Hello Antonio, hi everybody,

quite right about those brand names.

"Antonio S. Valderrábanos (OB)" wrote:
> By the way, Gudmund, about the activity you describe.
>
> > Typically I am the one who
> > comes up with the swedish terminology, often making them brand-oriented
> > to give each customer their own special flavor in the market, but
> > stickin to a general teminology where it makes sense, so the end user
> > won't get flummoxed each time he/she changes product supplier.
>
> Don't you think this activity is more than translating? Most companies hire
> people to do this even in their source language, the same way they hire
> someone to prepare ads, etc.

Yes, it should be someone elses work, at least to check everything
through before releasing the product. But that's in the best of all
worlds. Typically, they just dump whatever the translator came up with
into the product - not even spell-checking things, and off into the box
it goes... Maybe it's stupid to feel responsible (the poor users...),
but I can't help doing so.

An example: I had an indirect customer who switched to a cheaper
translator. Cheap doesn't have to mean bad. In this case, however, a
friend of mine happened to buy a product out of that product line for
private use. Since he knew I was into translations, he asked me if I
usually did such a bad job as the manual he got to go with the product
(of course, he didn't know that I had been translating those very
products). I borrowed the manuals from him, and had a shock: No spell
cheking, wrong and inconsistent terminology, unfinished sentences,
untranslated segments, misleading translation segments that showed a
lack of technical understanding, whole downright confusing passages of
text. After doublechecking my archives (in a cold sweat, I assure you),
I was relieved to find I hadn't done that piece of work.

A few weeks later, someone at the (big) company had reacted, and wanted
me to work as an auxiliary to correct that particular manual and to
check things out every now and then before they went into print - but at
laughable time limits and pay. I helped them out on that one, and told
them no thanks - either I make proper, consistent translations for them,
or they maintain them themselves. I can't say I'm perfect, but I can't
help at least trying to do a good job.

I guess I'm not the only one with similar experiences.

BR,
Gudmund