Their Intent Was Lost In Translation

(I sign up for a freelance translating job, take a very long test, and pass. When I am assigned my first piece of work, they also add me in a chat group of their team so we can take orders and submit work, and everyone knows what others are doing. The first time I finish and send a translated chapter of text, I receive some comments, but nothing implying that the quality of my translation is below average. The second time I send more chapters, I receive some comments which are mostly about basic formatting – e.g. shouldn’t write “haha” but “ha ha” with a space. I continue to send more chapters and suddenly the manager send me a private message:)

Manager: “Finish the chapter you’re working on and stop that story; I’ll send you another one. This one doesn’t seem to work.”

Me: “What’s wrong? Is it my wording or something?”

Manager: “Well, it’s not suitable for you; let me know what genre you’re interested in and I’ll send you those so you could do better.”

Me: “Maybe romantic, then.”

Manager: “Okay.”

(The next day I log into the group and find:)

Manager: “[My Name], please work on this story: [link]. I have to say upfront that your writing style is bad and translating skill is weak. You often mess up the meaning of the story, and either can’t translate it at all or you come up with the wrong translation. From now on I’ll only give you simple stories to work on and if after five months you show no improvement we will stop this all together.”

(I’m not one who can’t take criticism or admit I’m at fault. But apparently they preferred to humiliate the freelancers who’re working for them, rather than having a conversation that would actually help the two parties.)