Not as simple as it seems – the challenge of translating payslips

 

Most customers do not - and generally need not - understand the actual work process. Sometimes, this lack of knowledge impacts their price expectations. In this case, the service provider must provide some justification for charging an amount for a seemingly “simple” task. For example, private customers sometimes require translations of a series of payslips. To the uninitiated, while the first one may require a significant time investment, the additional slips involve very little effort. In fact, specifically because the forms are so similar but not identical, the later ones demand serious attention. The translator must look for expected and unexpected differences as well as perform a thorough QA on the document in order to avoid errors. All these efforts require time, which should be reflected in the price.

The most obviously challenging part of translating payslips is the original template. In the best possible world, it would be possible to use a conversion tool or AI that would automatically produce a usable template into which to enter the categories and numbers. Alas, in most cases, the template produced by these tools requires unreasonable time and effort to tweak. Even worse, the result is often not a visually exact replica of the original text. Furthermore, given that a translation may have a different number of characters, even significantly more in the case of Hebrew to English, the amount of space required for a given entry varies from translation to translation. Furthermore, the tools generally do not account for additional visual elements, such as shading and lines. Thus, in most cases, the translator has to manually build the template for the first payslip. Most customers understand this and take it into account when assessing the price.

The main issue revolves around the remaining payslips. While the form remains the same as well as some details, certain numbers predictably vary from month to month. Clearly, the payslip month and sometimes even year change, with this information generally appearing in several parts of the form. Likewise, service time increases in line with the date. On the financial side, the income numbers generally vary from month to month as do the quantity of hours of regular and overtime work. The cumulative pay numbers increase in accordance with the latest data. In addition, the summary of sick and vacation days changes according to their latest accumulation and usage. Finally, issuance and printing dates reflect the latest month. All this involves a methodical working through the form.

What is more challenging are the surprising changes. Income categories may come and go. For example, certain months include holidays, for which gift benefits show up in the payslip on a one-time basis. Sometimes, the employee receives a new or temporary benefit or loses a previously granted benefit. Thus, the number and type of benefits may vary from month to month. Employees occasionally change position, branch, home address and even bank. With all these numbers, it is surprisingly easy to miss a change in one number in a static data area. Employers occasionally add a short note to the employee regarding taxation, one that only appears in one payslip. Translators have to keep a keen eye for these among the sea of data.

Even when the translator finds all the differences, thorough editing is indispensable. Some of the common errors discovered in the first draft (hopefully) involve numbers. Notably, it is easy to switch two numbers, i.e., 4,214 instead of 4,124. Another minefield is the comma/period mistype. It is actually quite difficult to detect this error over a series of slips, e.g., 4.214 instead of 4,214 and 4,59 instead of 4.59. The risk is increased when translating forms from a language with a different set of punctuation rules, such as French to English. Finally, with so many details to which to pay attention, a translator can actually misspell a name in the first draft or change the spelling in another location in the document. Proper QA involves the careful checking of all these details.

Thus, translating payslips is ant work. This month, I told one of my customers that translating seemingly similar documents require great time and effort, with the quote reflecting those elements. The customer accepted my explanation. In practice, the project took as long as I predicted. Therefore, while there is no need to explain every detail of the work process, it is sometimes necessary to educate the customer to a certain degree. Not everything is as simple as meets the eye, especially to the unknowing.

Past and present – some global lessons from early American history

 

History classes are wasted on the young. Even if the formal history classes given to youth in each country focus on ideas, not dry facts, national educational systems tend to treat their national history as a unique, local and time-specific set of circumstances and ignore the universal human elements. For example, early US history, until the American Civil War, seems to involve a unique blend of elements: a distant, isolated continent; a relative but not entirely benevolent democracy in England; and the political complexity of disunited religious sects and native American tribes. On the other hand, certain dynamic factors shaped its development, elements that can affect history at any time and place. These factors include the sense of entitlement by the majority, the impact of governmental institutionalization of religion and the creation of existential intertribal conflict. A look at the world today provides clear evidence that these trends are as alive and well worldwide as they were several hundred years ago.

Early US history involved never-ending conflict, internal and external. Each of the original thirteen colonies was the product of a land grant from the British government to a group of religious “weirdos”, who did not wish to accept the authority of the Church of England. The most notable were the Quakers in Pennsylvania. They not only did not accept the authority of the official church but also rejected their fellow exiled sects in North America. As such, they experienced the consequences of state-recognized religion. British democracy at the time, even if rather liberal for its age, did not allow British non-landowners or women to vote, not to mention distant colonists. Thus, the American rebel slogan “no taxation without representation” is a complaint that the English government’s majority was imposing its will on a minority, a non-voting one at that. Consequently, when called upon to ratify the US Constitution, the voters insisted on minority protection in the first ten amendments to the US Constitution. The economic crises were often a result of the standard agricultural practice of its time (and still used in the Amazon): slash and burn. Settlers would cut down a forest, burn it and grow crops for seven years or so until the soil lost its fertility. The consequence of this practice was the constant need for virgin land, which was primarily east of the Appalachian Mountains. The British prevented expansion but once the new American republic was founded, the land rush began. The results were a series of wars between the Americans and Indians marked by cruelty and massacres by both sides. Some good-intentioned people tried to calm the spirits but ultimately to no avail. It became an “all or nothing” struggle, one that has left a legacy of hate and regret. All these struggles may sound limited to America of that time.

However, the concept of the tyranny of the majority remains an issue today. Many people ask whether having a majority of one in an elected body should allow the government to pass any law it wants. Many a dictatorship has developed or is developing from a democratically elected government, one law at a time. It appears that the Founding Fathers of America were correct to worry more about abuse of power than the inefficient use of power. The relevance of formal power limits remains.

As for religion, the separation of Church and State, an essential concept in American civil law, may not be popular among the most fervent religious believers. However, the national attitude towards religion seems to have an inverse relationship to its status in the government. Where religion is a private matter, it tends to thrive. For example, quite a high percentage of Americans have a marked religious identity. Where the religion becomes linked to government money and jobs, many people develop an antipathy towards the religion. It is amazing how fast the vast majority of Russians gave up Christianity after the Russian Revolution. As no religion is truly monolithic in its approach despite all of its efforts to enforce one, creating an official version tends to alienate dissenters and create conflict. As atheistic as the division of Church and State may sound, it actually strengthens religion.

One of the most tragic aspects of early American history is the wars between the Indians and Americans. The conflict was long and cruel. The leaders also framed it as “existential” as each group claimed that the land, all of it, belonged to it. Thus, as revenge led to revenge and more cruelty, politicians tapped into and fed this anger for their own purpose, creating a national tragedy. Even today, in certain parts of the United States, this hate remains for no reason and nobody’s benefit. It would be wonderful today to be able to state that such a struggle was an 18th-century phenomenon but today, unfortunately, there are too many violent and hateful ethnic struggles involving taking all the land and eliminating the enemy. Some politicians encourage this verbal and, far too often, physical violence, creating even more hatred. It takes courage to stand up and insist that the enemy is human also. That courage was lacking then and is lacking now.

History does not truly repeat itself as events occur in a specific set of circumstances. However, the forces shaping the dynamics of any particular situation exist at all times, generally latent, until conditions release them. As adults responsible for the future of our children, we need to study history to learn how to avoid releasing the forces of destruction and, maybe, just as important, how to unleash the powers of construction.

The best – in other words

 

Most people strive to be their best at something, with some making more effort than others. There was the Kobe Bryant principle: you have to invest 10,000 more hours than your closest competitor in order to stay at the top. Languages, of course, have numerous terms expressing that ideal state, including English. They refer to nature, height, relative status or personal comparison. As for which is the choicest expression, that is a matter of opinion.

Nature provides a rich source of comparison, even if the context does not always make sense. The cream of the crop and the borrowed French crème de la crème refer to the rich part that rises to the top of the milk, the tastiest bit. If someone is the cat’s whiskers or the cat’s meow, there is no better if you are a cat lover. Similarly, dog purchasers can fully understand the pick of the litter as not all dogs are born equal.  By contrast, regarding a bee’s knees, it is difficult to observe a bee’s knees or grasp their perfection, but that is the term. On the inanimate front, some people are the salt of the earth, which relates to the importance and rarity of salt in pre-refrigerator days, which also explains the word salary. Being the gold standard requires a bit of historical knowledge. It took a while before people trusted “greenbacks” as US paper bills were initially referred to (maybe similar to the attitude toward bitcoin today).  A strange expression from long ago is the best thing since sliced bread. I am too old for that to make any sense to me. However, when I was a kid, we used to refer to peers with extraordinary skill as hot shit, most curiously, a positive expression. The natural world is a rich source of vocabulary.

Of course, the best are always above the others as reflected in a plethora of comparative expressions. To be head and shoulders above everybody is even better than being second to none because the gap is larger. If a person is top-notch or tip-top, the endpoint of a literal or figurative scale, they reach where others cannot. Thus, we look up to them. On a classical note, a person that is the Mt. Olympus in his/her field is almost godlike. In a similar vein, a person can be a real Michael Jordan, Mark Spitz, Mickey Mantle or Michael Jackson, to name a few, who represent the pinnacle of success in their profession at a given time. Alas, age takes its toll. By contrast, if an object is isolated from contact with the environment, it can remain in mint condition, as perfect as it was when it was produced.  The point is that these people were the epitome of perfection in at least one aspect of their lives. The higher, the better.

Yet, success is relative. It is fantastic to be an all-star but it is better to be a GOAT, the greatest of all time. (Michael Jordan or LeBron James?) Likewise, to be recognized as a real pro is an honor but being called a pro’s pro is a cut above. Every student knows that parents appreciate the words “cum laude” but top of the class brings a shine to the face of the entire family (as well as leads to future scholarships and attractive jobs). Such people are in a class of their own. It is great to be a man among boys. Interestingly, as far as I have ever heard, nobody ever says a “woman among girls” but maybe I am wrong. For all I know, women may use it today to describe the queen of their circle. Success is relative

As Carly Simon sang so poignantly in the James Bond movie “The Spy Who Loved Me”, it can be said about some people in some areas of life that “nobody does it better”. Not only that, in English, it is possible to express that compliment in so many ways.