A lot of people seem to think that simply being reasonably fluent in two languages is sufficient to be a translator. It isn't, unless your standards are incredibly low. Translating is a skill, and if you entrust it to random people, expect random results.
Exactly. As someone who has done the occasional professional translation from Italian to English, here's what you have to go through:
* You have to understand the original text. Not just 'get it', but completely understand it. That includes understanding just what sort of bucket excavator a 'benne' is, or that an 'area golenale' is the area between a waterway and the levee, often where there is a curve in the river. And you often have to be precise about these things; my Sicilian friend knew that 'golenale' was something to do with a river, but since they don't have a lot of waterways like the ones in northern Italy, wasn't able to really describe what it was in detail.
* Once you have completely understood and digested the article, you have to rewrite it in your language. You can't just copy the structure of the original, because the tone and timing may well be off compared to what would be natural in your language. Sometimes, you just plain have to be creative with what you're writing, because it's more important to convey a sense of something than an exact translation. I once did a translation for a goldsmith in Vicenza whose original Italian text went off on how some piece was a "festival for all five senses" or some such nonsense (you're supposed to chew it?!), and had a whole article like that, which I had to basically write in a similar style, but adding 'flowery crap' that worked in English.
The problem is that it's difficult to find competent translators, regardless of where you find them. As with any task requiring skills that you yourself don't have, it can be a crapshoot. It's like non-technical people trying to hire programmers; if you've ever seen it happen, you know how difficult it can be. I'm the same way when hiring a Chinese translation; I don't speak Chinese, so I'm always relying on third parties to tell me when it's right or not.
So, while I agree with you, and I suspect the quality of work one is getting for pennies on the dollar is pretty piss poor, I don't know that the work one gets for full-price is necessarily dramatically better. There are challenges, either way.
