I just posted this on the “feedback” forum and thought I’d post it here as well, since the potentially interested probably hang out here:
“I’ve noticed that several people who post here, including myself, seem to be translators. What about starting a translator’s forum, similar to “learning Chinese,” but focused at a higher, more technical level? It could be used for posting obscure terms or for common terms that just don’t translate cleanly as well as for discussing other professional issues.”
Would anyone else be interested in this type of thing? Even if I had nothing to conribute, I think it would be educational to read the posts in a forum like this. It could be a place to discuss Chinese “beyond the dictionary,” at the level that looking things up doesn’t work any more and you need the expertise of a person with a better feel for the word (or perhaps the subject, if you’re translating outside of your field) than you have yourself.
Are you familiar with the FANYI-L mailing list out of the U of Hawaii? It’s got like 500+ translators subscribed to it, and usually will get the answer back to you fairly quickly.
I’m not saying that a forum might not be nice, but it might be duplicating some far more widespread (and more knowledgeable for their numbers) efforts that already exist out there.
Thanks, I was not aware of that resource. I appreciate the tip.
Does it extend to “tricks of the trade” type info? I am perhaps only semi-pro in that I was never “trained” as a translator per se (except of course years of Chinese classes) and landed my job because of my mastery of the technical terms associated with a particular field (Buddhist Studies). I’ve worked out a system for some things along with the folks I work with, but I’m curious as to how other people handle things (even at the very mundane level) and wonder how much I’ve simply reinvented the wheel. I’ve looked for books and articles on the topic but have found very few.
Here’s some of the info I posted in the feedback forum as a reply to your suggestion (which I quite like, actually).
You’ll find the Fanyi at http://cits.hawaii.edu/fanyi/ Scroll down the front page and you’ll get the subscription instructions. I’ve been on it for a while, and it’s definitely worth it.
I was recently recommended a China-specific BBS (i.e. the language as used in China as opposed to Taiwan and other places) by one of the subscribers to the Fanyi list. I haven’t used it very much yet, but it seems to be good as well. http://bilinguist.com/
They are both more about language-related translation issues, but there’s also another site called proz http://www.proz.com, which is developing to become a decent resource, where they have a discussion board that may have what you’re looking for, or where you can post whatever questions you may need answered.
I searched, but this is the only thread I could find that mentioned translators. (I looked at Taiwanted too but I wanted to ask some questions before I posted anything there.)
Does anyone know the going rate for translating academic papers? Or does anyone have anyone on the forum have experience with that? I just moved to Taiwan and started my MBA. I cannot speak / read / or write Mandarin at all. One of the professors at my school is asking one of my classmates and I to translate some academic papers. I don’t want to say “no”, and potentially get on the bad side of one of the professors at the start of my studies but at the same time, if I say “yes” I don’t know how much time it will take, etc. They are offering to pay a small amount to us, I’m not sure exactly how much… maybe I can negotiate with them? haha… But if it’s not too expensive, I’d like to just get someone professional to do it.
There are two papers, both about 40 pages long (not including the references, etc). There is a soft deadline, it needs to be translated by early next year. (maybe January / Feb?) because I think the professor will attend a conference next spring.
I searched, but this is the only thread I could find that mentioned translators. (I looked at Taiwanted too but I wanted to ask some questions before I posted anything there.)
Does anyone know the going rate for translating academic papers? Or does anyone have anyone on the forum have experience with that? I just moved to Taiwan and started my MBA. I cannot speak / read / or write Mandarin at all. One of the professors at my school is asking one of my classmates and I to translate some academic papers. I don’t want to say “no”, and potentially get on the bad side of one of the professors at the start of my studies but at the same time, if I say “yes” I don’t know how much time it will take, etc. They are offering to pay a small amount to us, I’m not sure exactly how much… maybe I can negotiate with them? haha… But if it’s not too expensive, I’d like to just get someone professional to do it.
There are two papers, both about 40 pages long (not including the references, etc). There is a soft deadline, it needs to be translated by early next year. (maybe January / Feb?) because I think the professor will attend a conference next spring.
Any advice?[/quote]
don’t get it. you have no mandarin skills whatsoever…so, um, how can you do translation?
A couple things: the term “40 pages” is meaningless: there could be 10 words on a page, or a thousand. What’s needed is a word or character count.
Ideally, a translator should translate into his/her native tongue. Many translation mills pay inexperienced locals low rates to translate into English, resulting in poorly done results.
How is this professor paying? Is it per Chinese character or English word? (or, heaven forbid, per page?) Most Chinese-to-English translators I know charge per source-language (Chinese) character.
By the way, you mention that you don’t speak or read Chinese: that means you can’t do the translation yourself, and will have to find someone else to do it. Your professor can’t be naive enough to think that you can translate without knowing the source language, right? You could just tell him, “I don’t know any Chinese.”
[quote=“Chris”]
A couple things: the term “40 pages” is meaningless: there could be 10 words on a page, or a thousand. What’s needed is a word or character count.[/quote]
Sorry… I should’ve put a word count! I believe the word count is about 28,000 Chinese characters for each of the papers (that includes the references, etc at the end of the paper)
[quote=“Chris”]
Ideally, a translator should translate into his/her native tongue. Many translation mills pay inexperienced locals low rates to translate into English, resulting in poorly done results.[/quote]
Yeah, I thought so too. That’s why I thought about checking for translators on forumosa.com. I think a native English speaker would be a better translator for the Chinese to English stuff.
[quote=“Chris”]
By the way, you mention that you don’t speak or read Chinese: that means you can’t do the translation yourself, and will have to find someone else to do it.[/quote]
[quote=“the bear”]
don’t get it. you have no Mandarin skills whatsoever…so, um, how can you do translation?[/quote]
They want me to work together with a local student. The local student does a rough translation into English, then I have to fix the English.
[quote=“Chris”]
How is this professor paying? Is it per Chinese character or English word? (or, heaven forbid, per page?) Most Chinese-to-English translators I know charge per source-language (Chinese) character.[/quote]
The professor is talking about paying the local student and I a monthly amount. Maybe NT$4000-6000/ month? (each? together?) I think he will present the papers at a conference next year, so there isn’t a big rush to get it done? I’m not 100% on most of the details just yet.
I’m not sure there’s a ‘going rate’, but I’m not really in the field. As with anything, quality is hard to find and deserves to be properly rewarded. I know that I certainly wouldn’t do translation for less than $3NT per original Chinese character.
Don’t do it, it will be a pain in the ass and probably error prone. Other student’s rough english might not be correct, then when you localize it the meaning could be even more blurred.
[quote=“horo36”]another good website for any translator is: proz.com [/quote]
[color=#FF0000]"Pro"Z is shite.[/color] Bunch of wannabes with a dictatorial owner who stifles any voices that don’t agree with him in the forum. Also, the term resources are skewed toward non-native speakers who are not really professionals in terminology matters. Since the asker picks the “best” answer (by definition that asker had no idea in the first place) their term bases are riddled with crappy answers. It’s often okay to take their “answer” as a jumping-off place for finding the correct term, but I would rarely take it as offered.
"pro"z also has huge privacy issues. This whole “willingness to work again” thing is giving a huge amount of data on individuals to the site owner, who is under no restrictions at all as to how he uses it. I foresee a database for agencies or government with him selling “pre-approved” translators or something equally stupid to which translators would not agree, but it will be too late by then.
There is some reasonable background information (general business stuff, etc.) for translators available at translatorscafe.com, but their term help section is subject to the same problems. Maybe not quite as bad as proz which is known for sloppiness and unprofessionalism, not to mention being the hub of the “reverse auction” phenomenon in the field. Ads like “We have big job many characters for new client, give your best rate” are commonplace (and should not be dignified with an answer).
FANYI-L is the best current source I’m aware of for accurate terminological help.
I would strongly urge against doing this for several reasons.
First, any organization who gets free translation gets an appetite for it. They won’t pay you the next time – why would they? They will ask you to do the second job for free, and if you say no, they’ll find another translator who wants to “get a foot in the door”.
You are also taking bread out of the mouths of people who make their living as translators if you take on free work. If you are good enough to translate professionally, you should produce quality good enough to be paid. Anyone who produces professional quality deserves to be paid. (And while I understand that the market in Taiwan is so skewed toward non-native English speakers that it’s almost impossible to stamp out the practice of using NNS translators and having someone “fix” the English, doing that likewise takes work away from qualified translators who are natives in English and whose work doesn’t need to be “fixed”. In the West, though, I take a very dim view of this practice and refuse to edit for anyone who is not a native speaker of English. I view this as a matter of professional ethics in the Western situation.)
Think of it this way: how did it go the last time you asked your dentist to do a filling for free because you would think about having him do more fillings in the future for money?
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