| Pages in topic: < [1 2] | How to tell a client their English isn't good enough for proofreading Thread poster: Tiffany Hardy
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| Another case | Feb 27, 2015 |
- "In a similar case,I just told the client the text wasn't ready for proofreading yet."
- "Charge by the hour."
These two suggestions are very sound.
My case: a German who insisted on writing her PhD thesis in "English". I ended up turning the job down after I had explained to her that it took more time to guess whatever she had meant in German and then to translate that into correct English, than to translate from a German text. I also felt that my share of ... See more - "In a similar case,I just told the client the text wasn't ready for proofreading yet."
- "Charge by the hour."
These two suggestions are very sound.
My case: a German who insisted on writing her PhD thesis in "English". I ended up turning the job down after I had explained to her that it took more time to guess whatever she had meant in German and then to translate that into correct English, than to translate from a German text. I also felt that my share of the work would have been more than academically permissible. So I told her that she needed to put some more work into the text herself, preferably in German first.
I´m sure, though, she found someone to do it, though not really well . . . but I don´t touch that kind of stuff; it´s a question of what I want to be as a "brand", too.
[Bearbeitet am 2015-02-27 08:16 GMT]
I was too slow with this . . .
[Bearbeitet am 2015-02-27 08:17 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | | How did you approach it? | Feb 27, 2015 |
I would be interested to know how you approached it and what her reaction was.
| | | | Tiffany Hardy 
Spain
Local time: 04:28
Spanish to English
TOPIC STARTER | My message to the client | Mar 3, 2015 |
This was my message to the client to resolve the issue, which was very similar to Phil's suggestion (thanks Phil!):
Dear Client,
Thank you for the opportunity to work on this project. I enjoyed reading about your research very much.
I do however want to bring to your attention that some parts of the translation appeared to have been done using machine translation. You may be interested to know that machine translations do not really facilitate the work of... See more This was my message to the client to resolve the issue, which was very similar to Phil's suggestion (thanks Phil!):
Dear Client,
Thank you for the opportunity to work on this project. I enjoyed reading about your research very much.
I do however want to bring to your attention that some parts of the translation appeared to have been done using machine translation. You may be interested to know that machine translations do not really facilitate the work of the translator, or editor in this case. In fact, in order to produce a high-quality document, it can slow down the work tremendously. For this project in particular I didn't mind spending additional time on it as I find the subject matter fascinating. However, I'm afraid I would not be able to accept future projects like this to be billed as monolingual editing, as I had to refer repeatedly to the Spanish version to make sense of it.
I hope we can collaborate in the future. I would be happy to offer translation services, rather than editing services, for any future publications you may have and I think you will be very happy with the results.
Kind regards
My client's reply was:
"Thank you very much for your interest. We will be in touch for future projects." ▲ Collapse
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Excuse me if I sound foggy today — I'm struggling to shake off melatonin and failing.
You can always try telling the client that standard procedures and rates presuppose a professionally written native-level text, and that the same is true for translation — for example translating from tourist Spanish would be a different matter than your client's presumably educated, elegant, native Spanish.
However, smart clients will probably draw correct conclusions from the num... See more Excuse me if I sound foggy today — I'm struggling to shake off melatonin and failing.
You can always try telling the client that standard procedures and rates presuppose a professionally written native-level text, and that the same is true for translation — for example translating from tourist Spanish would be a different matter than your client's presumably educated, elegant, native Spanish.
However, smart clients will probably draw correct conclusions from the number and type of changes.
Alternatively, you can put your teacher's hat on and pronounce the verdict: 'you need to work on your tenses/articles/whatever' — pick three. Or something like: 'it will take a couple of years before' etc., rather than saying it's bad the way it is now.
Or, for brevity, just say it'll be better (for both of you) if you translate from a clean slate (not 'from scratch').
But the first time it happens rather give the client the oportunity to figure it out on the client's own. ▲ Collapse
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Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 03:28
Member (2008)
Italian to English
Tiffany Hardy wrote:
.....I want to know how to gently tell this person that I will no longer be available for revision services for anything translated by her....
I can help you here. Gently tell this person that you will no longer be available for revision services for anything translated by her.
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