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Don't feel painiful when you're taken advantage of Thread poster: William Yang
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William Yang
China
Local time: 11:21
Member (2021)
English to Chinese
+ ...
If an agency pays you Standard D or even F of rates for the services you provide of the Standard A for the top quality at the moment, which describes of the range from the worst F on the way upward to A. You will let hm/her know it's a dead end for his/her business in the long term.
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Dan Lucas 
United Kingdom
Local time: 04:21
Member (2014)
Japanese to English
| Don't be a poor but virtuous victim | Apr 23, 2022 |
William Yang wrote:
Don't feel painiful when you're taken advantage of
If an agency pays you Standard D or even F of rates for the services you provide of the Standard A for the top quality at the moment, which describes of the range from the worst F on the way upward to A. You will let hm/her know it's a dead end for his/her business in the long term.
Perhaps I misunderstand you, but I don't see the logic of this argument.
Here's a thinking-outside-the-box suggestion: how about not allowing yourself to be taken advantage of in the first place? The client and the freelancer decide the rate together. Rather than accepting F-class rates of pay in return for providing an A-class service, I suggest simply declining to work with such clients at those levels.
When you accept poor rates you are not letting the client know that it's a dead end for the business. You're actually validating and enabling their business. Every time you accept ridiculous rates, the client is chuckling and rubbing their hands. I was going to say "They can't believe their luck" but of course they can believe it, because they know that there are naive or foolish people out there who accept such conditions.
I had a polite and professional enquiry for some potentially interesting business last week. Unfortunately this prospective client was not prepared to accept my standard rate, and indicated that they could, at best, offer work at a rate that was slightly more than half that.
I would need to receive a consistently high level of orders and work hard for many hours every day to generate a decent income at that level. In this particular case we agreed that there was a mismatch in our business models and parted on good terms.
Dear freelancers: learn when to say "no". Some of you are your own worst enemies. It may be okay if you're dabbling in translation on the side, or doing it for fun - it's a free market, and all that - but if you're doing this as a full-time job, and maybe trying to support a family, it's just not sensible.
Shouldn't need saying, but there we go.
Dan
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William Yang
China
Local time: 11:21
Member (2021)
English to Chinese
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER | you have your resources apparently | Apr 23, 2022 |
yeah, you talked about things different from what I tried to get across.
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Dan Lucas
United Kingdom
Local time: 04:21
Member (2014)
Japanese to English
| I'm not a mind reader | Apr 23, 2022 |
William Yang wrote:
yeah, you talked about things different from what I tried to get across.
Well, I can only interpret the text that is put in front of me. Perhaps worth trying to express it in a different way that we will understand?
Dan
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William Yang
China
Local time: 11:21
Member (2021)
English to Chinese
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER | I said again and again | Apr 23, 2022 |
I am a beginner.
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Samuel Murray
Netherlands
Local time: 05:21
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
+ ...
Perhaps William Yang meant:
[If an agency pays you low rates even though you provide high-quality translations, you should remind them that this will hurt their business in the long run.]
I agree -- it is good that translators inform agencies if they (the translators) consider the agency's rates to be too low. This helps the agency determine continuously whether their rates are on par with industry rates.
Perhaps William Yang meant:
[If an agency continues to pay low rates when translators provided high-quality services, those translators may be tempted to reduce the level of the quality of their services to match the level of the rates they're being paid, which means that the quality of the translations delivered by the agency will decrease over time.]
I agree -- this is a real danger for the agency. The agency may have had very positive responses from clients and proofreaders about the translator's quality initially, but translators have to work very hard in order to make a living off of low rates, so there is always the danger that such translators will stop doing stellar work and start delivering low-quality work without the agency noticing this. It is important for low-paying agencies to be vigilant about this and not become complacent about the assumed quality of translators who initially provided high-quality services.
[Edited at 2022-04-23 08:43 GMT]
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Jianrong Sun
China
Local time: 11:21
Member (2019)
English to Chinese
+ ...
@ William
Give an example in response to the text you wrote.
I am a professional English to Chinese translator for a UK based agency and our process is as follows:
The agency's PMs placing an order -- the agency's translators translating online -- the agency's reviewers reviewing online -- the agency's clients, who master Chinese and English, reviewing online -- and Agency's PMs send the final review results back to agency's translators and reviewers-- each translator an... See more @ William
Give an example in response to the text you wrote.
I am a professional English to Chinese translator for a UK based agency and our process is as follows:
The agency's PMs placing an order -- the agency's translators translating online -- the agency's reviewers reviewing online -- the agency's clients, who master Chinese and English, reviewing online -- and Agency's PMs send the final review results back to agency's translators and reviewers-- each translator and reviewer will be given score by the end client and agency on a weekly basis, and those who fail will be removed from the team.
Conclusion:
Unqualified translators or reviewers simply cannot get into such a team, and even if they manage to get in, they will eventually be removed for their own sake.
Will you get an unreasonable RATE for working for such an agency?
All a translator has to do is find such an agency and do his or her job well. ▲ Collapse
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William Yang
China
Local time: 11:21
Member (2021)
English to Chinese
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
What I would like to say is that you are in Harvard doesn't mean you can graduate and even if you have graduated doesn't you have the level. Quite simple. sorry I'm outside.
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Jianrong Sun
China
Local time: 11:21
Member (2019)
English to Chinese
+ ...
Maybe you came to this platform to show off your unique personality!
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William Yang
China
Local time: 11:21
Member (2021)
English to Chinese
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER | I'm serious about business | Apr 23, 2022 |
under this room of business issue. Stop here. I am leaving this topic.
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Samuel Murray
Netherlands
Local time: 05:21
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
+ ...
William Yang wrote:
What I would like to say is that you are in Harvard doesn't mean you can graduate and even if you have graduated doesn't you have the level. Quite simple.
Please rewrite it using different words (so that we can understand what you're trying to say). I mean this in all seriousness and without sarcasm: we would like to engage with you in conversation about this topic, but we have difficulty understanding this particular post.
[Edited at 2022-04-23 17:34 GMT]
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