International Translators' Day Scam

This very morning, on International Translators’ Day, I received an application for a freelance translator position that is most likely a scam, one among the all too many scams that I receive every day. In this case, it actually started quite nicely, with a type of eulogy to the profession, and it made me read on: "Each and every single language is a sacred temple where the souls of people who speak it are enshrined. On behalf of this very temple I’m writing this covering letter (...). As our ancestors used to say ‘Lingua facit pacem’, which provides a splendid and lucid explanation for what a linguist – interpreter and translator does."

When I got up this morning I was definitely not in the mood for celebration. The noble profession of translation today is besieged not only by translation scammers, but also by low-cost providers, translation portals, globalization, commoditization, machine translation evangelists, etc. It was therefore with a rather gloomy vision that I started this International Translators' Day. Call me a whiner, call me a conspiracy theorist, but that's the way I felt today.

But it was that scam e-mail that in a way made my spirits rise. And so, as planned, we went out with our team for lunch today to celebrate International Translators' Day, and we raised our glasses to our profession, one of the noblest and most beautiful professions there is.

Here’s to many more happy International Translators' Days!