Re: Hiring (was: Tech Writing 101 - How to tie a shoe)

[Joaquim Baptista <px -at- EASYPHONE -dot- PT>]

At 15:39 99/01/13 -0800, you wrote:
>At 02:52 PM 1/13/99 +0000, you wrote:
>
>Why do you expect native Portuguese speakers to write in English, and write
>well?  I don't think I'd expect a native English speaker to write
>Portuguese instructional material well, just as a result of having been to
>a university (even a good university).
>
>Supposing you had adopted this approach instead:
>[...]
>4.  Have the results translated into English (and other languages as needed).

It does not work.  Really, we tried it...

First, it is difficult to translate into Portuguese all the concepts of the
product that we routinely use in English.  I felt that problem a few hours
ago when I had to translate 15 lines into Portuguese :-)  So, if you
translate concepts from English to Portuguese, and then back to English,
you are asking for trouble.  A glossary could help, of course.

Then, it is really hard to translate the Portuguese into English unless you
really know the product and the area.  You have to "educate" the
translator.  When the translator does not really want to be "educated",
because this is just one job among many, it doesn't work.  Anyway, you
can't just "translate"; you must revise, again and again, and that takes a
lot of time, specially SME time.  We can't afford to waste SME time this way.

So, my company has found that it is faster to write directly in English
than to endure the long translation process.  My English is not perfect.
But we hired an native English speaker that revises the English in all our
documents -- he catches all the minor mistakes that only a native speaker
can get right.

BTW, we tried to hire an American technical writer; however, we can't
afford anything near the "standard rate" in the USA.  The entry level
salary is about twice my salary, and my salary is considered good in
Portuguese standards.


>After all, isn't that what your American counterpart would do, in reverse,
>if you see what I mean?  I may be wrong of course, but it seems reasonable
>to me...

Most American companies do not bother to translate to Portuguese, even if
it is the 7th most spoken language in the world.  When they do, they
usually translate to Brazilian Portuguese... and that does not work for me;
there are enough differences to become distracting and, many times, wrong.
Brazilians have a more relaxes approach to life that makes them translate
English too freely for a Portuguese's taste.  For example, an introductory
text translated "bit" (as in binary digit) to the equivalent of "little
piece", which is completely wrong.

And it gets worse!  UMAX thought that it was reasonable to sell me a
scanner with Adobe PhotoDeluxe... with a choice of Spanish or Italian as
languages!  I speak neither Spanish nor Italian; at most I can pick a few
words here and there.

--
Joaquim Baptista, alias pxQuim            Precisa de uma contabilista?
- px -at- easyphone -dot- pt                                (01) 8684294


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