Will Translate/Interpret for Food

All of us receive and come across hard-to-believe work "offers", and we had to sharee that one of our colleagues kindly sent us.It's quite difficult to top the chutzpah of this one. The European spice distributor Kotanyi (a very large and well-respected company) actually posted this piece of paper outside several classrooms at University of Vienna's Institute for Translation Studies looking for a language services provider. Apparently, the difference between a translator and an interpreter wasn't known to them, so they just posted "Translator/Interpreter". The German-language note is full of typographical errors, and for your amusement, here's a translation of the sentence that got us the most:

"Your services would not be paid, but we would provide food and drink." Nice! Hey, perhaps we can all munch on some dried oregano, try some chile peppers or chew on some vanilla beans, and who knows, they might even throw in a sandwich or two and some cold milk to counteract the spicy chiles!

Needless to say, the Austrian Translators' and Interpreters' Association UNIVERSITAS is taken action and will send a strong and informative letter about our industry to Kotanyi.

This one certainly deserves this year's most offensive offer of the year award. If you have any other finalists to propose, we'd love to hear them.


3 comments:

Frédéric Jacquier-Calbet on March 9, 2009 at 4:46 AM said...

Mind you, it's better than some outsourcers who offer €0.02 per word, which is not enough to buy food or drinks !

Judy Jenner and Dagmar Jenner on March 9, 2009 at 12:25 PM said...

Good point. Those folks offering the $0.02 translations certainly have a lot of chutzpah, too.

Anonymous said...

It doesn't get to that level, but me and me fellas here in Latin America can't help but to feel jealous about the compensations we see up there in the US and Europe.

Join the conversation! Commenting is a great way to become part of the translation and interpretation community. Your comments don’t have to be overly academic to get published. We usually publish all comments that aren't spam, self-promotional or offensive to others. Agreeing or not agreeing with the issue at hand and stating why is a good way to start. Social media is all about interaction, so don’t limit yourself to reading and start commenting! We very much look forward to your comments and insight. Let's learn from each other and continue these important conversations.

Subscribe by email:

 

Twitter update


Site Info

The entrepreneurial linguists and translating twins blog about the business of translation from Las Vegas and Vienna.

Translation Times