Poll: In which language do you write when quoting on a particular job? Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
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This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "In which language do you write when quoting on a particular job?".
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| | | | Ty Kendall 
United Kingdom
Local time: 04:05
Hebrew to English
| English - my native language | Jul 7, 2012 |
I don't tend to work with agencies/clients from my source language country so there's never a need to quote in anything other than English.
| | | | Julian Holmes
Japan
Local time: 12:05
Member (2011)
Japanese to English
| My Lingua Franca | Jul 7, 2012 |
is generally English with Japanese customers who have a good understanding of English. Some don't, so I'll communicate with them in Japanese.
It's no problem, just more time-consuming owing to the complexity of entering the 2,136 or so standard-use Chinese characters (that's what they're called even for the Japanese language) and two types of Japanese "kana" syllabaries. 
And judging from what I've seen out there... See more is generally English with Japanese customers who have a good understanding of English. Some don't, so I'll communicate with them in Japanese.
It's no problem, just more time-consuming owing to the complexity of entering the 2,136 or so standard-use Chinese characters (that's what they're called even for the Japanese language) and two types of Japanese "kana" syllabaries.
And judging from what I've seen out there on the Internet, lots of people have immense difficulty with just 26 letters of the alphabet. 
Isn't language fun! ▲ Collapse
| | | | Samantha Payn
United Kingdom
Local time: 04:05
Member (2008)
Russian to English
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| The language of the enquiry or job post | Jul 7, 2012 |
That was my reply but I am prompted to remark here, slightly off-topic, that I am confounded by posts advertising a translation job from language A to language B, where the post is in a third language. I don't respond to those at all!!!
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Mario Chavez (X)
Local time: 23:05
English to Spanish
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| The language the client communicates in | Jul 7, 2012 |
Since translation is a communicative act, it would be silly and outlandish to answer a job posting in French in a language other than French, not to mention disrespectful. The answer seems obvious.
Indirectly, this poll question points to a common problem among job posters: their sometimes abysmal use of English. Even a typo such as "oppurtunity" (a real one I found in a LinkedIn group name!) is enough to dissuade even the most optimistic reader from contacting the author.
| | | | jonas_wnd
Germany
Local time: 05:05
French to German
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| Usually the language in which the job has been published | Jul 7, 2012 |
It is really rare that a job isn't published in English, so in the most cases I also write in this language. My native language is German, but it is no problem for me to speak and write in the English language because I can speak it very well. After the long time I learned English in school, I began to study computational linguistics which is partly teached in German, but also big parts are teached in English. That's why my English knowledges are very huge.
| | | | | Language of first contact | Jul 7, 2012 |
Job posts on ProZ are systematically below a break-even rate for me so I do not consider biding.
Otherwise, the answer is very straightforward : the native language of the client will be the language of all our exchanges.
[Edited at 2012-07-08 00:44 GMT]
| | | | neilmac
Spain
Local time: 05:05
Spanish to English
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If responding in writing to proz adverts or other approaches, I either use my native English or target Spanish, depending on how the other party approaches me.
I tend to make the odd mistake in Spanish with subjunctives or pronouns, but if speaking I usually prefer to use Spanish with Spanish speakers, as my Castilian is usually more fluent than their English.
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SteveMcD
Local time: 05:05
German to English
| My language, English | Jul 9, 2012 |
Most e-mails I receive asking for translations are written in English as are many postings I see so I always reply in English. If I see a posting or receive an e-mail in German I reply in both English and German.
My thought is, if someone is looking for an English native speaker to translate, they get a better first impression if I respond in English (especialy if their request is in well-written English).
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