What does the term 'professional' imply?
The question of what constitutes a professional translator was raised
by a recent case we came across and led us to reflect on what clients
need to look for when commissioning translation work.
Background
We were contacted recently by a concerned author here in Spain who
told us that he had commissioned a professional Spanish-to-English
translator to translate a book that he hoped to publish in the US and
UK. After reading through the translated text, he was concerned about
the quality of the translation and asked an English friend what he
thought of it.
His friend told him that the translation was extremely poor and
would need to be redone before a publisher would accept it. Still not
fully convinced, he came to us for an expert opinion.
Examination of the translation in English confirmed what the
author's friend had said — the text was barely intelligible and nowhere
near good enough for publication. Understandably, the author was
bitterly disappointed and repeatedly said, "But I paid a professional
Spanish-to-English translator a lot of money to do the job! How could
somebody claim to be a professional and yet deliver such rubbish?"
