I had a look at this agency's requirements for application:

• Email lengthy resume, with lots of required information
• Email statement of motivation for applying
• Email several sample translations
• Send above documents via postal mail

Motivation for applying? Is this a freelancer application or an essay contest? And why require the same documents to be both emailed and posted?

I think the problem is clear: the agency's screening process is screening out the top applicants, not the bottom ones. I don't think many established translators would go through this kind of rigmarole just for the chance of getting work from this agency; established translators already have a good stream of work.

In other words, when you hire an established translator, you're competing with other translation buyers for this person's time. Why make it a hassle to switch?

It's pretty obvious to me that this agency thinks too highly of itself. You might even take the cynical view that the agency is screening for exactly what it wants: the timid and easily controlled. That's fine. But then don't come complaining to me that you can't get any decent talent.

How to get good translators

The big problem with this agency's approach is that it's passive. The agency puts up an "employment opportunities" page, and waits for the applications to roll in. This kind of approach is obviously going to be biased toward people who don't have enough work for whatever reason — in at least some cases because they're beginners or not good translators.

In my book, the best way to find good translators actually involves doing some work. Instead of passively waiting for applications, go to where translators hang out — mailing lists, forums, what have you. Find the ones who look competent, and contact them. Then if rates, specializations, and other factors match up, send them a small, paid job. If they do well, send increasingly large jobs. I've had several clients approach me this way, and these have turned into some of my best customers.

Sure, this is more work than casting your nets and seeing what turns up in them. But if you truly want good translators, and aren't just paying lip service to quality, can you afford not to?

Crossed purposes

Often agencies will ask for rather large volume discounts — larger than translators are willing to give. A big reason for this is that the interests of translators and translation agencies aren't aligned. The marginal cost of production falls much more rapidly for the agency than for the translator. Although they do have to proof, edit, and (in some cases) DTP your work, a large proportion of the agency's costs are fixed: salaries, sales, marketing, rent, … Selling 200 pages of translation isn't much more costly to the agency than selling 100 pages.

Big jobs greatly increase the profit margin of the agency, and thus they're often willing to offer a hefty discount to get them. The agency has then got to turn around and convince the translator to accept this discount.

Ramp-up time and familiarization

The marginal costs for the translator also decrease with volume. I think most translators will agree that doing five 1,000-word jobs will take more time, on average, than one 5,000-word job. For me, it's because it takes me a little time to get my head into a particular job, and with five different jobs I've got to switch gears five times. There's also the terminology issue: I usually have fewer and fewer terms to research/come up with good translations for as the job goes on.

On the longer job, my translation will also tend to be better. This is because I get a better picture of what the document is saying; when terms are used more often, or the technology is described in more detail, I have a better chance of being accurate with my translation.

But although my output does increase with larger jobs, it still takes more time (i.e. costs more) to do 200 pages than 100. This might be worth a discount, but generally not the really steep ones that some agencies ask for.

Discount or surcharge

Because of the benefits of longer jobs, I'd prefer getting more large jobs and fewer small ones. As a translator, I'd prefer doing this by charging a surcharge for smaller jobs. But of course, clients never like to pay surcharges, and love to get discounts. So why not turn it around: charge what you consider a decent rate for large jobs, and a commensurately higher rate for small ones — but tell the client that the small-job rate is your normal rate, and the volume rate is your discounted rate.

On the other hand, if the client wants discounts for matches in a TM, then in my view the volume discount goes out the window. It's either one or the other.

What you can get away with

As is almost always the case with business (and as freelance translators, we are in business), it's not a matter of what's fair, but a matter of what you can get away with. If an agency can squeeze a big volume discount out of a translator, it will. And if the translator can get away with not giving a volume discount, she won't. The need to hire and retain good translators, and the need to attract and keep clients, are what balance the equation.

In the end, I take a request for a volume discount as a bargaining position. I weigh that request against how attractive the client's work is, relative to other sources of work that I have. If the numbers don't match up, and the client won't accept my counter offer, then I won't take the work. If they do add up, then I will.

Probably the worst offender is the 文部科学省, which has the quite unwieldy official translation of Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. This is a real pain when you're constrained for space, such as when translating a table or PowerPoint presentation. At least the abbreviation is a tidy four-letter "MEXT."

Perhaps a bit less drastic is the 郵政研究所, literally the "postal policy research institute." They slipped a trendy "telecommunications" into the English translation: "Institute for Posts and Telecommunications Policy."

Another example is the 国土交通省. Literally, it's the "ministry of land and transport," but the English translation is "Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport." The MLIT was created by merging the old Ministry of Transport and Ministry of Construction; my guess is that the MOC people were upset about losing any mention of "construction" in the Japanese name, so stuck the far more trendy "infrastructure" into the English translation as a face-saving measure.

Land grab?

The MEXT started life as the 文部省, with a nice, pithy English translation of "Ministry of Education." One can only imagine the backroom deals and lavish foreign junkets overseas fact-finding missions that went into getting a 科学 (Science) tacked onto them.

Since the ministry pretty much controls its own English translation, it looks like the MEXT really let their territory-coveting hair down when coming up with the English name. I'm actually surprised that they didn't simply call themselves the Ministry of Life, the Universe, and Everything.

Example of restraint

A good example of restraint is the 総務省, literally the "general affairs ministry." In 2001, it changed its official translation from Ministry of Public Management, Home Affairs, Posts and Telecommunications to Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications. Still more of a mouthful than the Japanese, but it's heading in the right direction.

At least some agencies get it

Of course, not all English translations of Japanese government agency names are tales of woe. A good example is the 海上保安庁, which recently changed its official translation from the somewhat cryptic Maritime Safety Agency to the much more understandable Japan Coast Guard. In this case I suspect they simply gave in to pressure, since most English-speaking media referred to them as the Coast Guard anyway, and even 海上保安庁 people usually called themselves the Japanese Coast Guard when dealing with foreign entities.

And now for something completely different

While researching this post, I noticed that Kenkyusha's Reader's Plus dictionary has a translation for "Ministry of Silly Walks": ばかあるき省.