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

[David John <David -at- BMIS -dot- DEMON -dot- CO -dot- UK>]

Joaquim,

Thanks for your courteous response, which was an education in itself; I now
realised I didn't know there were so many issues surrounding your problem.
You have my sympathy.

At 03:53 PM 1/13/99 +0000, you wrote:
>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.
>
>

Regards,
David.


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