Working Languages

A bitter reality for translators, most acutely felt when it comes to negotiating prices with customers, is the yawning gap that exists between their own perception of the dignity of their calling and the view others have of it. While translators like to regard themselves as birds of a feather with the members of the prestige professions - doctors, lawyers etc. - the wider world, alas, sees us as having quite a different set of bedfellows, as illustrated by this collocation happened upon while idly thumbing through an abandoned copy of a travel guide to Italy (Lonely Planet, 5th edition 2002).