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Poll: What part of freelance translation do you enjoy the least?
Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
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Mar 9

This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "What part of freelance translation do you enjoy the least?".

This poll was originally submitted by Khurram Shahzad. View the poll results »
 
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida  Identity Verified
Portugal
Local time: 20:05
Member (2007)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
Other Mar 9

I enjoy working as a freelance translator, but for

1. Chasing payments
2. Deciphering ad-hoc abbreviations
3. Editing other people’s work (except for two colleagues)
4. Marketing myself
5. Untangling poorly written source texts
6. Receiving mass emails

Josephine Cassar
Maria Laura Curzi
Elaine Ruby
Khurram Shahzad
Angie Garbarino
Laura Kingdon
 
Josephine Cassar
Josephine Cassar  Identity Verified
Malta
Local time: 21:05
Member (2012)
English to Maltese
+ ...
Plus Mar 9

Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida wrote:

I enjoy working as a freelance translator, but for

1. Chasing payments
2. Deciphering ad-hoc abbreviations
3. Editing other people’s work (except for two colleagues)
4. Marketing myself
5. Untangling poorly written source texts
6. Receiving mass emails

Though chasing late payments must be the worst, I also consider some NDAs cumbersome, plus low rates and terms offered. In the present circumstances, it's also waiting for a job to land in your email and it's no longer the case that it's for lack of marketing either. Though the other points may be unpleasant, they are nothing next to these, and I do enjoy translating especially when the subject matter is varied.

Elaine Ruby
Khurram Shahzad
Angie Garbarino
Laura Kingdon
 
Chié_JP
Chié_JP  Identity Verified
Member (2013)
English to Japanese
+ ...
More number of tags than text in source document Mar 10

More number of tags than text in source document

PM change all terms of purchase after completion or PM ghost and gone (rare, it only happens with specific oursourcers that I already blocked from contacting on ProZ, this list is very valuable to me)

Being asked if an obviously and objectively worse revised-version is "better" than submitted averagely good (and well-acceptable) quality translation file on time, and demanded to explain why in detail, or being told that an... See more
More number of tags than text in source document

PM change all terms of purchase after completion or PM ghost and gone (rare, it only happens with specific oursourcers that I already blocked from contacting on ProZ, this list is very valuable to me)

Being asked if an obviously and objectively worse revised-version is "better" than submitted averagely good (and well-acceptable) quality translation file on time, and demanded to explain why in detail, or being told that an intricate translation is too difficult for them,
and hence labeled as "mistranslation"
Worst case, one hostile reviser made up false "errors".

Great rating found on ProZ BB but specific cohort of people are negatively rating the experience (plus, specific cohort of ppl are positive about it) and when you exactly fall into that specific former group, higher probability of repeating their misery

[Edited at 2026-03-10 10:53 GMT] ▲ Collapse
 
Novian Cahyadi (X)
Novian Cahyadi (X)  Identity Verified

Local time: 02:05
Other Mar 10

Toxicity in the translators' online communities that makes pottasium cyanide pale in comparison.

Maria Laura Curzi
IrinaN (X)
 


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Poll: What part of freelance translation do you enjoy the least?






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