Lots of work today

My dear girls in Hong Kong send me one of their usual brusque job requests this morning. They know I am 12 hours behind them, even so, after I apparently did not answer their first e-mail (sent at 2:05 AM my time), they re-send the job request (total of 4 separate e-mails due to large files) 3 times! As if that was not enough, they also called me when I was still sleeping (I didn't answer).

Alright, girls! Tone it down a tad bit! Last summer when I did a lot of work for them they asked me for my cell phone and /or pager number, so they could get a hold of me when they needed me. I politely told them I have a life beyond work, and that I am generally not available to talk to outside of the hours of 8 AM-7 PM, EST. They weren't too happy. Imagine if they did have my cell phone number... They are just so direct and demanding all the time, but I actually think it is kind of funny. They really suck at English too, which becomes apparent every time I have to call their office in Hong Kong with some question or concern. It usually takes a few of them to understand what I am saying. Good luck for me to understand their answers :-)! But they keep coming back for more, so I must be doing something right...

Today I wasn't supposed to work at all, poor S took it really well and kept herself entertained for the most part. We also did some errands to pick up a few framed certificates at a local framer and to get lunch. It was an eclectic bunch of user manuals today, one for a steam iron, two computer games and my favourite, "the remote thermometer that pages you when your meat is done"! I don't see that last one having a huge market in Sweden, but again, you never know.

This particular agency is huge in China, and most of the jobs I do for them are product user manuals. If you have looked at ANY product nowadays, 90 % are probably "Made in China", and of course, all the user manuals have to be translated into the respective country's native language. So this is a huge market for translation agencies. The beauty of being an established freelancer is that I have to do very little to promote myself. I am registered with various translation agencies, and when they get a project in my expertise area and language combination they contact me. I usually get the rate I ask for, and they add whatever they want to make on to that for their end client. Their end client is not necessarily paying more this way, they are actually usually getting more quality control. Many agencies are ISO certified, so they have to have not just a tested, qualified translator, they also have to have a separate editor and a separate proofreader. And all this is coordinated and looked over by a project manager. And if you are a large corporation that wants to ensure your product get the best possible send off in a new country, well, it would pay to pay a little more for a great translation agency to oversee this very important part of product implementation. It is also very important to ensure the product is localized into the local market. Something plain in one language can be very offensive in another... you never know unless you hired an expert who could sort it all out for you.

Having an inexperienced freelancer do the job can clearly be a bad choice sometimes. I know a Swedish lady who wanted a go at being a translator. She had never been to the US, but that didn't stop her from trying to translate a US English text into Swedish. When she came to a section about Kool Aid, she had no idea what that was (this was before Google!). She thought about it and decided it must be some kind of air conditioning unit. Of course, anyone living in the US knows Kool Aid is a drink mix... So that didn't come out exactly right... There is a great Swedish web site that keeps track of all kinds of "galigheter" within the Swedish language. Anytime I need a good laugh I go here, it is called "Avigsidan". You can also read a great selection of translation misses here.

Enough to bore you with for now :-)!