| Pages in topic: [1 2] > | Poll: I prefer to quote on jobs per: Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
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| | Juan Jacob 
Mexico
Local time: 11:39
French to Spanish
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As a translator for subtitling and subtitler, I charge by minute.
Zillions dollars per minute, I mean.
Sometimes, when not for subtitling, by page, 200 words by page.
Another zillions dollars per page, of course.
| | | | | Depends on the language pair | May 22, 2008 |
When I translate from Japanese, I quote by source character. When I translate from English or Hungarian, I quote by source word.
| | | | Erzsébet Czopyk
Hungary
Local time: 19:39
Member (2006)
Russian to Hungarian
+ ...
SITE LOCALIZER | simply different | May 22, 2008 |
Interpreting:
Full day, half day or (very rarely) rate/hour.
If at the airport or countryside, plus taxi or travel expenses.
If abroad, always and ONLY full days, plus any other expenses (fare, accomodation, etc.) on the customer.
Any extras (incl. cocktail or evening dress, national costume, etc.) +1 additional hour
Voiceover: rate/hour
Translation:
In case of Chinese, Japanese or Hebrew - always and ONLY by sou... See more Interpreting:
Full day, half day or (very rarely) rate/hour.
If at the airport or countryside, plus taxi or travel expenses.
If abroad, always and ONLY full days, plus any other expenses (fare, accomodation, etc.) on the customer.
Any extras (incl. cocktail or evening dress, national costume, etc.) +1 additional hour
Voiceover: rate/hour
Translation:
In case of Chinese, Japanese or Hebrew - always and ONLY by source characters;
In case if the client from Germany, Austria or UK - always and ONLY by source words;
In case if the client from US - rounded total amount in US dollars;
In case of Hungarian clients - always and ONLY target characters incl. spaces according to regulations of MFE (Association of Hungarian Translation Companies);
In case of OFFI (Hungarian National Office for Translations and Attestations) - there is no way to quote, I can just accept or decline the assignment for whatever price they offer, and...close my mouth;
In case if the client is handicapped or has serious illness: minimum charge or no charge at all.
Like the Skiny underwear: simply different ▲ Collapse
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David Russi
United States
Local time: 11:39
English to Spanish
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The only fair way to charge, at least in the EN>SP language combination.
| | | | | What I prefer is one thing... | May 22, 2008 |
...but what a client is willing to pay is another one.
I'm with Juan Jacob here: zillions dollars per minute, please!
All right, we live in a real world... so, let's settle on $100 per minute! See? I'm very easy to deal with!
Now, getting serious: as I mostly do interpreting and not translating, I charge as Erzsébet does: either half day or full day. If I have to drive 25 miles one way or more, I charge mileage as well. In certain cases, I negotiat... See more ...but what a client is willing to pay is another one.
I'm with Juan Jacob here: zillions dollars per minute, please!
All right, we live in a real world... so, let's settle on $100 per minute! See? I'm very easy to deal with!
Now, getting serious: as I mostly do interpreting and not translating, I charge as Erzsébet does: either half day or full day. If I have to drive 25 miles one way or more, I charge mileage as well. In certain cases, I negotiate travel time (in addition to mileage) - say, when I have to drive about 100 miles to a job. If I have to do some serious travel, then, of course, full days only plus travel expenses.
For translating, I always insist on seeing the document before I quote, than I estimate how much time it would take me to do the job and quote accordingly. ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Per word into Spanish | May 22, 2008 |
David Russi wrote:
The only fair way to charge, at least in the EN>SP language combination.
I entirely agree. In German to Spanish we also use words, whereas traditionally these translations were calculated in lines. With today's formatting and DTP possibilities, a line does not mean much really and the word is the only sensible way to go.
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I mean the so-called "standard page" which is equal to 1800 characters with blank spaces included. In my opinion, this provides the best accurate and fair cost calculation. Charging per word is also good, but due to articles and prepositions, English wordcount inevitably gives a bit too large estimate.
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| Lines, please | May 22, 2008 |
It has to be lines with German, since such a large proportion of German words consists of word combinations - otherwise we German into English translators would really be out of pocket. A line is usually defined as being 55 characters, but can also be 50 or 52. The number of characters in a line is always stated when quoting, so charging for translating German boils down to charging by the character. This is especially true, since the calculation is not always in whole lines, but can, for exampl... See more It has to be lines with German, since such a large proportion of German words consists of word combinations - otherwise we German into English translators would really be out of pocket. A line is usually defined as being 55 characters, but can also be 50 or 52. The number of characters in a line is always stated when quoting, so charging for translating German boils down to charging by the character. This is especially true, since the calculation is not always in whole lines, but can, for example, be "43.56 lines".
Target words is the only other possibility.
Astrid
[Edited at 2008-05-22 07:35] ▲ Collapse
| | | | | cartella (standard page) | May 22, 2008 |
In Italy the standard unit is the cartella, normally 1500 characters including spaces. Some agencies prefer source counts, others target. I don't care, I just charge a higher rate if it's on target count.
I take issue with David Russi's assertion that source words are
The only fair way to charge
- I'd agree that charging by source makes it a lot fairer, as the time needed to read a 2-letter word and a 15-letter word is pretty much the same, but a system based on characters (whether standard line, standard page or characters themselves is by far the fairest system, in my opinion.
| | | | neilmac
Spain
Local time: 19:39
Spanish to English
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| Source per word | May 22, 2008 |
... for Spanish -> English in MS Word compatible format, using the MS Word counter. No rebates for reps. A reasonably cheap basic rate (0.08 €/word) with possible discretionary discounts depending on volume, client loyalty, deadline flexibility, manageable format... etc.
Minor revisions and modifications free of charge.
| | | | Simon Sobrero
United Kingdom
Member (2004)
Italian to English
+ ...
| Why 'cartellas' ... and pounds and gallons ... are a bugbear | May 22, 2008 |
Hi Marie-Hélène,
If reading a long word or a short word is the same, then why look at the number of characters? I wouldn't mind, but an Italian 'cartella' is a very inflexible standard. A recipe for disaster if the page you receive then ends up having MORE than you expected.
Luckily, I have a chart on my wall that helps me convert this into a civilised word count. It sits there next to my chart for converting pounds, yard, and gallons into sensible units!
I would soon see t... See more Hi Marie-Hélène,
If reading a long word or a short word is the same, then why look at the number of characters? I wouldn't mind, but an Italian 'cartella' is a very inflexible standard. A recipe for disaster if the page you receive then ends up having MORE than you expected.
Luckily, I have a chart on my wall that helps me convert this into a civilised word count. It sits there next to my chart for converting pounds, yard, and gallons into sensible units!
I would soon see the back of this old-fashioned Italian anomaly.
As I would their 60 and 90 day payment terms ...and 'italiese', and bureaucracy, and hard copies of everything ... and ... but I love the place otherwise.
Help us get rid of the cartella cartel!
Simon ▲ Collapse
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Williamson
United Kingdom
Local time: 18:39
Flemish to English
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Source words? Doesn't it rather depend on the language family:
Germanic>Romance: target words, because Romance languages tend to be descriptive and give a description of what can be said in one word in a Germanic language.
Romance >Germanic: source words.
Slavonic>Germanic: whichever produces the most number of words.
Germanic>Slavonic : target, because more words.
Romanic>Slavonic: source.
Don't know about Near-Eastern (Arabic, Hebrew) and Eastern languages... See more Source words? Doesn't it rather depend on the language family:
Germanic>Romance: target words, because Romance languages tend to be descriptive and give a description of what can be said in one word in a Germanic language.
Romance >Germanic: source words.
Slavonic>Germanic: whichever produces the most number of words.
Germanic>Slavonic : target, because more words.
Romanic>Slavonic: source.
Don't know about Near-Eastern (Arabic, Hebrew) and Eastern languages such as Japanese/Chinese>Western languages.
No reductions for reps.either.
The difference may not be big on one assignment, but on a yearly basis choosing that direction which generates the biggest number of words, makes a difference in income.
[Edited at 2008-05-22 09:16] ▲ Collapse
| | | | Nesrin
United Kingdom
Local time: 18:39
English to Arabic
+ ...
| Ah, now I get it! | May 22, 2008 |
Astrid Elke Johnson wrote:
It has to be lines with German, since such a large proportion of German words consists of word combinations - otherwise we German into English translators would really be out of pocket.
I'm always so annoyed by my German clients who insist that I quote per line. And I end up calculating my per line rate on the basis of the number of words in the document. But now I realise I am doing myself a disservice, if the document contains a lot of words of the type "Klimaschutzpolitik" or whatever.
| | | | | Germanic>Slavonic | May 22, 2008 |
Williamson wrote:
Germanic>Slavonic : target, because more words.
I don't agree with that. Example? English > Polish. English can have 10%-30% more words, than Polish target. Polish text is usually longer due to lenght of words, but number of words is smaller. I imagine the same would go with German > Polish, especially since in German words tend to "stick" together, creating one loooong word.
It may be true with other Germanic languages though.
Anni
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