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Attraverso…on discussion. Be honest: how do you feel when you get an email that has the word feedback in the subject line?
When we talk about our work we rightly tend to highlight our skills, our strengths and our successes, but we all know that nobody’s perfect. That’s why it’s total normal that even if we translate with great care and to the best of our ability, our clients will eventually send feedback highlighting an error or requesting changes or clarifications.
To answer my initial question: for much of my professional career as a translator, seeing the word feedback has felt like a lightning bolt coming out of nowhere, which in a millisecond brings me to question my confidence in myself and in my abilities. And the keyword is precisely in this reflection, even if in the wrong sense: discussion. Because when one of our clients reports something it’s because they are showing something they need, explaining how they believe this need should be met. And it’s of course our task to satisfy them, but not to perceive their requests as impositions, instead considering them as suggestions for discussion.
Would you like to know how I managed to revolutionise how I react to feedback? Here are my five suggestions for turning any criticism into an opportunity for constructive discussion:
1) Remember that it’s not personal – negative feedback is not a personal attack, it simply indicates one or more elements of our work that doesn’t meet the client’s expectations or which the customer has questions about. So the first thing to do is take a deep breath and remind ourselves that it’s not us that’s being judged, but our work.
2) Respond in a polite and timely manner – the client providing feedback usually specifies whether they want corrections or updates to work already done, or if they want us to implement the proposed changes in future projects. In both cases, it’s best to reassure the client, confirming having received and correctly understood their instructions, and always thanking them for taking the time to provide the feedback.
3) Be proactive – if our client proposes, for example, using a particular term in order to be consistent with other translations received in the past from other linguists, and we believe that our proposal is more appropriate, it’s best to reply that we’d be happy to accept their proposal, while at the same time explaining why we think the term we’ve chosen is more suitable. It’s important to always give the client the chance to make an informed decision.
4) Accept defeat gracefully – on the other hand, if the client wants a given term to always be translated in a certain way that’s not what we suggested, however correct our suggestion was, sometimes it’s useless to insist and have to discuss the perfect translation. Sometimes it’s more constructive to simply accept the indication received.
5) Adopt effective controls – any client feedback is quite valuable, especially when it’s detailed: it helps us develop control systems for all the projects they send us. How? One example is by preparing a glossary and/or style guide to refer to, developing specific termbases per client and topic to be added to the final automatic checks to ensure that the work complies with their established specifications, or creating checklists of elements to be verified in the final file before delivery to the client.
Lastly, here’s a bonus tip: be the first to request feedback! Does the text you translated have errors that it would be better to point out to the client? After completing several translations on the same subject, did you realise that you originally misinterpreted a term or expression? Or do you think that a freer, more creative translation might be the best solution for your client? Don’t be afraid to give constructive suggestions, even if this means retracing your steps a bit: I’ve always found perfection to be an unattainable goal, but think that the best way to approach it is to put all our cards on the table and discuss matters together.
Cover image: me, drawn by Claudia Plescia.
English translation and adaptation by Sarah Schneider
