What tariff to apply? Thread poster: Julie FOLTZ
| Julie FOLTZ France Local time: 22:46 English to French + ...
I would like to have an idea what tariff a friend of mine should apply for the translation of a medical/marketing brochure of 150 words. From German>English, German > French. It took 20 hours of work. I would like your advices. Thanks. | | | Latin_Hellas (X) United States Local time: 22:46 Italian to English + ... 150 Words Too Many For 20 Hours Of Work - Is Something Missing Here? | Jul 4, 2006 |
It seems hard to believe there is not a typographical error here or that some significant background information is missing. If it really took 20 hours to do 150 words then it appears that your friend has little or no experience in the medical marketing field and so had no business in accepting such a translation because, based on the little information given, it appears the person had to look up every word of the text using a paper dictionary. If something is missing in the picture ... See more It seems hard to believe there is not a typographical error here or that some significant background information is missing. If it really took 20 hours to do 150 words then it appears that your friend has little or no experience in the medical marketing field and so had no business in accepting such a translation because, based on the little information given, it appears the person had to look up every word of the text using a paper dictionary. If something is missing in the picture here, what is it? What kind of agreement/understanding existed with the client before the job was accepted? ▲ Collapse | | | Julie FOLTZ France Local time: 22:46 English to French + ... TOPIC STARTER I don't want to tell you the whole story... | Jul 4, 2006 |
I know elements are missing: a very specialized medical field, two people meeting and the one translating is speaking these langauges but her job is not translation. Do not judge too fast, please. | | | Angela Dickson (X) United Kingdom Local time: 21:46 French to English + ...
will your friend's client have expected him/her to have taken that long over 150 words? Into two languages too - is your friend a native speaker of both? If the client is expecting it to have taken this long, then I don't see the problem - apply an hourly rate for the hours spent. | |
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sarahl (X) Local time: 13:46 English to French + ... DTP included? | Jul 4, 2006 |
Julie, Did your friend handle the DTP as well? I mean, the translation per se should take no more than an hour. | | | With bale002 and sarah | Jul 4, 2006 |
If you "don't want tell the whole story" we have to assume something terrible happened and a job that should have taken 1 hour took 20 times as much. You cannot charge for 20 hours. The client is not responsible for the delay and/or the difficulties encountered; that is entirely your problem. | | | What did your friend gain from the 20 hours spent? | Jul 4, 2006 |
If the time was spent learning to work a new DTP package, then no doubt the learning experience was a worthwhile investment. Personally, if someone charged me for more than 3 hours for DTP work, without warning me in advance, I would dispute their invoice. For publishing a brochure, then I would say you could charge for up to 3 hours of time. Astrid | | | Minimum rate (with the option for more) | Jul 5, 2006 |
As far as I can tell, no one is judging, but rather guessing. If you want usable suggestions, you probably need to supply a little more information. Regardless of the reasons, you might handle this situation as follows: Just yesterday I had a translation to proofread where it took almost a half of an hour just to understand what the author was trying to get at in the original (in just one of many long, 150-word sentences). I was totally surprised; I have never encounter... See more As far as I can tell, no one is judging, but rather guessing. If you want usable suggestions, you probably need to supply a little more information. Regardless of the reasons, you might handle this situation as follows: Just yesterday I had a translation to proofread where it took almost a half of an hour just to understand what the author was trying to get at in the original (in just one of many long, 150-word sentences). I was totally surprised; I have never encountered a translation quite as twisted as this (the judgment by an Austrian appellate court). The translation was relatively good, but it was incredibly difficult to decipher the sentences in the original, let alone compare them to the translation and make changes where necessary. I had originally told the client that I would probably not need longer than an hour to proofread about 1,000 words - it ended up taking me close to six hours. If I were to go ahead and charge my normal hourly rate, our colleague would end up having to pay to do this horrendous translation. I wrote to her and said that I took longer than the hour I had quoted. I asked her to pay me at least for one hour and I would accept (;-)) anything she thought she could pay on top of that. I think that is okay - I'm usually paid quite well for my translations, so I'll probably just chalk this one up to collegiality. In any case, I'm certain that I'll be working with this colleague again. If I would've gone over the top with my expectations, that would've probably been the last time we worked together. ▲ Collapse | | | To report site rules violations or get help, contact a site moderator: You can also contact site staff by submitting a support request » What tariff to apply? Wordfast Pro | Translation Memory Software for Any Platform
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