Hi. Today I'm going to talk to you about translation agencies. Now, the main difference between translation websites and translation agencies is that translation websites like proz.com, and translators cafe comm or aggregator websites, they bring together translators and people who need translations, and then all the businesses up to those people. Translation agencies, on the other hand, are more, they're more like middlemen. And so they will actually have clients and then they will hire translators themselves. The easiest way to think about translation agencies is to think about them as pre internet agencies.

Before the internet, a translation agency would exist, and a bank or a law firm might contact them and then they in turn, will hire and contact and be in touch with other freelance translators. Essentially, they still work that way, except now they're online. So a couple other things have Most translation agencies these days let you sign up online, they let you apply. Sometimes they'll want you to submit some information like a resume, sometimes they'll want you to take a test. Regardless, I would say one hour maximum per agency, but for the vast majority, it'll be a lot less. It'll just be a question of filling out a form with information that you already have.

So our translation agencies, your clients or not, if you spend some time on the translation websites like translators cafe and prose, etc, you'll find that a lot of the people recruiting translators are translation agencies. So what's going on here? Well, as I mentioned, most end clients end up contacting a translation agency, which will then contact you for the actual translation. So yes, this means that a translation agency will act as a middleman, but it also serves a purpose. First of all, this agency is a buffer in between you And the end client. So for example, if the end client doesn't pay them, the agency will still owe you your payment, because your contract essentially is with them and not with the end client.

So they take care of that risk, if you will. Secondly, it's up to them to interpret what the client wants. And since the end client maybe has no idea what a source word is, or what the difference between simplified and traditional Chinese is, etc, etc. The translation agency will have to interpret this and give you clear instructions. So at the beginning, it will definitely be more comfortable for you to work with a translation agency rather than directly with an end client, since they will interpret what the end client wants for you. Once you get more comfortable, however, you might want to start actively targeting end clients.

While they will require more hand holding and explanation. They will also pay much more and often in advance now, this is probably worth repeating, you should definitely know what you're entitled to when you deal with translation agencies. If you do the work for them, they have to pay you if they say that the end client isn't paying them, that doesn't matter if they say the end client is late in paying them, that doesn't matter. If they say any other issue with the end client, then it doesn't matter. Your contract is with them, not with the end client. Now, many times you might want to work with them or be nice about it.

And that's totally up to you. Of course, more often, the excuse you'll find is they'll say that there was a big problem with the translation and too many corrections had to be done. And so they're going to want a discount or not to pay you at all. Obviously in this in these cases, you should ask for proof of this. And you should offer to redo any translation that wasn't done correctly. If that was the case.

And then How much you get paid or whether you get paid? That will depend from translation agency to translation agency. But barring you're making any mistakes or getting anything wrong, then they should pay you absolutely no matter what happens with the end client or with a final project. They can't tell you Oh, the incline has decided to scratch the final project. No, if you did the work, you deserve to get paid for it. So how does the recruitment work for these translation agencies, sooner or later, most likely, via one of these translation websites you've signed up for like pros or translators cafe, but it could also just be out of the blue, you will be contacted by a translation agency to become a member.

In general, it's a good idea to sign up for them all since you might as well have your information in as many places as possible. Some of them might ask you to perform a short translation test for evaluation. In general, these tests should not be longer than two to 300 words. I mean, slightly longer but uh, That range if they are longer beware because they might be trying to score free translation off you. And yes, this can happen. Thankfully, it's rare, but it can happen.

I wouldn't expect too much from these even if you do a translation test. Many of these translation agencies get clients by being able to claim that they have X number of translators in their database. When they collect your information. They're basically beefing up their database. Whether or not you hear from them later on is another matter. On the other hand, if and when they do receive a job request in your language combination, it's always better to be on their list and not to be having to perform a translation test makes it a bit more likely that they will hire you but it's absolutely not a guarantee.

Now some translation agencies might ask you for personal information like a social security number or equivalent, which could understandably make you feel uncomfortable. Some others might ask you to physically mail your information to them. them even internationally. And I'm not kidding. I would suggest that you politely just ignore all of these. There's no us spending money or time or risk your identity being out there for no real return.

It's just not worth it. Also, needless to say, if they asked you to pay for membership, just skip them. This means that their business is collecting your fees and not finding translation jobs. Once you paid they'll concentrate their efforts on finding some more freelancers to pay them rather than finding new translations. Now, if you're dealing with translation agencies, you should also get to know some of their tricks. I should say that translation agencies come in all shapes and sizes.

There are some excellent ones out there which are usually listed and rated on the pros comm blue board By the way, and then there's some terrible ones. And if you're confused about what the pros comm blue board is, you can see that in the previous lesson on translation websites, there are also However, some terrible ones. These are some of their tricks, at least some of the ones that I've seen. Now one trick is to change the translator mid job. What happens is that the end clients say the law firm or the bank or whoever wants to hire the translation agency but wants to have them translate something short first before they give them a huge translation to work on. So this translation agency will hire someone good and more likely expensive to translate or edit a short document.

And then they'll give this translated document to the client in order to win their bid. They will then hire someone very cheap to perform the actual work if they win this bid. So if you're performing a translation test, just be aware of this in the back of your mind. Another thing they might do is hire you for the first part of the translation ie the short tests so that they can win the bid. And they will tell you oh can you do this for a low price? Because We will have a lot more coming later on and huge volume.

But then when they do have the huge volume, they hire someone else even cheaper than you to work on it anyway, you never know. But just keep this in mind. Number two is they might try to hire students for little or nothing. They might offer to pay them in things such as recommendation letters, future references, or just abysmally low salaries because they feel like they can. Again, keep this in mind. Another one and one of my favorites is when they translate something using only Google Translate, or Bing translate, and then they try to hire you only as the editor.

And so this happened to me and I was given a translation to edit quote, unquote, and they said that their translator had worked on it and they weren't very happy with it. I got a bit suspicious also because the translation was really pretty crappy. And so I entered The source text in the original Italian language into Bing translate, and then I asked Bing translator to translate it from time to English. And sure enough, it sped out exactly what the client had sent me. So I wrote back to them, I was polite. And basically, I didn't claim that they were trying to cheat me.

I said, Oh, whoever you hired as a translator tried to cheat you. And so I can translate this document for x price. But I won't do an editing job on this because it obviously wasn't translated. I never heard from them again. But quite frankly, that's not a company I want to deal with. So it worked out fine.

Now, once again, none of this is to dissuade you from dealing with translation agencies. Like I said, They come in all shapes and sizes, and the vast majority are honest translation agencies that actually make their money from honest translations. So I would definitely sign up for them and work with them. However, these are just things to keep in the back of your mind when you're dealing with them. Just so if you notice something is amiss, that it might raise a red flag