This is from a job application that landed in my inbox the other day:
I am a qualified and Native Norwegian translator, working with 4 pairs of languages, English, Norwegian, Danish and Swedish. I consider my work as accurate and dedicated, always bearing in mind the different cultural concepts of each language. I work on a daily basis and translate around 3000-3500 words per day.
I have 11 years experience in Translaitn, Proofreading. I am actually wondering whether it would be possible to apply for a job of the languages of English, Sedish, Danish into Norwegian and vice-versa. Is there a possibility to register in your company and to save my data in your records for potential English, Swedish & Danish into Norwegian translation jobs? Can we rekindle our work taking into account that the centre of focus is on quality of translation work rather than quantity.
What could be more worthwhile to be mentioned in this respect is that I have been working hard over the last month to search for agencies and companies. I am lucky enough to find your company via translation sites and consequently the opportunity is, in effect, taken to apply if that is possible.
What’s wrong with this picture? Several things.
First, let’s start with this translator’s reading comprehension and literacy skills. What does it say on my website again?
Translators: Please refrain from sending in your CV. I am not an agency and I do not hire other translators.
So, that moron clearly cannot read. Let’s call him Dick.
Next, Dick’s native language may be Norwegian, but the guy lives in the United States. One would think that he’d had plenty of opportunity in Worley, ID, to practise and improve his English. Apart from blatant typos, which any spell-check would have caught, his “English” is so poor that his talking about “quality” rather than “quantity” is nothing if not proof of his oversized ego. Poor Dick, obviously, overestimates his language skills.
Also, if Norwegian is his native language, what’s Dick doing offering his services for translation into English and several other languages? I most certainly hope his Danish and Swedish, um, Sedish, are better than his “English”.
Finally, what does his “English” say about the quality of the M.A. program in English at the University of Oslo? He claims to hold an M.A. in English from said university. Is Dick’s “English” the kind of quality one can expect at that university?
Those who have known me for a long time know that I have always gone after wannabe and bogus “translators”. I no longer believe that associations like ATA in the US, for example, can really make a difference, but surely there must be some sort of mechanism we can devise and apply that would ensure that people like Dick were effectively banned and barred from calling themselves “translators”.
After all, allowing people like Dick to use this professional designation opens the door to fraud. A client who falls for his self-aggrandizement won’t receive a professional translation in return, but the kind of “English” you can see in the example above. That’s fraud, folks, simple as that. When you call yourself a professional translator, when clearly you’re not, it’s fraud.
Forget about accreditation and associations like ATA. Let’s focus instead on the product that is delivered to the client. Does it pass muster? Does it reflect the quality of a real professional? If not, the “translator” should be charged with fraud and, thus, wiped off the translation market.
Unfortunately, at least 85% of the translation services advertised out there today – and, frankly, I think the percentage is much closer to 95% – are fraudulent in nature.
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