Translator or Copyeditor? An Experience

January 23, 2016

Translator or Copyeditor? An Experience

I think that posting about this kind of situations is a good experience to share with those younger colleagues who have recently started working on this profession. Because some prospective clients still do not have a clear understanding of the real value of a translation. Or maybe they do.
Last week, I answered a phone call from one of those possible clients. He asked if I could copyedit a text he had translated himself. Naturally, I refused in a most friendly way, just as other translators had done before, as he himself told me.
I have never known about this person’s qualifications to translate, but I guess they must be scarce when he thought it necessary to ask a professional translator to check his style. It is not clear to me either why he did not call a professional to translate his text in the first place.
However, what I do know is why translators refuse this kind of jobs. It is a question of both professional trade and price. Firstly, it has to do with our trade. If someone thinks he or she can translate, that is just fine. Deep down in their minds they guess they do not need a translator. What they think they really need is a copyeditor. Secondly, it has to do with prices. If someone translates his or her own text to save paying a higher price for a translation—and pay instead a much lower price to copyedit a text he or she is not sure of and turn it into a well done job—, translators know this and will not accept to depreciate their work.

[Image: Albert Durer: Der heilige Hieronymus im Gahäus / Saint Jerome (patron saint of translators and interpreters) in His Study, 1514, engraving.]

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