offer" is a misleading word, as it always is in these cases. Screengates' take-it-or-leave-it demand was that the translator perform his services for €1000. And deliver within 10 days (weekends included). Oh, and submit an unpaid test first.

Let's do a little easy math. If "pages" means typescript pages, we can calculate a price of about €0.04/word, but that's assuming a "normal," single-spaced page of Italian in 12-point type. Obviously, you can get more than 850 words on a page if you reduce the font by just one point and change to single-spacing.

Or perhaps "page" means cartella, which is a measure widely used in Italy (but probably not in very many other places). A cartella is usually of 1500 or of 2000 characters, with spaces included. Ten euros for a cartella of 1500 is insulting; €10 for a cartella of 2000 is fightin' words.

But here's the real point (and evidently this mantra needs to be repeated at least daily): Clients do not set prices or working conditions for freelancers. They make requests, which the translator may do his or her best to accommodate (assuming the requests are reasonable and/or humanly possible). It is, moreover, at least polite to ask your potential translator how busy he is in the near future, rather than assume he's just sitting around waiting for your job and would be delighted to block out weekends and evenings to get it done on your schedule.

(Or, to put it another way: If you haven't left enough time for the translation to be done properly, remind me again how that becomes my problem?)

This increasingly common approach to finding a translation professional is a distortion of supply-demand in the marketplace. More than that, it's just plain rude.

To get these points across, I was thinking of writing a captivating screenplay about translation, full of compelling cinematic concepts. I wonder if Screengates would represent me....

Eurostreet of Biella Gets a Makeover -- But It's the Same Old Eurostreet

2010-03-04T00:55:00.000-08:00

I'm not sure I can manage to be cynical enough about Eurostreet Linguistic Services' new makeover.

Eurostreet (located at Via Losana, 13 in Biella, in the Piedmont Region), which also does business as Eurostreet Services and Eurostreet Cooperative, has been offering starvation wages to translators for years.

Recently, however, Eurostreet has reappeared with a new name, ItaTraCom (ironically enough, this stands for "Italian Translation Community," though you normally don't expect people in your "community" to try to drive you out of business), and a new raison d'être. Now it's not just a translation agency; it's a translation broker.

Eurostreet/ItaTraCom.com, of course, still offers translations from every language in the world into every language in the world -- a sign of quality you can always count on.

ItaTraCom.com, what's more, now publishes its "Price List" online, just like the bargain menu at McDonald's. (Click to enlarge.)

The problem is not just that the prices (which are the end prices that Eurostreet/ItaTraCom.com asks of its clients, remember) are outrageously low: the translator typically receives 1/3 to 1/2 of what an agency charges its clients, and that's before taxes.

And it's not just that Eurostreet/ItaTraCom.com is engaged in the growing practice of offering take-it-or-leave it maximums to translators and distorting the meaning of "independent contractor." (More and more agencies, in fact, are following this practice, telling clients up front what they will pay and, in the process, giving translators almost no ability to negotiate their own rates.)

The real frosting on the cake (or the cherry on the tart, as they might say in Italy) is in the small print:

In the event you should consider our prices (indicated above) to be unacceptable or overly burdensome, please send us an estimate of the amount of translation work you anticipate ordering from us in the course of a year along with the percentage discount you consider appropriate. We will contact you to discuss an agreement regarding the price of your translation that does not compromise the quality of service or, in the alternative, to define the repositioning of translation quality in keeping with your actual needs and the price you expect to pay.

In other words: not only does Eurostreet/ItaTraCom.com promote the practice of allowing agencies to dictate price to translators, it's willing to let that inexcusable custom trickle down to its own end clients.

Eurostreet/ItaTraCom.com also makes clear that it is more than happy to engage in one of the more nefarious and widespread abuses practiced by agencies: the volume discount. Obviously, I have no problem if agencies choose to give their end clients volume discounts. The insult comes when they expect (or demand) that translators do so.

The fact is, it takes a certain amount of time to translate a page of Italian. That time remains constant, whether there are 10 pages or 1000. The volume discount should come out of the agency's pocket, not the translator's.

With practices like these, though, one begins to wonder. Are we talking about translations or are we dickering over babouches in a dark alley in Marrakesh?

One of the great ironies in ItaTraCom.com's servile plea to potential clients is the tacit recognition that cost actually is related to quality. In essence, they're saying, "Look, if you want a really inferior translation, please don't let price be an object. We can provide bad translations for even less!"

Eurostreet, it's worth noting, is the agency that recently won a huge annual contract with the Region of Lombardy for translation and interpreting services. Like the Italian Ministry of Tourism (cf. the Trust Traduzioni scandal of early February 2010), the Region of Lombardia has also chosen to award a government contract for cut-rate services to a translation mill.

The only difference is that Trust Traduzioni and the Ministero di Turismo received negative publicity for choosing an agency that denied translators a living wage. The Region of Lombardy and Eurostreet have gotten away with it.

Get ready for a new tsunami of Inglisc and Italish in Italy's capital of fashion and finance. Eurostreet and ItaTraCom.com are the newest marchet lìder in undervaluing the work of translators.

GoTranslators? No, Don't Go: More of the Same with ProZ.com Lite

2010-03-03T00:16:00.000-08:00

Let’s not let ProZ.com take all the credit for exposing its translator-members to dumping.

Let’s not let ProZ.com take all the credit for allowing translation clients and agencies to engage in price-fixing.

Like ProZ, GoTranslators.com also allows clients to dictate maximum prices to translators. (Such as the Italian->English offer I received this morning from Bangalore-based Adith Multilingual Services Pvt. Ltd. Adith Multilingual describes itself as “one of the leading ~~translation sweatshops~~ multilingual organizations in Asia.” The offer? $0.03/word (the equivalent of €0.02/word).

The Attractive Nuisance

GoTranslators.com insists that it is not actually guilty of these practices for two reasons. First, it says that job posters cannot indicate prices directly in online postings (this is true, and it is a major step forward).

The positive, however, is immediately cancelled by the negative. GoTranslators.com does allow job posters to send so-called "private" mass emails to translators in a given language combination. In those emails, prices are indicated (such as the one from Adith Multilingual).

GoTranslators.com says it's a good guy because such offers are restricted to "private" emails. I say it's a distinction without a difference.

GoTranslators.com and similar services have created the equivalent of an "attractive nuisance," a legal concept that means, in short: if I create a hazardous condition on my property that is likely to attract others who cannot appreciate the risk posed by that danger, I remain legally liable if they are injured.

Classic example: I install a swimming pool in my yard but do nothing to restrict access to the pool. Neighborhood kids come into my yard when I'm not home, jump into the pool, and drown. I'm liable because I failed to fence the yard, cover the pool, or otherwise mitigate the potential danger that it represented.

Third-World Rates Need to Stay in the Third-World

Translators in the U.S. and Europe, meanwhile, are drowning.

I’ve written before about Indian translation companies and job offers that are unthinkable for anyone not living in the third world.

And before anyone starts working up a head of steam about the terrible racism of such an assertion: I understand all about the global economy. I’ve read the same books you have about China, India, and the practice of off-shoring jobs.

The point is this: God bless Indian translation companies. But they must stop demanding Indian rates from translators who live (pay rent, buy groceries, and purchase services) in the economies of the U.S. and the European Community.

If you only intend to pay $0.03/word, find a translator who lives in an economy in which $0.03/word is a living wage.

They must stop foisting such rates on the European and American market and convincing agencies and translation clients that such rates represent normal compensation. They do not, and translators outside of India cannot live on $0.03/word.

If Indian companies cannot find qualified translators in India, then they must pay European and American wages.

Instead, what Indian translation agencies are doing – and what GoTranslators.com is supporting and enabling – is disseminating cut-rate offers to large lists of European and American translators. The practice, by the way, has a name. It’s called unfair competition.

That’s the plain and simple truth.

ProZ.com and GoTranslators.com have the technical capability to allow job posters to restrict their postings to translators in specified countries or geographical areas. They need to stop allowing Indian companies to demand Indian rates from translators outside India.

If they refuse do it, ask yourself: Who is profiting?

Support Denise Bottmann against Brazilian Publishers Engaged in Plagiarism

2010-03-02T02:54:00.000-08:00

You may already have heard that Denise Bottmann, a Brazilian translator, is being sued by a Brazilian publisher for having exposed on her blog what is apparently a long-standing practice in Brazil: the republication of previously published translations--either eliminating the original translator's name or, in some cases, using it without permission. The issue is that translators are not being compensated for re-translation/re-publication rights, as the law (and common decency) would require.

A petition in support of Denise is online at:
http://www.petitiononline.com/Bottmann/petition-sign.html.

Because the petition is in Portuguese, here's a quick-and-dirty English translation to help you get the gist.

Please read, sign, and disseminate!

========================

To: MEDIA OUTLETS, TRANSLATORS, EDITORS, CULTURAL WORKERS, AND ALL THOSE INTERESTED IN COPYRIGHT

Reports in the media have made professionals in many fields aware that yet another lawsuit has been filed against the translator, Denise Bottmann, as the result of the accusations of plagiarism published on her blog "I Object to Plagiarism."

Over the years, Denise's tireless work has unmasked numerous examples of plagiarism, making clear that the extent of this crime is far greater than anyone had imagined when she filed her first reports.

In this instance, the lawsuit was filed by Editora Landmark, which made the following demands to the Brazilian court: significant monetary relief for alleged moral damages; a media blackout on court proceedings; and the closing down of Denise's blog, "I Object to Plagiarism." Citing the Brazilian "right to oblivion" law, Editora Landmark has also requested a preliminary injection against "I Object to Plagiarism" (i.e., it has asked the court to shut the blog down and to purge its contents entirely from the internet even before the lawsuit has been decided on its merits).

In fact, Denise's blog has become widely known in only a short time. As such, it has served as a lightning rod and an "inconvenient truth" for a publishing industry that has up to now been undisturbed in its quiet rush to copy and re-publish previously published translations-using translators' real names or, in some cases, fictitious ones that disguise the work of the actual translators.

Because complaints about this practice are not only continuous but increasing, we, the undersigned, have joined together to call attention to a practice that:

1. Violates the Copyright Act, according to which the translator is considered the author of a derivative work and has moral and economic rights that deserve protection;

2. Creates unfair competition to the extent that some publishers, acting in bad faith, re-publish translations without paying for translation rights or retranslations, thereby disadvantaging honest publishers who are concerned about maintaining their good reputation;

3. Undermines our cultural heritage through the dissemination of illegally copied and re-published works which often nonetheless bear the names of translators who are known and appreciated in our literature.

For these reasons, and in the hope that justice will be done, we have published this expression of support for Denise Bottmann's efforts. We ask anyone interested in combating the criminal practice of plagiarism and enriching the cultural life in this country to join us.

ProZ.com - "Translation Industry Jobs" Board

2010-02-26T03:47:00.000-08:00

Il Segno di Caino could write a blog a day, if not six, on the offers that appear on ProZ.com, the mammoth, eleven-year-old online translation clearinghouse.

ProZ.com claims that it "serv[es] the world's largest community of translators..., deliver[ing] a comprehensive network of essential services, resources and experiences that enhance the lives of its members."

For thousands of translators, however, the only thing ProZ is "enhancing" are the profits of its founder, Henry Dotterer.

In fact, in recent years, ProZ has earned itself a reputation as the go-to site for dumping, the predatory pricing practices that disadvantage workers--like translators--who have no union or other protection in the so-called "free market." (Which is just another way of saying that translators are being allowed to finance the market so that others can profit -- the "free market," that is, doesn't actually exist; someone always pays for it.)

Though ProZ makes no effort to reduce, if not eliminate, jobs offered at rates so low they deny translators the possibility to earn a living wage, it has become the industry leader in another nefarious and damaging practice: permitting clients to indicate beforehand what they intend to pay and, in so doing, to establish pricing practices.

Translators are service providers. They alone must set their minimum rates based upon the economy in which they live, buy food, pay rent and taxes, and so on. ProZ, instead, allows job posters to dictate the price of a job to translators.

The practice is unacceptable, but ProZ refuses to concede the point. Their weak argument--which, sadly, many ignorant, self-injuring translators parrot--is that anyone can refuse a job if the rates are too low.

After years of handing their enormous forum directly over to low-rate clients, however, ProZ has helped make it virtually impossible for translators to command higher rates. The choice is not--as ProZ would have it--between turning down a low-rate job in favor of one that pays your normal rate. The choice is between accepting a low-rate job and not working.

Here's the correct analogy, meanwhile: You take your car to the mechanic. Before he starts work, you tell him, "This job is worth a hundred bucks, and that's what I intend to pay." And the mechanic -- because the market has been so utterly and thoroughly distorted by entities like ProZ -- has no choice but to accept.

Alternately: You sit down to eat in a restaurant. After consulting the menu, you call the owner over to your table. "This steak is overpriced," you say. "I'll pay half, and I want you to throw in a bottle of wine with that. If you don't get everything on my table within ten minutes, though, the deal's off." And here again, the restaurateur has no recourse: he must accept or lose the chance to earn even 50% of what the meal actually costs.

For ProZ, all that's A-OK.

Here are a few examples--taken from this week's job postings in the Italian->English combination--of the dumping that is now standard operating procedure on ProZ:

(1) Wolfestone Translation Ltd
The Language Centre
Roy Allkin, Anna Milkowska
57 Walter Road, Swansea, SA1 5PZ
United Kingdom
http://www.wolfestone.co.uk
Ital>Engl: €0.04/word; $0.05/word

Note: in a European context (European-based client; European-based translator), anything less than €0.08/word is unacceptable. Especially for a job that requires--as this one does--same-day turnaround.

(2) Business Voice
Elisabetta Seffino
Viale Trieste 2, Manzano, Udine 33044
Italy
http://www.businessvoice.it
5 files, financial statements and budget reports, URGENT.
Ital>Engl: €0.03 gross/word, maximum of €0.04 gross/word.

Note: A freelancer who pays taxes in Italy turns over 40% or more of his or her gross to the government in taxes and other contributions. In actual terms, then, this rate is equivalent to €0.018/word $0.013/word. "Welcome to your Future" says Business Voice on its website: a future in which the professional translator has been annihilated.

(3) Servicio de Traducción KOMA
KOMALINGUA
Isabel Montejo
Spain
http://www.komalingua.com
Ital>Engl: €0.05/word. TECHNICAL translation. URGENT.

Note: Technical translations require just what you'd suppose: technical knowledge and the ability to use sector-specific terminology correctly. In a normal world, translators are paid more for this--perhaps that's why Komalingua was so generous as to offer €0.01/word more than many of this week's job posters. Normally, however, when you call a plumber to come to your house immediately because of an emergency, you expect to pay more for the service. The same goes for translation. Just not on ProZ.

(4) Dave Girotto
Holeckova 25, Prague, 15000
Czech Republic
http://www.idioma.com/contacts.html
Engl>Ital: €0.035/word (=$0.048/word)

Note: Fifteen pages (actually, roughly seventeen, based on 4000 Italian words), 42-hour turnaround. Even in the Czech Republic, Italian translators get paid badly.

(5) Orit Helzer
Argentina
(no company listed)
Ital>Engl: $0.056/word (=€0.04/word)

Note: Mx. Helzer demands: a) that the translation begin very soon; b) that the translator use Helzer's proprietary translation software; c) that candidates show proof of academic translation/language studies); and d) that candidates complete a translation test. All that for a 4,700-word job that pays $263.20 (€190.72) before taxes. (By comparison, I wouldn't consider a job like this for less than €380 or twice what Helzer is offering--and my rates, for someone with my experience, aren't especially high). Perhaps Orit Helzer would also like fries with that.

Living Wages for Translators: Hey, ProZ.com, see that translator over there? The one holding a slingshot?

2010-02-23T03:25:00.000-08:00

Here’s the analogy I’d like to start with.

In the middle of your town, there’s a dangerous stretch of road where numerous accidents have taken place. Wrecks have occurred because the road is full of holes in the summer and tends to ice over as soon as temperatures drop in the winter. Many people have been injured, despite the fact that they were themselves driving carefully. The area is badly lit, and even walking on the sidewalks isn’t entirely safe because of the cars skidding on ice or veering suddenly to avoid potholes.

Given the way your town is planned, though, it is almost impossible not to travel on that road or visit that area. It’s where almost all the businesses are located, the majority of the stores. If you want to buy groceries or grab a pizza, you have to go there. Your work and your kids’ school are on that road.

A group of citizens asks the city to take action. The city says: “We don’t have any authority over the weather. It isn’t our fault if the temperatures drop below zero and the road gets icy. We can’t control the fact that asphalt eventually breaks down. It’s a natural phenomenon! And you certainly don’t expect us to put someone in every single car to make sure the driver observes common decency or is respectful of others when he or she drives? Plus, at the end of the day, the sun goes down and the street gets dark--are you demanding that we control the sun, too?! You're being ridiculous! Everybody knows what that area is like. We're each responsible for our own personal safety. If you don’t like the road, don't use it.”

In essence, this is what the owners of ProZ.com have to say to translators who—for years—have complained about the rock-bottom rates, detrimental working conditions, and unfair competition that ProZ promotes via the job announcements that appear on its site.

Translators who complain privately to ProZ about rates that don’t allow them to make a living wage receive this canned answer from the job board’s monitors: “We believe that each member should be entitled to set his or her own minimum rates.”

And so, not even a month after the Trust Traduzioni/Italian Ministry of Tourism scandal, in which ProZ permitted a job posting that included both an illegal payment condition and an obscenely low rate that equated to less than what people earn for cleaning houses or flipping burgers, ProZ has bought itself a boycott and a petition drive. (The petition is available online: A Translators' Petition Concerning ProZ.com's Job Policies; in the petition's first six hours of existence, 380 translators signed it--more than one a minute.)

ProZ.com is the largest online clearinghouse for translation-related jobs. It’s not the only one, and it’s not the only one that gives job posters free rein to drag the market down. But it’s the biggest one and the most influential. Positive change on its part would ripple throughout the industry.

At issue are a couple of dead-serious errors of judgment on ProZ.com's part. First, ProZ.com allows job posters to establish rates and conditions, a complete distortion of the way freelancing works. Translators are service providers. Companies, agencies, and individuals who want translations are clients. Service providers set rates, not clients. (For precisely the same reason that, when you sit down in a restaurant, you don’t have the right to tell the owner: “Your steaks are over-priced. I’ll pay half. And throw in a bottle of wine with that.”).

Second, because of its influence and international reach (ProZ boasts 200,000 members all around the globe), ProZ does not merely reflect the market, as it consistently claims. Rather, ProZ plays a significant role in shaping it. Low-wage conditions exist in part (not entirely, but in part) thanks to ProZ.

While we're at it, in fact, it’s worth exposing the lie of the “free market,” which is the “reality” that ProZ claims to be “reflecting.”

Here’s a newsflash for ProZ and its owner, Henry Dotterer: The free market does not exist. All that exists is the question of who will pay for it.

In the case of ProZ (which currently charges its members €114 [or about $158] per year for a basic membership and more than double that for a “corporate” membership), its executives have decided that letting translators pay for the free market—in which every cog in the wheel except the translator has the opportunity to earn a profit—is a perfectly acceptable business model.

Rather than talk about such capitalist wet-dreams as the “free market,” though, I’d much rather talk about living wages for translators. Clearly, defining the concept of a “living wage” is complex, but that doesn’t diminish the fact that translators deserve to earn one.

When an Italian agency offers a job to a translator who lives in Italy and earns in euros, meanwhile, it isn’t too much to expect that agency to pay a rate that allows the translator who lives in Italy and spends in euros to earn enough to make ends meet. And that’s largely the kind of job we’re talking about: the kind in which the job offerer and the translator live and work in precisely the same economy.

Ever since the boycott and petition were first being discussed, of course, the naysayers were already tripping over themselves to say their nays. My feeling is: Who cares? You can’t have a revolution without counter-revolutionaries. Plus they allow one to recall happier times, when terms like “capitalist lackey of the running dog imperialist scum” had some teeth.

In the meantime, translators are doing something to bring attention to an untenable situation. They’re taking action. They’re helping themselves. They’re demanding, with the ProZ.com boycott as a first step, living wages for translators.

It’s the first time in years I’ve felt some pride in the profession I’ve chosen. Go sign the petition and see if you don’t feel a little better yourself.

Team Translation, Perugia, Italy

2009-07-02T00:11:00.000-07:00

The Company

Team Translation boasts: "1. High quality is our top priority! 2. We work exclusively with 1626 mother tongue translators, all highly qualified! 3. Extremely fast delivery times!" in addition to promising the lowest prices possible because they have "fewer fixed costs."

Their corporate information is:

Team Translation
Marian Vlad
Corso Garibaldi 236
Perugia, PG, 06135
URL: http://www.team-translation.it
staff@team-translation.it

The History

NOTE: On July 2, 2009, Team Translation sent the following job announcement to the Proz job board:

Seeking in-house IT>EN translator for long-term position.

Conditions:
- salary: 1000 euro net/month
-8 hours per day
-5 work days per week
-15 cartelle of 1500 characters to be translated on a daily basis

The translator we seek must have a very pleasing literary style. The texts we translate our distributed on famous websites, and as a result we cannot accept errors of any kind. We require wide experience in the world of translation.

The offer, in other words, is for 15 cartelle/day (approximately 22,500 characters or 4500-5000 Italian words each day) for a salary of €50 per day or (€3.33/cartella or something around 1 cent per word).

It’s worth noting that the original announcement read “Il traduttore scelto, dovrà avere uno stile letterario molto piacevole.” Despite the fact that Team Translation “cannot accept errors of any kind,” the sentence contains an error: the comma between the subject “traduttore” and the verb “dovrà.”

On the Proz “Blue Board,” the company has a “likelihood of working again” rating of 3 (out of 5) over the last 3 months, and 3.7 overall.

REM Traduzioni, Padova

2008-10-08T00:14:00.000-07:00

The Company

REM Traduzioni S.n.c. is located in Padova (Padua). Its owners are Elisabetta Bezzon and Gloria Cesaro. On its site, REM Traduzioni claims, in somewhat halting English, that "all our translation and interpreting services in and from the various European and non-European languages are carried out in close cooperation with qualified native speakers whose experience and specialist knowledge are our keys to success."

In other words, their policy is to use non-native-speaking translators.

The History

On 8 October 2008, REM Traduzioni posted an announcement on Proz.com seeking freelance translators in numerous language combinations. REM's announcement indicated several requirements: freelance translators had to possess a VAT code (which means translators who live in Italy and pay taxes in Italy) and had to use a CAT tool (Trados or similar).

The pay: €10/cartella (which is a measure of 1500 characters, typically including spaces).

That is BEFORE Italian taxes (which can be from 20%-40%).

That is AFTER calculating the so-called "matches" that CAT tools find and which are then deducted from the text on which your pay is based.

That is the pay for HIGHLY TECHNICAL translations in the areas of law, patents, technical documentation and manuals, and mechanics/machinery.

REM Traduzioni claims to be a member of the Federazione dei Centri di Traduzione e Interpretariato (Federation of Translation and Interpretation Service Providers) and the (European Union of Associations of Translation Companies, which is additional evidence of how useless such "qualifications" and organizations actually are.

If membership in high-sounding "federations" such as these cannot even guarantee that its members will pay translators decently, what purpose do they serve?

In a lively exchange with the owner of REM Traduzioni, however, who responded indignantly to my equally indignant email of complaint regarding their outrageously low fees and working conditions, she hotly told me that their fees were low because mother-tongue English-speaking translators were incompetent and thus she was forced to pay twice for each translation: once for the terrible translation and once for the revision.

So let's think about this logically: You offer absurdly low pay -- the kind of rate only students fresh out of school or absolutely green beginners could think of accepting (though they have to be possessed of a VAT code and CAT tools) -- and then you're genuinely ticked off when they send you low-quality translations.

REM Traduzioni, unfortunately, is the rule rather than the exception among Italian translation agencies: Everything is the fault of the translator. The misguided policy to use non-native-speaking translators has nothing to do with it. The decision to offer starvation wages has nothing to do with it.

It would be hard to come up with a better example of "not clear on the concept."

The British Centre - Jesi (AN), Le Marche: UPDATE!

2008-03-11T06:46:00.000-07:00

The Company

The British Centre of Jesi says it has been in business since 1977 -- though it still hasn't translated its own website into English.

See my posting of January 8, 2008 for addition information.

What follows is proof that often there is no shame where most it ought to flourish.

The History

On March 11, 2008, Max Frangioni (jamax28@aol.com) sent me the following private message:

Hi,
i have a project 2900 words, word file, about wine fair.
delivery tomorrow 4pm wednesday 12th march.
total offered 118 usd.

This quote (for roughly 12 cartelle) works out to something like $9 per cartella or $0.04 per word.

Even the Indians pay better.

I contacted the company to complain (bitterly) about this offer and their repeated efforts to break the market, and Mr. Frangioni responded that he was reporting me to Proz.com (where he had harvested my address) for my lack of professionalism.

Yes. Mine.

The British Centre - Jesi (AN), Le Marche

2008-01-08T00:15:00.000-08:00

The Company

The British Centre of Jesi says it has been in business since 1977 -- though it still hasn't translated its own website into English.

They offer "fast, efficient service for documents of every kind (technical, scientific, legal, and business-related) in any foreign language," and, of course, they underscore their "collaboration" with native speakers.

The History

On January 8, 2008, the British Centre of Jesi posted a job to the Proz job board:

URGENT. ITALIAN INTO ENGLISH 1 PAGE

Though the job may well have been one printed page, the word count indicated in the posting was 550 words -- or approximately 2.5 "cartelle" of 1500 keystrokes each.

Payment was "15 usd" and the British Centre further promised:

"you will be offered other projects from our agency."

The rate quoted here, then, comes to approximately $6 per cartella. Note that, as of this writing, the British Centre's company profile on Proz.com indicates a "standard rate" of "0.04 Euro per word" for Italian->English translations.

Based on that, a job of 550 words should come in at a minimum of E. 22 or about $31.90 at today's exchange rate. There's no explanation for why this particular job -- marked URGENT! -- was priced so low.

I contacted the company about this job offer and their rates and received the following response:

you email, seems that you are quite bored. please just next time if u dont like the project and what offered, ignore them....and dont stress us with your tantrums.

NetworkOmni, Westlake Village, CA

2007-10-30T00:16:00.000-07:00

The Company

NOTE: This post is based on information received from the colleague involved.

Network Omni Multilingual Communications offers "Interpretation, Translation, Training and Consulting Services" and further promises:

Translation and Localization

Getting your printed materials over language barriers will require more than just a word-for-word translation. It will require sensitivity to the local culture and an understanding of regional subtext—tastes, preferences, influences. A baseball metaphor will mean something in the United States, but nothing in most of the rest of the world.

Localization also encompasses the technical details that separate other cultures from our own: time/date formatting, page layouts, webpage sizing. That’s why NetworkOmni pays special attention to local relevance. It’s the best way to assure a truly global influence for our translation clients.

Their corporate information is:

NetworkOmni Multilingual Communications
4353 Park Terrace Drive
Westlake Village, CA 91361
Toll-Free: 800-543-4244
Main: 818-706-7890
Fax: 818-735-6305

The History

NOTE: The following is taken from information reported to the Northern California Translators Association listserv by a colleague whom I know personally and consider reliable; it does not come from my direct experience.

In August 2007, the translator in question was contacted by NetworkOmni for the urgent editing of a brief German-to-Italian translation. She edited the text and returned it to the agency on the same day.

As of October 30, 2007, and despite repeated reminders and requests, they had not paid and had failed to respond to her messages.

A search of messages on the NCTA list turned up a half-dozen other complaints, dating back to May 2006, regarding slow payments on the part of NetworkOmni.

Indian Outsourcers: Off-Shoring with a Vengeance

2007-02-07T00:12:00.000-08:00

See more on high-quality India English on the "Inglisc: Mèd Een Eetaly" site:
… maybe this explains why they only pay translators $0.01 a word.

.025 cent per source word:
Adith Multilingual (Chetan Kumar), transco@adithmultilingual.com, Bangalore, India - Posted on the "Go Translators" list: "Italian to English Translation work of approximately 1,00,000 words."

.015 cent per source word:
Shakti Enterprises (Amit Shirodkar), profiles@shaktienterprise.com, Mumbai, India - Posted on the "Go Translators" list: "We are looking out for a translator ( Italianto English ). We have around 100 + words to be translated in English. We can pay you immidiatly on recieving the translation through paypal. TOTAL: 15.00 USD."

TRP Traduzioni Srl

2007-02-01T00:09:00.000-08:00

The Company

Camignone di Passirano (Brescia)-based TRP Traduzioni Srl introduces itself thus on its website: "Founded in 1978 as one-man business and grown-up during the years, the current structure of TRP Traduzioni srl may well boast a twenty-year experience in the translations and annexed fields world. Our customers include clients based in Italy, Germany and Benelux, as well as a consistent number of translation centres in Europe with which we collaborate translating mainly from European languages into German. A staff of mother-tongue permanent translators guarantees qualified and punctual translations."

It continues in that vein ("The application of directives provided for by the UNI EN ISO 9001:2000 VISION regulation which we are certified to, is part of the company’s professionalism and reliability").

Evidently, their staff of "mother-tongue permanent translators" wasn't employed to translate their website into English.

The History

On 21 February 2007, a translator who had been employed by TRP Traduzioni wrote: "I advise caution in dealing with this agency: late payments, repeated requests ignored, etc. In the end, they did finally pay me."