babyposer

Hi everybody!

So I have this weird thing happening to me right now. Right now I am in France and I am trying to relocate to England.

A few weeks ago I was in England and I attended a seminar in my professional field where I met the PR manager of a company. This person gave me her email address and said I could email her my CV (I knew the person in charge of the seminar was a person from this company before I attended it and I knew this company is looking for someone who have the skills I have). She forwarded my CV to the recruiter of the company and a few weeks later he phoned me and we arranged a date for an interview (this won't be until a few weeks).

So everything was fine and suddenly he sent me an email where he asked for my help! He has a text which needs to be translated and he wonders if I can help him because he knows I speak French! I'm so desperate to find a job in England that I answered yes! I got the documents today and there's quite a few documents, I didn't expect this to be soooo long!

So I'm a bit dubious now, what should I do?

Is this normal from a british employer? My friends tell me that they take me for a fool...

Need your help please

EuroTrash

I would say Yes of course, I would be delighted to help. My normal fee for translation is 0,08€ per word and I can deliver the translation by (whenever). Please confirm that this is this acceptable.

He'll be impressed by how business-like you are.

Was there anything in his mail that indicated that he's expecting you to do this for free, or are you assuming?

Hopefully you have a UK bank account to get paid to.

babyposer

Thanks for you quick reply

I will PM you the whole conversation and you can tell me what you think

I wish I had read your post before I replied to his email, your answer was perfect haha!

I'm not a translator, it's not my job so I would feel guilty to charge the same amount as a real translator would charge

InVinoVeritas

Hmm, what ET suggests is certainly business-like but may not come over very well. You are probably in the best place to make a judgement about how this plays into your aspirations. If this were a job you were being offered in France you would probably do handstands if they asked you to!

babyposer

I didn't mention it in my topic but I am not a translator, this has nothing to do with my job!

Thanks for your reply InVinoVeritas

You're right if it was a french employer I would tell them to... well you know what I would tell them!

EuroTrash

I'd be surprised if he is expecting it done for free. When you say to somebody, in a professional context, 'I need this doing, can you help me?' you don't normally mean, as a favour.

MrsFychan

I would email back stating you was unaware at how big the document was going to be also ask them if they are aware you are not a professional translator. Tell them that you believe it might be best for them if they seek a professional translator as you do not in all honesty feel that you have the required skill set to take on such a big job. If they are happy for you to do the job ask them what monetary figure they would be looking at paying you for it.

Chatter Static

Imho your not a translator so you shouldn't engage in that kind of work full stop, to a professional employer in the UK undertaking this task would make you a liability you have no way of knowing what he is going to do with your interpretation of his documents and ultimately you could be stringing yourself up.

Is speaking French part of the competencies for the role your aiming for?

EuroTrash

If you don't feel able to do it, obviously don't do it. I assumed from what you said that you felt competent.

babyposer

The document itself is not difficult to translate but a bit long (1500 words I think with a lot of figures), however I don't have a degree in translation or anything equivalent.

EuroTrash

Not many translators do have degrees in translation there aren't many universities that offer them.
Usually you take a test, and if you pass, you're a translator.
I think you said it's a translation into French. It's normal for a translator to translate into their native language only. I don't know if French is your native language. My French is pretty good (modesty is my middle name) but I would never ever accept a job translating into French.
If you're not native French you could tell him you're not a translator but you can help him to understand it if that's all he wants. If you are native French and you feel competent to do it, I would stick with my first reply. 1,500 words is too much for a favour, it would be half a day's work for most translators that don't use CAT tools. Don't take our work away from us and do it for free

dmu

You didn't say whether it's English-to-French or the contrary. As you are French, NEVER accept to translate into English unless you have an English person competent in the subject matter, to read it through with you.
You don't actually need a degree to be a translator, I didn't have one... And from my experience, 1500 words is a relative short text!
Translators should have professional insurance, in case they make world-shattering mistakes, which is quite possible if you don't know the subject matter. I never accepted work where I wasn't comfortable with the subject matter....
I would think carefully about accepting this work....
P.S. I never translated anything into French unless OH read it through (in which case he could have done it himself....)

InVinoVeritas

It does all depend on the context. If the purpose of the document is legal or commercial you could recommend a qualified translator, if it's just for him to get the gist of what something means then you could perhaps do a favour to show willing. If it's a computer-based document then either of you could do a babel or google translate (if he knows how).

EuroTrash

You must have gone it some then, dmu!

Here are a few discussions between professional translators on how many words they reckon they can translate properly in a day.
Poll results
How many words per day can you translate on a day-to-day basis? (Getting established)
How many pages on average should a translator be able to translate per day? (Getting established)

I can do 3,000 words in less than a day if pushed - but after that my brain is so done in that I have to take the rest of the day off, so nothing gained.

babyposer

Yes French is my mother tongue, even though my father is british I grew up in France and always attended french schools so obviously my French is much better than my English.

I know that in France you have to be 'traducteur assermenté' and I am pretty sure there is no equivalent in England.

I think I will stick with (to? ha i'm not even sure see how bad my English is) your answer Eurotrash, it's the best thing to answer (Eurotrash sent me a PM with this idea).

So the answer would be something like:

'Hi!

I've had a look and it will take some time, I did not expect these documents to be so long to be honest and thought I could do it quickly this evening, however it will take longer than what I expected and I won't have the time to do it until end of the week as I only have a bit of time during the evenings this week! Is there a budget for this?'

What do you think? Thank you