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			General Discussion (Show all) Viewpoints, Questions, Comments, Advice Would you ever consider doing ...		Becky Barath, Patrick Panifous		Last Activity August 28, 2008 3:17 AM 31 replies, 1924 viewings		Search Only in Messages

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Posted:
July 21, 2008 1:39 AM

Post #151188—in reply to #151171

Daniela Hubrich
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RE: Would you ever consider doing volunteer work?

Originally written by Sonoko Enami on July 21, 2008 4:42 PM
...
But then I started to wonder if I was "stealing" work from other professional translators by doing the work for free. Besides that, as Steffen mentioned, it's true some NGOs have a huge budget and hire consultants, lawyers, and such. These days I charge for my translation work, especially for legal documents, if it is such a big organization. I do volunteering only for local and/or small environmental groups.

Having said that, because I'm very interested in nature and animals, and translation jobs in that field are scarce except those from NGOs, I would do that kind of translation even for free, just for fun. It's killing me to see horrible translation because environmental groups give jobs to low-rate translators. So I'm not sure I'm doing the right thing.

Dear Sonoko

Those are reasons why I have hesitated to work with Greenpeace. I think they have a lot of money. But as I have said until now I haven't done anything for them.

What is good there: In the beginning I was asked which field (among 10 or so) I was most interested in and of course which languages I translate from and to. And once a month or so every participant receives short reports about what has been translated in which field/campain and who has done the work. And they say: We have some new collegues: ..... This more or less regular mail is rather personal so you get the impression to be really part of sth.

Daniela

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Posted:
July 21, 2008 5:49 AM

Post #151199—in reply to #151171

Jonathan Downie

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RE: Would you ever consider doing volunteer work?

Originally written by Sonoko Enami on July 20, 2008 9:42 PM

Thank you, Jonathan, for starting an interesting topic. This is an issue I've been thinking about for many years, and still can't make up my mind about, one way or another.

I had been a volunteer for various animal and eco-related NGOs, doing office work and helping fundraising, that sort of things, even before I became a professional translator. When I started to work as a freelance translator, it seemed natural to me to do some volunteer translation for those groups, so I did that for a few years.

But then I started to wonder if I was "stealing" work from other professional translators by doing the work for free. Besides that, as Steffen mentioned, it's true some NGOs have a huge budget and hire consultants, lawyers, and such. These days I charge for my translation work, especially for legal documents, if it is such a big organization. I do volunteering only for local and/or small environmental groups.

Having said that, because I'm very interested in nature and animals, and translation jobs in that field are scarce except those from NGOs, I would do that kind of translation even for free, just for fun. It's killing me to see horrible translation because environmental groups give jobs to low-rate translators. So I'm not sure I'm doing the right thing.

This reminds me a lot of my position. I do free work in both translation and interpreting for my church and the group it belongs to. We have a Europe/Asia/Middle East conference every year and I am routingly asked to do some English to French work for them. Since they were the first people to trust me with interpreting and since it was due to the church that I forst really gained a passion for interpreting, something in me feels I owe them. Besides, I know the church well and I know that when a project is setup, funds are raised especially for that and every penny goes where it says on the envelope. Admin costs are covered by local churches, pastors are paid by local churches and our European Chairman and his wife are paid from other contributions. There is simply no question of them having "loads of money." Even conference costs are skewed so that we westerners pay more to pay for the airfare and accomodation of those who can afford it least.

However, as much as I love this work and would gladly work for free for my church and for the range of speakers I respect and learn from regularly, I strognly believe in the need to create a network of professional interpreters so wherever these people go, they can find an expert and professional who will interpret their message with love, care and passion. I also believe that "a worker is worthy of his hire" and that interpreters, like Pastors and speakers, deserve their pay. After all, would they expect to get the services of lawyers for free? Would they expect to travel for free?

So, I am caught in the middle. I would gladly work for free but I don't believe it is always right but having worked for free, it is difficult to convince people to start paying. I once sat down and worked out what the minimum rate to hire all professional for our Europe/Asia/Middle East conference would be and I realised that it was as much, if not more, as we raised one year to build the next stage of one of our projects in Bulgaria (a woman's health clinic). When you weigh the two up, I know where I would rather send the cash.

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Would you ever consider doing volunteer work?
Would you ever consider doing volunteer translation or interpreting work for a client? As a newer freelancer, I am interested in this, especially since some of my future clients currently use "amateurs" or "volunteer" interpreters.
Option	Votes
Yes, no problem.
Yes, I need the practice
It depends on their sector
It depends on my schedule
Never, that's too cheap!
No, I am too busy
I have done and will do again
Free work is insulting