Do translation agencies appreciate experts?

Most people will know what translation is. They understand that translation is the process of transferring the meaning from one language to another:

Translation is an act through which the content of a text is transferred from the source language in to the target language (Foster, 1958). 

There are three essential skills that every translator needs to have, but not everybody appreciates them. Those skills are:

 Proficiency in another language

This is rather obvious, although some people and companies not wanting to spend money on translation wrongly believe that using someone who has an intermediate or advanced knowledge of another language would be sufficient.

Translation skills

These include specialist translation training, research skills, writing skills, attention to detail, adhering to strict specifications, ability to transfer style, tone and cultural nuances from one language to another, word processing and use of CAT (Computer Assisted Translation) tools – to name but a few.

 Specialisation 

Every translator specialises in at least one field. Deep knowledge and understanding of a translation subject are essential in order to transfer the meaning. Although we may appreciate the expertise of our GP, we would not expect him to give us equally expert advice on corporate law. Translators usually specialise in areas related to their academic background, professional experience or interest.

When I came to England 22 years ago I passed Cambridge University’s Proficiency in English as a Foreign Language exam. This was my first skill required to become a translator. I followed it with a postgraduate qualification in international business from an English university to add to my graduate qualification from a Polish banking college, as well as specialist interpreting qualification allowing me to work in legal sector. This has provided me with areas of expertise for translation: law, business and finance. Since then I have enjoyed 17 years working mainly as an interpreter, which regularly also involved small translation tasks. Last year I took a decision to qualify formally as a translator and take my translation side of business more seriously. I took an advanced online course to prepare for a translation assessment. That year I also purchased CAT tools and learnt to use them. I passed the assessment this year and was awarded ISO 17100:2015 Qualified Translator status. Thus, I satisfied all three requirements to be a translator.

And yet, I am disappointed with the response I received from the translation market. The reason I am disappointed is that I feel that all the translation agencies I have approached so far did not value specialisation in the least. The most common reply I received was that they already have enough Polish translators. I wanted to ask them how many of their Polish translators have MSc in International Business and specialise in Financial Reports? Institute of Translation and Interpreting lists only three Polish translators in the whole of the UK who are ISO Qualified and specialise in Finance and I am one of them. And yet most of the agencies have not even responded, despite having Join Us forms for freelance translators on their websites seemingly encouraging freelancers to register. My specialist areas of law, finance, HR and business are not too niche that there would be no requirement for them. Polish is the second language spoken in the UK according to the 2011 Census, so it cannot be considered a rare language for translation. It appears to me that the agencies perception of the skills required from a translator are as shallow as that of a client who does not know much about translating profession. I expected more from translation companies.