No time rates : standard rates for written translation

Tue Nov 27 07:06:55 UTC 2007

I agree with Kim regarding product lists, technical drawings, graphs, tables and such, but when I need a technical documents on, e.g., mining, I prefer it if a Russian mining engineer (retired/academic) translates it for me and I edit it ...because I do edit at the speed of lighting in these circumstances, but this does not apply for, eg. non-technical, non-commercial prose.

Regards,
Vera Beljakova

 ----- Original Message ------
 From:Kim Braithwaite
 Sent:Tuesday, November 27, 2007 00:49
 To: SEELANGS at BAMA.UA.EDU; 
 Subject:Re: [SEELANGS] No time rates : standard rates for written translation

 To me, "might need a bit of editing" sends up a red flag. Once in a while a 
client will ask me to "look over" a translation that someone else has done 
and "clean it up a little." I did that a couple of times, years ago, and 
learned that it doesn't pay. Quite apart from a missing or misplaced "the" 
or "a," and the like, if you care about accuracy and idiom it takes more 
time and effort to check the translation against the original document, and 
correct it, than the client wants to pay for (since he/she has already paid 
the translator, you see). Almost always these days I politely offer to 
translate the item from scratch at my usual rate, otherwise no thanks. 

I contend that it is reasonable to quote an hourly rate for certain kinds of 
jobs (editing might be one). The "incompetent translator," of course, is a 
problem no matter how the remuneration is established. 

For documents that are not connected prose such as articles and books - for 
example birth certificates, transcripts, product lists and the like - I 
generally eyeball the item, decide how long it will take me and how much I 
want for it, and quote a flat fee. Most clients accept. 

Mr Kim Braithwaite, Translator 
"Good is better than evil, because it's nicer" - Mammy Yokum (Al 
Capp) 

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Vera Beljakova" 
To: 
Sent: Monday, November 26, 2007 11:57 AM 
Subject: [SEELANGS] No time rates : standard rates for written translation 

I have always found it unfair to charge by time, because then the slow 
incompetent translator will earn more than the quick and experienced one. 

The best way is to gauge from the Internet and see how other translation 
agencies function.....frankly, now, a lot of translation work is being done 
in Russia or the CIS or East European countries where work is excellent and 
delivery times are fast. 

Many of the technical texts are now being translated in Russia by academics 
on a freelance basis. The end result might need a bit of editing, but at 
least the technical content is accurate. That's what I do now - when and 
where possible, I subcontract to Russian retired academics. 

Vera Beljakova 

----- Original Message ------ 
From:Mike Trittipo 
Sent:Monday, November 26, 2007 21:30 
To: SEELANGS at BAMA.UA.EDU; 
Subject:Re: [SEELANGS] standard rates for written translation 

On Nov 26 2007, Inna Caron wrote: 
> When you have been contracted to do a commercial translation, is the 
> payment subject to agreement between the parties, or is there a more or 
> less standard rate per page of written translation? If so, . . .? 

Any agreement should specify the price and payment terms. So it's a matter 
of agreement. If you don't like an offered rate or price, you should reject 
it; and of course you may counter-offer a rate or price you prefer. 

E-mail discussion of "standard" rates can raise antitrust issues both in 
the U.S. and in the E.U. So it's best to steer clear of anything that 
smacks of a recommendation of X rate or Y rate. The general approach that 
Paul Gallagher has outlined is valid, however: each individual begins with 
his or her own numbers as to what he or she wants or needs, and each may 
take different amounts of time to produce a result in line with a client's 
requirements. Other decisions follow from those variables. 

Most often, I have charged per word of the target English. But sometimes 
I've charged a flat price, based on a reasonably accurate source word count 
and experience with the particular kind of text. Of course, any word count 
can be turned into a page count, if the definition of "page" is agreed 
upon. (Even where the "normostrana" is common, e.g., the Czech Republic, 
there are sometimes variations on what it is, ranging from 30 lines of 50 
characters to 30 lines of 65 characters, counting spaces as characters. And 
of course there were questions even with typewriters about how to count 
partial "pages.") 

Michael Trittipo 
Minneapolis, Minnesota 

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