What's fair pay for English to Chinese translation?

Sorry if this is an old topic, but does NTD 0.25 per Chinese character sound like a fair rate for translation? (I also didn’t know what index area to put this under, since this is not a job listing, nor is it really teaching English, etc. etc…). A fellow Forumosan (native language Chinese) is looking for a PT, flexible job and asked me, but I didn’t know how to reply.

In my experience looking amongst friends and Forumosans, the translation rate from English -> Chinese is ~ NT$2.0 - $2.5. If you’re looking for Chinese -> English translation the NT$0.25 rate is extremely low in my looking around. So far the Chinese->English translation rates are slightly below the English -> Chinese rates that I’ve found. YMMV. Translation agencies in my experience will first want to look at your documents before quote a price.

C>E should be no less than NT$2 per character. Granted, it can vary according to the nature of the text, but less than NT$2 and you’re getting gypped. NT$0.25 is bordering on slavery.

That’s what I thought. But I needed consensus from a couple fellow F’ers before our fellow F’er would believe me :s . Tks.

You mean it’s the average pay? I remember that I was told that it depends on how much experience you have and how long you have been doing the translation work, i.e. if you’ve just stepped in this area, you get the pay this low. Or NT$2~$2.5 is the basic pay to start with? :unamused:

… what does this mean, YC? Thanks, Xpet.

Got it, thanks!

Oh TGIF by the way. :smiley:

NT$0.25? That is scandalous! Even the local book publishing companies pay far more than that, and they are notorious for low payment. For freelance work, don’t even begin to consider it for less than NT$2.0 – and that’s cheap, too. My freelancer wife’s absolute rock bottom price is NT$2.0 and her order book is filled until well into September.
If someone is really offering just NT$0.25, then he or she is not only trying to totally rip off your friend, there’s a very good chance they’re perfectly well aware what they’re doing.

… what does this mean, YC? Thanks, Xpet.[/quote]
Your Mileage May Vary – meaning that you might have had different experience.

[quote=“sandman”]NT$0.25? That is scandalous! Even the local book publishing companies pay far more than that, and they are notorious for low payment. For freelance work, don’t even begin to consider it for less than NT$2.0 – and that’s cheap, too. My freelancer wife’s absolute rock bottom price is NT$2.0 and her order book is filled until well into September.
If someone is really offering just NT$0.25, then he or she is not only trying to totally rip off your friend, there’s a very good chance they’re perfectly well aware what they’re doing.[/quote]

Thanks for the info sandman. :wink:

That’s what I thought. But I needed consensus from a couple fellow F’ers before our fellow F’er would believe me :s . Tks.[/quote]

She didn’t believe you?! :smiling_imp:

Oh, wait!! I just heard her say THANK YOU!! :wink:

[quote=“AniSll”][quote=“sandman”]NT$0.25? That is scandalous! Even the local book publishing companies pay far more than that, and they are notorious for low payment. For freelance work, don’t even begin to consider it for less than NT$2.0 – and that’s cheap, too. My freelancer wife’s absolute rock bottom price is NT$2.0 and her order book is filled until well into September.
If someone is really offering just NT$0.25, then he or she is not only trying to totally rip off your friend, there’s a very good chance they’re perfectly well aware what they’re doing.[/quote]

Thanks for the info sandman. :wink:[/quote]
With those figures, of course, I’m assuming that you are really a translator and that you are fully confident you can turn out professional work. I know a lot of companies use students and pay them virtually nothing. In fact, a good deal of my wife’s work consists of re-translating this kind of work, as it is nearly always far, far below an acceptable level.

It can depend on a few things - experience, nature of the document, specialization, and last but by no means least, guanxi.

ditto! :notworthy:

:smiling_imp: :fume: :raspberry:

:smiling_imp: :fume: :raspberry:[/quote]

Does that raspberry mean you’re a hapless guanxi-less translator-wannabee? :laughing: :laughing: :laughing:

For work into Chinese, rates below NT$1.0 aren’t uncommon among the bottom-feeding agencies (of course, very few agencies are NOT bottom-feeders in Taiwan…there are some, but…I digress).

If the work is from an agency, you can’t expect to be paid much more than NT$1.0. The very qualified people doing their MA in Translation or Interpretation at Fujen or Shida commonly work into Chinese for between $0.75 and $1.5 per word, but IMHO they totally lack any knowledge of marketing and self-promotion.

For truly good-quality work, I agree with the previous posters, expect to pay $2.0 and up. It will be worth it in the long run. You can’t believe some of the dross that’s out there. English is a tricky language to comprehend completely, and this is even more true if the material is advertising, promotional or somehow non-standard.