Fishy trial.
Tom rockwood
I contacted a translation agency in Tokyo about doing some work for
them. They asked me to do a trial, which I hadn't done in years. I
consented and they sent me something that I had actually translated J
to E sometime in the past that had made it into an internationally
recognized medical journal. I should also note that I had worked
directly with the authors of the original paper.
The trial Japanese was 95% the same as the draft that I had translated
that made it into the journal. So....needless to say, the trial was
quite easy.
A week after sending them the trial, they sent me a brief e-mail
telling me that my English was not up to their standards. Funny how
virtually the same English was up to the standards of a globally
renowned medical journal, but not to this agency.
Very interesting indeed....
I wonder if anybody has had such an experience as of late.
Tom Rockwood
Gururaj Rao
>
> Had an interesting experience recently.
> I contacted a translation agency in Tokyo about doing some work for
> them. They asked me to do a trial, which I hadn't done in years. I
> consented and they sent me something that I had actually translated J
> to E sometime in the past that had made it into an internationally
> recognized medical journal. I should also note that I had worked
> directly with the authors of the original paper.
> The trial Japanese was 95% the same as the draft that I had translated
> that made it into the journal. So....needless to say, the trial was
> quite easy.
> A week after sending them the trial, they sent me a brief e-mail
> telling me that my English was not up to their standards. Funny how
> virtually the same English was up to the standards of a globally
> renowned medical journal, but not to this agency.
It would be interesting to see their expression if you send the rest of
the paper to the agency, mention that you had translated it, and that it
had already made it to the internationally recognized journal.
--
Gururaj Rao <honya...@gmail.com>
Matthew Schlecht
> A week after sending them the trial, they sent me a brief e-mail
> telling me that my English was not up to their standards. Funny how
> virtually the same English was up to the standards of a globally
> renowned medical journal, but not to this agency.
> Very interesting indeed....
> I wonder if anybody has had such an experience as of late.
>
> Tom Rockwood
Given the sort of editorial comments I have seen on my "checked"
translation tests, I'm not too surprised. I often get a weird feeling
reading a critique of my writing made by a non-native English speaker.
While they sometimes pick up a fault, they also frequently make some rather
preposterous suggested revisions.
But look at it this way - if their expectations are divergent from the
work you do, you would not be happy working with them regularly (nor they
with you), so them rejecting you is a blessing in disguise.
Matthew Schlecht
Jim Lockhart
> A week after sending them the trial, they sent me a brief e-mail
> telling me that my English was not up to their standards. Funny how
> virtually the same English was up to the standards of a globally
> renowned medical journal, but not to this agency.
What's the name of the agency, so we'll know to avoid bothering with
them in future.
--Jim Lockhart
Jim Lockhart
> But look at it this way - if their expectations are divergent from the
> work you do, you would not be happy working with them regularly (nor they
> with you), so them rejecting you is a blessing in disguise.
In two ways: you don't have to be bothered trying to downgrade your work
to their level*, and you won't have to lose a customer when they go
under because of the quality level they're delivering.
Like Guru, I'd like to see their reaction to your showing them the rest
of the translation and the international journal it was published in.
* I have told customers to get lost citing this as a reason for refusing
to work for them, or refusing to have my or my company's name credited
in a translation.
--Jim Lockhart
Wataru Tenga
Is the "agency" fronting for a translation school, using the trials as
sales bait to sign up students? If that's the case, your English was
probably too good for their purposes.
wataru
Tom rockwood
It might be wise to refrain naming names. However, I can say that it
is Tokyo based and goes by a three letter acronym, professing to be a
company of experts. But, alas, are they not all experts at what they
do (or at least think they are)!
Tom
Minoru Mochizuki
attention to them. It may be that they don't need a new
translator for the time being and just used a rubber stamp
response. This is always the problem with soliciting works
from a new Japanese agency. I don't understand why they
cannot say, "Thank you, just send in your resume. We will
call you when we need you" instead of asking us to take
useless trials.
Since I returned Japan last year, I tried to seek some stable
relations with Japanese agencies, but have given up after
six months or so. The reasons are:
1) their rate is too cheap,
2) their payment is too slow, and
3) they insist on deducting 10% from the agreed payment as
tax withholding, which presents a complex problem to me as
most of my clients are US clients and they don't withhold
tax. It's much easier no body withhold, as I then report
everything as pure income and calculate tax accordingly.
I hate that part of the Japanese tax system. Why do they
trust corporations but don't trust individuals? A silly custom.
In the meanwhile, I am getting sufficient work loads from clients in
US. In fact, when my telephone rings in the morning, I now make
it a rule to answer in English, "Hello?" Even clients in the East Coast
sometimes ring me at 11:00 a.m., which is 10:00 p.m. They work
late obviously.
Minoru Mochizuki
Adam
> Checked the site and guess what? The company does offer courses. Whaddya know!
> It might be wise to refrain naming names.
Adam
Marc Adler
> It might be wise to refrain naming names.
Why?
--
Marc Adler
Austin, TX
Jim Lockhart
> > It might be wise to refrain naming names.
>
> Why?
Maybe they're connected with people who shoot politicians...?
--Jim Lockhart
Andy Taylor
Andy
Andrew Taylor
Japan Pacific Publications, Inc.
PO Box 3092 -- 519 6th Ave. S., Suite 220 -- Seattle, WA 98104
Tel: 206-622-7443 -- Fax: 206-621-1786
Translations and Typesetting in Japanese - Chinese - Korean
Publishers of the Soy Source -- Seattle's Japanese language newspaper
Marc Adler
> Maybe they're connected with people who shoot politicians...?
They're connected to John Hinckley, Jr.?!?!
Steve Venti
> I contacted a translation agency in Tokyo about doing some work for
> them. They asked me to do a trial, which I hadn't done in years. I
> consented and they sent me something that I had actually translated J
> to E sometime in the past that had made it into an internationally
> recognized medical journal.
Did you consider the possibility that they are using that particular
article for their trials since there is published English version
available for use as a standard, and that because your "trial
translation" matched the published version almost word for word, they
assumed that you had somehow "found" the publication and simply copied
it?
I think that the first thing I would have done after seeing the
Japanese manuscript is contact the agency, tell them that I had in
fact already translated that article for publication in "such and
such" journal, and asked them if it would be acceptable simply to
submit that translation for the trial.
The ultimate result might not have been any different, but at least
there would be no potential for misunderstanding.
By the way, I had a very similar experience doing a trial recently for
an agency that claims to specialize in an area in which I have fairly
extensive experience. I did a good job on the trial, and two weeks
later got a "thanks, but no thanks" for my efforts.
That and similar experiences leads me to believe that the quality of
English in a trial translation also allows experienced reviewers to
make a fairly good guess at how much a translator will expect in
remuneration, and that they usually won't accept people whom they
perceive as wanting high rates.
--
Steve Venti
The source of all unhappiness is other people.
--Wally
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Wolfgang Bechstein
> They're connected to John Hinckley, Jr.?!?!
Nah, it's the Oswald racket.
Wolfgang Bechstein
bech...@netprisma.com
James Sparks
> That and similar experiences leads me to believe that the quality of
> English in a trial translation also allows experienced reviewers to
> make a fairly good guess at how much a translator will expect in
> remuneration, and that they usually won't accept people whom they
> perceive as wanting high rates.
That's why I would never even submit a trial translation without first
learning about other things, such as the type of work they have to
offer, how much they pay, and their typical turnaround times. In short,
I find out if we are a good match. If they are hesitant to provide this
information, it tells me that I don't want to work with them.
Naturally, an agency wants to pay as little as possible, and may be
somewhat reluctant to offer specific rates, in which case I just say how
much I charge for the work I do. If it's too high, then they won't even
want me to take the trial, since it will waste their time to check it.
In other words, I only do trial translations after an agency and I have
come to a tentative agreement, and the trial is only a final step to
confirm that I can provide what I promise.
I think it more likely that the OP's agency just didn't like his style.
As is clear from this list, there is a wide range of thinking in the
philosophy of translation. Some clients like a certain type of
translation, and others have different preferences. Even though the
OP's translation may have been perfect for publication in a journal, it
might not have been what the agency was looking for.
James Sparks