Translating text: Customer gives me bad sources

Hey guys.

I have a customer who wants me to translate English advertising texts into German, however the English source is not very good. Example:

"... The user manual is written in great detail, for example You can easily synchronize the software with PC and Mac. When clicking the print button a screen pops up to let you customise the print ..."

Okay I'm a German native, but I'm pretty damn sure this example
doesn't make much sense. The source text is full of this. Every sentence is about a different topic, sometimes two topics in one sentence and there is no logic flow of thoughts in the text.

I could translate this mess literally, but if other people read my German text they will think I must be a bad translator. However the payment doesn't really allow me to clean up the mess in the source texts and create new quality texts. So what should I do? How can I tell my customer that his source is of limited quality without making him feel bad about it? He is kind of my main customer of the moment, so I don't really want to drop him.

Any advice welcome.

 

Recommend to him to have the source proofread before you do the translation. This would improve the quality of his site as well as give you something better to work with.

If he does not want to spend the money to have it done, do the work but do not use this as a reference (or put your name on it as the translator)

I've created sites with the clients colors and ideas that I would never put my name on. It's the clients choice but you don't have to claim the results.

 

No good translation is done "literally." You need to take the concepts in the original document and translate into something comparable (and readable) to the new audience. The only real problem is if you truly can't understand the source document, in which case you should give specific examples to the customer so they can see the problem. Otherwise, you'll just end up with a jumbled mess of things people won't understand, which will risk tarnishing the image of your client.

 

@jhmattern
With literally I meant, I will use the order of thoughts already existant, although this order is not very logic.

This customer delivered very good English originals until recently, but for some reason he changed his English content creators. Now I need so much more time to understand the sources myself. If I reworked the text to something the reader might enjoy I would need even more time. However my payment has not increased and I get paid by the number of articles done, not by time invested.

Yeah, I guess it's about discussing the issue with my customer.

 

Discuss the problem with the customer and ask for increased pay so you can do the ideal [And more time consuming] translation. No point in doing a crappy translation, it will not serve you or the customer well.

If he drops you, find another customer. There are always enough good ones out there, just cast your net wide.

 

I would discuss this with the customer. Is not worth tarnishing the reputation. Be upfront about your opinion of the quality of the text he wants you to translate.

 

I would suggest you make a small trial example of the translation of the poor english content and one sample of what it would be if YOU did the work. then ask your customer to increase your budget, payment or you increase your fee. Since as you say, he has given you good material before, then he will be interested n having a great result.

It might not be what you want, but it will certainly be good marketing and perfect PR with your client. mainly because you say that you want to keep him. do let me know how it turned out!

 

You seem to have a better handle on English than whoever he is currently paying to write in English. I'd offer to write both versions for him. That way, you could control the content of both and make some extra income.

 

Don't worry about making the client feel bad. Worry about getting what you paid for.

 

From time to time I got customers like that. I am a writer who writes in Chinese. I also translate English to Chinese and English is my second language. I have a theory called "garbage in, garbage out"; however, I think it is rude to tell my customer his original text sucks. So I'll carefully go over with the text verbally with the customer and take down notes about what he really means for the text. Your customer would really appreciate what you've done and think that you are taking his job seriously and professionally.

Then I follow the text to draw down my outline, go by "what he said" to "write out" my translation. Often time my customers are happy for the result because they can not denial what they have said about what they want. Plus, you would just write down what he was thinking.

Good luck!


Lauren Huang
http://web.mac.com/jin8feng/Site_6/Home.html