Poll: How many of your clients have you met in person? Autor vlákna: ProZ.com Staff
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This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "How many of your clients have you met in person?".
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When I first started translating, I knew all my clients, as I had to go to their offices and hand in typewritten pages and later floppy disks. It was only when I started using a modem and then e-mail that I could deal with clients I had never met.
I doubt that any of my early clients (certainly more than six) will come back to me with more work but I can say that I have met none of the clients I've worked with over the past year or two.
[Edited at 2026-01-25 09:46 GMT]
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When I was working in Brussels as a sworn translator, I’ve lost count of the direct clients I met. I met also one or two agency clients. Since I moved back to Lisbon in 2015 I have met just two clients (both lawyers).
| | | | Daryo
Local time: 02:59
srbština -> angličtina
+ ...
Not all 'potential clients', but when it comes to real 'clients' - every single one.
Gives you a slightly different perspective from the one you get from dealing with self-serving middlemen (middlewomen not being any better).
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Jennifer Levey 
Chile
Local time: 21:59
španělština -> angličtina
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| Dozens, scores - several hundred probably! | Jan 25 |
One of the great benefits of being employed as a staff translator/editor in a pan-European (nay, international) organisation, based first in Brussels and later in Geneva, was that many of the authors of the stuff I translated (my 'clients' as far as I was concerned) worked in the same building, took the same lift to the same staff canteen for coffee breaks and were for the most part happy to answer any queries I might have about the new digital broadcasting technologies they (and hence I, too) w... See more One of the great benefits of being employed as a staff translator/editor in a pan-European (nay, international) organisation, based first in Brussels and later in Geneva, was that many of the authors of the stuff I translated (my 'clients' as far as I was concerned) worked in the same building, took the same lift to the same staff canteen for coffee breaks and were for the most part happy to answer any queries I might have about the new digital broadcasting technologies they (and hence I, too) were working on.
Authors/clients from elsewhere - the organisation's member-organizations and other international bodies - frequently came to the organisation's HQ for meetings so I got to meet many of them, too.
Later, as a freelancer, I never had any fruitful contact with agencies and I met all my direct clients in person.
And most recently, in retirement, my only 'client' is myself, for whom I do pro bono work relating to various personal and hobby interests.
JL ▲ Collapse
| | | | Sebastian Witte
Německo
Local time: 03:59
Člen (2004)
angličtina -> němčina
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Probably about sixty for translations, mostly private individuals, back when we were still NRW-based. Among them were also a local agency owner, probably Polish, and his son, as well as two local area-based agency employees, and two or three local area-based company employees, plus one colleague from a small nearby community. Then another fifteen from back when I still worked as an on-site interpreter in both Eastern NRW and Kassel.
| | | | | I have met 1 client. | Jan 26 |
It was unexpected news when a client of mine invited me to go to a cafeteria in my natal town. She came to Costa Rica for vacations and spent some time to get where I live and have a nice coffee break with me. It was a wonderful experience!
| | | | Daryo
Local time: 02:59
srbština -> angličtina
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| Warning: serendipity at work! | Jan 27 |
Daryo wrote:
Not all 'potential clients', but when it comes to real 'clients' - every single one.
Gives you a slightly different perspective from the one you get from dealing with self-serving middlemen (middlewomen not being any better).
Just stumbled on a very good illustration of the difference in perspective between those who need for themselves a translation they can really rely on and those who only care about their cut:
WANTED: Old-School Linguists to Rescue Human Text from the AI translation tools.
Job posted at: 2026-01-26 15:35 GMT (GMT+0) (GMT: 2026-01-26 15:35)
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Job type: Potential Job
Sub-item Service required: Translation
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Job description:
Pure Translation (Human-to-Human).
THE SITUATION:
Kaiwords Translation Agency possess something rare and valuable: Genuine, Artisanal, Bio-Degradable Marketing Text on different websites.
This text was written by actual human beings with pulses, anxieties, and souls. It contains nuance, cultural references, and jokes that actually make sense.
THE DANGER:
We are terrified that if we hire the wrong person, they will feed our beautiful, free-range text into the "Great Statistical Sausage Grinder" (ChatGPT, DeepL, Gemini, etc.) and hand us back a plate of lukewarm Digital Slop.
We do not want our "spicy" text translated into "mild mayonnaise." We do not want our unique voice leveled out by the "Regression to the Mean."
WHO WE ARE LOOKING FOR:
- We are seeking a Purist Translator / Linguistic Luddite.
- You are "Anti-AI-Tool": When we say "CAT Tool," you think of a literal cat sitting on a dictionary, not a plugin that auto-completes your sentences with hallucinations.
- You have a nose for "Bot-Stench": You understand that if you translate a human idiom into the literal equivalent because an LLM told you to, you have failed your ancestors.
YOUR MISSION:
Take our beautiful source text and move it into the target language without letting it touch the Silicon Valley Synonym Scrambler.
- If the source text is angry, the translation should sound angry and not "diplomatically concerned."
- If the source text is weird, the translation should be weird and not "statistically probable."
WARNING SIGNS THAT YOU ARE NOT FOR US:
- If your translation contains the word "delve" more than zero times.
- If you think "hallucination" is just a fun party trick.
- If you charge 0.001 cents per word because you are secretly three raccoons in a trench coat using Google Translate.
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https://www.proz.com/job/2221117
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Zea_Mays
Itálie
Local time: 03:59
angličtina -> němčina
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Daryo wrote:
Kaiwords
Is is very likely that they do simple offpage SEO with those countless supposed 'job' ads - just do some research about the agency owner.
[Bearbeitet am 2026-01-27 19:02 GMT]
| | | | Jennifer Levey
Chile
Local time: 21:59
španělština -> angličtina
+ ...
| Even further off-topic, but illuminating nonetheless | Jan 27 |
Daryo wrote:
Just stumbled on a very good illustration of the difference in perspective between those who need for themselves a translation they can really rely on and those who only care about their cut:
WANTED: Old-School Linguists to Rescue Human Text from the AI translation tools.
Job posted at: 2026-01-26 15:35 GMT (GMT+0) (GMT: 2026-01-26 15:35)
...
Job type: Potential Job
Sub-item Service required: Translation
...
Job description:
Pure Translation (Human-to-Human).
THE SITUATION:
Kaiwords Translation Agency possess something rare and valuable: Genuine, Artisanal, Bio-Degradable Marketing Text on different websites.
This text was written by actual human beings with pulses, anxieties, and souls. It contains nuance, cultural references, and jokes that actually make sense.
...
So far, so good. Actually, rather refreshing given the crap we see on the jobs board day in, day out.
I'm not sure why Daryo omitted the info just above the 'Job description' - a glance at the complete ad tells us they want human translators from nine mainstream European languages into English.
But the ad does not divulge anything specific about the subject-matter of the 'Genuine, Artisanal, Bio-Degradable Marketing Text'. Could it be the environment? The curse of micro-plastics in the oceans, perhaps? Could it be that the websites they mention in such glowing terms actually sell self-destructing poop scoops? That at least might justify the requirement to deliver translations of jokes that actually make sense...
Zea_Mays wrote:
Is is very likely that they do simple offpage SEO with those countless supposed 'job' ads - just do some research about the agency owner.
Good idea! A quick look at the agency's website (for which they thoughtfully provided a link at the end of the ad) raised a couple of yellow cards, but no bright red flags. So, none the wiser, I looked again at the jobs board and came across this one - https://www.proz.com/translation-jobs/2221133 - posted by the same agency a few minutes after the one that attracted Daryo's attention.
The language pairs for this job are English into 12 mainstream European languages. Here come some extracts from the body of the ad:
The ad says:
"Native Translators Needed for Continuous Adult Fiction Projects"
Job description:
We are currently seeking professional native translators for an exciting, long-term opportunity translating short erotic stories.
This is a continuous collaboration, with a steady flow of stories being commissioned. The genre is booming worldwide, and we're working with content that demands creativity, cultural awareness, and emotional nuance, areas where AI simply can’t compete.
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We're building a dedicated team of translators for this fast-growing market. If you’re ready to take on something different, rewarding, and long-term, We’d love to hear from you.
Geee... I never thought I'd end up typing 'poop scoops', 'bio-degradable marketing text', 'mayonnaise' and 'erotic stories' all in the same post in a Proz Poll discussion!
Let me be very clear: I've nothing personally against the delivery of spicy translations of 'short erotic stories', or the exploitation of the Proz job board to seek out actual human translators blessed with pulses, anxieties, and souls akin to those that apparently characterise the agency's ST authors.
However, when
Daryo wrote:
Just stumbled on a very good illustration of the difference in perspective between those who need for themselves a translation they can really rely on and those who only care about their cut:
... I can't help feeling that there's a bit more to it than that.
The ad quoted by Daryo was posted yesterday (26 January) and at the time of writing this post, has just generated over 300 quotes spread over the 9 language pairs.
The 'adult fiction' ad was posted about half-an-hour later and already has over 850 quotes spread over the 12 language pairs.
The ads will remain open for quotes until the end of Febuary. So, all those who believe they can translate the agency's "spicy text" into something other than "mild mayonnaise" don't let me stand in your way...
JL
| | | | Daryo
Local time: 02:59
srbština -> angličtina
+ ...
| All that SEO business is beside the point | Jan 28 |
I used that ad only as an illustration for the difference in dealing with the one who really need the translation and dealing with some intermediary.
And in that regard it's VERY ON TOPIC as that difference in 'the perspective/approach you get from the other side' is very relevant - relevant enough that I avoid translation agencies like a plague ...
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