Competence

Nowadays we live in a very competitive world. As individuals we compete against each other for every piece of work available, companies do the same. For both individuals and companies alike, the aim is profit.

Investors want maximum profit out of their investments.

There seem to be two rules for increasing profit, a) increase income and b) pay less. This means earning more from the sales of our products or services and paying less for the products or services provided by others.

This has reached a degree whereby we try to sell our products or services at the highest price possible and we try to get the products or services we need at the lowest price we can. The dream of any investor is now to get maximum profit with no investment.

In an attempt to reduce expenses, companies ask to their providers for the most competitive price (the lowest price), and the result is products and services with lower prices, less material, less services and less quality.

This is not a joke. Recently I bought a pocket knife from one of the best factories. This knife is one of the finest you can find on the market. Included was their User Guide in English, with its translation into Spanish. I found that the expression "thumb stud" was translated as "husillo de pulgar"; a "husillo" is precisely a spindle, so no relation between a thumb stud and a spindle. The correct translation for stud is “botón”. Also, the “carabiner clip" was translated as "cierre tipo carabinero". You can try for eons but you will never find such a thing in Spanish. This translation just does not make any sense; the correct translation of carabiner is “mosquetón”.

One of the best knife makers in the world, with such a ridiculous translation. There´s no point complaining about the translator. We can imagine the "good bargain" of the purchase department who got a cheap translator resulting in a considerable reduction of the budget and, of course, in the quality of the translation as well as the reputation of the company.

That’s the wrong way to play this game. Anything on the market has a fair value. A good knife has a fair price. Many translation companies are trying to compete with each other offering a more "competitive" price, making their translators compete with each other to offer a more "competitive" price, and the result is less and less quality, because the only ones that offer a lower price are the ones that are less experienced or less qualified.

If you want to increase your income as a translation agency or as an outsourcer, get good translators, and pay fair, that way you will be able to deliver quality and receive fair pay too. I'm quite sure the purchaser and the agency that did the translation for the knife factory are no longer there.

When you think of a more competitive price, think that “competitive” has to address competence and not competition and you will have more chances of succeeding.

In the world of translations – just as in life – you get what you pay for...

One of the main factors in our life is economics, the main thing in economics, regarding services, is to produce something in exchange for a certain amount of money.

Part of the game is trying to get the most out of our money, but this line has twisted into paying less whilst sacrifycing the quality of the service.

Translation is a very valuable activity that enables people to communicate their ideas into a different language and ranges from the trivial to the most important matters; the undeniable fact is that translation has played a vital role in mankind´s progress; I do not think I have to explain this fact, I can sum it up with a quote from Giordano Bruno “From Translation all science had its offspring”

One of the biggest pushes of economic activities is to reduce costs, which means getting the most out of our money. In order to do this companies try to get cheaper and cheaper translations to the point where they push to pay less sacrifycing the quality of the service.

The truth of economics is that you always get what you pay for. If you pay for an excellent translation, that is what you get and if you pay for a cheap translation, that is also what you get.

The idea has been for some time – since computers can do smart tasks – automate the translation process, then reduce the expenses to a point where there is almost no pay, the dream of any investor, frequently those dreams become nightmares.

The fact is that the translations done by a computer are just gibberish, something that no one understands. Cheap translations are better but still don't make the grade.

Translations have a value in themselves, and this will remain simply because translation is a human activity, which can of course be aided by a computer, but this does not make the translation cheaper, you are not paying the computer, you are paying the human being getting your ideas across another language.

Just remember that if a professional translation is what you need, you will get what you pay for.