translating the transcripts /rates Thread poster: gretaa
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gretaa
Local time: 04:20
English to Polish
I am based in UK and I have been asked by the firm of solicitors to do a translation of suspect's police interview. I have a transcript, it is 13 pages long, the interview has been taped recorded and is 1 hour long. All I need to do is to translate the foreign language bits (English/Polish).
How much should I charge them? Should I charge them per word or an hour? (although it is hard to say how long is it going to take time wise and they want the estimate now)
I would be very greatf... See more I am based in UK and I have been asked by the firm of solicitors to do a translation of suspect's police interview. I have a transcript, it is 13 pages long, the interview has been taped recorded and is 1 hour long. All I need to do is to translate the foreign language bits (English/Polish).
How much should I charge them? Should I charge them per word or an hour? (although it is hard to say how long is it going to take time wise and they want the estimate now)
I would be very greatful for any suggestions.
Ewa ▲ Collapse
| | | | Victor Potapov
Russian Federation
Local time: 05:20
English to Russian
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| Do you have to do Polish>English translation from the transcript? or from the tape? | Feb 24, 2005 |
I would charge my regular translation rates for translation from the transcript (however, I doubt the UK police officers were able to correctly record the suspect's statements in Polish) :0)
I would charge my hourly rate for decoding the tape (I suspect Polish fragments are now on tape only) PLUS my regular translation rate for translating the transcribed material into English.
Beware of low-quality tape recordings! this causes a huge reduciton in productivity and you m... See more I would charge my regular translation rates for translation from the transcript (however, I doubt the UK police officers were able to correctly record the suspect's statements in Polish) :0)
I would charge my hourly rate for decoding the tape (I suspect Polish fragments are now on tape only) PLUS my regular translation rate for translating the transcribed material into English.
Beware of low-quality tape recordings! this causes a huge reduciton in productivity and you may still be forced to use the [inaudible] marks to indicate some words/sentences cannot be heard/understood... That's why it is a good idea to listen to a tape prior to giving a firm, binding quote.
Hope this helps - and good luck with this project!
Victor.
gretaa wrote:
I am based in UK and I have been asked by the firm of solicitors to do a translation of suspect's police interview. I have a transcript, it is 13 pages long, the interview has been taped recorded and is 1 hour long. All I need to do is to translate the foreign language bits (English/Polish).
How much should I charge them? Should I charge them per word or an hour? (although it is hard to say how long is it going to take time wise and they want the estimate now)
I would be very greatful for any suggestions.
Ewa
[Edited at 2005-02-24 15:27] ▲ Collapse
| | | | Nesrin 
United Kingdom
Local time: 03:20
English to Arabic
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| Do you have a full transcript? | Feb 24, 2005 |
gretaa wrote:
I have a transcript, it is 13 pages long, the interview has been taped recorded and is 1 hour long. All I need to do is to translate the foreign language bits (English/Polish).
Hello Ewa,
Your message isn't very clear - do you have a full transcript of the interview? In that case, the length of the tape is irrelevant, and you should just charge per word, as usual. If the transcript does not include the Polish bits, then you could do a direct translation from the tape, charge them per word, then charge something extra for the listening time. I've done a similar job before and was paid one pound per minute of listening time in addition to my regular per word rate.
Hope that helps.
| | | | Kathi Stock
United States
Local time: 21:20
Member (2002)
English to German
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Charge them for the 1 hour to listen to the tape and to compare the transcript.
In addition, charge your per word rate to translate the transcribed text.
Hope that helps.
Kathi
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gretaa
Local time: 04:20
English to Polish
TOPIC STARTER | many thanks everyone | Feb 24, 2005 |
I have a full transctiption (13 pages)and all I need to do is to translate the Polish fragments into English (so it can be checked against the interpreter's interpretation of what the suspect was saying - I know it sounds weird, but as the suspect believes his admissions were wrongly/incorrectly conveyed into English now his solicitor has to check if the interpreter's account actually corresponds with that of his client. Unfortunately it is not an electronic document, which means that I will ha... See more I have a full transctiption (13 pages)and all I need to do is to translate the Polish fragments into English (so it can be checked against the interpreter's interpretation of what the suspect was saying - I know it sounds weird, but as the suspect believes his admissions were wrongly/incorrectly conveyed into English now his solicitor has to check if the interpreter's account actually corresponds with that of his client. Unfortunately it is not an electronic document, which means that I will have to retype the whole 13 pages.
I guess I just count the words and charge them as for translation ▲ Collapse
| | | | Victor Potapov
Russian Federation
Local time: 05:20
English to Russian
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| Scanning and OCR...? | Feb 24, 2005 |
On the other hand, there are scanners and OCR (optical character recognition) software like FineReader and many others on the market.
Using a scanner you can scan the document into a graphics file (or a sequence of files, one image per page). After that you can use OCR to "recognize" the text from these images - and bingo, you have a text file - even some formatting may be retained!
Use this fairly often - helps to cut down on mindless retyping. One word of caution thou... See more On the other hand, there are scanners and OCR (optical character recognition) software like FineReader and many others on the market.
Using a scanner you can scan the document into a graphics file (or a sequence of files, one image per page). After that you can use OCR to "recognize" the text from these images - and bingo, you have a text file - even some formatting may be retained!
Use this fairly often - helps to cut down on mindless retyping. One word of caution though: you have to read through the document, ALWAYS spell-check the file, do a final re-read to see that no 1s (figure "one") became ls (small letter "L") etc. And see that all words/paragraphs got decoded properly!
Regards,
Victor.
gretaa wrote:
Unfortunately it is not an electronic document, which means that I will have to retype the whole 13 pages.
▲ Collapse
| | | | Magda Dziadosz
Poland
Local time: 04:20
Member (2004)
English to Polish
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| Still unclear... | Feb 24, 2005 |
gretaa wrote:
I have a full transctiption (13 pages)and all I need to do is to translate the Polish fragments into English /.../
Unfortunately it is not an electronic document, which means that I will have to retype the whole 13 pages.
I guess I just count the words and charge them as for translation
I wonder why would you have to retype all 13 pages if all you're requested to do is to translate some bits of it?
It doesn't look like a job which requires the use of TM, so translating from paper seems to be very feasible.
My 2 gr,
Magda
| | | | gretaa
Local time: 04:20
English to Polish
TOPIC STARTER | thanks again! | Feb 24, 2005 |
Victor's suggestion is very helpful. Thank you!
"...why do I need to retype the whole 13 pages?"- was the very same question I have asked, suggesting that I would just do the Polish translation bits and then someone from his office would retype the whole document...but I guess the solicitor in question has never worked with the translators before or maybe his secretary is on leave?
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