Freelance Translators

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Clarissa

October 14, 2015

The following is egregiously untrue and was written by a clueless chirper:

A freelance translator has to not only translate, but also handle marketing, advertising, billing, online presence, inquiries from prospective clients, and all the administrative aspects of running a business of which I’m unaware. In comparison, a staff translator spends nearly all their time translating, and their employer’s administrative staff deal with most of the rest of that stuff. So it’s easier for the staff translator to be more productive.

People, I’ve been working as a translator for 25 years. I know crowds of people who translate. So please believe my experience: if you need a translator, only go to a freelancer who works ALONE, not at some bureau. Anybody who is not a freelance translator working alone is extremely likely to give you some crappy Google – translated joke of a text instead of an actual translation.

More often than not, all these translator bureaus or translation companies are fraudsters who run your text through Google Translator and then copy-paste it onto a fancy paper template to palm it off as original translation.

I’m deeply opposed to the gig economy but in what concerns translation, I insist: only the freelance translators are the real deal.

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3 responses to “Freelance Translators”

J. Otto Pohl

October 14, 2015

In places like Ghana and Kyrgyzstan you have to use a translation service approved by the government that can give official seals and notarizations for documents. Otherwise since the translation is from Russian to English or English to Russian I would do it myself. I am personal friends with the main Russian translator here at the university’s service. Ironically he is a Ukrainian from Lviv who teaches Russian here as well. In Kyrgyzstan I always have used Sleng because that was the one I was required to use by my former employer Bishkek. I haven’t noticed any problems in any of the translations. Things like passports, birth certificates, and marriage certificates are pretty easy to translate. But, no freelancers have the official government stamps and seals that are required.

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1. Clarissa
  
  October 14, 2015
  
  I wasn’t talking about notarized paperwork as much as about regular translation work. Of course, people who need a notarized translation go to a person who has certification to do that but that can be a freelancer working alone as well.
  
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Michael Blekhman

October 14, 2015

A freelance translator with over 40 years of experience, I fully agree with this.

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