Counting words and rates Thread poster: Laura Mora
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Laura Mora 
Chile
Local time: 05:37
English to Spanish
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Hello everyone:
Excuse me because I'm writing to you in english. I don't know speak in chinese. The reason I'm posting here is because I have a friend from college who is going to work with me in translations and she translates spanish>chinese. But she doesn't know how to set her rates, how counting words. If you can help us, it would be great.
Thank you!
| | | | Jianjun Zhang
United Kingdom
Local time: 10:37
English to Chinese
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Hi Laura,
Welcome to 中文论坛。
I believe the rates vary greatly depending on lots of factors. I don't think Spanish -> Chinese rates are the same with English -> Chinese ones.
We usually charge per source word rates and will charge more if the file to be translated is very technical or contains forms that defy normal translation efforts. As you are a Platinum member, you can see the average rates for Spanish -> Chinese translations reported at Proz.c... See more Hi Laura,
Welcome to 中文论坛。
I believe the rates vary greatly depending on lots of factors. I don't think Spanish -> Chinese rates are the same with English -> Chinese ones.
We usually charge per source word rates and will charge more if the file to be translated is very technical or contains forms that defy normal translation efforts. As you are a Platinum member, you can see the average rates for Spanish -> Chinese translations reported at Proz.com. Hope that will give you some hints as to setting an acceptable rate.
Hope this helps you in some way. ▲ Collapse
| | | | David Shen
United States
Local time: 02:37
English to Chinese
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| Use MS Word to count and use your own judgement for rates | Oct 4, 2005 |
Hi Luara;
If your friend is translating between Chinese and Spanish, I suppose she has Chinese fonts installed in her computer, and if so, MS Word will do the job. If she has more than that, most Chinese word processing software would have a feature allowing you to count the total of words (characters) in a document.
Even if she has none of the above, don't worry. The Chinese characters are much easier (when it comes to counting) than any other language on earth because... See more Hi Luara;
If your friend is translating between Chinese and Spanish, I suppose she has Chinese fonts installed in her computer, and if so, MS Word will do the job. If she has more than that, most Chinese word processing software would have a feature allowing you to count the total of words (characters) in a document.
Even if she has none of the above, don't worry. The Chinese characters are much easier (when it comes to counting) than any other language on earth because each character is a single syllable that occupies a single cubic space of exactly the same size. Once you have counted the top row, you can just multiple the number of rows in the document that are full lines, give or take some rows that are half full, and you will reach a total that is going to be pretty close to a machine counted total. (You can not do that with words based on a phonetic system, can you?)
As for rates, I have no suggestions because everybody charges differently, for different things and in different places. You are a Platinum member so you can check this web to see what is the average.
You are welcomne to use English on the Chinese forum. But this reply is from a fellow Chinese translator and does not represent the opinion of anybody else on this forum.
Good Luck!
David ▲ Collapse
| | | | Laura Mora
Chile
Local time: 05:37
English to Spanish
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TOPIC STARTER | The problem is how you count words | Oct 4, 2005 |
Thanks for answering. The rates matter is clear now, but the thing she doesn's understand is about words. She said to me, she charges for pages, is that ok?
My kindest regards to you.
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Wenjer Leuschel (X)
Taiwan
Local time: 17:37
English to Chinese
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| Page rate is possible. | Oct 5, 2005 |
Laura Mora wrote:
Thanks for answering. The rates matter is clear now, but the thing she doesn's understand is about words. She said to me, she charges for pages, is that ok?
My kindest regards to you.
Some clients do pay per page, indeed. They are rarities. People usually pay word counts. With Chinese word counts, there might be some trouble. So, we pay according to Chinese character counts, which could be about the ratio of 1:2.
If a translator insists on being paid per page, a rough rate can be calculated by having any fixed word rate x 12 words x 30 lines. For instance, USD 0.08 x 12 words x 30 lines = USD 28.80 which is quite reasonable. But I am afraid there won't be many clients who would pay this way. Most clients would cut the price to the half because there is scarcely a full page.
Good luck!
| | | | Laura Mora
Chile
Local time: 05:37
English to Spanish
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER | Thanks Wenjer | Oct 5, 2005 |
Very clear your explanation. I hope my friend understands. You are very nice people. Thanks for everything.
(:
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