The question of whether the translators will be replaced by automated translations is still widely discussed. The boundaries of translations are continually expanding though
the translation opportunities are transforming and taking new shapes of activities. The translators still receive a good amount of translation the deliveries of which are organized
via CAT tools.
Many translation projects are managed with the help of modern CAT tools, hence the changes in front of translators vary from one another.
It is hard to say "No" to your regular customers, anyway there are cases when the translators have to reject the translation job due to some reasons.
Here some of them.
1. Low payment tariffs
Regardless of your payment terms, you may receive small jobs from your regular customers. Small translations may require very often more time than it is expected. Even one page
translation requires much concentration and responsibility towards your customers. While working on a bigger translation projects, translators are in hurry for small ones.
Important elements are ignored which are necessary for the quality deliveries. There is another inconvenience as well. Working with your regular customers maintain the fixed
"Pricing per word" strategy. However for small translations you may set up minimal pricing strategy as "Hourly pricing" or "Pricing per page" with minimum number of words.
Some translators have the habit to lower the pricing according to the situations. For instance, during the lock down, several companies lowered the prices due to the impact of
COVID on business. Several translators had to lower their rates to keep the freelance channel. As we remember, COVID was as well the period when many online business registered
prosperous sales. Besides some businesses found alternative or even other alternative services that they were planning to start after the years. Such situations should serve as a basis to
be most prepared for flexible situations and have predefined pricing for different situations.
2. Unrealistic deadlines
It is difficult to say "NO" to your regular customers. You should be able to accept any job since you are in confident relations with your customers. Customers value those partners who are
able to accept fast and voluminous orders. Nevertheless, there are the cases when you should refuse the translation offers when short-term deliveries are expected.
The actual CATs and other procedures and process allow us to fasten the process of translations, but quality translations are still requiring the necessary terms as each stage of translation
should be followed with certain amount of time as the acceptance and management of translation, start up. first delivery and review, additional checking etc.
When you feel you are uncertain with the quality of translation, it is recommended to reject the job. Additionally you may suggest to your customer the necessary amount of time for quality
translations.
3. Technical difficulties using the CATs
Translations are done via specialized systems and tools. To get acquainted and experience the tools, translators have to learn several technical skills. In the modern market of CATs,
new options and versions of different tools are developed to fit to the need of customers and translation in the bog industry of translation.
Very often the translators may experience the difficulties of acquiring new technical skills as they are mostly concentrated to work on translation and do timely deliveries to the customer.
There is as well another difficulty that the translation file format or the tools used by the customer to handle the content is not the same as the translator's tool. The acquisition and
the mastery of new CAT or new editing tools requires time
4. Several projects at a time
Translations have an interesting frequency. They may either be in demand or live their quiet time altogether for a while. The moment you do not expect any work, you can get several at once.
In such cases, as a rule, smaller works are forced to be rejected, as they always have shorter terms> It is desirable to focus on the work for a long time and work quietly on translation content.
5. Large volumes and repetitions
In the field of modern translation, we encounter more and more situations when in the case of large content, where there are verbal or structural repetitions, some clients offer reduced prices.
In several cases the price reduction based on the textual repetitions are so high that you have to receive half of the price. No matter how much automated work is done. The review of proofreading
is done for the whole content. You are not counting your repetitions, you are working almost on each sentence. When a comma, space or full stop is missing from your text, it will be notices
and penalized by the customer. You can no longer explain to the customer that you were skipping the repetitions or justify any duplication error. Therefore, it is recommended to refuse the job
for which you are paid only for the half.