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Is $0.07/word too high? What rate can be mostly accepted?
Thread poster: Caroline717
wherestip
wherestip  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 01:59
Chinese to English
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Attitude or not Mar 8, 2017

coolfool wrote:

Please allow me to talk about upright stance a bit more, here. Look, what would a senior with fatherly, or motherly, attitude say now beat it, bearing me a grudge somewhat somehow, to a seemingly stubborn, excited, unreasonable, naïve junior, however incurable, or inculcate him patiently with an open mind and try with all his, or her, might to get the babe in the woods on the right track once more? It occurs to me the guys of the sort all over the world have a knack of playing the attitude card. Why? Because, if I don’t guess wrong, the attitude has no definition. Or in other words, it can be defined whatever they want to. There’s a tongue twister on website, like: Taken by your chief for right, you’re right, even if not right; taken by your head for not right, you ain’t right, even if right. Armed with the powerful, effective weapon, the above-mentioned guys would, please allow me once again to rephrase it here and now, declare at their will of course that Taken by them for wrong, you’re wrong, even if not wrong; taken by them for not wrong, you ain’t wrong, even if wrong.

[修改时间: 2017-03-08 04:00 GMT]


coolfool,

My opinion on this is you're welcome to post whatever you like, as long as it falls within the perimeters of the rules of this forum, but please make some sense.


 
Rita Pang
Rita Pang  Identity Verified
Canada
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Chinese to English
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Moderator of this forum
Stick to your guns Mar 9, 2017

Lin Yang wrote:

我觉得你现在的关键是要耐得住气,不要接那些价钱低,处理麻烦的项目。趁现在有时间确定自己的专长领域,学习翻译软件的使用,了解行业常规,修改简历,向靠谱的欧美翻译公司寄简历,然后等价钱和工作都令人满意的公司上门之后,做好每一份工作,留住客户。Yueyin说得对,向翻译公司海发简历的回复率大约是2-3%,这是我的亲身体验。我当时在发了两三百份简历之后就逐渐忙了起来,无需再联系新客户。这个过程用了大半年的时间。我不是一下全部发出去的,而是每天发十来封,因为在你还是新手的时候,需要不断学习,修改简历,调整价格,逐渐熟悉如何和客户打交道,这都是个过程。


Lin's got it.

When I first started out translating, I went into the deep end right away, but I made sure I had an alternative source of income. I was working in a cafe on a part-time basis. I made next to nothing with that part-time job, but I could at least pay my cell phone (which was less than $30/month), my bus/train pass (less than $110/month at the time), while having just enough for a meal with friends once in a while. I was, of course, lucky enough to be living at home, and my parents understood my predicament. Back then I was a student who's just graduated from university for about 4 years. I came home after working/travelling abroad for 4 years and was working off my student debt. My parents allowed me to stay and eat at home without asking me for 家用. Without them I wouldn't be where I am today. Perhaps your situation is different than mine, where you rely on every project to pay towards your own bills. Regardless, you HAVE to stick to your guns.

I say this because when you take a low-paying job, you could well be losing out on a better paid project. The rhetoric is simple; you spend time negotiating or applying for projects whose price isn't ideal anyway. In between the time you spent dealing and talking to PMs, you could have missed out on another email, or simply did not come into contact with a new agency or posting which could have offered you more money. It's easy to jump onto something when there's a monetary reward to it, but you have to remain steadfast on what you're looking for. So long as you're not needing that $50 to put bread on the table, WAIT.

You have to be patient. Keep trying. No one gets work or a steady flow of clients overnight. Focus on what makes your services unique. I recall that you're in education; reach out to companies or individuals who run online courses; see if they're interested in getting their material translated into Chinese (in my experience, MANY - and I repeat MANY - people want to tap into the online/adult education market in Chinese). I used to have so much subtitling offers which paid well but I turned them down since I didn't have time nor the interest. Don't just apply to agencies, focus on a specific group of companies or institutions which could be interested in your education plus languages. Why not approach successful online course instructors and see if they would want to work with you?

While waiting and speaking with agencies etc, like Lin said you have to work on your brand. Do you have a personal website? If you do already, work on it. You don't necessarily have to create a blog etc but you need to make it easy enough for visitors to navigate, to contact you, etc. Sell your brand. Are you on social media? Have you networked in your city and speak to small business organizations in your city? In the province of Ontario, Canada, every city (or larger townships) have small business development forums. Have you reached out to those people for potential loans, bursaries, or networking opportunities? In my experience they've always been helpful, but you need to know where to look, and most importantly you need to let people know you are looking for contacts or work.

While our profession has moved mostly into the online world now, the opportunities are often the ones which are not online. The way I see it, you need to help others help you. If I were to recommend you as a fellow translator, where's your portfolio, your experience, your background etc? A page in Proz isn't quite enough - what about LinkedIn, a personal website etc? Get those going and get your name out there. You need to focus on marketing as well, not just "applying" to agencies.

Best of luck.


 
Rita Pang
Rita Pang  Identity Verified
Canada
Local time: 02:59
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Chinese to English
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Chinese to English certification Mar 9, 2017

ysun wrote:

美国翻译者协会的成员也不都是经过认证的(即通过 ATA Certification Exam)。但经过认证的成员,被客户找上的几率会更高些。在其它背景相似的情况下,客户也许会优先考虑他们。因此,他们会比较忙,故可要求较高的价格。


A major issue for me is that ATA does not currently offer Chinese into English certification exams. I used to be quite active in ATA but due to the lack of this exam, I left. That being said for the two years which I was with the group, I do feel that there's been a surge of more reasonable offers. I can't tell if those clients found me on ATA as they never quite responded to how they've found me.

I emailed ATA before about this particular issue (CH>EN exam). They told me that they do not have enough qualified C to E examiners or writers to i. draft the exam and ii. mark the exam.

Very puzzling but that's apparently the way it is. Last I talked to them (a year ago) the response was the same- that there's no real deadline in sight as to when this will happen.


 
Rita Pang
Rita Pang  Identity Verified
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人工翻译 Mar 9, 2017

lucyoak wrote:

想请教各位,多数翻译是人工翻译还是借助软件?借助软件翻译能提高效率吗?
谢谢!


I don't work with CATs - I work with a lot of lifestyle/literary documents where I didn't find CATs to be particularly useful. They do help you increase your speed but so far knowing CAT (lack thereof, really) has not impeded me in finding work.


 
ysun
ysun  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 01:59
English to Chinese
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没错 Mar 9, 2017

Fargoer wrote:

coolfool wrote:

春眠不觉晓,
处处闻啼鸟。
This spring morning in bed I’m lying,
Not to awake till birds are crying.

后一句意思是:直到鸟叫才醒过来。对照原文,处处闻啼鸟。那原意是到处是鸟叫声。是不是歪曲或篡改原意?


我觉得这样译可以接受呀。

在古汉语中,特别是在字数受限制的韵文中,语序常常表达时间顺序和逻辑关系。这种关联性字面上没有,可是有点古文修养一般都能懂。

这个关联性就是闻啼鸟、才觉晓。即使许老先生译得不是十全十美,也谈不上什么“歪曲或篡改原意”!


 
ysun
ysun  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 01:59
English to Chinese
+ ...
Certification exam Mar 9, 2017

Rita Pang wrote:

A major issue for me is that ATA does not currently offer Chinese into English certification exams. I used to be quite active in ATA but due to the lack of this exam, I left. That being said for the two years which I was with the group, I do feel that there's been a surge of more reasonable offers. I can't tell if those clients found me on ATA as they never quite responded to how they've found me.

Rita,

Don’t worry too much about ATA’s certification. Since ATA doesn’t offer the Chinese into English certification exam, nobody has passed it. That means everyone is in the same boat. More often than not, clients are looking for a translator who is specialized in specific areas. For example, if you use the following criteria to search the ATA on-line directories, you will see that the number goes down to merely eight:
Language: from Chinese into English
Native language: English
Area of specialization: Video game

If you happen to work in that area, chances are you will get a steady flow of work. On the other hand, translators who translate from Chinese into English like you usually enjoy significantly higher rates, sometimes, double or triple.


 
ysun
ysun  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 01:59
English to Chinese
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The rules Mar 9, 2017

wherestip wrote:

coolfool,

My opinion on this is you're welcome to post whatever you like, as long as it falls within the perimeters of the rules of this forum, but please make some sense.

Steve,

好久不见。好在这里还有规则约束,还有 moderators 管着。对于“译网仇深”之类的地方,我从不敢涉足。


 
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David Lin
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Mutual respect and self-control Mar 9, 2017

Dear friends,

I would like to appeal for self control and mutual respect in your discussion. To be honest, it is against the ProZ.com Forum Rule to discourage others to use the Forum and to launch personal attack either directly or indirectly. I would like to ask you to focus on translation issues in relation to this thread topic which is "Is $0.07/word too high? What rate can be mostly accepted?". Avoid attempting to direct movements of posters or saying anything personal such a
... See more
Dear friends,

I would like to appeal for self control and mutual respect in your discussion. To be honest, it is against the ProZ.com Forum Rule to discourage others to use the Forum and to launch personal attack either directly or indirectly. I would like to ask you to focus on translation issues in relation to this thread topic which is "Is $0.07/word too high? What rate can be mostly accepted?". Avoid attempting to direct movements of posters or saying anything personal such as about any individual's ability or sense.

If anyone wants to discuss translation issues other than this topic, you are welcome to open a new thread under your name in this Forum which I believe can be easily done and will be more helpful for readers to follow and participate, if they want.

Your cooperation will be greatly appreciated.

David
Collapse


 
Rita Pang
Rita Pang  Identity Verified
Canada
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Member (2011)
Chinese to English
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Moderator of this forum
What David said Mar 10, 2017

David Lin wrote:

I would like to appeal for self control and mutual respect in your discussion... ProZ.com Forum Rule to discourage others to use the Forum and to launch personal attack either directly or indirectly.


Now let's get back to what truly matters- helping the OP scoring the projects she wants, at a price and delivery timeline which she finds fair.

Looking forward to hearing everyone's insight.


 
coolfool
coolfool
China
Local time: 14:59
Chinese to English
Translation, not understanding, matters Mar 10, 2017

我觉得这样译可以接受呀。
在古汉语中,特别是在字数受限制的韵文中,语序常常表达时间顺序和逻辑关系。这种关联性字面上没有,可是有点古文修养一般都能懂。

这个关联性就是闻啼鸟、才觉晓。即使许老先生译得不是十全十美,也谈不上什么“歪曲或篡改原意”!

Understanding anything by anyone anywhere in any way is fully understood and highly respected, especially by
... See more
我觉得这样译可以接受呀。
在古汉语中,特别是在字数受限制的韵文中,语序常常表达时间顺序和逻辑关系。这种关联性字面上没有,可是有点古文修养一般都能懂。

这个关联性就是闻啼鸟、才觉晓。即使许老先生译得不是十全十美,也谈不上什么“歪曲或篡改原意”!

Understanding anything by anyone anywhere in any way is fully understood and highly respected, especially by me, perhaps speaking loudly but carrying not even a single bamboo chop stick. The reason we’re here, however, is to talk about the translation, as it is known, not someone’s understanding as well as explanation, which requires not a sense more not a sense less within one’s abilities. Nothing more, simply put. Renderer ought, in my book, not to make the best of his particular status to impose his understanding or whatever, misleading or not, upon his dependent readers that are in no position by any means to tell a goodie from a baddie. Please allow me to deal it again next time.

Could I understand in this way that you think from now on, definitely not before, his work is no longer lily-white in this regard and there’s a blemish or two worth considering being further improved? Please let me know if I get it all wrong.
Collapse


 
David Lin
David Lin  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
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Two things Mar 10, 2017

coolfool wrote:

我觉得这样译可以接受呀。
在古汉语中,特别是在字数受限制的韵文中,语序常常表达时间顺序和逻辑关系。这种关联性字面上没有,可是有点古文修养一般都能懂。

这个关联性就是闻啼鸟、才觉晓。即使许老先生译得不是十全十美,也谈不上什么“歪曲或篡改原意”!

Understanding anything by anyone anywhere in any way is fully understood and highly respected, especially by me, perhaps speaking loudly but carrying not even a single bamboo chop stick. The reason we’re here, however, is to talk about the translation, as it is known, not someone’s understanding as well as explanation, which requires not a sense more not a sense less within one’s abilities. Nothing more, simply put. Renderer ought, in my book, not to make the best of his particular status to impose his understanding or whatever, misleading or not, upon his dependent readers that are in no position by any means to tell a goodie from a baddie. Please allow me to deal it again next time.

Could I understand in this way that you think from now on, definitely not before, his work is no longer lily-white in this regard and there’s a blemish or two worth considering being further improved? Please let me know if I get it all wrong.


Dear Coolfool,

Thank you for your posting. I think there're two issues here.

First of all, a presentation issue -- It's hard for me (and perhaps many readers) to distinguish who's speaking what in your post. I guess the Chinese words belong to Fargoer and others while the English is your response but it isn't clear enough.

I suggest you put HTML tags 'quote' with [ ] and '/quote' with [ ] before and after the sentence/s that belong to someone's comments.

The effect of this pair of codes will help distinguish a quote of someone from yours (which I think is in English as shown above).

For more info about BBcode or HTML tags, check this link:
http://www.proz.com/faq/5231#5231

Secondly, stray away from topic -- The translation of Chinese classical poems into English should belong to another thread. I strongly urge you to open a new thread perhaps on "Poem translation" in the Chinese Forum, as the current topic is really only about "money matters for freelancers".

Regards.

David


 
ysun
ysun  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 01:59
English to Chinese
+ ...
Agree with David Mar 10, 2017

David Lin wrote:

First of all, a presentation issue -- It's hard for me (and perhaps many readers) to distinguish who's speaking what in your post. I guess the Chinese words belong to Fargoer and others while the English is your response but it isn't clear enough.

I suggest you put HTML tags 'quote' with [ ] and '/quote' with [ ] before and after the sentence/s that belong to someone's comments.

For an example, it should be like this:
ysun wrote:

Fargoer wrote:

coolfool wrote:

春眠不觉晓,
处处闻啼鸟。
This spring morning in bed I’m lying,
Not to awake till birds are crying.

后一句意思是:直到鸟叫才醒过来。对照原文,处处闻啼鸟。那原意是到处是鸟叫声。是不是歪曲或篡改原意?


我觉得这样译可以接受呀。

在古汉语中,特别是在字数受限制的韵文中,语序常常表达时间顺序和逻辑关系。这种关联性字面上没有,可是有点古文修养一般都能懂。

这个关联性就是闻啼鸟、才觉晓。即使许老先生译得不是十全十美,也谈不上什么“歪曲或篡改原意”!


 
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Caroline717
Caroline717
Canada
Local time: 23:59
English to Chinese
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
谢谢! Mar 11, 2017

谢谢Rita! 谢谢大家!

 
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Is $0.07/word too high? What rate can be mostly accepted?






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