Do it for free or for virtually nothing if all you want to do is develop a good relationship with the professor, but not if you think it will get you “a foot in the door” for future paid work. It won’t. Few of us in this type of work, probably, haven’t been suckered into that situation at least once. None of us, probably, found that it led to a foot in the door.
As for taking bread out of the mouths of real translators? I doubt it in this case. People like the good professor were never potential clients to begin with – FAR too cheap!
Do you really think translation agencies don’t try this sort of thing all the time?
[quote=“sandman”]Do it for free or for virtually nothing if all you want to do is develop a good relationship with the professor, but not if you think it will get you “a foot in the door” for future paid work. It won’t. Few of us in this type of work, probably, haven’t been suckered into that situation at least once. None of us, probably, found that it led to a foot in the door.
As for taking bread out of the mouths of real translators? I doubt it in this case. People like the good professor were never potential clients to begin with – FAR too cheap![/quote]
yeah… I’m basically going to do it for the “good will” of the professor. I miiiiiight be able to get a tuition waiver out of it next semester? so… fingers crossed!! I’m not really interested in a career in translation… I don’t actually speak Chinese! haha…
[/quote]
yeah… I know!!! They just want me to fix up / edit the English once my classmate does the translation. I guess it will be helpful for her to practice her English and learn about writing academically… but still… 
(I do actually want to learn Chinese though!! For general business use though, not translation! That’s one of the reasons that I’m doing my MBA in Taiwan. 
Anybody got any tips for a beginner? haha… )
See, what the Taiwanese don’t get is that if this article is to be published in a respectable English-language journal, a straight translation of the Chinese usually is not sufficient, even if someone puts all the verbs into the right form and fixes the spelling errors. Good journals want reasonably skilled English academic writing, with Western logic. Unless the prof happens to be one of the few who understands that and how to do it (even in Chinese), you’re in for a real treat.
As for how to learn Chinese – get into situations where you can understand what’s being said, and you will acquire the language. There are teachers and classes who can help you with that to varying degrees.
Ironlady, I agree with your post, even though you were telling me off! I guess I should quantify. I’ll do things for free if it WILL lead to paid translation work, and there’s no way in hell I’m dumb enough to do more than a page of anything for free. The odd paragraph/section here and there, sure, if it means when there’s a document I get paid for it.
(When I was 19, I had a very nice boss who paid below minimum wage, docked your pay if you were late, expected unpaid overtime and still had the balls to tell us we were getting paid a very high salary. I learnt my lessons there.)
I’ve actually got a short, semi-regular paid translation gig on at the moment, which is good. The only real reason why I’m happy to take things on for free is because of my age. When people see my work, they say it’s good (superb is the comment I got from my current client). When people hear my age, and my education background, they automatically assume I must be terrible (whereas the real reason I’m still doing my undergraduate degree is that they didn’t have any language classes suitably challenging in my home country. It’s taken me this long to get to somewhere I can actually learn something).
English editing for free tuition sounds good to me 
I’d be asking for it in writing though, but again that’s from my boss.
p.s. Please excuse the quality of writing in this post, I’m sick 
Danger! Sharp learning curve ahead!
Danger! Sharp learning curve ahead![/quote]
So that’s two votes for ‘GET IT IN WRITING!!!’ XD
If you think you’ll have a hard time getting it in writing… Get a couple of quotes from professional editors as to how much they’d charge to edit the paper. (Make sure they’re e-mailed so you can touch them up on photoshop. Another trick I learnt from my old boss.) Compare 
If they can’t give you it in writing due to whatever regulation, then they obviously can’t legally give you a tuition waiver now, can they?
Eh? I don’t get it.
Eh? I don’t get it.[/quote]
Our company used to be given ‘grants’ from the Taiwanese Cultural Division down in Sydney to help us promote tourism to Taiwan. As with most government grants, they most likely didn’t research the market and all and gave us pretty huge budgets for things.
Our company getting this money was reliant on us having proof that we actually needed this money, however. ‘Proof’ in this case counted as three quotes from registered contractors.
I remember quite vividly collecting three quotes for a graphic design job, doctoring two to cost over $2,000AUD (the budget we were given) and one to cost just under ($1,990-ish). The TW government then sent us the cost of the cheapest one. My company proceeded to get their full-time graphic designer in China to do the job as part of her duties (we had a sub-office in China. God knows what they did, I just spent most of my time chatting to them on MSN/Skype and fixing their English).
That place was very, very bent.
Anyway, the advice was meant to equate to = doctor the quotes so they’ll cost more than your tuition, that way your professor can substantiate to his department that it’s cheaper to subsidise your education than to employ outside professionals. They may actually cost more than your tuition anyway, depending on the quality of the translation and how long the paper is.
Then again, do TW companies in TW do written quotes???
The thing is… I don’t really want to do the work. I really would rather they use a professional translator.
But there is an under tone of “we should do this to help the professor”… (I’m getting the feeling of it’s “you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours”. ) It seems the articles aren’t going to be published in any journals that I know of. But I think the professor is going to present one (or two?) papers in a conference next year so he wants an English copy? I’m still hazy on the details. I’m just getting roped in to “fix” the English / proof read the translation that the local student does…
Do it for the guanxi. With a smile. And when it comes time for you to get letters of recommendation, that prof is one of your targets.
Mmmm. Or maybe if you’ve got your eyes on an internship or are looking for an ‘in’ to the field, have a chat with the professor about how stressed you are about the possibility that you might not get an internship/job/the right experience before you agree to do the translation. He should help you out where he can.