| Pages in topic: [1 2] > | Could this be the lowest translation rate in history? Thread poster: Mr. Satan (X)
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Mr. Satan (X)
English to Indonesian
I stumbled upon a job offer recently and the agency dared to go as low as $0.004 per word. That includes proofreading as well.
I almost wanted to take on it just to see how bad it would go. This is quite amusing.
What is this madness?
| | | | Thayenga 
Germany
Local time: 08:12
Member (2009)
English to German
+ ...
Yes, this is quite a low rate, but it can be topped simply by the payment terms. To be paid via PayPal - translator bears the full transaction costs - in 90 days after the end of the month in which the project has been delivered to the fullest satisfaction of the customer, who, of course, has up to 30 days to review the project. Unfortunately, this is not a joke but a serious proposal from an agency... which never became my customer.
In short, submission on 1st of February. The agen... See more Yes, this is quite a low rate, but it can be topped simply by the payment terms. To be paid via PayPal - translator bears the full transaction costs - in 90 days after the end of the month in which the project has been delivered to the fullest satisfaction of the customer, who, of course, has up to 30 days to review the project. Unfortunately, this is not a joke but a serious proposal from an agency... which never became my customer.
In short, submission on 1st of February. The agency takes 2 - 3 weeks (mid to late February) to review the results before forwarding it to their client. The kind client only takes 28 days (15 - 20 March) and is, surprise, surprise, happy with the work. He informs the agency accordingly which takes a few days to inform the translator that s/he may expect payment to be made the end of June, of course, minus the 6 - 9% PayPal deducts, depending on the agency/translator's country.
[Edited at 2020-10-12 14:00 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | Dalia Nour
Egypt
Local time: 08:12
Member (2018)
English to Arabic
+ ...
| It's almost unpaid work | Oct 12, 2020 |
Actually, some agencies offered me $0.02 per word, and I felt that I'm goinig to work for free. Furthermore, they will pay me after 30 days.
Some agencies also ask you to do other duties beside the translation with a low rate. I remember that a company asked me to translate, proofreed, create the exact formating of the original text, create the same logo and create the same designes which exist in the original text. And all these duties with the rate %0.05 per word. And ofcourse,... See more Actually, some agencies offered me $0.02 per word, and I felt that I'm goinig to work for free. Furthermore, they will pay me after 30 days.
Some agencies also ask you to do other duties beside the translation with a low rate. I remember that a company asked me to translate, proofreed, create the exact formating of the original text, create the same logo and create the same designes which exist in the original text. And all these duties with the rate %0.05 per word. And ofcourse, their payment will be after 30 days.
[Edited at 2020-10-12 16:01 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | expressisverbis
Portugal
Local time: 07:12
Member (2015)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
I have just read a job posted here and they are offering €0.02 EUR to €0.025 EUR per word!
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| Why debate it? | Oct 12, 2020 |
it is demeaning even to discuss. We are more intelligent than bankers.
| | | | Daryo
United Kingdom
Local time: 07:12
Serbian to English
+ ...
| Unfortunately there is no madness in this method | Oct 12, 2020 |
Novian Cahyadi wrote:
I stumbled upon a job offer recently and the agency dared to go as low as $0.004 per word. That includes proofreading as well.
I almost wanted to take on it just to see how bad it would go. This is quite amusing.
What is this madness?
Madness?
I'm afraid not - it's nothing more than exploiting opportunities created by improved worldwide communications and a plethora of sites acting as intermediaries . They simply hope to find somewhere / anywhere in the world just one translator (or a wannabe translator, they probably don't care) in urgent need of some pocket money.
For 2000 words per day (which would be reasonable for a quality translation) that would be the tidy sum of $8 (of gross income) per day or maybe even a Prince's ransom of $16 if you're are not worried about quality / possible burnout.
End of rant - before it really even started.
| | | | Felipe Lacerda
Brazil
Local time: 03:12
Member (2011)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
expressisverbis wrote:
I have just read a job posted here and they are offering €0.02 EUR to €0.025 EUR per word!
They don't want your work, they want your soul.
| | | | María C Turri
Argentina
Local time: 03:12
Member (2019)
English to Spanish
Just a few days back I heard of an Argentinian agency offering the equivalent in pesos AR$0,30. That is certainly working for free.
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Mr. Satan (X)
English to Indonesian
TOPIC STARTER | Yes, yes, titles... | Oct 13, 2020 |
Spencer Allman wrote:
it is demeaning even to discuss. We are more intelligent than bankers.
It's less about debating, but more about raising concerns regarding the industry.
Daryo wrote:
Madness?
I'm afraid not - it's nothing more than exploiting opportunities created by improved worldwide communications and a plethora of sites acting as intermediaries . They simply hope to find somewhere / anywhere in the world just one translator (or a wannabe translator, they probably don't care) in urgent need of some pocket money.
For 2000 words per day (which would be reasonable for a quality translation) that would be the tidy sum of $8 (of gross income) per day or maybe even a Prince's ransom of $16 if you're are not worried about quality / possible burnout.
End of rant - before it really even started.
I see what you say, but I don't think quality should be sacrificed in any shape or form. Yes, it's perfectly normal for businesses trying to reduce their spending and maximizing profit by getting the best deal available. I do that too. But relying on agencies that disproportionately care about quantity more than quality is a bit too much.
From my experience, such agencies are not particularly into respectable business practices. Gone are the days of exchanging pleasantly written emails discussing about the projects. They would rush you all the time and give subpar source materials to work with. I don't think we should let the translation industry going down that road.
In my humble opinion, of course.
| | | | Edward Potter
Spain
Local time: 08:12
Member (2003)
Spanish to English
+ ...
| Unprofessional | Oct 15, 2020 |
A professional company would represent the work as unpaid and voluntary.
We all know the pitfalls of giving out low payment. The company should know this, and care.
There definitely are situations where a translator would accept unpaid work. The offerer should be up front about it, that's all.
| | | | | Could be MT-related | Oct 16, 2020 |
Well, that is "a little" LOW, you have to admit. Yet, 0.01 EUR per word and similar is not unheard of in my market. I see on local FB groups people offering services for such amounts, especially in popular language combinations, such as EN-LT, RU-LT. Agencies bid in government tenders starting from EUR 0.02 per word, and win. How much are they paying the translator? I guess the downward spiral of prices could be related to the fact that clients assume that we are already just doing post-editing ... See more Well, that is "a little" LOW, you have to admit. Yet, 0.01 EUR per word and similar is not unheard of in my market. I see on local FB groups people offering services for such amounts, especially in popular language combinations, such as EN-LT, RU-LT. Agencies bid in government tenders starting from EUR 0.02 per word, and win. How much are they paying the translator? I guess the downward spiral of prices could be related to the fact that clients assume that we are already just doing post-editing anyway, i.e. at least in certain language combinations, they believe that MT does "all the work", and we just "proofread". I do not see another explanation. Also, where 50 per cent of the population is perceived to "know" English, you can imagine the supply of "translators" and the temptations for agencies to go as low as possible on the prices, especially since they do not seem to suffer any consequences. ▲ Collapse
| | | | | No need to reply | Oct 16, 2020 |
Don't even bother to reply those kind of offers that stink. Thank god I have never been getting those kind of offers lately.
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Mr. Satan (X)
English to Indonesian
TOPIC STARTER | Re: Could this be the lowest translation rate in history? | Oct 16, 2020 |
Vytautas Kacerauskis wrote:
i.e. at least in certain language combinations, they believe that MT does "all the work", and we just "proofread".
Nope, I'm pretty sure that was translating from scratch. Usually about engineering/medical/law. Would not be so bad if the source material is already in a document format. But if you're unlucky then welp, better have your OCR ready then.
Not that I was interested in the first place anyway, since it was not exactly my field of expertise.
Nurettin Ceylan wrote:
Don't even bother to reply those kind of offers that stink. Thank god I have never been getting those kind of offers lately.
Oh, believe me. I'm done playing with those. Last time I accepted such offer I didn't even bother to send an invoice. They can keep my translation for free.
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Reject this low rate work, it’s not worth doing it. If all translators refuse to do this, we can keep our rate at a reasonable level
| | | | | Volume v. rate | Oct 28, 2020 |
I recently got an email from an East European agency offering $0.03 per source word for French-English translation of Twitter material. The total source wordcount would be 2 million plus, over a period of 3 weeks. So using MT and eyeballing 2 million words in 15 days would net you $60k! Or if you decided you could realistically do 30,000 source words in 15 days, you would get $900. Not princely, but under current conditions, there might be some takers. Without thinking much about it, I consigne... See more I recently got an email from an East European agency offering $0.03 per source word for French-English translation of Twitter material. The total source wordcount would be 2 million plus, over a period of 3 weeks. So using MT and eyeballing 2 million words in 15 days would net you $60k! Or if you decided you could realistically do 30,000 source words in 15 days, you would get $900. Not princely, but under current conditions, there might be some takers. Without thinking much about it, I consigned the email to my trash folder and avoided opening it. ▲ Collapse
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