Re: SUGGESTION: TechWR and Translation

[Lawrence Baron <barybaro -at- IOL -dot- IT>]

from Lawrence Baron = barybaro -at- iol -dot- it

Hello list list members,

Thanks for your encouragement in a thread about translations. I trust you
have seen my comments to "scorpio" and the message from John Posada. John,
you have given enough questions to get started on ( will reply separately).
Apologies for leaving, others out, in this message; I know I have. I want
to get things going ASAP now.

In the meantime I want to add the following:

1) How does one approach the question of translation or "non-translation"
when your client does not know English or know enough about English to
appreciate the pitfalls of translations?

a) In some cases, we were lucky enough to do work for clients to whom we
(mainly Susan, my biz partner) were teaching English to.

b) I also did a sort of market research over the net (asked a couple
technically oriented lists) about their perception of Italian machinery.
One reply specifically mentioned the weakness of translated manuals.

c) Argue from the point of view of how important the English speaking
market (ESM) is.  If a company only exports, say 10% of its production or
its income is 10% from the ESM then it is probably not worth the hassle.
the more important the ESM is the more important the documentation becomes.


2) How does one justify the extra cost in both time and in most cases money?
See c above.

3) "We have been doing well so far,  thank you very much!" or "Nobody
complained yet!"  What does one do with these sort of arguments?

So far, my answer was to look for other clients. Any suggestions?

Bye
Lawrence

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