SOS Translation Chat

I wanted to tell you about SOS Translator Chat, a new service designed to answer those "quick questions" that clients have. We all get them. Agencies or direct clients will e-mail or message us asking how to say "cosa juzgada" and we courteously reply with a quick answer. (At least I do).

We as translators receive a fee per minute by answering clients' questions via a proprietary chat interface. Payout is via Paypal. Once this service starts up, I will post my impressions. Meantime, here is what SOS Translator Chat has to say about itself:

"SOS Translator Chat is going to be launched in May. Until then, we are recruiting translators for all language combinations. Please contact your colleagues and let them know that a new company is on the translation market and so one more opportunity for them to earn money from translations. The more translators there are in the system, the more successful live chats for the clients!
SOS Translator Chat is an idea that has been developed due to the needs of clients who require translations on a regular basis: small translations, sometimes only a sentence, sometimes only a word that is needed in another language. When you register as a translator, which is free, the customer can chat with you about their translation request. Payment will be based on your price per minute, with or without the start rate, which you can set in your account. You, as a translator, will set your own prices and your own start rate. Keep your prices attractive as the client can see your prices and your qualifications. You can request the release of payment whenever you want via your online account.

To edit your translator profile, please login to: http://sostranslatorchat.com/"

Legal Links

Here are some links I have collected over the months:

Law.com

Child Support Network

Divorce.com

Justicia Chile

Use country name

When a document is being written for an audience in the same country, there is no need to specify which country the author is talking about. "en este país" is the most appropriate way to phrase it in most instances. Nor is it necessary to do so when naming national institutions, figures and publications. What would be the point? Emphasis is the only reason that comes to mind.

However, when translating that same document into English, it is usually appropriate to translate "en este país" as "in Mexico/Colombia/Spain/etc." We cannot expect the target reader to automatically know which country the author is referring to, at least not in the first instance. Perhaps it later instances of the document, the translator could omit the country's name since he or she already mentioned it in the first instance of this phrase.

National institutions, as alluded to above, may also require the country's name in the translation even when not explicitly included in the source term. "Tesorería General de la República" should be translated as "Chilean Treasury Department". (I have seen "General Treasury of the Republic", but "Republic of what?" is the question that pops into my head when I see it translated that way).

Any of you who have translated any number of translations from Spain will have come across the "BOE" or "Boletín Oficial del Estado". I translate it as "Official Spanish Gazette" because upon saying Spanish, I am saying that the publication belongs to the Spanish government which, in turn, alludes to "Estado" or "State".