Blogging Translator

Translation experience – a blinding factor?

I was reading the ‘Dear Editor’ page of the Institute of Translating and Interpreting Bulletin (September/October issue) and came across a rather ranty letter from a (self-professed) grumpy old man about young peoples’ lack of manners ‘these days’, having receiving ‘patronising’ letters from translation companies which, more to the point, failed to address him as ‘Mr.’ but simply opened with ‘Hi’ (I think this part of the letter was perhaps a more general complaint about the Americanisation of the English language).

The writer, who says he has 6 decades of translation experience, said that he “[was] allergic to [...] being told how to suck eggs by people young enough to be my grandchildren”. He (who shall remain nameless) also complained about the ITI’s articles being aimed at “would-be translators who have just scraped though a BA”. The final paragraph of the letter was perhaps the worst, most erroneous, part of it “being young is a serious ailment, but there is light at the end of the tunnel: eventually one grows out of it.”

Apart from infuriating me for a while, this letter got me thinking about age and experience. The translation profession attaches a very great deal of importance to ‘experience’, but what does this really mean? Sure, it is one of most vital parts of your CV, but it should not necessarily be used as an indicator of ability. I have been working as an in-house translator for 3 years, which is the required amount of time to get on the books of many translation agencies as a freelancer, but my 3 years have all been in the same office, so how does that make me better-placed than a freelancer who has been translating for only 1 month? We will surely both be in pretty much the same position.

The problem is that experience is actually very difficult to qualify. You can have decades of experience but still be way off the mark, particularly if you neglect to do much CPD (a fairly modern concept in itself!).

What I’m trying to say is that people should not be blinded by experience, it is no longer the only thing which counts. I’ve read a lot of criticism about ’serving time’ and other such ridiculous notions on the brilliant Brazen Careerist (I can’t find the relevant posts at the moment but will have another search later), and whilst I do think that it takes time to make a career, there are plenty of translators who haven’t yet reached that arbitrary 3 year (or 5 year) mark and who excel at their jobs. At the same time I have met plenty of ‘experienced’ translators who are truly bad at their jobs but who by virtue of their experience are entrusted with work by clients who can’t see past that. We’ve all seen poor translations and wondered who on earth was allowed to get away with it…..

In short, being young is most certainly not an ‘ailment’; when we are in the early stages of our career we are usually at our most enthusiastic, open-minded and energetic. We also learn things quickly and our skills are at their freshest.

P.S. This post was originally part of my next one ‘What’s in an age?’ but I had to separate them due to their length.