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Rates for translation from Japanese (help with calculation)
Thread poster: Natalya Zelikova
Natalya Zelikova
Natalya Zelikova  Identity Verified
Poland
Local time: 17:49
English to Russian
+ ...
Jan 21, 2008

I would appreciate if you could help me to calculate the rate for translation from Japanese relevant to my rate for other language pairs.

I have looked through similar threads on ProZ, but now I have the following problem:
I have done few translations for a new client, who paid for source Japanese characters. After completing translations I have always tried to calculate the relevant rate by dividing offered total amount by target words (Russian) and the rate was always somewh... See more
I would appreciate if you could help me to calculate the rate for translation from Japanese relevant to my rate for other language pairs.

I have looked through similar threads on ProZ, but now I have the following problem:
I have done few translations for a new client, who paid for source Japanese characters. After completing translations I have always tried to calculate the relevant rate by dividing offered total amount by target words (Russian) and the rate was always somewhat lower than the one I charge.
Now we have agreed on my rate to be paid per target word, but for this particular small translation (half-page) I will get twice less than it would be at the client's rate (I will be able to charge the flat fee in this case, but I'm just curious about the reasons).

Is it possible that the style of the original text or the volume (i.e. the longer the text, the less is difference in total amounts) is the reason in this case?

Any other general advice will be helpful too.

Thanks in advance. ▲ Collapse
 
Katalin Horváth McClure
Katalin Horváth McClure  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 11:49
Member (2002)
English to Hungarian
+ ...
You can figure it out yourself Jan 21, 2008

So, am I correct in understanding that you are asking about Japanese-Russian translation?
I am not sure how many other people work in that pair (I am not), so you may be left to your own devices in figuring this out.
If you have several Japanese texts that you have translated into Russian, you can figure out the multiplier/divider for going between the number of Japanese source characters and Russian target words. Simply divide the number of characters in the Japanese text by the num... See more
So, am I correct in understanding that you are asking about Japanese-Russian translation?
I am not sure how many other people work in that pair (I am not), so you may be left to your own devices in figuring this out.
If you have several Japanese texts that you have translated into Russian, you can figure out the multiplier/divider for going between the number of Japanese source characters and Russian target words. Simply divide the number of characters in the Japanese text by the number of words in the Russian translation. Do it for every pair of text you have, and then you will have an idea.
For Japanese-English, this figure is around 2.5 (this had been discussed several times already), but it will vary depending on the type of text. For example, if the source Japanese text has a lot of Katakana words, than this ratio will go down (the resulting target word count will be less). Patents can be different again, just because the style of the language is so different from "normal" text.

You may want to check out the past discussions on this topic:
http://www.proz.com/topic/56772 ▲ Collapse
 
Natalya Zelikova
Natalya Zelikova  Identity Verified
Poland
Local time: 17:49
English to Russian
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
ratio is different Jan 22, 2008

Dear Katalin,

Thanks for reply. I have analyzed few translations and the ratio is between 1.9 and 2.9. I think I see some interdependency between the complexity and style of a text, but I think it is also possible to use 2.5 as a mean figure for all jobs.
 


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Rates for translation from Japanese (help with calculation)






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