Translation myths

Let’s bring down some of the ’myths’ that regard us, translators. I hope you smile after reading.

• As much as I tried explaining to my clients that, in the absence of an editable source file, the translation would never be similar to the original, I still feel like I failed.
• Some freelancing sites and blogs are willing to convince you that it is easy to find clients online. Well, if that’s the case, how come the people in the field have the time to write these articles rather than translate for those tons of clients?
• There are days when we crave to go hill walk the cattle rather than interact with our difficult client and solve his/her absurd requests. Eventually, we are creating our reality, so paint it nicely!
• Deadlines are unrealistic most of the time. The translator is not a robot, but a human, just like you. You can’t expect him/her to translate a text in a certain time frame (even though time is an illusion, too) if you can’t type the same text in your language over the same time.
• There was a joke some years ago, and I liked it a lot. The translator is the person paid per hour, per word, or perhaps. J