| विषय में पृष्ठों की संख्या: [1 2] > | Very low prices विषय पोस्ट करनेवाला व्यक्ति: Elke Fehling
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Elke Fehling 
Local time: 14:57
सदस्य (2005)
अंग्रेजी से जर्मन
+ ...
Hello all,
I searched the forums but I couldn't find anything, although I am sure this question must have been asked before:
Who applies for jobs that pay USD 0,02 per source word?
People who see the job postings on this platform usually are professional translators, and I wonder who would be willing to accept a payment like that? This would mean I earn 50 Dollars a day! You would have to live in a country where this amount of money is enough to live on in ... See more Hello all,
I searched the forums but I couldn't find anything, although I am sure this question must have been asked before:
Who applies for jobs that pay USD 0,02 per source word?
People who see the job postings on this platform usually are professional translators, and I wonder who would be willing to accept a payment like that? This would mean I earn 50 Dollars a day! You would have to live in a country where this amount of money is enough to live on in order to be able to accept such a job. Or are there translators, for example in Germany or England, who are willing to work for this kind of payment?
Elke ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Short answer is no | Aug 6, 2018 |
I think you have answered the question yourself. In France, depending on the legal set-up you operate your business under, there are contributions to social, retirement and other finds etc. that will eat up anything from 30% to 50% of what you invoice. Even at 30%, you cannot afford to accept jobs at those rates. It's obvious. I actually hope those jobs are going to professionals in countries other than France, for example. Those who do accept jobs at those rates, if they are in France, they con... See more I think you have answered the question yourself. In France, depending on the legal set-up you operate your business under, there are contributions to social, retirement and other finds etc. that will eat up anything from 30% to 50% of what you invoice. Even at 30%, you cannot afford to accept jobs at those rates. It's obvious. I actually hope those jobs are going to professionals in countries other than France, for example. Those who do accept jobs at those rates, if they are in France, they contribute to clients justifying low rates. Some agencies in France offer rates now that they were offering 20 years ago. It is no secret that the cost of living is not the same as it was 20 years ago and the cost of running a business is higher than it was 20 years ago.
Low rates on jobs advertised here are the reason why I have not been paying member for years now. There might be the occasional job at a decent rate, or I did in the past bid but with my lowest possible rate. Even then I never received one job via the job system. However, exposure on the site has been an indirect source of work via colleagues. When fellow translators see how you work, how you think and how you do the research to find a solution, they may consider passing some work on to you, or putting your name forward with a client.
[Edited at 2018-08-06 09:11 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | | | | Desperate bilingual amateurs & fly-by-niters | Aug 6, 2018 |
Elke Fehling wrote:
Who applies for jobs that pay USD 0,02 per source word?
People who need money, and can't find any other profitable use of their time.
People who don't need money, yet want to stay busy, feel productive.
Considering the samples I've seen from translator tests submitted online that I've been asked to evaluate by translation agencies, as a rule of thumb I'd say that, at least in my language pair (EN < > PT) ...
"Translators asking for HALF of Proz's Community Rates deliver work that is quality-wise equivalent to the raw output provided by free, online, immediate Google Translate, though the flaws will differ in their nature."
IMHO the reason why low-balling translation agencies hire such low-grade translators is to have a scapegoat. The simple payment act - no matter how low - entitles the agency to BLAME these people for the quality they deliver. It wouldn't be proper - not to mention honest - to blame a free service, if they are getting paid to secure it.
Elke Fehling wrote:
People who see the job postings on this platform usually are professional translators..."
This is an unfounded assumption. Plenty of wannabes and will-never-bes too.
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Those who accept this kind of price use MT.
As a consequence, their daily capacity is more than ten
times the capacity of a translator who doesn't use MT.
| | | | Sheila Wilson
स्पेन
Local time: 13:57
सदस्य (2007)
अंग्रेजी
+ ...
| This site has a very wide range of users | Aug 6, 2018 |
Elke Fehling wrote:
People who see the job postings on this platform usually are professional translators
I'm not sure how true that is. It may still be a minority, but I imagine quite a high number of registered users (i.e. non-paying) aren't here as professional translators. As others have said, there are other groups here: high school kids, students, prisoners, full-time carers (of kids, parents or disabled relatives), bored pre-retirees and retired people, people on long-term sick leave, and even those who are in full-time work but who need a few cents extra each month. Some of them might be quite good too, although most will probably put it through Google Translate and pretty it up a bit. The one thing they all have in common is that they:
are willing to work for this kind of payment
As for the professionals, it may be feasible to earn a low-to-reasonable income if they live in some parts of Asia or Africa, maybe other areas too where the cost of living is relatively low. You certainly couldn't live in the EU or the US, declare all your income for taxes, and make anything like a living from those rates - not if you're actually doing the translation yourself with only the help of a CAT tool.
| | | | | 50 USD a day, 1,000 USD a month | Aug 6, 2018 |
Guess what Elke, there are billions of people across the globe who would love to earn 50 USD a day, and some of them can even write. And your figure is based on a paltry 2,500 words a day.
Perhaps some people here should pop out of their ivory towers from time to time, realise that what they're doing is all very nice, but not actually of mind-boggling significance.
[Edited at 2018-08-06 14:23 GMT]
| | | | | professionals only in the sense of being paid for a job :) | Aug 6, 2018 |
Elke Fehling wrote:
People who see the job postings on this platform usually are professional translators, and I wonder who would be willing to accept a payment like that?
sad but true...
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Anthony Teixeira
जापान
Local time: 21:57
सदस्य (2011)
अंग्रेजी से फ्रांसीसी
+ ...
Richard Purdom wrote:
there are billions of people across the globe who would love to earn 50 USD a day
[Edited at 2018-08-06 14:23 GMT]
Across the globe, sure. In Germany/England, after tax? No.
Don't worry though, such agencies know how to adapt their rates to the language pair, so the payment will be miserable wherever you are based.
| | | | S_G_C (X)
रोमानिया
Local time: 15:57
अंग्रेजी से रोमेनियाई
| Your own reply | Aug 7, 2018 |
Elke Fehling wrote:
Who applies for jobs that pay USD 0,02 per source word?
You would have to live in a country where this amount of money is enough to live on in order to be able to accept such a job.
Elke
There's your answer.
| | | | S_G_C (X)
रोमानिया
Local time: 15:57
अंग्रेजी से रोमेनियाई
David GAY wrote:
Those who accept this kind of price use MT.
As a consequence, their daily capacity is more than ten
times the capacity of a translator who doesn't use MT.
Wrong or at least partially wrong.
| | | | Michele Fauble
संयुक्त राज्य अमरीका
Local time: 05:57
नोर्वेजी से अंग्रेजी
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Elke Fehling wrote:
Who applies for jobs that pay USD 0,02 per source word?
People who can't get jobs at a higher rate.
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Rita Pang
कनाडा
Local time: 08:57
सदस्य (2011)
चीनी से अंग्रेजी
+ ...
इस मंच का मध्यस्थ | Unfortunately | Aug 8, 2018 |
Michele Fauble wrote:
People who can't get jobs at a higher rate.
That's the reality. OP is from a region where making a living off of this rate is likely impossible, but there are many places where this is feasible. Most importantly, would you rather make nothing? In my language pair, plenty of translators work at this rate. It's either that or nothing.
| | | | Lincoln Hui
हांगकांग
Local time: 20:57
सदस्य
चीनी से अंग्रेजी
+ ...
| How you market yourself | Aug 8, 2018 |
While I have no doubt some posters will go for the lowest bidder, I believe that many end up choosing a quote that is in the middle range of the ones they receive. I'm actually willing to bet that (adequate) translators who market themselves around 0.05-0.06 USD get more pure volume than those who market themselves at 0.02, even if that's still considered a low rate by many.
There's real cognitive dissonance if you market yourself as teh best translator eva!!! with years of experien... See more While I have no doubt some posters will go for the lowest bidder, I believe that many end up choosing a quote that is in the middle range of the ones they receive. I'm actually willing to bet that (adequate) translators who market themselves around 0.05-0.06 USD get more pure volume than those who market themselves at 0.02, even if that's still considered a low rate by many.
There's real cognitive dissonance if you market yourself as teh best translator eva!!! with years of experience, unrivaled expertise in the field and lowest price in the industry. People are happy to get McDonalds at McDonalds prices, but won't you be suspicious if someone tried to sell you caviar at McDonalds prices?
Ultimately, translation is not a terribly expensive commodity in the commercial world. If you expect to sell 100,000 units of your newest smartphone at $500 apiece, does it matter if you spent $1000 or $100 on the 3000 word product pamphlet? Like I've said before, translations are cheap; bad translations are expensive.
[Edited at 2018-08-08 10:13 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | | depends on the pair | Aug 8, 2018 |
Sorana_M. wrote:
David GAY wrote:
Those who accept this kind of price use MT.
As a consequence, their daily capacity is more than ten
times the capacity of a translator who doesn't use MT.
Wrong or at least partially wrong.
For EN>GER for instance, it's quite obvious they use MT.
There are lots of MT fans on PROZ (have a look at the threads) and they are not based in Bangladesh nor in Romania.
[Modifié le 2018-08-08 08:53 GMT]
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