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In response to a specific call for articles, this paper provides advice aimed at making a translated text sound natural in the target language, reviewing various points where mistakes are often made – both general and field-specific. A section also looks into the notion of language level, especially in journalism.
Many language professionals are “bad at numbers” and some even seem to be proud of it, but business does require some sums to be done. Payment practices widespread in our industry often lead to unreasonable expenses, many of which could be avoided by using sound business practices.
Your rates are set in € per source word, and you are asked to quote in $ per target standard page. Will you be able to? I have encountered colleagues and even agencies that are lost when faced with unfamiliar units, so here is some advice. I only deal with languages using letter alphabets – I know nothing about Chinese or Japanese, but I hope those who do will find at least some inspiration here to elaborate their own calculations.