10 RED FLAGS IN A TRANSLATOR (Freelance Translator)

Today I'm sharing 10 red flags in translators. Make sure to watch this video and avoid these mistakes!

Video by *Adrian Probst*

Spanish Subtitles by Damian Ramirez
Hungarian Subtitles by Anita Sinkovicz
Ukrainian Subtitles by Andrii Kharuk
Portuguese Subtitles by Adão Pingano Reage
Polish Subtitles by Ewelina Stypik
Russian Subtitles by Мария Ермишина

To subtitle my video into your native language, drop me a message to:

Feel free to connect on LinkedIn and send me a message:

- my website -

- Socials -
Check out the Freelanceverse on Spotify/Instagram/Twitter as well and give it a follow :)

[OddNiffer]

As a professional translator it's heartbreaking when I hear about individuals or agencies who do these things. Like, it's not that difficult to be professional and they just give the rest of us a bad reputation.

[Ytuser]

The RED FLAGS
1)mistakes in email, when communicating about your services
2) too many language combinations
3)too many specializations
4) accepting jobs you have no knowledge in
5) unable to understand briefs and references
6) last minute deadline
7)claiming a high quality translation although it isn’t
8) unresponsiveness & delivering too late
9) no reading about the subject matter
10) working for very small prices

[nopseudosleft]

In England its perfectly acceptable to Say: "Dear Sir or Madam" for business emails, although it's rather formal.
Totally agree with all that you said ! Thanks for the great videos !

[ApacheNL]

What on earth is wrong with "dear". This is a perfectly acceptable address, Dear <name>

[rachelcapie]

Hi Adrian. I translate EN>FR and when writing to French clients (in French) I always get my French husband to check my grammar and syntax so that it's as close to perfect as possible. I'd suggest that if someone has a native speaker on call, to get them to glance over an email before sending, just in case.

[philrobertson]

Very good list.
I would add: translators who work into a language other than their own native language.
I run a translation company in Tokyo, and native Japanese speakers attempting to translate into English almost always produce excruciatingly bad output (which is why we never use them).

[herobandar]

Your video is a treasure trove for newcomers. Continue making good videos..

[TranslatorsTech]

Very good pro tips in there! Having a 2 step workflow (TR + Review) or even 3 steps with QA can help mitigate some issues from unprofessional translators that made it through screening. Many small agencies do it.

[paolamessina]

Hi Adrian! First of all, thank you for putting together these videos, they are all inspiring and very insightful. Keep up the good work! 😊 I’ve been working as a PM/AM for several years now and hopefully one day I’ll have the courage to become a freelancer… but in the meantime, I agree with all the points made and I would add another red flag: not being available to review feedback coming from the clients. The translator and proofreader’s work doesn’t stop after the first delivery: a normal agency process would usually include one or (more often) two rounds of client feedback, and unfortunately there is no additional budget for it (I’m not talking about a fully rewritten copy, obviously - in that case we would need to understand what went wrong, and that’s another story…). I appreciate some translators might want to charge extra, but PMs would need to know in advance in order to budget for it. Therefore I would suggest being very open about potential extra charges before taking on a project. After all we don’t just work for the client, we’re on the translators’ side too! 😉

[philippkieffer]

Great video! I have a few thoughts about style guides, though. I get a lot of smaller translations from one agency with detailed 35-page style guides from their corporate clients, and I don't read them. (I have told my client that I won't.) Reading a detailed 35-page style guide simply takes too much time for a one-off job. If it's a long-term client, sure. But if it's a 500 word translation? In those cases, I ctrl-F the usual like gender-neutral language, form of address, etc. and that's it. Style guides are great, but they should be concise, 4 pages max in my opinion.

[mm-l]

Thank you for this video ! Glad to listen that I am a great English to French Canadian Translator.
I have wonderful reviews left by clients.
I love translating !

[JorgeMP]

Excellent video as always, Adrian. I also would like to add another red flag to me to the list: not updating the client on how your work is progressing.

I have found that updating the client on how you're doing things in the process gives them the confidence that their project is in good hands. Also notifying them if you find some things that would need an extra charge, and explaining to them with detail why are you charging extra, is going to tell them that their project is precious to you.

Now, be careful not to use this as an excuse to delay the deadline or to charge extra just because, for this will ruin your image and will definitely mark you with the "No go" badge in the future.

[echojapaneseinterpreting]

I so agree with working for peanuts. I sometimes outsource work to translators and I am really thrown off by someone who wants pennies per word. It's like they don't know their market value.

About having too many languages listed: In interpreting, we use A, B, and C to define our proficiency in working languages. That way, it is clear what languages we are working between and at what level. It would be good for translators to take the same approach. Though, clients aren't always familiar with this.

[awatefeid]

Thank you Adrian. Would you please tackle "Big Projects" in one of your episodes, how to deal with a project of 20k words for instance, productivity hours, how to be able to make editing while you translate, i mean to find a window for a respectable QA process while deadline is only reasonable for translation, Tips for Bulk Jobs and what we should avoid or reconsider when accepting Bulk jobs, and so on to keep the flow of work although i prefer short projects, but freelancing comes with changes everyday. Thanks for your time in reading and answering our queries.

[kaewtamakeupspathailand]

I’m glad that I found your channel, thank you for good stuff🙏

[davidvdps]

I'm realizing I already did 3 out of these 10 red flags as a beginner... Damn.

[fabiomgbr]

Great stuff!! Very helpful knowledge. Thanks a lot!

[mauribarat]

Thank you so much sharing all your knowledge with us buddy! Love your channel and all your content.

[ophirmayer]

Hey! Love your channel, many thanks for the great advice :) If you would like to work together, i translate Hebrew-German-English :)

[lauracatalini]

Hello Adrian! Thank you for this video. How do you gain confidence on a certain specialisation? I totally agree with you point 4, but at the same time I think that one needs to start from somewhere.