photo credit R.Pentzien

Hi everyone!

I have been busy keeping everyone up to date with all the preparations for International Women’s Day over on the IWD blog.
Remember tickets are now on sale for this great event taking place in Mallorca which I am very happy to be sponsoring with my translation services (and prices go up on the 1st of March so now is the time to get your hands on them!)

I have also been translating a hotel website, a property investment report, an interview with actor Colm Meaney and an introduction for Helen Cummin’s new luxury lifestyle guide.

Last week I also went to a very interesting Supper Club meeting about the new Labour Reforms which took place at Mood Beach in Portals (another one of my clients).

Feel free to contact me at any time on victoria.amengual@gmail.com

Or follow me on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Mallorca-Translations-Victoria-Amengual/379150031463

The new abcMallorca magazine is now out and available to buy at kiosks across the island.

As ever, it has been a pleasure to contribute to the magazine.

I met Margo and Juan from MSO_Architects and this edition includes an article by me about their business and about sustainable architecture and design in general.

I also did all the Spanish translation of the magazine content.

You can read my article here: abcMallorca Feb/Mar, page 76.

Enjoy!

Ya está a la venta el número de febrero/marzo de la revista abcMallorca.

Como siempre me ha encantado poder contribuir.

Tuve la suerte de conocer a Margo y Juan de M_SO ARCHITECTS y la revista incluye un reportaje sobre su negocio de arquitectura y diseño sostenible.

Puedes leer el reportaje aquí: AbcMallorca feb/mar en al página 76.

Las traducciones al castellano también son todas mías.

I recently came across the following blog post (which I am copying in here for the sake of clarity) on a really useful translator blog:

http://translationjournal.blogspot.com/2006/04/test-translations.html

Many translation clients request free translations as a precondition for a paid assignment. Is this a reasonable request? And if so, what is a reasonable size of a test translation that will give the client an idea of the translator’s capabilities, yet is unlikely to be resold, possibly supplemented by other “test” translations, to the client’s client.

The Code of Professional Conduct and Business Practices” of the American Translators Association stipulates: “As an employer or contractor of translators and/or interpreters, … I will not require translators or interpreters to do unpaid work for the prospect of a paid assignment.” Is this a reasonable rule for translation buyers? (Note that it does not prohibit translators from doing free test translations.) How common is the abusive practice of requesting test translations as freebies to be used by or resold to the final customer?

Some translators refuse to do free translations. Others establish a limit of X words they are willing to do free of charge. Again others charge for test translations, but credit the amount paid against the price of the actual assignment. How should the translator respond when asked to do free work against the prospect of a paid assignment?

I would love to hear from other translators about what they think about this subject. I for one, have been taken for a ride at least once….

Someone connects with you on LinkedIn, Twitter, or simply through your blog and claims to be from a big company currently in the middle of a move into the Spanish market, requiring a huge amount of translation to facilitate this move and an ongoing, mutually benficial arrangement. However, he says he absolutely has to see what the quality of your work is, before he agrees to work with you instead of with someone else. So basically, he wants you to deliver a Test Translation, free of charge.

So what do you do when faced with the prospect of this potential translation opportunity?!

In one such case I went ahead and worked very hard to produce an excellent translation for the guy in question, sent it off to him and..you guessed it… never heard back. So who bets he went ahead and used it without ever having paid for it?!

Would love to hear from other translators faced with this quandry and to hear whether they establish word-limits or conditions in order to stop it happening.

Today I am translating a legal document for a local Yacht Brokers here in Mallorca. As always happens with legal translations, I have been uncovering some interesting new aspects of Spanish law which I didn’t know about.

Tomorrow I am going for my first meeting of the year at the AbcMallorca offices in Palma. It will be good to catch up with the team there and to hear about their plans for 2012.

Then I have a lunchtime meeting with the team for International Women’s Day Mallorca 2012. This is a very exciting event I am involved in which will take place on the 8th of March 2012 in Mallorca.

In between I have another few translations and meetings to work through and I hope to balance it all out with some time on my yoga matt.

So, everyone… here’s to a great week! See you on the other side…

HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Busy doing some marketing today and excited by all the new possibilities 2012 will surely bring.
If you require translation services remember you can contact me for a quote at any time. I look forward to hearing from you.
Victoria xx

¡FELIZ AÑO NUEVO!
Hoy estoy ocupada haciendo un poco de marketing y publicidad y animada por las nuevas posibilidades que trae este año 2012.
Si necesita servicios de traducción no olvide que puede solicitar un presupuesto sin compromiso. Estamos en contacto.
Victoria xx

Victoria

Victoria

El lector ideal es un traductor. Es capaz de desmenuzar un texto, retirarle la piel, cortarlo hasta la médula, seguir cada arteria y cada vena y luego poner en pie a un nuevo ser viviente.
Alberto Manguel

“En el mundo actual las nuevas conexiones tienen que superar muchas barreras, no sólo las barreras de la creciente especialización sino también las del mismo lenguaje. Mientras me leen, deténganse un momento y recuerden que mi inglés ha sido traducido a su bello castellano y únanse a mí en el agradecimiento a aquellos que llevan mis palabras de un lugar a otro. En realidad, eso es lo que trans-latus significa realmente, trasladar palabras de un lugar a otro. En su raíz lingüística, la traducción es una idea verdaderamente geográfica.”
Peter Gould

Traducir es hacer un viaje por un país extranjero
George Steiner

Mi lema: ‘‘Una buena traducción es una que no se reconoce como tal, sino como un texto escrito por un gran experto en la materia entre manos. ’’

Servicio rápido y precios competitivos.