Barbara, I know you are distressed, so I know there is no need for me to add to that distress. Since I am not allowed to rebuke the "bully" to make you feel better, maybe the following story will do. I found it in one of the forums and was really helped by it.

In a discussion meeting, before the famous speaker spoke a word, he held a US $20 banknote in his hand. Facing with an audience of 200 people, he asked, "Who wants this US $20 note?" Almost everyone raised up their hands. He added, "I am going to give it to only one of you. But before that, please allow me to do one thing." Having said that, he crushed up the note, and then asked, "Who still wants it?" Still more than half of the audience raised up their hands. He added, "Well, what if I do this?" He threw the banknote on the ground, and trampled on it. He then picked it up, it has become very dirty and wrinkled. "Now who still wants it?" A few people still raised up their hands. "My friends", he said, "you have learned a very meaningful lesson. No matter how I treated that banknote, you still want it because it is not devalued--it is still worth 20 U.S. dollars. On the road of life, you may be defeated by your own mistakes or adversity, you may be bullied and even ground to pieces. You may feel that you are worthless. But no matter what happens...you will never lose your value..." Source: http://dzh.mop.com/mainFrame.jsp?url=http://dzh.mop.com/topic/readSub_8506826_0_0.html Translated by: Jerry Hsiao

　　

Just to supplement my previous post to show that it's not my theory but my experience.

This was the email I received from one translation agency at 28 Sep 2008 16:01:09 +0800

Attached is an excel file with feedbacks of Jerry Hsiao's test translation. The legal part is the best among the 3 types of tests but still some problems found. Tell him that we are sorry that the quality of his translation may fail our expectation after looking at his rates because his work will require lots of editing and proofreading.

I felt like that 20 dollar banknote being crushed up and trampled underfoot.

Then I received another email from another translation agency at Oct 9, 2008 5:12 PM.

Dear Jerry,   Thank you for letting me know of your job status. That is quite alright with me, and I will find someone else in the list. However, you are the only appropriate person to take care of this kind of project and I will try to contact you next time again.   Best regards,

 

Are these two emails talking about the same translator? YES!

Still a few people want a crushed up and trampled 20 dollar banknote.

This was the email I received from one translation agency at 28 Sep 2008 16:01:09 +0800 Attached is an excel file with feedbacks of Jerry Hsiao's test translation. The legal part is the best among the 3 types of tests but still some problems found. Tell him that we are sorry that the quality of his translation may fail our expectation after looking at his rates because his work will require lots of editing and proofreading. I felt like that 20 dollar banknote being crushed up and trampled underfoot. Then I received another email from another translation agency at Oct 9, 2008 5:12 PM. Dear Jerry,   Thank you for letting me know of your job status. That is quite alright with me, and I will find someone else in the list. However, you are the only appropriate person to take care of this kind of project and I will try to contact you next time again.   Best regards,   Are these two emails talking about the same translator? YES! Still a few people want a crushed up and trampled 20 dollar banknote.

Hi Jerry,

If it were me, I would have welcomed the first e-mail.  I will tell you why.  In any endeavour that requires excellence, criticism is our best friend.  It is also true that perfection is an impossibility, but we can always come closer to perfection.  It is also true that we are blind to our own imperfections, because if we saw our weak areas we would have corrected them and they would no longer be weak.  So if someone gives me this kind of message, I want to investigate whether there is an opportunity to strengthen some weakness I don't know about.  This assumes that the person who has criticized my work (note: important - Do not believe you are being criticized, it's your work.) is qualified, and his/her criticism is justified.

My first move, upon receiving that first e-mail, would be to thank these people, and then to ask them to tell me the nature of the weaknesses they saw so that I can improve in these areas, and if possible, the original proofread translation, red letters, crossouts, comments, warts and all!  Provided that they actually have some expertise I would study this, see where I might have weaknesses, and then I would set out to strengthen these areas.  I would end up being a better translator in areas that I was not strong in before, and that makes me competitive.

Please note that many such agencies have agendas.  The ones who wrote you might just have been giving you a line.  If they say that your work was substandard and not matching your rates, they may simply be trying to intimidate you by making you feel inadequate and rejected (in the latter they seem to have succeeded) so that they can get you to offer inacceptably low rates.  That is dishonest and manipulative.  It is also very common.  In the HFS you see this all the time: an agency who repeatedly doesn't pay its translators and also demands to pay uncommonly low rates will say "The translation was of poor quality, the client was dissatisfied, and we will not pay." Such an agency is actually demonstrating its own incompetence.  You probably have enough experience in the business to understand why that is so.

I am also a music student, and I began late in life.  That means a few years ago I got to stand up in front of an audience of maybe 200 parents and friends of students, and play a piece that I had sweated and slaved over, to the best of my ability, preceded by a 5 year old who did a rather decent job of the same piece of music.  It teaches you something about ego.  Often I sounded just fine to myself.  The biggest favour I got, once I could take it, is when someone listed my main faults.  I had not been aware of them before.  I started working on them.  I started noticing them myself.  I started noticing excellence in professional musicians when I heard them on the radio, because I had new ears and knowledge.  "Hey, that guy's timing is quite nice."  I didn't really think much had changed in what I was doing because I had not heard my weaknesses before so I was as ok in my eyes as any other time.  Actually I thought I was worse since I was now aware of the weak spots.  But other people noticed.  Because as I worked on my weak areas, they became strong areas.  People would tell me, "Something has really changed.  You really sound good now." (Me thinking: so all this time you were making me feel good but you always thought I didn't sound good before.  It would have helped to be told so I can fix it.)

This experience has gone back to translation.  I have always tried to improve, but in recent years I almost jump for joy if I find I was in error about something.  Wow - that's a place where I can learn and improve!  It may be some area of knowledge that I venture into in a TCTerms question, something that I wouldn't ordinarily translate.  Recently a colleague gently let me know that there was a host of meanings to a word in my mother tongue I didn't know, so that my tentative suggestion had been quite off.  Well, that was fantastic!   I spent a couple of hours learning everything that I could about that word and that field.  I am richer for it.  Imagine - I could have spent another 20 years thinking I knew everything about that word, satisfied with myself.  Seen in that light, which would you prefer?

Maxi

First of all, I did not vote on this poll. I'm more inclined to vote "no" however, and I'm really baffled by the high percentage of "yes" votes. I'm pretty sure I'm not the first to say this, but debate is always constructive. Bans are almost always undemocratic and a sign that there exists a break in communication, and thus can be applicable in extreme circumstances, which, at least, in my opinion, is not the case. We're all grownups and after a quick look at TCT discussions, one realizes that these complaints sound really childish. My four year old daughter always tells me to tell her kindergarten teacher to tell the girls that she doesn't like not to be mean to her. I think that the length of this thread proves just this. If there is debate, one can always handle it by oneself, without involving others in a somewhat sterile argument. It just does not seem a life and death matter to me.

If this is a personal battle, and you feel offended, you can feel free to ignore this post.

Ines

I really wasn't going to reply.  However, this situation is just so childish.  Surely you have better things to do in life than criticize like this?  It's very sad, quite frankly and I hate to see translators reduced to this level.

Lynne