Musings of a Translation Company on How Translation Touches Lives

I once stumbled upon a website of a fellow translation company where the argument was made that those companies who spend time translating personal documents such as birth certificates and university transcripts make for unprofessional and unreliable translation providers for large businesses. The translation company further claimed that those doing such lowly translation work are simply not competent to do corporate work. For if they were, they would not be working “at the bottom of the profession”.

Somehow this just leaves me with a sour taste in my mouth. While it is more than obvious that translating solely for private clients (as we call them) would hardly make a solid business case, we are certainly far from turning them away. Nowadays, around 99% of what we do is B2B translation service. But I have to say that it is the 1% of our clientele that make for the best stories to tell about translation and how it can touch lives in some pretty unexpected ways.

An elderly gentleman named Paul once came to the office toting an old shoe box. I will never forget the concern on his face when he slid the box across the table to me and asked: “How much?”. The box was stuffed with handwritten letters from the 1920s. All in Italian. There were black and white photographs with handwriting on the back. Priceless treasures of a lifetime. This man decided that putting together the story of his family’s history for his children and grandchildren was going to be his retirement project. Once we figured out a way around pricing (and, no, we did not do it by weight of the shoe box), our translators were instrumental in completing the puzzle of generations of one family living on two continents.

Another time, Brian called on a Friday afternoon and said he needed an urgent translation of a few Japanese characters. We asked for the original. He wanted to just come to the office and bring it to us. We finally settled on him emailing the original. The attachment to his email was a picture of Brian’s tattoo on his chest. The translation of the Kanji characters read “Peace & Love”. Because of our quick help, the young man was able to join the U.S. Marines that afternoon. Making sure his tattoo was not gang related or un-american was the last step in the process.

We have also made personal acquaintance of Mariana, Edward’s new wife. Edward, one of our client’s employees, fell in love on a business trip to Brazil. After a whirlwind romance, he continued visiting Mariana whenever he could. Once they decided to get married, we were with Edward through every step of the immigration process, translating virtually everything there was to know about him and Mariana. It took him a year and a half to get fiance visa for her. And when she was finally allowed to join him in the US, Edward brought her to our office the very next day. Meeting her and witnessing their happiness was one of the most moving experiences we have had.

You see, the work of our corporate clients is important. What they do changes the world every day. New medications get introduced to the market, or information spreads about life-saving machines, industrial technologies or products that make lives easier for people on a global scale. Our clients grow because of translation. New markets and new audiences open up for them as a result of the work we do. But who is to say that what we did for Paul, Brian or Mariana was any less important? It may not have changed the whole world but it certainly has made a difference in their world.

This is why we choose to accept private projects. And it does not, in any way, diminish our ability to excel at large volume, complex document translation. We still know how to manage projects. We still keep up with all the new technology our industry throws our way. And I dare to say that because we have seen the faces of those whose lives were truly touched by translation, our translation, we are better for it – as translators, and as people.

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