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| User | Thread poster: xxxBrandis What is the realistic translation speed |
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Alejandro Medina
Chile
Local time: 06:16
English to Spanish
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| | wph -> duration is key | Sep 28, 2010 |
Adieu wrote:
up to 2.5 k words PER HOUR, russian to english or english to russian ))) or 20 000 words/100 000+ symbols per day.
Not quite sure if I should envy or sneer, though. You lot seem to have much more tolerant and calm jobs. Oh well... I'm still young, I guess. |
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I'm with Adieu on this one. I find that a rate of 2300 wph is quite reachable, with excellent quality, on somewhat technical texts.
Easy texts should go about 3200 wph. Problem is, how long can you work at those speeds?
I've done extensive testing, and found that at 55 words per minute, you can go around 20 minutes before feeling like you just fried your brain.
At lesser speeds than that, you can go for more minutes, but - in the end - the key is to find the optimum range in the curve to maximize the effort / results.
Once I have more clear results, I'll be able to provide more insights into this interesting topic!
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Krzysztof Kajetanowicz 
Poland
Local time: 12:16
English to Polish
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I wasn't going to admit I could hit 1000 wph for fear of being accused of providing word-by-word translations or poor quality in general.
But I will.
2500-3000 words an hour? I'm not sure I could even type that fast, despite being a fast typer.
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Nicole Schnell
United States
Local time: 03:16
 Member
English to German
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| | Why does anyone want to type that fast? | Sep 29, 2010 |
Are you:
a) a typist
b) on the run
c) charging way too low rates
d) bored
e) working in an unheated/ugly/smelly office
f) having not enough clients who might as well require your attention?
Being successful in this industry (or any other industry) means: Work less for more money.
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Jabberwock
Poland
Local time: 12:16
 Member (2004)
English to Polish
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Nicole Schnell wrote:
Being successful in this industry (or any other industry) means: Work less for more money. |
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If I can do in an hour the work someone else does in three, then I get the same money and have two more hours free... How is that not "successful"?
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Annamaria Amik
Romania
Local time: 13:16
Member (2008)
Romanian to English
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| | Agree, Jabberwock, and... | Sep 29, 2010 |
Jabberwock wrote:
Nicole Schnell wrote:
Being successful in this industry (or any other industry) means: Work less for more money. |
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If I can do in an hour the work someone else does in three, then I get the same money and have two more hours free... How is that not "successful"? |
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Or, a more frequent scenario: have two more hours to translate another quantity of what someone else would do in six hours = more money.
Well, indeed it's good to have speed AND quality (of course, quality is better to have than speed, if one has to choose).
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Samuel Murray
Netherlands
Local time: 12:16
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
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Alejandro Medina wrote:
I've done extensive testing, and found that at 55 words per minute, you can go around 20 minutes before feeling like you just fried your brain. At lesser speeds than that, you can go for more minutes, but - in the end - the key is to find the optimum range in the curve to maximize the effort / results. |
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I find that I can't type more than 20 minutes at 55 wpm, but I can type for several hours at 20 wpm. That said, the netto speed is probably much less than 20, because I spend time reading the source text, doing research for terms, checking my mail now and then to see if I need to respond to something, etc.
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Samuel Murray
Netherlands
Local time: 12:16
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
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Nicole Schnell wrote:
Being successful in this industry (or any other industry) means: Work less for more money. |
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Hmmm, the secret is rather "do more work in less time" (i.e. achieve more with the same effort).
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FarkasAndras
Hungary
Local time: 12:16
English to Hungarian
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| | Being "successful" | Sep 29, 2010 |
I'll have to go ahead and quote Jabberwock on this one:
Jabberwock wrote:
Nicole Schnell wrote:
Being successful in this industry (or any other industry) means: Work less for more money. |
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If I can do in an hour the work someone else does in three, then I get the same money and have two more hours free... How is that not "successful"? |
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Annamaria Amik
Romania
Local time: 13:16
Member (2008)
Romanian to English
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| | @Samuel: Effort, time and the mental burden of speed | Sep 29, 2010 |
Samuel Murray wrote:
Nicole Schnell wrote:
Being successful in this industry (or any other industry) means: Work less for more money. |
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Hmmm, the secret is rather "do more work in less time" (i.e. achieve more with the same effort). |
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I fully agree. But effort is not necessarily measured in hours. Even though I translate pretty fast compared to colleagues I know, I find that working for 5-6 hours is probably more demanding and tiresome when your brain *has* to process more words in the same time (because it is "unable" to translate less).
But it is really nice to achieve the same quality as others achieve, in less time. "Nice" being a financial unit of measure, hehe.
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Mandoe
Denmark
Local time: 12:16
Danish to English
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I feel like a freak now.
An average of 1000 words per hour is my normal speed. Even if it is complicated legal text.
My (primary) language pair is Danish/English, and it doesn't matter which of them I translate into.
I suppose I am a freak then. But I love my job. It's a constant learning curve, and you get very well informed on so many subjects.
Which is probably why I have such a high out-put.
Simply because I love to learn, and see translating as a means to do so.
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Laurent KRAULAND
France
Local time: 12:16
 Member (2007)
French to German
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| | I *can* do 1 000 wph... | Oct 20, 2011 |
without any CAT tool, simply I don't *feel the need* to be that fast... There is enough external pressure anyway.
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Paul Harrison
France
Local time: 12:16
French to English
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| | When testing new translators for in-house positions... | Oct 20, 2011 |
... the company I work for gives a 300 word text to be completed in an hour, as this is what we consider "standard" speed. Over a 7 hour working day this gives 2100 words (discounting other activities). I am happy if I have translated 2000-3000 in a day.
I'd say that the major issues affecting my speed are boredom/nice view out of window, and the quality of the source text: some translations almost seem to write themselves.
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Ty Kendall
United Kingdom
Local time: 11:16
Member (2011)
Hebrew to English
| | Don't confuse "truth" with "opinion"... | Oct 20, 2011 |
Daniele Martoglio wrote:
Depends ALSO on the IQ of translator...
This is a truth that none wrote until now.. May be it's not a popular truth, but.. it's true!
I am sure that Rafa has an inteligence significant OVER normal.
Peak spead near 750-1000 wph are possible with high IQ, near or over the mensa border.
There are many translator which have peak spead near 250 wph. Meeting many many people, and knowning also translator, i can say that they (these 250wph translators) are people with NORMAL inteligence.
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Are you kidding? I'm sorry but translation (and translation speed) is a bit more complex than to suggest that it all boils down to IQ. (which is far from an airtight measure of intelligence, it has many critics).
I think you are forgetting:
•Specific language pair
•Source text genre (technical, medical, legal, general etc)
•Use or non-use of CAT tools/TM’s/Machine translation etc
•Specialization (of the translator)
•Translators proficiency in source/target languages
•Translator’s talent for writing in their native language
•Translator’s training (translation theory, education and credentials)
•Translator’s experience (I think it’s obvious that a translator who’s been translating for 40 years might just be quicker than a newborn translator)
•Whether the translator is accustomed to the specific terminology, jargon, slang or other difficulties the source text challenges them with.
*This list is not exhaustive*
Of all the variables, I think IQ really only plays a small part(if any) - (probably helps more with research, speed of research). Not to mention that translation is quite an academic career anyway i.e. it attracts the more intellectually curious (mostly - sure there are exceptions).
Even Mensa says:
"IQ or Intelligence Quotient is an attempt to measure intelligence. This means many things to many people". http://www.mensa.org.uk/iq-levels/
Not to mention that it is based on the biggest pseudo-science out there: psychometrics.
(Well maybe not THE biggest, there's always Scientology's "dianetics", now that is true nonsense).
Anyway, why the obsession with speed? There's a reason there's an abundance of proverbs relating to this in English (and other languages):
•More haste, less speed
•Haste makes waste
Not to mention that every English-speaking child knows about the tortoise and the hare.
Personally, I prefer the Yiddish proverb "Speed is only good for catching flies".
Edited for a typo
[Edited at 2011-10-21 06:59 GMT]
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