Übersetz das doch mal kurz March 12, 2010
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in Business practices, Fun stuff, German culture, Translation.trackback
The German radio channel WDR3 featured a commentary yesterday about the work of translators that you German-speaking readers might enjoy hearing (warning: it’s in German). The title is Übersetz das doch mal kurz (Can you translate this quickly for me?). The speaker talks about how people expect translators to work quickly and compares translation and dental work, which I think is a good comparison. After all, no one expects a dentist to quickly fill a cavity at a low rate – and people expect dentists to know what they are doing because they have had the training. Enjoy!
And, thanks to Roland Grefer, here is a link to the MP3 in case you want to save it.
Musings from an overworked translator 
I didn’t watch the video, but the problem is very much in evidence in some inquiries I personally receive.
A case in point: a company wanted 74 pages of their strategy and operational guidelines translated, but turned down my offer as too high “because this is just going to be for internal use”.
It’s irrelevant whether a translation is going to be used internally or externally, it still has to be correct, right? I never cease to wonder how some customers think it is possible to do a “quick, rough” translation as somehow opposed to a “careful” translation at a fraction of the going rate.