Forum: Japanese / 日本語
Topic: How do you deal with clients who mess up your translation?
Poster: Alex Farrell
Post title: Sometimes you can educate your checker
I've run into the same situation many times. You should charge an extra fee, explaining that checking and rewriting, two separate tasks, are separate from translation and incur additional charges accordingly. Politely explaining why the client's (I assume a direct client, not an agency) revisions are wrong will help convince them. Then they can choose whether to order these additional services from you, which you could outsource to other people, as ideally the same person should not perform all three steps: translation, checking and rewriting.
* About Agency Checkers *
I think many people have also had similar problems with agencies, and I assume this is not your case, but I would like to bring it up just in case anyone out there is suffering from an overzealous checker. First off, there is probably not any malicious intent to frustrate. The checker (my personal preferred term over "proofreader") may simply lack the English skills required for the job and is thus just trying to do more than he/she can handle.
If you work with one of these checkers on a regular basis and it seems that the agency may continue to offer you profitable assignments in the foreseeable future, then I would suggest teaching the checker how YOU translate and what he/she does NOT need to mess with. Send back the revised document with politely written explanatory comments replete with links to online dictionaries and other sources to prove that your original translation was correct. I know (quite well) that it's time-consuming, but it can be a good investment in the long-term. Plus, you'll earn the respect of that checker, who will then for the most part only make worthwhile comments and corrections to your translations. Oh, and if the checker is also the coordinator, then that respect will then translate into more translation requests. And even if not, an in-house checker certainly talks with the coordinator(s) on a regular basis and may say nice things about you. :)
On a related note, I had a checker whom I'd educated like this who recently left her company. When the new guy took over and I sent him my first translation for him to check, I took the initiative of informing him how I had worked with his predecessor and suggested that he first refer to the previous work we had done. And I made sure to emphasize that this was for HIS benefit, to make his job easier. (Of course it made mine easier, too.) The results have been great, with no disruptions whatsoever.
But of course if you feel that the agency is just a hopeless pain in butt, then move on and find someone else to work for. I've had to do that on occasion, too.
Good luck!
(Edited because at first I misunderstood that you were talking about an agency checker.)
[Edited at 2013-01-21 06:38 GMT]