| Pages in topic: < [1 2] | Finnish to english etc., heavily underpaid, by around 50% Thread poster: Hannele Marttila
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| Maybe even Adam Smith... | Jul 7, 2017 |
Chris S wrote: Christel Zipfel wrote:
To me, it seems obvious that the word rate must reflect the general medium length of the words in a particular language. You cannot use the same word rate for e.g. Finnish, German and French/English. At the end of the day, no doubt your income must be the same, whether you translate from Finnish or whatever other language.
I agree, but ProZ has taught me that most translators have only the most tenuous grasp of logic and severely limited business sense. Hence all those on here who charge different hourly rates for different languages - wtf?
Maybe true, but IMHO you are disregarding the fact that different pairs have different market dynamics...
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Christel Zipfel wrote:
At the end of the day, no doubt your income must be the same, whether you translate from Finnish or whatever other language.
Sorry, I disagree. Have you been brought up in a communist regime
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Mirko Mainardi wrote:
Adam Smith
Lol.
Yes, different pairs may command different rates per hour, but what logical economic actor would accept low-paying work over high-paying work?
My time is worth the same amount of money whichever language I translate from, and whichever field I translate in, so my hourly rate is always the same.
PS David, I think you have misread what Christel was saying.
[Edited at 2017-07-07 12:27 GMT]
[Edited at 2017-07-07 12:27 GMT]
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Chris S wrote: Mirko Mainardi wrote:
Adam Smith Lol. Yes, different pairs may command different rates per hour, but what logical economic actor would accept low-paying work over high-paying work
I mostly translate from Dutch and German for which I get higher rates. I fill the gaps with translations from English (lower rates), which is better than nothing
[Modifié le 2017-07-07 12:40 GMT]
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[Modifié le 2017-07-07 13:23 GMT]
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David GAY wrote:
I mostly translate from Dutch and German for which I get higher rates. I fill the gaps with translations from English (lower rates)
OK, fair enough in the short term. But in the long term you'll just get more work from Dutch and German, right?
I was thinking more of the people who say they find French takes longer to translate than German, or has more words than German, so they charge more per hour...
| | | | | Or for different tasks... | Jul 7, 2017 |
Chris S wrote:
I agree, but ProZ has taught me that most translators have only the most tenuous grasp of logic and severely limited business sense.
Hence all those on here who charge different hourly rates for different languages - wtf?
Recently, I got an inquiry for an "opinion" about a translation. I was supposed to read some 20 or 30 pages and "judge" the quality of the work. When I replied, more than doubling the hourly fee that I had been offered, they wrote back more or less: "But you would not need to proofread/edit the files, just read them and send your feedback." So why the hell should I be paid less than half my hourly rate just because I didn't need to edit? An hour of my time is an hour, whatever I do, whether I translate, from or in whatever language, just read or proofread.
I don't get it either when I happen to see different hourly rates for different languages.
Or hourly rates that are completey incommensurate with the stated word fees ...
There has to be some relation, hasn't it?
The only explanation is lack of logic and business sense, indeed.
| | | | Sheila Wilson 
Spain
Local time: 09:47
Member (2007)
English
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| It's always seemed odd to me too | Jul 7, 2017 |
Christel Zipfel wrote:
At the end of the day, no doubt your income must be the same, whether you translate from Finnish or whatever other language.
It's also true of the other things we do. I can understand that audio typists may charge a modest rate per hour of their time, but if clients choose to have an English audio file transcribed into English by a professional translator then they must be prepared to pay for that translator's time. I'm not going to lower my rate to match an audio typist's average rate per hour. Needless to say, I rarely do transcription work, but that suits me just fine.
But whether I'm proofreading or copy-editing, I also need to earn the same rate per hour - so it's the same for each, and for translating and transcribing. The figure for proofreading quoted by editing associations is normally lower, but surely that's just for people who specialise in that one discipline.
The one exception I make is a higher rate per hour of teaching. But that makes total sense to me as each lesson involves some lesson planning, maybe some marking, and usually some travel time.
| | | | | Unfortunately | Jul 7, 2017 |
Many translators wouldn't even understand that if they lower their rate by one third, they would have to work 50% more to maintain their income. That's why it's so easy to fool translators.
Accepting the use of Cat tools has also been a huge mistake
[Modifié le 2017-07-07 1y7:55 GMT]
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David GAY wrote:
Many translators wouldn't even understand that if they lower their rate by one third, they would have to work 50% more to maintain their income. That's why it's so easy to fool translators.
Accepting the use of Cat tools has also been a huge mistake
... they are not able to do their maths.
Accepting to use Cat tools is not a mistake in itself, the huge mistake is granting discounts for the only fact that you have bought and paid the tool (most of the times).
But we are going OT here...
| | | | | Raise your rate | Jul 7, 2017 |
Raise your rate for Finnish to English, then...
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