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How many words can you translate in 8 hours?
Thread poster: areli_ash
wbroekho
wbroekho  Identity Verified
Netherlands
Local time: 10:52
Depends Feb 6, 2015

There are jobs where I can churn out 5000 words per day of very acceptable quality. Then there are jobs where anything beyond a 2000 words daily capacity is nothing short of an absolute miracle.

It highly depends on the assignment at hand. If I have to deal with segments of a very technical nature, with more formatting tags per segment than other jobs have in total, I'll struggle, speed-wise.


 
Robert Rietvelt
Robert Rietvelt  Identity Verified
Local time: 10:52
Member (2006)
Spanish to Dutch
+ ...
WOW! Feb 6, 2015

What I read here from some of the colleagues, 5000 words on a daily base. Well, aren't you the real supertranslators! Only I am wondering, ain't I am the 'victim' to proof your work?

To be honest, my max ever is 6300 words in one day, only what I had written down was totally uncromprehensible for anybody, so it took me more than 1 day to convert (read 'correct') it into "real and understandable Dutch".

With a CAT-tool and quality guaranteed, about 2000 words a day is a
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What I read here from some of the colleagues, 5000 words on a daily base. Well, aren't you the real supertranslators! Only I am wondering, ain't I am the 'victim' to proof your work?

To be honest, my max ever is 6300 words in one day, only what I had written down was totally uncromprehensible for anybody, so it took me more than 1 day to convert (read 'correct') it into "real and understandable Dutch".

With a CAT-tool and quality guaranteed, about 2000 words a day is a realistic figure (depending the subject and complexity).


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Phil Hand
Phil Hand  Identity Verified
China
Local time: 17:52
Chinese to English
Not so much impossible but... Feb 7, 2015

I would say 5000 words per day is unsustainable as a freelancer. I note that Henry is an interpreter, and Robin is describing an in-house situation, where much of the support work might be handled by other people.

Even though the OP is describing an in-house position, it sounds like she has to interface with all the different departments of the university. It also sounds like she's dealing with academic texts from across the university, which will demand a high level of knowledge an
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I would say 5000 words per day is unsustainable as a freelancer. I note that Henry is an interpreter, and Robin is describing an in-house situation, where much of the support work might be handled by other people.

Even though the OP is describing an in-house position, it sounds like she has to interface with all the different departments of the university. It also sounds like she's dealing with academic texts from across the university, which will demand a high level of knowledge and background research. I don't think she should go in expecting to be able to complete 25,000 words per week.

In practical terms, the options are: If there are some forms or set documents that you can pretranslate, do that so you don't have to repeat the work over and over. Use machine translation to gist pieces so that internal clients can decide if they really need them translated properly. And maybe run an internal market so that departments can bid for your time, to determine who has the greatest need.
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FarkasAndras
FarkasAndras  Identity Verified
Local time: 10:52
English to Hungarian
+ ...
Let's keep it civil here Feb 7, 2015

Robert Rietvelt wrote:

What I read here from some of the colleagues, 5000 words on a daily base. Well, aren't you the real supertranslators! Only I am wondering, ain't I am the 'victim' to proof your work?

To be honest, my max ever is 6300 words in one day, only what I had written down was totally uncromprehensible for anybody, so it took me more than 1 day to convert (read 'correct') it into "real and understandable Dutch".

With a CAT-tool and quality guaranteed, about 2000 words a day is a realistic figure (depending the subject and complexity).

Well, I'm not sure how to respond to this. Let's just say that we are all different, and we work at different speeds. One person may not be able to produce more than 1500 or 2000 words of high quality translation in a day on reasonably easy texts, but another may be able to do 5000 or more at the same quality level - or better.
Looking at it the other way, just because someone works slowly, I don't assume automatically that they must work well. Obviously, everyone has a "max speed" at which they can work well. If they try to work faster than that, the quality falls off a cliff... but that limit is different for everyone. Some people seem to assess others a bit like they judge other people's drinking habits or the number of sex partners they have had: "about as much as me is okay, but if it's a lot more than me then something is wrong with that person".

[Edited at 2015-02-07 11:03 GMT]


 
Lincoln Hui
Lincoln Hui  Identity Verified
Hong Kong
Local time: 17:52
Member
Chinese to English
+ ...
Just because you can't doesn't mean others can't either Feb 7, 2015

Robert Rietvelt wrote:

What I read here from some of the colleagues, 5000 words on a daily base. Well, aren't you the real supertranslators! Only I am wondering, ain't I am the 'victim' to proof your work?

To be honest, my max ever is 6300 words in one day, only what I had written down was totally uncromprehensible for anybody, so it took me more than 1 day to convert (read 'correct') it into "real and understandable Dutch".

With a CAT-tool and quality guaranteed, about 2000 words a day is a realistic figure (depending the subject and complexity).

Don't blame others for what you don't have.

[Edited at 2015-02-07 09:13 GMT]


 
translatordonna
translatordonna
Italy
Local time: 10:52
English to Italian
never more than 5500 words Feb 7, 2015

I have never translated more than 5500 daily and I am not trying to do more...I have always quality in my mind while translating.

 
Diana Obermeyer
Diana Obermeyer  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 09:52
Member (2013)
German to English
+ ...
I never understand... Feb 7, 2015

... questions about average output.

Depending on the source text, my output varies by factor 3, I would class anything between 1500 and 4500 as normal. Any average values would be pretty much irrelevant, as I don't receive an average amount of particular types of texts either.
Judging by the reaction I get from clients when I state 2000 words a day for certain texts, I tend to think that a higher output is actually quite common.

I think I would have a nervous br
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... questions about average output.

Depending on the source text, my output varies by factor 3, I would class anything between 1500 and 4500 as normal. Any average values would be pretty much irrelevant, as I don't receive an average amount of particular types of texts either.
Judging by the reaction I get from clients when I state 2000 words a day for certain texts, I tend to think that a higher output is actually quite common.

I think I would have a nervous breakdown just thinking about that sort of workload.

The only way I can see this work is if there is always several weeks' worth of source material available, i.e. there are no rush or ad-hoc jobs, the order is not prescribed, you always have the choice of 100k worth of texts, the material includes easy texts with a nice workflow and you can type reasonably fast (at least twice my speed). A lot of IFs.
To be able to guarantee 25k, you would need to aim for 30. Work on easy stuff for 3 days and target the entire 25k. Hand in 20k and "bank" all the rest for tough times. Then that leaves 2 days to work on 5k of difficult texts, which is still a lot of pressure, but doable.
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Josette Liebeck
Josette Liebeck  Identity Verified
Australia
Local time: 20:52
English to French
How many words can you translate in 8 hours Feb 7, 2015

There appears to be a consensus that more than 2500 words per 8-hour day is an unreasonable expectation. I mainly translate education material from English into French and I always quote that figure.

 
ACBLanguages
ACBLanguages  Identity Verified
Netherlands
Local time: 10:52
Member (2015)
English to Dutch
+ ...
2000 Feb 7, 2015

At the tranlation agency I currently work with, we always quote with 2000 words a day for translation and 8000 words a day for review. And that works well. It's often possible to translate a little faster but 2000 words leaves enough room for thorough checks and research. Sometimes when texts are fairly easy and don't require much research, you can work a lot faster. But 2000 words seems like a safe bet for me.

 
ozver yilmaz
ozver yilmaz  Identity Verified
Türkiye
Local time: 12:52
Member (2013)
English to Turkish
+ ...
Optimum for me Feb 8, 2015

is 2500-3000 new source words from English to Turkish using Trados mostly for technical translations, including research, consistency check, spell check and quality check. Hope it helps.

[Edited at 2015-02-08 09:50 GMT]


 
chalender
chalender
Italy
never more than 5500 words Feb 9, 2015

I have never translated more than 5500 daily and I am not trying to do more...I have always quality in my mind while translating.

 
Balasubramaniam L.
Balasubramaniam L.  Identity Verified
India
Local time: 15:22
Member (2006)
English to Hindi
+ ...
SITE LOCALIZER
Will the output go up with speech technlogies? Feb 10, 2015

I can't answer this myself, as speech technology pretty much does not exist for Hindi, my main language. I did at one time try Dragon Naturally Speaking optimized for Indian English, and the results were promising. But I didn't pursue it, as I do very little work in English.

I have heard that speech is several times faster than physical typing and perhaps it can boost translation output by a factor of two or three.

So may be, if speech is an option in your language pair
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I can't answer this myself, as speech technology pretty much does not exist for Hindi, my main language. I did at one time try Dragon Naturally Speaking optimized for Indian English, and the results were promising. But I didn't pursue it, as I do very little work in English.

I have heard that speech is several times faster than physical typing and perhaps it can boost translation output by a factor of two or three.

So may be, if speech is an option in your language pair, you should give it a try.
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Andy Watkinson
Andy Watkinson
Spain
Local time: 10:52
Member
Catalan to English
+ ...
Numbers Feb 10, 2015

areli_ash wrote:

Hello everyone!

This is the context: I'm the only translator at this university, where I work full-time translating from A to B (Sp > En), without glossaries or CATs. The topics are quite varied, including, but not limited to education, law, religion, science, etc.

I would also like to know, do you think it is feasible to translate 25K words per week under these conditions? If not, what would I need to do to hit this target? Thanks for your comments!


Aside from the fact that none of the subjects you've mentioned: "education, law, religion, science" matches the fields specified in your profile: "IT, marketing, electronics, finance", please consider the numbers involved.

If you could handle what basically amounts to 100,000 words/month, (at, e.g. $0.10/word), is the university offering you -/+ $100,000 per annum (with/out benefits, etc...)?


 
Preston Decker
Preston Decker  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 05:52
Chinese to English
Look into this Feb 10, 2015

Balasubramaniam L. wrote:

I can't answer this myself, as speech technology pretty much does not exist for Hindi, my main language. I did at one time try Dragon Naturally Speaking optimized for Indian English, and the results were promising. But I didn't pursue it, as I do very little work in English.

I have heard that speech is several times faster than physical typing and perhaps it can boost translation output by a factor of two or three.

So may be, if speech is an option in your language pair, you should give it a try.

I've heard the same thing (though I've never used Dragon myself), so this might be worth looking into if you think this volume of work is going to become a regular part of your job.


 
Balasubramaniam L.
Balasubramaniam L.  Identity Verified
India
Local time: 15:22
Member (2006)
English to Hindi
+ ...
SITE LOCALIZER
The whole dynamics changes for a full-time job Feb 12, 2015

Andy Watkinson wrote:
If you could handle what basically amounts to 100,000 words/month, (at, e.g. $0.10/word), is the university offering you -/+ $100,000 per annum (with/out benefits, etc...)?


You don' usually count the words you do when you are under full employment. That is quintessentially a freelancer practice. A job offers many intangible benefits such as income security, living benefits like insurance, old age pensions, contributions to children's education, living quarters and so on. They have to be taken into account while evaluating the actual worth of the pay packet.

Freelancers have to build in all these extraneous expenses into their rates and their per word rate reflects this.

I was in a full-time job for almost twenty years and learnt the ropes of translation as part of the job. I learned almost all that I know about computers on the job. It has proved invaluable for me in my freelance career. Also, in my job, I was part of a team which consisted of stolid professionals by observing whom and through their subtle guidance and training I learned many tricks of the trade which have made me a better writer and a translator. You can't usually put a money value on these things. Also there is the camaraderie of the office atmosphere to consider, which is a great morale booster and can be very inspiring. Of course, office politics and bitching can be equally enervating. But in balance, a job does offer certain things, that would be the envy of every freelancer.

So one should not become too money-minded in evaluating a job. There are many things to consider in addition to the money. In general, jobs would usually pay much less than a successful freelancer career, but in balance there are pros and cons to both, and neither is decisively better or worse than the other.

[Edited at 2015-02-12 07:58 GMT]


 
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