When I started my education in translation, I didn’t realize that my skin color would automatically disqualify and call in to question my Spanish-English translation abilities.
While I was still in school, I began working in a medical office where most of the patients were migrant workers who only spoke Spanish. My job was to keep track of immunization records for the children of these immigrants. However, when my boss realized that I was studying translation, she asked me to translate material both from English to Spanish, as well as Spanish to English. Most of the material was to help the patients understand the various services available, as well as other important information for them, or for the non-Spanish-speaking staff.
The arrangement was working out great because they were able to take advantage of my skills, and I was able to get some real-life training that I couldn't get in school. One day, however, that all changed. My boss decided to hire a lady to work in the office doing some data entry and other similar tasks. Well, this lady was Hispanic and spoke Spanish, but her English wasn't very good. That didn't stop my boss from deciding that since she was Hispanic, she could translate better than I could and therefore should translate all the material that they needed, whether it was from English to Spanish or Spanish to English.
As you can well imagine, I was stunned. Here I was, a translator in training doing a good job and then I got replaced because by someone just because of their heritage, even though they had poor writing skills and poor English.
No amount of talking to my boss could convince them that translation is more than just being able to speak a foreign language and they never asked my to translate anything and I shortly thereafter left for another job. I did end up seeing some of the translations done by the other lady and was sad to see that they were very poor. She was even put in charge of translating the clinic's website and the results were disastrous. It was a lesson I've never forgot.
That wasn't the last time. Since then I've been discriminated against because of my blond hair and blue eyes and I've come to deal with it to some degree these days. (Now it's my wife who gets upset.)
So if you're reading this and need a Spanish-English translation of your website or business proposal, don't choose a translator just because their last name is Garcia, or some other Hispanic name. That might not be the best choice.
Clint Tustison is a translator interested in helping other translators improve their businesses. His website, Spanish-translation-help.com is filled with information helpful to translators regarding the translation industry, and his free monthly newsletter, Translator Techniques, has tips and techniques for translators.
Source: www.articlesphere.com
