tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26093079.post116518303541157238..comments2023-09-25T13:41:12.977+01:00Comments on Brave New Words: Translators’ Responsibilities: When the Source Text Has IssuesB.J. Epsteinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07564748493196230467noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26093079.post-1165394679559148062006-12-06T08:44:00.000+00:002006-12-06T08:44:00.000+00:00Thank you for your comment. Yes, sometimes you hav...Thank you for your comment. Yes, sometimes you have to get out the references materials to prove you actually know what you're doing. I suppose that happens to people in all fields though -- there's always someone who questions whether you can do what you claim to be able to. <BR/>There are also some clients who are genuinely interested to know why the translator chose a certain word or why this grammatical structure was used, but there aren't too many of those.<BR/><BR/>Best wishes,<BR/>BrettB.J. Epsteinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07564748493196230467noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26093079.post-1165305608359081082006-12-05T08:00:00.000+00:002006-12-05T08:00:00.000+00:00If a client argues about words or grammar I do one...If a client argues about words or grammar I do one of two things:<BR/>1) gracefully acknowledge my mistake if I goofed <BR/>or<BR/>2) argue back at full force using all the data necessary to convince them to eat crow if they've goofed (dictionary references or often Google references to prove that something is indeed a word) or alternatively I have my linguist friend help me use fancy terms (like "subjunctive" or "extended participial modifier") to explain why my grammar is better than the client's erroneous suggestion (duh, I'm like totally a native speaker of English, dude, of course my English grammar is better than yours!)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26093079.post-1165268572916824142006-12-04T21:42:00.000+00:002006-12-04T21:42:00.000+00:00Thank you for your comment!What do you do with a c...Thank you for your comment!<BR/>What do you do with a client who argues about words (don't they own dictionaries?)? How do you deal with customers who think they know more than you? <BR/>I think this is another aspect of 'educating the customer,' a topic that interests me, but isn't discussed enough, unfortunately.<BR/><BR/>Best wishes,<BR/>BrettB.J. Epsteinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07564748493196230467noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26093079.post-1165214592908598402006-12-04T06:43:00.000+00:002006-12-04T06:43:00.000+00:00In general I refuse to translate poorly written so...In general I refuse to translate poorly written source texts. They're more work to translate and in my experience clients with poorly written texts tend (bizarrely) to be nitpickier about the translation. And not nitpicky in a good way. I've had clients argue that I made English words up because they didn't happen to know the English word. Or argue that my English translation is wrong and try to get me to change it to something ungrammatical. I've found that texts that aren't ready for translation lead to added hassle. It is a better use of my time to turn those jobs down so that I'm available to say yes to more appealing jobs.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com