Korean to English, English to Korean, Same rate?? Thread poster: yolong2222
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yolong2222
United States
Local time: 22:49
English to Korean
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I was working with this agency for a couple of months. I have translated from English to Korean, with USD 0.035/word, so my rate is based on English word count.
A week ago, I received a Korean file (13K words), to be translated into English, which became 25K words. So, I invoiced for 25K words (*0.035 USD), and the agency is saying, they can only pay based on the source language. So I said my Korean rate is not the same as English
From other agencies, that I regularly... See more I was working with this agency for a couple of months. I have translated from English to Korean, with USD 0.035/word, so my rate is based on English word count.
A week ago, I received a Korean file (13K words), to be translated into English, which became 25K words. So, I invoiced for 25K words (*0.035 USD), and the agency is saying, they can only pay based on the source language. So I said my Korean rate is not the same as English
From other agencies, that I regularly work with, I charge USD 0.04-0.05 per English word, in either Korean to English, or English to Korean, counted as the number of English words. In the case of Korean-English translation, I let them know the English word counts, after completing the work.
The agency is saying that they pay the same rate, for example, either Japanese to English, English to Japanese, or Chinese to English, English to Chinese, they count the source words and pay the same rate, based on the number of the source words. He had been working like this for years and NOBODY said like me that "when the source language changes, the rate changes.' He claims that he never paid differently, and said I should ask other translators.
So I am here, asking your opinion. ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Word counts vary from language to language, so different rates are only fair. | Aug 7, 2019 |
More than twenty years ago, one of the first jobs I did when I worked in-house was to translate the agency's explanation of its pricing policy into English.
They were changing over from counting target words to counting source words whenever possible, but in principle did not want to alter their prices for any given job.
I was amazed at the differences in the rates, and the ratio varied enormously between different language pairs.
Just as examples from my side of ... See more More than twenty years ago, one of the first jobs I did when I worked in-house was to translate the agency's explanation of its pricing policy into English.
They were changing over from counting target words to counting source words whenever possible, but in principle did not want to alter their prices for any given job.
I was amazed at the differences in the rates, and the ratio varied enormously between different language pairs.
Just as examples from my side of the world, I believe the difference was as much as 33% between Finnish and German and English - 1000 German source words became 1300 or more when translated into English.
The ratio for the three Scandinavian languages (Norwegian, Swedish and Danish) about 1000 to 1250.
With other source languages, there are fewer English target words if you start with 1000 source words.
It may also be easier to translate into some languages than others, because there are more resources and references. For instance, translating into English from a 'smaller' language. Many of the concepts have been defined in English, or even introduced by English speakers, so they are easier to find in English. That may not always be true, but it is a situation I recognise!
Translating out of English may mean first checking to see whether a regular equivalent exists in the target language, and if not, deciding how to translate it. Of course, there will be other challenges in different language pairs and subject areas too.
All these things should be taken into account when fixing the rate. Let the agency know that you are aware of the differences in the languages and subject areas you work with, and bargain with them accordingly! ▲ Collapse
| | | | | That's for sure! | Aug 7, 2019 |
One sure thing I can say is that your rates are very low and you are not doing a favour to you or the community...
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I work exclusively into my native language (Portuguese) from English, French, Spanish and Italian and my rates change according to the source language, field, text format, size, urgency. So, though I don’t know how the translation Asian market works, on the European market this is rather standard.
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jyuan_us 
United States
Local time: 22:49
Member (2005)
English to Chinese
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| If you are confident about your quality, you should charge | Aug 7, 2019 |
3 to 4 times more than you charge right now. If the agency in question is a US based agency, definitely you have been abused.
| | | | Samuel Murray
Netherlands
Local time: 04:49
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
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| Same rate only if word count is similar | Aug 7, 2019 |
yolong2222 wrote:
The agency is saying that they pay the same rate, for example, either Japanese to English, English to Japanese, or Chinese to English, English to Chinese, they count the source words and pay the same rate, based on the number of the source words. ... He claims that he never paid differently, and said I should ask other translators.
I think most translators base their rate on averages and on what draws more clients. Having the same rate for both language directions is simpler, and I can understand that some clients would prefer that (and that it can therefore be beneficial for translators to do it).
However, the principle of a "word rate" is that the rate per word represents the rate per hour, through averages. On average, X number of words takes X number of hours to translate, and that is what the per-word rate is based on. If under certain conditions the number of words that can be translated in e.g. 1 hour increases or decreases significantly, the original rate per word would no longer represent the rate per hour.
I did a quick test and it appears that for the same text, a Korean word count is 0.7 the English word count (i.e. the English word count is 1.4 the Korean word count). Is that your experience as well? So, the question becomes: does it take you roughly the same time to translate 1400 English words as it takes you to translate 1000 Korean words? If yes, then you can make the per-word rate the same in both directions. But if not, then you are within your rights to either charge by the target word count, or change your rate for the source word count.
Added: curiously, my CAT tool counted my Korean sample text as 2500 words, but Microsoft Word counted the same text as 7000 words. Perhaps tell the client that you will accept the MS Word word count...?
[Edited at 2019-08-07 08:58 GMT]
| | | | yolong2222
United States
Local time: 22:49
English to Korean
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TOPIC STARTER | Depending on the content, | Aug 7, 2019 |
Samuel Murray wrote:
I did a quick test and it appears that for the same text, a Korean word count is 0.7 the English word count (i.e. the English word count is 1.4 the Korean word count). Is that your experience as well? So, the question becomes: does it take you roughly the same time to translate 1400 English words as it takes you to translate 1000 Korean words? If yes, then you can make the per-word rate the same in both directions. But if not, then you are within your rights to either charge by the target word count or change your rate for the source word count.
It depends on the content of the document. For general content, English: Korean= 1.4:1, as you said. But in highly technical content, for example, law contracts, medical reports or accounting reports, Korean uses highly condensed words. So it can become English:Korean=2:1. In this case, the document that I translated includes, an investment contract and an audit report.
| | | | Sheila Wilson
Spain
Local time: 03:49
Member (2007)
English
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| This is the most important question | Aug 7, 2019 |
Samuel Murray wrote:
the question becomes: does it take you roughly the same time to translate 1400 English words as it takes you to translate 1000 Korean words? If yes, then you can make the per-word rate the same in both directions. But if not, then you are within your rights to either charge by the target word count, or change your rate for the source word count.
How you quote in terms of volume is actually not very important, as long as both parties agree that it's fair. After all, not all languages have the same idea of a "word". For convenience, it's good to be prepared to be flexible -- quote per thousand characters, with or without spaces; by line; by page; by project; by source or target word...
If you and your client are happy with it, you could even charge by something as bizarre as each "e" -- meaning that "ethylenediaminetetraacetate" would be worth 7 times as much as "chlorodinitronaphthalene", and you'd be translating "canaliculodacryocystostomy" for free  .
The bottom line is: Are you being paid a fair amount per hour of your time?
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Kay Denney
France
Local time: 04:49
French to English
I would say it's fine to have different rates, but you should at least be consistent, always billing source if possible. If you bill target words, the client won't know how much you'll bill until you've finished the work, which is not fair. Also you can adopt a wordier style to be paid more, which is not necessarily the most appropriate style for the job.
I remember one translator telling me that if I didn't count the number of source words in a pdf for him, he'd bill target, and there'd ... See more I would say it's fine to have different rates, but you should at least be consistent, always billing source if possible. If you bill target words, the client won't know how much you'll bill until you've finished the work, which is not fair. Also you can adopt a wordier style to be paid more, which is not necessarily the most appropriate style for the job.
I remember one translator telling me that if I didn't count the number of source words in a pdf for him, he'd bill target, and there'd be more words (whereas with FR-EN there are usually fewer) ▲ Collapse
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