How should a translation company approach a high-volume project? And what is the most ethical response to a client that insists that it needs an extremely high volume of material translated in an unrealistically short time?
In Japan, with its huge Japanese‑to‑English translation market, the caveat that a translator should only translate into his or her own native language goes largely ignored, and a huge volume of Japanese material ends up being translated by native speakers of Japanese—often with dire results.
In Europe it is axiomatic that a translator should only translate into his or her own native language—the rationale being that non-native speakers of the target language lack the ability to write as clearly and fluently as a native speakers can. Thus, only a native German speaker will be assigned English-to-German translation work. In Japan, however, this basic tenet goes largely ignored.
This list was the companion list to the Ideal Subcontractor list and was written about translation consumers, …
