Guest post: Credit notes – Part 2/2

Posted in Guest post by Carol's Adventures in Translation

We’re back with the second part of Nancy Matis’ guest post on credit notes. Enjoy!

Example of a credit note for a translation project.

5. When to issue a credit note

You need to create a credit note when you have sent an invoice to the client that can no longer be changed. If the invoice has not yet been registered in the client’s and subcontractor’s accounts, it will still be possible to amend it without having to create a credit note. However, once the invoice is formerly registered in any of the parties’ accounts, the only official method of cancelling it (or part of it) is to issue a credit note.

Another way of avoiding a credit note is to credit the amount in question on the next invoice. In this case, the subcontractor submits an invoice for the new jobs delivered and adds a line with a negative amount, which is the amount to be credited to the client. Obviously, this procedure will not apply when the problem concerns incorrect official information on invoices.

Occasionally, clients will request a credit note even if the subcontractor has not sent his invoice yet. This could happen when a client is checking a translation and considers that the level is not up to the quotation amount agreed upon beforehand. In this case, if the translator or the translation company accepts the quality problem, they will not need to actually generate a credit note as they will simply reduce the amount of the next invoice.

6. How to settle credit notes

There are two ways to credit clients the amounts due:

You pay the client the amount specified on the credit note.
The client deducts the credit note amount from his next payment.
Let’s suppose that after sending several invoices for a total amount of 4,000 euros, you issue a credit note of 600 euros. The client will only pay 3,400 euros on the due date. This exempts you from a payment, but forces you to perform some extra calculations.

7. How to avoid having to issue credit notes

When they are linked to quality problems reported by the client, this is not always easy. Ensuring you conform to all the clients’ requirements and don’t make any indisputable mistakes is obviously a must. Still, some clients might continue to ask for credit notes simply arguing that they do not like your translation style. In this case, it is probably preferable to stop working for them.

It goes without saying that you should double-check which official information needs to appear on the invoices. However, sometimes, the requester might not even know himself and provide you with the wrong information.

If possible, when the data that needs amending is the name of a contact person or a PO number on an invoice, find out from the client whether it is really necessary to issue a credit note and a new invoice. Sometimes clients might agree to correct such data internally to avoid extra paperwork.

Provided the compulsory legal information is present, you can normally prepare your invoices the way you want. Most subcontractors do not like to be told how to format them. On the other hand, many clients have specific rules and preferences and might block or delay the payment of some invoices by arguing that you failed to comply with their internal accounting policy. It might, therefore, be preferable to adhere to their guidelines to receive payment as soon as possible.

Unfortunately, in most cases, registering credit notes and potential new invoices will indeed delay the payment process, as issuing credit notes is time-consuming. First, you have to find out why they are required and discuss this with your client. You then have to create the credit notes, submit new invoices and record both. Next, you have to pay them or track the payment of the reduced invoices. Finally, your accountant has to enter all this extra data in the financial system and monitor the accuracy of the final account.

All this costs money. Not only for the subcontractor, but also the client. That’s why clients and translation agencies should, ideally, refrain from asking for credit notes unless they are an absolute necessity, and they should definitely remain an exception rather than the norm.

Thanks, once again, Nancy, for such a great content contribution! 🙂

Now, do you have any questions left about credit notes after reading such a thorough post?

Republished by the author on LinkedIn.
YouTube video created by the author on the topic.

About the author
Nancy Matis is the author of the book “How to manage your translation projects”, originally published in French and recently translated by her partner company in the UK. Nancy has been involved in the translation business for around 20 years, working as a translator, reviser, technical specialist, project manager and teacher, among other roles. She currently manages her own company based in Belgium, specialising in localisation, translation project management, consulting and training. She teaches at numerous universities across Europe and has published several articles about translation project management. During these past few years, she has also been involved in some European projects, designing and evaluating training materials for future translators and project managers.

12Mar2015

O perfil do tradutor contemporâneo

Posted in Weekly post by Carol's Adventures in Translation

No dia 26 de fevereiro, o Centro de Idiomas Brasillis promoveu uma palestra online gratuita com a Sheyla Barretto, intérprete. Sheyla atualmente trabalha na Organização dos Estados Americanos (OEA) e já coordenou grandes eventos com a participação de importantes personalidades, como o atual presidente dos Estados Unidos, Barack Obama. O tema da palestra foi “O perfil do tradutor contemporâneo: o que mudou nos últimos 20 anos”.

Sheyla iniciou a palestra comparando como era trabalhar como tradutor há 20 anos, quando começou, com a prática atual. Segundo ela, antigamente, as traduções eram cobradas por lauda, não por palavra. Como a contagem de laudas não é tão simples, era mais difícil de o cliente entender como funcionava. Hoje, como a cobrança é por palavra e qualquer ferramenta facilmente oferece essa contagem, não há problemas quanto a esse aspecto.

No entanto, a ideia de que traduzir antigamente era mais difícil é relativa. Embora não houvesse tanta disponibilidade de recursos tecnológicos como há hoje, essa vasta opção de fontes também requer cuidado, pois é necessário filtrar as fontes confiáveis. Há uma grande velocidade na disseminação de informações e conhecimento. Além disso, hoje também é mais fácil alcançar o cliente, portanto, a concorrência também é maior. Isso requer muito mais do tradutor do que antigamente.

Alguns pontos no tempo:

1995: a internet tem alcance global
1996: 6,9% dos domicílios tem computador, segundo o IBGE (hoje, são 49%; desses, 28% têm internet)
Início do século 21 no Brasil: expansão das CATs (elas se tornam mais acessíveis)
2005: a SDL compra a Trados e se torna a maior empresa de tecnologia da tradução
2006: avanço das redes sociais
2008: a SDL compra a Idiom
Hoje: surgimento de novas tecnologias, como o Skype, WhatsApp, Google Hangouts, Google Docs, Doodle Pools, SurveyMonkey, Shutterfly, etc.

As vantagens das redes sociais e das novas tecnologias são: compartilhamento de informações e dúvidas com colegas, grande apoio aos tradutores iniciantes (importante para moldar o tradutor do futuro), formação (temos até doutores na área).

Tradutor 24/7

Bom leitor, escritor e pesquisador
Formação, treinamento
Boas ferramentas de trabalho
Certificações
Filiações (visibilidade, credibilidade e networking)
Mais idiomas
Presença na internet (divulgação, visibilidade)
Atualização permanente

Capacidade de: adaptação, interação nas mídias sociais, organização, captação/manutenção de clientes, empresarial, exposição calculada, senso de coletividade, gestão de tempo eficaz (distrações x prioridades), follow-up (emissão de nota fiscal/invoice, feedback).

No entanto, o excesso de atividades, e a impossibilidade de onipresença e onisciência do tradutor 24/7 geram insegurança e frustração. Quanto mais se sabe, mais se descobre que não se sabe.

Recomendações para dominar essa frustração:

Foco
Definição de metas claras
Controle do tempo
Networking
Diferenciação
Acompanhamento da tecnologia

Ser tradutor é fascinante e desafiador, pois é uma atividade complexa e técnica. A valorização é necessária e já está a caminho.

Juntos, somos mais fortes!

Você também assistiu à palestra? Gostaria de adicionar algo? Caso não tenha assistido, também é bem-vindo para comentar. 😉

10Mar2015

Guest post: Credit notes – Part 1/2

Posted in Guest post by Carol's Adventures in Translation

Hi, dear followers! Having an awful day on this side of the computer. Hope yours is/was better.

Today’s guest post, by Nancy Matis, is split in two parts. You’ll read the first today and the second next Tuesday.

Welcome, Nancy!

Credit notes for translation projects

Translation companies, translators or any other participant in a translation project might find that they have to issue credit notes. Most of the time, credit notes are associated with quality complaints, but many other reasons might prompt a client to ask for one.

In this article, I will briefly go through the information this type of document contains, explore the reasons why credit notes are requested and explain how to avoid them.

What is a credit note?

A credit note is a document produced by a subcontractor stating that a certain amount has to be credited to the client. This amount can equal a previously issued invoice, part of an invoice or even the sum of several invoices. It will be repaid to the client or deducted from future payments by the latter.

What information is compulsory on a credit note?

The content of a credit note is very similar to that of an invoice. It should always include the following information:

Contact information of the client and the subcontractor
VAT registration number of both of them if VAT applies in their country and if they are VAT registered
Financial data of the subcontractor
Credit note number
Issue date
Amount to be credited
VAT percentage applicable
Grand total of the credit note, VAT included

What other information might be added to a credit note?

The due date and the client’s financial details are actually optional, but they can obviously be included.

The identification number of the related invoice(s) as well as the reason(s) for generating this document can also be mentioned.

Depending on the client or the subcontractor, other information could be added, such as the name and number of the translation project(s) to be credited, the project manager’s name, the requester’s details and so on.

In all cases, the “CREDIT NOTE” terms should clearly state the nature of this legal document, so that it cannot be confused with a new invoice.

Reasons to issue a credit note

a. Translation quality problems

Sometimes clients require a credit note when they are not happy with the quality of a translated text. Before agreeing to issue such a document, the translator or the translation agency should receive accurate feedback or take a very close look at the final target text sent back by the client to assess the scale of the problem.

Judging the quality level of a translation is often subjective. Therefore, before acknowledging a quality problem, you should make sure that unquestionable mistakes are present, such as typos or failures to comply with glossaries, style guides or any instructions provided by the client.

After some discussion, the client will hopefully drop the credit note request or at least agree to decrease the required amount to be credited, for instance from 50% of the job budget to 15%.

b. Other project problems reported by the client

Credit notes might also relate to complaints linked to production tasks other than pure translation, for example the desktop publishing of some target files, the testing and debugging of the localised software, the rebuilding of Flash animations or even the creation of a multilingual website. If the client estimates that the final result is not worth the amount initially quoted or invoiced, he might insist on getting a credit note for a specific value.

Some dissatisfaction could also relate to project management tasks, for instance failing to deliver a translation project on time. Missing a specific deadline could be highly detrimental to a client, who will demand compensation from the provider.

c. Mistakes in some compulsory data

If some key data on the invoice are not correct, such as the company address or VAT number, the client will ask the subcontractor to issue a credit note stating the same “wrong” data and to create a brand new invoice showing the correct information. Imagine a Translation Project Manager (TPM) providing localisation services to a client contact based in a subsidiary of an international company and addressing his invoice to this local office. When the client’s accountant starts paying the invoices, he suddenly realises that this specific invoice was meant for head office. He will consequently require a credit note to cancel the first invoice in his accounts. Similar cases could also occur due to company mergers.

Regarding other erroneous data that could appear on an invoice, some clients will demand a credit note while others will simply change the data themselves or even register the invoice containing the mistake. The final amount stated on the invoice might not exactly match the price the client was expecting, but he pays it anyway, especially when it is lower than planned.

d. Non-compulsory information errors

The internal policy of some companies, whether they are end-clients or translation agencies, dictates certain guidelines for the content of the invoices to be received. Failing to follow them could lead to a request for a credit note.

Let’s imagine you work for three project managers (PM) within the same translation agency and, at the end of the month, you issue one single invoice including all your jobs. Depending of their internal approval policy, some agencies prefer to receive one invoice per PM. In this case, you would have to send a credit note cancelling the first invoice and reissue three new invoices, each listing the work delivered to the different PMs.

Similarly, many clients use Purchase Order (PO) numbers for translation jobs. Forgetting to include those numbers or referencing the wrong ones on invoices might prompt them to ask for a credit note.

A subcontractor might also mistakenly invoice one job twice. If he included several translation jobs on his invoice, the client will either require a credit note only for the amount of the duplicate job, or opt for a credit note covering the whole invoice and ask the subcontractor to reissue the complete correct invoice.

Read Part 2

Thanks, Nancy, for accepting my invitation and kindly taking the time to write such a great contribution to our blog!

Stay tuned for the second part next week, where Nancy also provides an example of a credit note for translation projects.

9Mar2015

Feedback: bom mesmo quando é ruim

Posted in Translated post by Carol's Adventures in Translation

Começamos uma nova semana com mais uma tradução. Esta é a segunda colaboração da Paula Caniato. Desta vez, a tradução é da publicação do César Faria, Feedback: Good Even When Bad.

Embed from Getty Images

Era uma sexta-feira quente, 16h, e eu tinha acabado de desligar meu notebook depois de uma semana bastante movimentada, dividindo meus dias entre meus dois empregos na época: professor de inglês e tradutor iniciante. Tudo o que eu queria era um tempo para relaxar e descansar um pouco, recarregar as baterias para o segundo turno. Foi aí que meu celular tocou…

Para minha surpresa, era a coordenadora de controle de qualidade da única agência para a qual eu costumava prestar serviços na época. Embora fizesse parte dos meus contatos no Skype, eu nunca tinha falado com ela. Bem, depois de ela ter se identificado, meu sangue gelou, me deu um frio na barriga e eu sabia que não podia esperar nada de bom.

E eu estava certo. Ela se apresentou muito gentilmente e me pediu para abrir o Skype a fim de que pudéssemos conversar sobre um arquivo que eu tinha traduzido alguns meses antes. Era um arquivo .ppt grande e complexo sobre fundos de investimento que deveria ser traduzido da noite para o dia, portanto, eles me ofereceram uma ótima taxa de urgência. Não fazia mais de seis meses que eu estava trabalhando como tradutor, mas senti que conseguiria fazer o trabalho decentemente, já que minha produtividade era boa na época. Eu estava totalmente errado. Quase perdi o prazo, muitos erros foram apontados, o cliente final retornou o arquivo com várias reclamações e um desconto foi aplicado como penalidade.

Não tinha como eu me sentir mais frustrado com uma situação tão desagradável. Entretanto, a coordenadora de controle de qualidade foi bem simpática e compreensiva. Ela me disse, gentilmente, que eu poderia aprender com a experiência e usá-la para melhorar minhas habilidades e minha atenção. Até então, eu não tinha recebido nenhum tipo de feedback e, principalmente por ser negativo, esse serviu para me colocar em um estado de muita atenção e cautela antes, durante e depois de qualquer trabalho de tradução. Posso afirmar com certeza que minhas preocupações com relação à qualidade começaram a ser construídas e desenvolvidas devido a esse evento tão traumático.

O tempo passou e, agora, grande parte do meu trabalho consiste em coordenação e edição/revisão de projetos. Para muitos deles, tenho que fornecer um feedback para os tradutores envolvidos. Como sempre me lembro da maneira extremamente educada que minha antiga coordenadora de qualidade lidou com a situação mencionada acima (e já que aquilo também me fez crescer profissionalmente), eu gostaria de compartilhar algumas dicas para tradutores, especialmente iniciantes, sobre como lidar com feedbacks:

Leia todas as correções e sugestões e crie um arquivo separado com elas. Sempre tenho um arquivo de feedbacks por cliente e um arquivo principal com todos os feedbacks que recebo. Isso pode ajudar você a aprender com especialistas ou clientes de campos muito específicos. Você sempre terá uma carta na manga se ocorrer um problema de terminologia/consistência em um projeto futuro para o mesmo cliente.

Se você não concorda com algo, questione. Naturalmente, se você acredita que está certo, fará uma pesquisa mais aprofundada para provar seu ponto de vista. Faça isso com educação e não se esqueça de incluir boas fontes. Na nossa profissão, não há lugar para arrogância. Todos nós sabemos que o tempo é curto e decisivo e, como seres humanos, erros podem acontecer, mesmo por parte daqueles que deveriam corrigi-los.

Depois de receber, ler e concordar com o que foi escrito sobre seu trabalho, não vire as costas, esqueça sobre ele e volte para suas traduções. É sempre bom responder à mensagem. Preparar listas de erros, indicando correções, sugerindo maneiras de melhorar o estilo, entre outras coisas, é muito estressante e demorado. Particularmente, não gosto muito de ser responsável por dar um feedback negativo para alguém, mas tenho que fazê-lo. É bom quando a pessoa avaliada informa que tudo foi entendido e que a próxima vez será melhor.

Por fim, todos nós sabemos que tradução é uma atividade que requer aprendizado constante. Nunca saberemos tudo e devemos aprender com nossos erros. Estou totalmente ciente de que a última frase foi um completo clichê, mas acredito que todas essas ideias sejam essenciais para nos tornar mais cuidadosos e responsáveis quando um trabalho nos for designado.

Obrigado, Carol, pela oportunidade. Ficarei extremamente feliz em ler comentários e outras histórias relacionadas a esse tópico. Sintam-se a vontade para me enviar um e-mail: cesarhf.translator@gmail.com

Muito obrigada por mais uma colaboração para o blog, Paula! 🙂

About the translator
Paula Caniato acabou de se formar no curso de Bacharelado em Tradução (UNESP). Seus pares de idioma são inglês > português brasileiro e espanhol > português brasileiro. No início de 2014, ela decidiu começar a traduzir profissionalmente e foi contratada por uma agência de Campinas. Hoje, Paula está se especializando nas áreas de TI e marketing e também sonha com um futuro no mercado editorial. Ela reside em São José do Rio Preto – SP e pode ser encontrada em http://about.me/paulacaniato.

3Mar2015

Guest post: Connecting with people

Posted in Guest post by Carol's Adventures in Translation

Tuesday is the international day of guest posts here on the blog, so here we are with another brilliant guest, Chiara Bartolozzi, Italian translator living in Macerata.

Welcome, Chiara!

The importance of being Honest

First of all, thank you Caroline for having me. It’s both a pleasure and a honour, because it’s the very first time I have been asked to write something for a colleague. So, THANK YOU SO MUCH for this opportunity. It means a lot to me. I hope that I chose to make a speech on a topic of great relevance to our careers.

I want to spread a positive message among people like us. It’s sort of a mission. I like to think about it as a path I have to walk on to achieve something bigger.

When I started working as a translator, around eight years ago, I didn’t know what my purpose was. I’ve always known I wanted to become a linguist, and I’ve always loved languages – I’m fond of English, I’m a true maniac – so my studies in Translation and Liaison Interpreting led me to take a first step into the field. In fact, I got my first assignment while I was still studying, but I already had a seasonal job in a press office.

Later on, after graduating and being awarded my BA degree, I started working as a professional freelance translator and proof-reader getting an Italian VAT no. in 2012. I felt like it wasn’t enough for me, something was missing. So, I started thinking about a bigger plan. It was just an idea, I didn’t know where to start or how to get the resources and gain the experience I needed to accomplish it. I stepped into a completely different world. When you become an entrepreneur, you work solo and have to be different professionals all rolled into one. You learn to take care of the smallest things, to schedule appointments, to organise your work, to connect with people, and, above all, to live every day as if it is the most important of your life. You can only rely on yourself. When it comes to your career, you have to consider all the available options.

Although I like working alone and being independent, I’m aware of the need to exchange opinions and points of view with other people in order to grow and enhance your skills. That’s why I’ve started networking, connecting to other professionals around the world. I gave it a try, because at first I wasn’t sure about the real effectiveness of the Internet and the interaction through social media. I started blogging, I created my Facebook page and twitter account, then, I discovered Pinterest and Instagram, so I had the chance to e-meet new people and share my vision, my favourite hobbies and passions. Thanks to that, over the last 3 years, my idea of working together has improved and changed a bit. In fact, I’ve rethought e-networking as a pioneering attempt to make the working network a real common ground where people can team up for developing new projects and build up a new way of working.

This way, working in the new millennium view means:

▷ To show your true-self: people need to know who you are;

▷ To be honest about vision, goals, and mission: people need to know what you want to achieve;

▷ To develop a project having a meaningful purpose: people need to see that together you can make a difference;

▷ To have a positive mind-set: the 3Ps, which are a positive attitude, patience and persistence.

People are the first resource you can employ to get a great result. The key to success is honesty as speaking the truth about our needs and intentions we can find people working on the same wavelength. The interaction with other professionals by sharing fears and doubts or by asking questions about business and daily routine is vital. We need to stand united. And, to date, I can say it has been a bet I’m winning. There’s a lot to do, a lot to plan, and no matter who we are – translators and interpreters, or linguists in general – we need to stay in touch with other professionals in the fields we would like to work in. Sometimes, we just think about the current value of something and we can’t make any projections on the future, but I learnt how important it is to plan and be organised being an entrepreneur. We have a great potential.

Entrepreneurship is a hard task. You have to build the foundations, and the course of studies you chose is just the very first step. There’s a lot to discover and diversification may be amusing, as your work can be shifted to something completely different. In fact, there are so many professionals out there. I e-met so many people I can proudly say that my team of colleagues is prepared and well skilled. Sharing experiences and way of working is of basic importance when you have to start your own business.There’s a strange attitude among professionals, especially in certain fields – unfortunately, I must admit that translation is one of them – to shield from the others. It’s like there was a particular kind of fear leading people to be afraid of other professionals like them. I’m sure there must be a reason I don’t completely get, but I think the winning strategy is to match our skills and knowledge. The key is sharing.

In fact, my aim for the year 2015 is to build a network of people working together and helping each other in synergistic cooperation to create a powerful resource. Firstly, I would like to work with realities based in Italy, spreading the idea of working with a chain of professionals, but also with international groups or companies. I am trying to create a team in my city gathering experts in different fields such as IT, web and social media, design, accountancy, and language. I would like to share an office located halfway, and work together, helping each other, in order to offer a set of customisable services in a single solution. I can’t tell anything specific about the project, because it is in the making. I promise I’ll reveal major details once it will be set and ready. At present, I developed a draft of the project with my designer Alice Ferretti and we are going to meet up with people and companies in order to start discussing business and new ideas.

I know it’s a very ambitious project, but I firmly believe that each one of us can be a brick of the yellow brick road that leads to a bright future. We can be part of a revolution in how we intend co-working, and here each translator/interpreter can have a leading role.

Thank you, Chiara, for accepting my invitation and the challenge to write your very first guest post. It is totally my pleasure to be the first blogger translator to invite and host you. 🙂

About the author
Chiara Bartolozzi is a freelance professional translator and owner of One Sec Translations. She translates from English, Spanish and (Simplified) Chinese into Italian. Former technical translator (mechanical and automation), her fields of experience are fashion, journalism, tourism and advertising. TV series addict and social media maniac, she likes singing and English lyrics are her favourite ones. You can find her on Facebook and Twitter or contact her through LinkedIn and her blog.

2Mar2015

Tradução de quadrinhos

Posted in Translated post by Carol's Adventures in Translation

Estamos de volta com as traduções de publicações do blog. Hoje temos uma nova tradutora, a Carolina Sertório, que traduziu a publicação da convidada Tatiana Yoshizumi, Comics Translation, do inglês para o português.

Quando a Carol me convidou para escrever uma publicação para o blog dela, conversamos um pouco sobre o que eu poderia escrever: as tarefas de uma editora-assistente ou a tradução de histórias em quadrinhos. Como este é um blog sobre tradução, decidimos que seria mais interessante escrever sobre o segundo tópico.

Como tudo começou

Traduzir não é necessariamente a tarefa de um editor. No entanto, minha equipe é pequena (somos apenas nove), a editora para a qual trabalho é internacional, portanto, tive a oportunidade de traduzir. Comecei traduzindo álbuns de figurinhas, que é bem simples, passei a traduzir algumas páginas de livros e, por fim, quadrinhos (que é bem divertido!).

Cheguei a traduzir quadrinhos italianos, conhecidos como Fumetti, e A Hora de Aventura (quadrinho baseado em um desenho de mesmo nome).

Comparação com outros tipos de tradução

Ao traduzir quadrinhos, podemos usar e combinar várias técnicas usadas em outros tipos de traduções:

Tradução literária: a tradução de quadrinhos é bem parecida com a tradução literária, principalmente levando em conta os diálogos. Normalmente, usamos uma linguagem informal, tentando simular a linguagem oral.

Localização de jogos: dependendo do gênero dos quadrinhos que você estiver traduzindo, há diversas gírias. Além disso, é necessário levar em consideração o contexto e as imagens que devem corresponder com o texto.

Tradução técnica: os personagens podem usam termos técnicos e é preciso pesquisá-los para encontrar a tradução mais adequada no seu idioma. Também é possível que seja necessário pesquisar um assunto específico. Por exemplo, durante uma de minhas traduções, precisei aprender sobre a Colonização Italiana da Etiópia.

Poemas: pode ser necessário escolher entre significado e forma, caso você prefira traduzir as palavras e “perder” uma piada ou manter a piada e traduzir literalmente.

Principais desafios

Agora quero apresentar os principais desafios que enfrentei até hoje.

O primeiro, é equilibrar a linguagem oral com a escrita. Geralmente, tentamos usar a linguagem oral nas falas dos personagens para soar mais natural, portanto, usamos abreviações, gírias, contrações ou mesmo uma gramática errada. No entanto, sempre há um limite. É preciso criar um padrão.
Cada personagem tem uma forma peculiar de falar e você é o responsável por transferir isso para o seu idioma, recriar essa maneira particular, criar um padrão e um vocabulário para determinado personagem.
É necessário estar atento à arte. O texto deve corresponder ao que foi desenhado. Isso quer dizer que, se você estiver traduzindo um texto e optar por trocar as palavras para criar uma piada, está tudo bem. Porém, se estiver traduzindo quadrinhos e a palavra estiver ilustrada, você não poderá alterá-la.

Muito a ser discutido

Eu poderia escrever sobre várias outras coisas e dar outros exemplos, mas acredito que consegui transmitir uma ideia geral sobre como é a tradução de quadrinhos de acordo com a minha visão.

Espero que tenham gostado da publicação e, caso queriam saber mais, deixem um comentário ou entrem em contato!

Obrigada por lerem e, muito obrigada, Carol, pelo convite!

Obrigada pela colaboração com o blog, Carolina! Parabéns pelo ótimo trabalho!

Sobre a tradutora
Carolina Sertório ama viajar, voluntariar e praticar Muay Thai! Tradutora & Intérprete profissional (inglês <>português) formada pela Universidade Nove de Julho em 2010 e instrutora de idiomas desde 2007. Para mais informações, clique em About.me ou LinkedIn.

26Feb2015

Guia de estilo: material de referência de leitura obrigatória

Posted in Weekly post by Carol's Adventures in Translation

Olá, leitores! Surpresa! Hoje a publicação semanal (que está mais para mensal ultimamente) será em português. Aos que sentiram falta da nossa língua tupiniquim por aqui, aproveitem! 😉

Os tradutores com mais experiência, principalmente os que trabalham com agências, sabem o que é um Guia de Estilo (ou pelo menos deveriam saber, né? :/). Àqueles que não sabem: um Guia de Estilo, como o próprio nome diz, é um guia que contém instruções e orientações sobre o estilo de determinado cliente, além de regras gramaticais e lexicais do idioma de chegada. Com o glossário, ele é parte do material de referência que os clientes fornecem às agências e/ou aos tradutores. O material de referência, também como o próprio nome diz, deve ser consultado antes de iniciar uma tradução, a fim de saber mais sobre os usos e as regras do cliente e aplicá-los corretamente na tradução.

Como tenho observado que muitos tradutores desconhecem algumas regras frequentes desses guias, meu objetivo hoje é abordar algumas orientações importantes que constam na maioria dos Guias de Estilo.

Uso de letras maiúsculas/minúsculas
A língua inglesa usa muito mais letras maiúsculas que a língua portuguesa. Em português, somente nomes de pessoas/lugares devem iniciar com letra maiúscula. Em uma frase ou título, somente a primeira letra da primeira palavra é maiúscula. O mesmo serve para comandos de softwares e caixas de diálogo (exceto em traduções para o Windows, que não deve ser usado como modelo para outros clientes). Nomes de cargos não começam com letra maiúscula.
Depois de dois pontos (:), usa-se maiúscula depois de “Observação”, “Cuidado”, “Aviso”, etc.
Pontuação
Em inglês, usa-se muito o traço (—), ao contrário do português, que raramente usa esse tipo de pontuação. Ele é normalmente substituído por dois pontos (:) ou vírgula (,).
As aspas simples (‘) só devem ser usadas quando precisar usar aspas dentro de uma frase que já está entre aspas (“Pressione ‘Salvar’ antes de prosseguir”).
Evite o uso de frases completas entre parênteses, que é muito comum em inglês. Normalmente, a simples remoção dos parênteses é a melhor solução.
Ao contrário da língua inglesa, a pontuação em português é inserida após o fechamento das aspas.
Números
Os números de 0 a 10, 100 e 1.000 são escritos por extenso. No entanto, quando houver uma mistura de formatos em uma mesma frase, usar somente o formato numérico. Se o número estiver no início da frase, ele deverá ser escrito por extenso.
Unidades de medida
As formas abreviadas das unidades de medida não têm flexão de plural, não são seguidas por ponto e são separadas do número por um espaço. Alguns exemplos: ºC (grau Celsius), l (litro), min (minuto), h (hora), s (segundo), kg (quilograma), km (quilômetro), pol. (polegada; exceção, pois é seguido por ponto).
Valores monetários
Deve haver um espaço entre o cifrão e o número (R$ 25 mil, US$ 50 milhões).
Marcadores e numeração
A numeração é normalmente usada para etapas sequenciais. A primeira letra de cada item é em letra maiúscula, e, se o item for uma frase completa, deve terminar com ponto final. Marcadores podem conter itens simples ou frases completas. No caso de itens simples, a primeira letra é minúscula e a pontuação final é o ponto e vírgula (;), exceto o último item, que deve terminar com ponto final. Já no caso de frases completas, vale a mesma regra da numeração. Dica: veja se os itens podem ser lidos como um todo ou se constituem frases separadas.
Símbolos
Substitua: “#” por “nº”; “&” por “e”; e “@” por “em/a” (quando não for parte de um endereço de e-mail, é claro).
Calendário
Abreviação consagrada dos dias da semana: SEG, TER, QUA, QUI, SEX e SÁB. Meses: JAN, FEV, MAR, ABR, MAI, JUN, JUL, AGO, SET, OUT, NOV e DEZ.
Gerúndio
Em títulos, o gerúndio, amplamente usado em inglês, é normalmente substituído por um substantivo (salva orientação contrária do projeto). Outra opção é usar “Como” + verbo no infinitivo.
Verbos
Como regra geral, em textos técnicos, evite ao máximo o uso de verbos no futuro, mesmo se a estrutura em inglês for essa. Use o presente.
Atenção com a concordância em frases condicionais: “Se o tempo estiver bom no fim de semana, jogarei tênis” e “Sempre que o tempo permite, jogo tênis”.
Sujeito
Embora a língua portuguesa permita a emissão do sujeito de uma frase, somente faça isso se o verbo deixar claro a qual pessoa ele se refere. Por exemplo, “posso” se refere ao pronome “eu”. Nesse caso, a emissão do pronome pode ser até melhor, a fim de evitar redundância e deixar o texto mais fluido.
Cuidado com a repetição excessiva de pronomes em uma frase. Tente limitá-la ao máximo. Se possível, utilize o pronome somente uma vez.
Pronome possessivo
Em textos técnicos, embora o original em inglês use o pronome possessivo, há casos em que é melhor usar um artigo em português. Por exemplo, “o computador” (your computer), “o navegador” (your browser).

O mundo da tradução não é um conto de fadas em que você sempre encontrará um texto original perfeito e sem erros. Na verdade, o contrário é muito mais frequente do que deveria. Portanto, além de saber as regras da língua portuguesa, também é necessário conhecer muito bem a língua inglesa, a fim de que o texto de partida não nos confunda.

Nosso trabalho não é apenas traduzir o significado do texto de origem como também fazê-lo de forma correta e fluida, independentemente da fluidez e adequação gramatical dele, a fim de produzir uma tradução com significado, mas também com beleza e de fácil leitura. Conhecer todas as regras gramaticais e de estilo não é fácil, requer tempo e muita atenção. No entanto, com o tempo, elas se tornam parte do seu conhecimento e o processo de aplicação, automático. Esse pode ser o seu diferencial entre tantos tradutores no mercado: atenção aos detalhes.

24Feb2015

Guest post: Working with agencies

Posted in Guest post by Carol's Adventures in Translation

Welcome back to our guest post series! Our guest today is Alina Cincan, from Romania, but currently living in England. Alina is learning how to speak Brazilian Portuguese, can you believe it? And did you know Romanian is also a Romance language? So they are quite similar. 😉

Welcome, Alina! 🙂

5 Steps to a Project Manager’s Heart

Standing out in a competitive market is a must, no matter the industry you work in. The translation industry is no exception, and it’s not just translation companies that need to stand out, but translators too, maybe even more so, especially if your language combination is not exactly rare.

Case in point: from our list of approved translators for English into German, we only work with a few of them regularly. Why? Because we LOVE them. Why we love them? See below.

For those translators who have not yet embarked on the anti-agency wagon and who like their agency clients, and want to forge a goodgreat relationship with the project managers, here are some tips.

1. Make a good first impression

You know what they say: first impression counts. Make sure your first email shows your enthusiasm and willingness to work with them (by addressing the person not Dear Sir/Madam), as well as impeccable language skills (a sloppy and full of mistakes email will not look good). All it takes is a little bit of research (the About section of their website, LinkedIn, social media) to find out a few things about the agency and person you want to talk to. Proofreading before hitting Send also helps, of course.

2. Respond quickly

One of my favourite translators replies within minutes. This is not always possible and sometimes it may even hurt your productivity. But there are ways to make this possible. For those who are not at their computer all the time (or checking their email regularly) and cannot give an answer as to whether they are available for a particular project, a short email explaining when you’ll be able to have a look and give an answer will do. Especially when the agency is not one to send a mass email and select the first translator to answer (we at Inbox don’t), meaning they want you to work on that project and any delay in replying is a delay for the project. If you are busy, a short line saying so as soon as possible makes all the difference. Automatic emails are another option too.

3. Respect deadlines

Pretty obvious, right? While we try to ‘educate’ (I’m not exactly fond of this term in this context) the end client about what constitutes a suitable time frame, sometimes urgent projects (or with not the most generous deadlines) do land in our inbox and ultimately in the translator’s. So, once a deadline has been mutually agreed, it should be adhered to. Sure, if there’s an earthquake, volcano eruption or some other natural disaster, no one would blame you for not sticking to them. Otherwise, if you encounter technical problems (we all have, I’m sure) or are going to deliver later than agreed (for various reasons), let your PM know as soon as possible. Depending on the project, a new translator may need to take over or, in most cases, the deadline extended.

4. Communicate effectively

Sometimes the source texts we have to work with as translators are not exactly the great literary pieces we’d love taking apart and putting back together in another language. It may be about typos or grammar mistakes, or maybe ambiguous sentences. When it comes to the latter, don’t just assume what it may mean, let the PM know (especially if they’ve been working with that particular client for a while, they may be familiar with what the client expects or style guides etc.); if they cannot help clarify the meaning, they can pass your questions on to the client. Of course, pointing out mistakes or suggesting improvements will always raise your profile in a PM’s eyes (and heart). Another important aspect here is to ask the questions before starting the translation or when you come across an issue while working on the project, not after you’ve delivered the translation, which will mean going back and forth with amended files.

5. Learn to say ‘No’

If direct clients may take this as rejection, a good agency should understand when you cannot take on a project (whether it’s not exactly a topic you are familiar with or have a very busy schedule which doesn’t allow you to accommodate a particular project) and, moreover, they should be thankful. They will appreciate a translator who only accepts a project if they can do a great job. So, don’t be afraid to say no.

Thank you, Alina, for accepting my invitation and kindly taking the time to write such an interesting and helpful article. I’m sure our readers will appreciate it as much as I did. I also agree with every single point you made. I’m a fully believer that a primeira impressão é a que fica (as we say in Portuguese), that’s why dressing adequately, having a polite behavior, writing properly, having professional profile pics, among others, are fundamental. I’m also a huge advocate of responding quickly to messages in general, but specially emails. I get instant notifications of incoming emails and whenever possible I immediately respond to them, and I appreciate when people do the same. Although obvious, #3 is a huge issue, right? How come people simply do not respect deadlines and not even bother to communicate the agency? Well, that’s it, otherwise, I’ll write another post myself.

How about you, readers, do you have any comments to add? Do you agree or disagree with any points made by Alina?

About the author
Alina Cincan is a former teacher, translator and interpreter with over 10 years’ experience, now Managing Director at Inbox Translation. She is a language geek who likes to keep up to date with what’s happening in the industry. When Alina is not writing on her own blog, she is writing on other people’s. You can get in touch on Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and LinkedIn.

17Feb2015

Guest post: Common misconceptions about translators

Posted in Guest post by Carol's Adventures in Translation

Welcome back to our guest series! If you are from Brazil, you must be enjoying our Carnival holiday somehow. How about relaxing and reading the contribution of today’s guest? If you’re not enjoying it in Rio or in Salvador, that is, in which case you must have more interesting things to do. I don’t blame you. Just bookmark it for later. 😉

Our guest today is Emeline Jamoul, a translator from Belgium.

Welcome, Emeline!

Reclaiming the truth about our profession

It’s a universal truth that freelance translators are misunderstood creatures. Yes, translators have been around for thousands of years and we are probably doing one of the oldest jobs on earth, but that doesn’t mean that people are aware of our existence and purpose. If you’ve ever told someone what your job was, I’m sure you have faced a couple of answers worth their weight in gold. People always assume certain things about your career choices: either you are working as a freelancer because you are scared of the real world (hey, we have responsibilities too!) or because you happen to be bilingual.

I have been a freelance translator for 1 year and a half now, and in 18 months, the number of ridiculous comments I have heard regarding my job has done nothing but increase. Here are some of them, which I’m sure most of you must have heard too!

We only translate novels
To the eyes of common people, translators can only translate one type of material: novels. When I went to my doctor’s office last year, she asked me what I was doing now that I had graduated. When I told her I had become a freelance translator, she looked at me in awe and asked which novels I had translated. I had to disappoint her though – most translators don’t have the luxury to translate literature on a day-to-day basis even if that’s the dream of many!
Translators and interpreters are the same thing
We all cringe when we hear that someone is looking for a professional to “translate” one of their meetings. Blasphemy!
“Okay but… what is your real job?”
Because of course, working from home (in our PJs) is too good to be true. 🙂
“You’ll only translate user guides.”
One of my high school teachers told me that one. I still remember that day in class when we were all asked what we wanted to become when we were grown-ups – I was hesitating between journalist, translator or teacher. You can all imagine how naïve I must have been at the age of 13 – gullible enough to believe her when she told me that I would either translate user guides for the rest of my life or…
“Work at the European Union”
But this of course, was the job of a very select few. Okay, I’ll admit that she wasn’t too far from the truth on this one. But what about translating marketing documents? What about interpreting in hospitals? And translating international contracts? There is more to translating than user manuals and interpreting European affairs!
“Working from home is really not the same as working in an office.” (to be read that with a condescending tone)
No, in fact, it is much better. 🙂

And the list goes on and on. But what can we do about these common misconceptions about our job? If you look at the comments I have listed here, all of them stem from the same problem: ignorance about our profession. It is also our responsibilities to raise awareness about what it is really like to work as a freelance translator.

We should remind ourselves that many people are actually curious about what we do, and that it’s not so bad. Whenever I see question marks on my interlocutor’s faces, I make a point of elaborating, instead of saying “I just translate English texts into French.” I’m usually asked what and who I translate for, which clearly shows that most people don’t have any idea how and why translation is used. What better opportunity than to give a good (and accurate) first impression of our wonderful profession?

What about you, dear readers, which type of comments regarding your job have you faced so far?

Thank you for your kindly contribution to our blog, Emeline! 🙂 It’s a pleasure to host you here.

People indeed don’t quite understand what we do. They don’t understand the translation part neither the freelance part. It’s quite difficult to try to make them believe we don’t actually work on our PJs (I tried last Saturday to family – who should already be used to it – but it didn’t work).

About the author
Emeline Jamoul is a passionate English and Spanish into French translator. She mainly specializes in marketing, business and health. A self-confessed multitasker, Emeline is addicted to social media and has a soft post for African-American literature. You can contact her through her website or on Twitter.

10Feb2015

Guest post: Test translations

Posted in Guest post by Carol's Adventures in Translation

Aaaand we’re finally back with our guest posts! 😀 Who missed them? I did! But let’s look on the bright side, at least you had a two-week vacation from us. lol

Hope you like today’s guest, Olga Arakelyan, from Russia.

Welcome, Olga!

Are test translations always evil? What can they teach startup translators?

Those who remember my story probably know that when I came into the freelance world, I already had some experience in interpreting and in translation. But I had mainly done interpreting work before. Now, as you know, interpreting and translation are very different from each other, requiring a totally different set of skills. Yes, I have a good memory, so I don’t have a problem remembering how I translated this or that term and thus maintaining consistency of my translations even without using CAT tools. But consistency is definitely not the only challenging task in translation as even the smallest details are important here.

That’s what I didn’t know when I started working as a translator. Now when I remember my first tests (I was pretty confident about my skills, so I sent out CVs and sample translations everywhere) the only thing I feel is shame… Good thing I realized that my offers were turned down by companies for a reason. So I started learning from experienced colleagues, subscribed to their blogs, studied translation samples shared by other translators on the Internet etc. All of this helped me to become a better professional, so now I don’t have a problem with clients turning down my offers because of bad test translations. Although in our profession we must never stop growing. There is always place for more growth and more professional development.

Why am I sharing all this? Here’s why. Throughout my freelance career I read tons of articles about test translations being evil. Translators say that after they send their work to an agency or a direct client they never hear back from them.

Note: this article is not about experienced colleagues whose translations are so good that they are close to impeccable. By the way, those colleagues usually get pretty fast responses to their messages, and they aren’t asked to do a test (or those requests are rare). I am writing for startup translators who don’t understand why they are being ignored after they send their work having done their best. I assure you that it doesn’t necessarily happen because agencies or companies are evil. Perhaps my personal experience will help you to look at the process from a different perspective.

I have been working as a staff editor in a boutique agency for a few months now. And there was a period when we had so much work from our regular clients that we had to look for new translators. And here’s what happened when we asked freelancers to do a test for us.

We got a lot of responses. The tests went straight to my inbox as I was supposed to assess them. At first I responded promptly to all emails. But then as the stream of messages grew, I realized I would need a secretary in order to reply to all letters. After all, I also had to do my regular work. That was the first time I remembered my disappointment as a startup freelance translator when I got no immediate response from agencies. It can happen not because people working in those agencies are bad and don’t care about you. Maybe they are just very busy, sleeping no more than 4 hours a day trying to do their regular job, plus checking the tests. They are thankful for your message and for your test, and they will read and assess it by all means. But they have so much work that they can’t possibly reply to everybody.

But that’s not all. Checking those test translations turned to be a good patience lesson. Actually, the mistakes that I saw over and over again in tests written by different people motivated me to write this post. Here are a few tips from me as an editor and reviewer. I hope they will help my startup colleagues to get positive replies more often.

Don’t forget to not just check your translations by yourself, manually, but also by means of special programs. At least by Microsoft Word spellchecker, or by any other tools that you have. It’s surprising how many beginning translators don’t do that, totally relying on themselves.
If you do not use CAT-tools it’s ok! But if you chose to overwrite the source text with the translation, please don’t forget to delete the source text. It’s weird to read sentences beginning with the first letters of the original text.
After you have finished your test and have proofread everything, the best thing you can do is leave your desk at least for a few minutes in order to have a cup of tea or go for a walk. When you come back to the same text with a fresh mind you will notice some more things that need to be corrected. Besides, it will help you to notice typos that Microsoft Word spellchecker missed.
Please don’t stop at the “Ah, they will understand me anyway” level of tranlsation. Edit your work until there’s nothing or almost nothing you don’t like about it.

So those are some of my thoughts based on a few (dozens of) tests by startup translators.

However, it wouldn’t be fair to stop here. I have to mention scammers who also love test translations. You know why? Because they think a test is a perfect way to get professional services for free. So here are my tips that will (hopefully) help you stay safe.

Always google your prospective direct client or translation agency and see what other people say about them.
The test shouldn’t be very big. For instance, I don’t do test bigger than 250 words. There’s obviously something wrong with a test translation several pages long.
Urgency is another red flag. If a test is needed solely for the purpose of assessing your skills, then why is it supposed to be done urgently? I would definitely pay attention to it. Although, sometimes companies search for translators for a specific project and they need your test before the project starts. For those clients it’s important to get your test on time, so they do set deadlines. But in those cases I normally receive some kind of an explanation why the test is supposed to be ready by a specific date.
A test that is obviously a part of a bigger file looks the most suspicious. I received those tests several times in my career and every time it turned out to be a scam. People give different pieces of text to several translators hoping that each translator will do their “test”, and in the end they will get the whole text done for free! So we do need to be careful and stay away from all suspicious offers.

So be careful and I wish you good luck in your freelance translation! By the way, there is a mistake in the text. Have you noticed it?

Thanks a lot for your kind contribution to our blog, Olga! It was a real pleasure to host you here, after you having hosted me so kindly on your blog. 🙂

Any comments?

About the author
Olga Arakelyan is a professional freelance translator and a certified ESL teacher. She translates from English and German into Russian and specializes mainly in marketing, music, tourism, and education. Olga recently left the freelance world and is now managing Translators’ Training Courses at Alba Longa translation company, Saint Petersburg, Russia. You can find her on Twitter @Olenkaarakelyan, visit her English blog or, if you prefer reading in Russian, she’d be happy to see you in her Russian blog.