(With our thanks for the segnalazione to Charles Lambert, author of the books Little Monsters, Any Human Face, and The Scent of Cinnamon and Other Stories.)
Advertisements
Search No Peanuts!
Categories
-
Recent Posts
- When You Work for Mega Translation Agencies, Here’s Where All the Money Goes That They’re Not Paying You: Part II May 20, 2016
- At Last! Low-Cost Fares for Clients (especially publishers) Who Want to Save Money on Translations!* May 11, 2016
- An Italian literary translator with 22 years of experience leaves the profession … May 1, 2016
- Let Us Now Praise Infamous Publishers: Edizioni E/O & Europa Editions November 10, 2015
- Authors, Keep Your Copyrights. You Earned Them – The Authors Guild August 17, 2015
- Real TranslatorÂź Jobs – Tell me, does this seem like it might be a scam to you? August 14, 2015
- BREAKING: ISBN Edizioni/Massimo Coppola in Bankruptcy August 6, 2015
- ALTA 2014: Ask for What You Deserve – Protecting Literary Translators’ Copyright & Other Rights August 5, 2015
Twitter Updates
- No errors detected! twitter.com/Jeromobot/stat⊠2 weeks ago
- Hmmm, #translators. Did you know that some publishers do this routinely? đ€ twitter.com/chrismeyns/sta⊠2 weeks ago
- Itâs not only translators who are victimized by copyright rustling publishers. Read @chrismeynsâ threads about⊠twitter.com/i/web/status/1⊠2 weeks ago
- RT @ashleydfarley: This thread. More and more funders are stepping up to help authors keep their copyright. twitter.com/chrismeyns/sta⊠2 weeks ago
- RT @provenwrite: .@NOTISnet Because so many just-starting-out translators had questions about copyright & translation yesterday at the conf⊠2 weeks ago
- RT @provenwrite: I wish these issues would be discussed openly and seriously at ATA @atanet and at ALTA @LitTranslate. Why so much resistan⊠2 weeks ago
They’re Talking about No Peanuts!
La Repubblica e le traduttrici invisibili! - from âL'Accademia de' Pignuoliâ di Daniele Gewurz | Traduttori, non accettate le briciole! - from âoperaidelleditoriauniteviâ | Working for Peanuts? - from "Alta Verba " | Los traductores no viven de cacahuetes - from "El Eterno Indeciso" | Don't Be A Monkey - From Kevin Lossner's "Translation Tribulations" | Translators: Stop working for peanuts! - from Tony Baldwin's "non compos mentis" | No Peanuts, au service des traducteurs? - from "Ma voisine millionnaire" | Si vous nâĂȘtes pas un singe, ne travaillez pas pour des cacahuĂštes - from "Le mot juste en anglais" | Un joli badge tout neuf - from "Les piles intermĂ©diaires" | Of Peanuts and Monkeys - from Judy & Dagmar Jenner's "Translation Times" | Movimento No Peanuts! - from Giuseppe Manuel Brescia's "Smuggled Words"
-
Follow No Peanuts! on Facebook!
Feature this badge on your site!
Acknowledgements & Copyright Notice
Guru of graphics & site design | Stefano Kalifire
Contact the content editor and sedition monger to comment on or submit an article.
Copyright notice: The names âNo Peanuts! for Translatorsâ and âNo Peanuts! Movement,â along with the âNo Peanuts! for Translatorsâ banner and the slogan âIf youâre not a monkey, stop working for peanuts!â are copyrighted and may not be used without permission. Articles and posts are © the author(s), unless otherwise indicated. All graphic elements are © No Peanuts! unless otherwise indicated.
Advertisements
I am sorry but the answer to this question is: “yes, but why pay for a translation?”. The macaroni English that is used and sometimes even boasted, by so many Italians is highly embarassing. The worst category is that of the young skilled professionals (lawyers, engineers, top managers, etc.) boasting their intricate written English (there are plenty of such macaroni monsters online). The problem in Italy is that some people just think that translating into English is easy, is an “anyone-can-do-it” job and it is not worth to pay for it. Therefore, it happens that a company hires a so called “stagista” (intern, but better translated as slave) and that this poor “stagista” ends up doing any job the others are not willing to do…though he or she should namely work to learn something relevant to his/her studies…Maybe, it happened that a young “stagista” with a degree in video editing and a basic knowledge of English (raised to “good” on the CV) was asked to update the website frames with an English version…and here you have what RAI (Radio Televisione Italiana, very rich and prestigious) uploaded on the company website.
Of course, this is just my imagination, maybe at RAI they actually spent money for it, but they were cheated.
However it was, bad translations in Italy are a real problem, more and more widespread. Languages are a profession that should be assigned to linguists…and linguists should be paid for it.
Gabriella
I do agree with Gabriella Gentile. 90% of the Italians when it come to translations think as follows:
“I don’t need to pay for this… I know a guy that will do it for free, it is not big deal.”
That applies to anything, why pay a trained Technician to fix your computer when someone’s cousin once fixed a computer for few bucks?? Pick up the phone and call the untrained lad that eventually will mess up the system, at that point you will realize that perhaps a trained IT was a better choice – still, the gambling was too exciting to give up, and the next time you have a problem you ask someone else’s cousin to fix your computer before calling the IT (again).
That’s Italy.