Virginia Navascues wrote:
I got a rather weird request today: to translate 4 chapters of a book (not written by the proposed client), supposedly to be handed in to this person's (sex unknown) faculty within about 2 weeks.
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I've had such requests in the past (from real people) who are students at a university in a language that is not their native language. They underestimate the cost of translation. They believe that having a text book in their language would help them master the subject material quicker.
I don't think it is unethical (or not fair usage) to do this, although I do think the client should be made aware of the facts of his request. The translation is going to take much longer than he thinks, and it will be a lot, lot more expensive (give him a final figure, not a per-word figure), and unless you are an expect in the field of his studies, the translation may contain incorrect terminology that won't help.
In the first place, who would want to pay a rather large amount of money for such a project? Secondly, is it some sort of plagiarism? Not that whatever faculty it were would be fooled. But why would a faculty even want such a translation? They usually trust their students to know enough English to be able to read texts.
The person at the faculty probably does not realise how much the translation would cost.
I don't think we should stereotype about whether students would or would not understand the language of the text book -- if the faculty determined that the language is an issue, then it would make sense for them to consider translating the book as a viable option.
Both students and university staff often underestimate the language skills necessary for tertiary studies, if the text books are not in the students' primarly language.