Would you say no to the wrong translation rates?
Many translation agencies are offering really low rates (U$S 0.02/word in most cases or less) for translation services, exploiting local circumstances (i.e. recent translation graduates looking for work, dollar-to-local currency ratios, weak local markets, etc.). Should offshore translators just accept the rates they're being offered or counteract them in some way? Your thoughts, please.
Answers (7)
Heather V
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Hello Mario,
I'm glad you posted this as it's been a concern of mine for the past twenty years or so of translating as a freelancer as a side business. (I worked for two full years as a translator and did a lot of translation as one compenent of my job in Europe however).
As I'm sure you and I know, it is virtually impossible to offer quality work at those prices. Occasionally I have been asked to clean up after a machine translation or someone who clearly did not know either language. Just one preposition can change the meaning. However, some people persist in going for cost alone in their considerations for translating documents.
I have preferred not to persist in advertising my translation work because of such low rates. I do it when someone I know calls me and requests a quote.
Establishing a rate is the constant concern of all translators. I have always preferred a flat rate or finding a price that works well for both parties after examining the work at hand.
I too wonder if translators will be able to refuse to work for low rates because of the perception out there that machines can translate. Computer programs help in manuals or repetitive work with fuzzy matches etc, but they must be run by someone competent.
Clarification added 10 months ago:
The classic example of machine translation: Take a random phrase.
I like to eat pizza and go to the park. into Spanish:Amo comer la pizza e ir al parque.
Back into English it becomes:
Master to eat the pizza and to go to the park.
I always give people examples like this that they can see! Do they really want to entrust their documents to this sort of machine.
Juan J
ITIL® Evangelist and Professional Cat Herder
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In the translation field the saying that "you get what you pay for" is very, very true. Over the last three decades I've seen a very linear relationship between rates and quality, but then again the kind of work I've seen and done is highly technical -- things like translations of aviation accident reports, advertising copy for complex movie projection systems, etc.
If you're doing general-purpose translations, you'll find that your competition is machine translation, as well as the belief that anyone who seems to speak the language can translate it correctly. This is very common in all the southern states from Texas to California. The only way to make good money in translation, IMO, is to specialize in a niche market and go after customers in this market with a vengeance.
Nadine T
French Freelance Translator & Conference Interpreter OpenNetworker.com LION
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Some translators, and some of them not necessarily as bad as you might think, are lured into thinking that they will get more work by accepting these low rates. What they get is more stress, and less money to pay their bills. What will happen to them in an age of recession?
This kind of treatment goes beyond the problem of ensuring quality. If I was accepting these rates, for whatever reason, I would deliver the same quality as I would do for 10 times the amount. But it's a matter of how you value yourself and your work in the world. For me, 0.02 cent per word is not pay, it's slavery that tries to pass off for pay.
Editing machine-translated copy raises the same kind of problems. Some of the mistakes produced by translation software can be very subtle and require exactly the same level of proficiency and skills as if the translator was doing the job him/herself.
So you have my answer: I never accept, and indeed would never even consider looking at this kind of rate, and translators (I mean real, professional translators) are doing themselves a disservice by encouraging this practice and putting themselves on an equal level with machines.
Percy B
Independent Translation and Localisation Professional, Owner PB Translations
Translators should most definitely not accept those rates, not only because they are doing themselves a disservice, but because they are doing the translation business as a whole a disservice. If all translators would accept rates like that, none of them would be able to make a living out of their profession any more. This would be detrimental to the quality of translations, because translators would have to work night and day to be able to pay their bills and professional translators would quit and only the less than professional would remain.
It is definitely possible to refuse those rates and still find work. In my experience, there are different markets in the translation business: on the one hand, there are clients who are not willing to spend much on translations and who either use machine translation or very cheap translators; on the other hand, there are clients who realise how important a good translation is and are willing to pay proper rates for a professional translation (and not just for highly specialised translations). Needless to say, I am not interested in the first market. I have plenty of clients who value my work and pay accordingly.
I know there are quite a few (professional) translators who do accept low rates because they fear they will be out of work if they don't. However, what these translators do not seem to realise is that they will not be taken seriously by serious clients. Professional translation agencies, for example, will never hire a translator who asks low rates, because they are not convinced that someone can offer a quality translation for a rate like that. As Nadine already pointed out: it is also about how you value yourself and your work. If you don't value your work, how can you expect a potential client to value it?
As for machine translation: I do not feel threatened by it. Machine translation may be useful for standardised texts, but will never be able to produce creative texts. Websites or brochures, for example, are supposed to attract customers and one way to achieve this is by using engaging language. That is something a machine translation will never be able to produce.
Ana María P
Over 12 years experience as Interpreter and Translator. Más de 12 años de experiencia como Intérprete y Traductora.
Dear Mario. This is a difficult question. Personally, I don't accept low paying jobs because I am also an interpreter and manage to round up my income. However, I know that some people go through really rough times, how can you say no to them in those cases? There are university students or simply bilingual people that will do the job for very little, obviously the results are not as good and serious companies are not going to accept it. So basically there it is. There are people who can live with a machine translation, other that can take a job made by an amateur and then serious companies that are willing to pay for a quality job. They say "Shakespeare is as good as the person who translates him", and definitely if you offer a quality job you will soon find a steady flow of customers willing to pay your rates. Personally I charge $0.08 per word (even here in Costa Rica that is not the most buoyant economy) and people pay for it. Once a business expert told me: "If you get every job you quote... you are not charging enough" that helped me a lot. Every time someone says I am too expensive, I think to myself, good, that means my rates are correct. If too many people say I am too expenses, well either it is true or I need to look for a new market. Good luck in your new endeavors!
Links:
I second the points raised by Juan and Ana. As Juan says, the key is specialisation - for two main reasons.
First, specialising means that you cut out a huge part of the competition. Instead of chasing after the same general jobs that everyone else is after, and thus being forced to lower your rates in order to compete, once you become recognised as a competent specialist in your field clients will come straight to you - and accept the rate you quote them. And if they don't, that won't be a problem, because the next one probably will. (Ana's comments on rates are particularly relevant here!)
The second reason why specialisation is good for your bottom line is its effect on your output. As a generalist, you might find yourself translating a glossy brochure for the Seychelles, an annual business report, a vacuum cleaner instruction manual, a curriculum vitae, a birth certificate, a newspaper article reporting a politician's speech, a product catalogue.... all within the space of a few days, all with their own special terminology and style, none of them applicable to any of the others.
As a specialist, you're more likely to get similar types of texts with a limited terminology, each of which will add to your knowledge of your specialist area, enabling you not only to translate both better and faster but also to accept more work in the same timescale, and all of it at the rate you have established, not a rate which has been imposed on you. So not only are you earning more for what you produce, but you're able to produce more of it, and with the higher quality that follows from your specialised knowledge - a win-win situation for both you and your client.
I agree with Percy's comment about translation agencies not paying such a low rate, I know we wouldn't for several reasons. Translators' skills and expertise are based on education and experience and they should be compensated accordingly. If someone contacts my company and says they charge US$ 0.02 and they live in the United States, it is clear to us that they are not experienced translators. Caveat emptor.
