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The ethics of translation tests
Thread poster: Dylan J Hartmann
Dylan J Hartmann
Dylan J Hartmann  Identity Verified
Australia
Member (2014)
Thai to English
+ ...

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Ignorance Mar 9, 2016

Michael Wetzel wrote:

It becomes very hard to explain why the same outsourcer would use a bad translation as a source text.


You're right to question why I would work for such an agency. It's a wonder why I even completed the test. I don't know what lead me to searching for it online but it was possibly because the quality of the source text was questionable. I have no doubt that the company was unaware of the poor quality of Thai source tests they give out. Now that I've accepted into their system I'll happily proof such poor translations for my regular rate.

Regarding your question, why would I work for such a company? I sign up to just about any request that I receive. This may have to do with the infrequent nature of jobs in this language pair, but it's best to have my name with as many outsourcers as possible.



[Edited at 2016-03-09 11:21 GMT]


 
Michael Wetzel
Michael Wetzel  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 22:11
German to English
business advice Mar 9, 2016

I'm not going to give you business advice, because you announced somewhere on here how much you earned after one or two years of translating and it was substantially more than I am earning after six.

My point was that a lot of people here end up complaining about agencies that simply wink through their translations and/or panic when the agency's client voices concerns about a translation. If an agency's testing procedures clearly demonstrate that they are dealing in languages that t
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I'm not going to give you business advice, because you announced somewhere on here how much you earned after one or two years of translating and it was substantially more than I am earning after six.

My point was that a lot of people here end up complaining about agencies that simply wink through their translations and/or panic when the agency's client voices concerns about a translation. If an agency's testing procedures clearly demonstrate that they are dealing in languages that they have absolutely no business dealing in, then that is a good reason to become concerned about this issue.

Otherwise, I agree with Texte Style and Gabriele that honesty is the best policy - in terms of ethics and business.
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The ethics of translation tests







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