Poll: Are most or all of your clients in your country of residence?
Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
ProZ.com Staff
ProZ.com Staff
SITE STAFF
Feb 26, 2019

This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "Are most or all of your clients in your country of residence?".

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Kimberly Crosby
Victoria Laham
 
Christopher Schröder
Christopher Schröder
United Kingdom
Member (2011)
Swedish to English
+ ...
None Feb 26, 2019

All my clients are abroad.

Which is as it should be.

You need to live in your own country if you want to write proper.


Muriel Vasconcellos
Jan Truper
 
EvaVer (X)
EvaVer (X)  Identity Verified
Local time: 09:12
Czech to French
+ ...
In number or volume Feb 26, 2019

Chris S wrote:

You need to live in your own country if you want to write proper.

??? do you mean clients in the UK don't need translation into English?

In number, I might have more clients abroad, but in volume, about 80% are local clients. Contrary to what seems to be Chris' case (which I don't really understand), clients who want translation into Czech are almost exclusively in CZ, or at least use CZ agencies - with the only exception of the EN/CZ pair, which I have more or less abandoned, only doing it for long-term clients (local). I specialize in "various Slavic languages into French", which tends to be an one-off affair for most agencies outside the source language country, hence the large number with low volume.


Wilsonn Perez Reyes
Laura Nagle (X)
 
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida  Identity Verified
Portugal
Local time: 08:12
Member (2007)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
No, all of them are in other countries Feb 26, 2019

When I moved back to Portugal 4 years ago after 30 years in Belgium I brought all my clients with me. In the meanwhile I gained a few more customers, but I must say that when I’m contacted by Portuguese potential clients I’m always told that I’m too expensive, so I’ll do my best to retain my present client base…

 
DZiW (X)
DZiW (X)
Ukraine
English to Russian
+ ...
Yes Feb 26, 2019

All my big clients are mostly from the UK, doing biz locally in my country.
Indeed, they occasionally recommend me to their partners and colleagues too, but my priority is HERE-NOW.


 
Muriel Vasconcellos
Muriel Vasconcellos  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 01:12
Member (2003)
Spanish to English
+ ...
Other: all of the above Feb 26, 2019

The largest share of my work comes from international organizations based in Washington, DC, but most of the jobs they send me were written by authors in other countries. Also, I work for several US-based agencies. At one point I had clients on all the continents but Antarctica, and I had one from Aysén, Chile, which is pretty close.

 
Kay-Viktor Stegemann
Kay-Viktor Stegemann
Germany
Local time: 09:12
English to German
In memoriam
All but one abroad Feb 26, 2019

Only one of my clients is located in Germany (and this is in fact the local branch of an agency that operates worldwide). When I talk to my wife about who I'm working for, I always use the locations instead of the company names which would not mean anything to her: Got a new job from Hong Kong, Brazil, Florida, Cornwall, Gibraltar, Korea, Barcelona… this is so cool

Axelle H.
 
neilmac
neilmac
Spain
Local time: 09:12
Spanish to English
+ ...
Yes Feb 26, 2019

And I'd say that living in my source language country has boosted my L2 level considerably.

Mr.Q
Christine Andersen
Kay Denney
 
Ventnai
Ventnai  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 09:12
German to English
+ ...
One country Feb 26, 2019

Most of my clients are in one country, Germany, not the one I live in

 
Christopher Schröder
Christopher Schröder
United Kingdom
Member (2011)
Swedish to English
+ ...
Explanation Feb 26, 2019

EvaVer wrote:
??? do you mean clients in the UK don't need translation into English?

They only need translations for information. Clients abroad need translations to impress.

But I was just being a bit impish. The sun is shining and I felt like joking (hence the deliberate grammatical error).


 
Maria da Glória Teixeira
Maria da Glória Teixeira  Identity Verified
Brazil
Local time: 05:12
Member (2020)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
Poll Feb 26, 2019

The poll is quite unique, this year I started working with clients in my country.

 
Vanda Nissen
Vanda Nissen  Identity Verified
Australia
Local time: 18:12
Member (2008)
English to Russian
+ ...
No Feb 26, 2019

If I counted on Australia based clients only, I would have starved to death:).

 
Christine Andersen
Christine Andersen  Identity Verified
Denmark
Local time: 09:12
Member (2003)
Danish to English
+ ...
Language combinations probably make a big difference Feb 27, 2019

Living in my source-language country is an enormous advantage for me - you have to try quite hard if you want to escape English!

Admittedly, there is English, and then there is Globish, Danglish, EUglish… and Microsoft has even invented an "English, Denmark", which I have to expurgate from my spelling checker at intervals. But then there are thousands of English natives whose English is not up to professional
... See more
Living in my source-language country is an enormous advantage for me - you have to try quite hard if you want to escape English!

Admittedly, there is English, and then there is Globish, Danglish, EUglish… and Microsoft has even invented an "English, Denmark", which I have to expurgate from my spelling checker at intervals. But then there are thousands of English natives whose English is not up to professional standard. Just ask Lynne Truss or Banksy. David Crystal defends many of English, but that doesn´t mean they all have to be emulated.

OK, some Danes are very good at English, but those are the kind who pay me to write native English, and that keeps me on my toes!

Apart from anything else, Danes are usually the clients who pay the best rates.

[Edited at 2019-02-27 07:13 GMT]
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Mario Freitas
Mario Freitas  Identity Verified
Brazil
Local time: 05:12
Member (2014)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
No, thank God! Feb 28, 2019

80% of my clients are in Europe and North America, very thankfully.
Unfortunately, working with the locals always means trouble, complaints, red tape, attempts to reduce rates or somehow fool you by all means, etc. The local businessmen are very primitive and absolutely lack know-how in terms of HR and business.


 


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Poll: Are most or all of your clients in your country of residence?






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