I foresee the need, from time to time, to have someone translate a note or short document for me from English into Chinese. Or conversely, read a Chinese document and translate that into English for me. Subject matter would be various, but likely nothing too technical or long-winded. Probably one to two page docs concerning teaching or everyday living subjects (apts, utilities, job contracts, etc).
Of course, I would be willing to pay for that service, provided it was reasonably priced, and relatively quick and accurate. As to accuracy, I don’t need any of this to win the Chinese Pulitzer, but the meaning needs to be accurately conveyed.
What I have in mind is connecting with at least two people (probably inside Taiwan to make payment simple) to whom I can email an MS Word document in English and get back an MS Word document in Chinese (or my text followed by Chinese, etc). Turnaround time: Not sure, but 24 to 48 hours seems in the ballpark, depending on the need.
Knowing this, any recommendations? Is there already a well-worn way of getting this done in Taipei? Any “methods” to avoid?
Yes - Most of the translation agencies do an utterly crap job on Chinese-English translation. They may do better at English-Chinese. If you go for the cheapest rate, you are unlikely to get decent results. A search of Forumosa should reveal some recommendations - Ironlady is our resident expert in this field. She has her own web forum.
It’s probably easier if you find a couple of reliable, trustworthy freelancers than go through an agency every time (says the agency head ). It’s definitely cheaper, too. And as soon as you’ve found a couple of people you trust, you might want to stick to them. That will give you AND the freelancer a better deal and will take care of the quality issue better than if you hand over your docs to an agency every time without knowing which of their low-paid English students is going to do the translation this time.
If you want a native speaker for the Chinese-English translation, there are quite a few posters here on Forumosa who make a living on that (or at least do it part-time). Have you thought about putting an add in the Jobs forum? Not sure you’ll find qualified English-Chinese translators through Forumosa. Have you tried asking around among your colleagues/friends?
I’ve said it to Seeker in private, but it’s worth saying again here:
If you need a translation done, unless circumstances make it utterly impossible, get a native speaker of the language you want it translated into to do it. Otherwise there’s a good chance it’ll come out sounding odd.
If, as you state, you TRULY only want the “gist” into Chinese, then I can certainly do this sort of thing. I do it all the time, in fact. It’s not beautiful Chinese but 99 times out of 100 people know what it means. I regularly get paid in NT dollars into my Taiwanese post office account.
But if you are looking for polished Chinese, you’d be far better off to get a qualified native speaker. (I can help you find one of those, if you like.) The into-English part is not a problem, nor is the turnaround (preferably with notice, but if you’re talking 24-48 hours there’s no difficulty). Right now I translate every night at 10 p.m. for a certain Taiwanese government agency, and the work has to be back within 3 hours – but then again, I know for sure it will be there (usually!) at 10 p.m., so it’s easier to plan.