| Pages in topic: < [1 2] | Is a living wage possible? Thread poster: Neil Corrigan
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| ZH>EN Translator from Australia | May 13, 2022 |
Hi there
I'm a native English speaker, I have a BA and a Masters in Translating and Interpreting specialising in Chinese Translation. I'm Australian and here we have a national body that manages translators and interpreters and if you want to work you have to be certified by them - I've been certified for 6 years now.
You may not be approached by or get responses from as many agencies or clients if you don't have a qua... See more Hi there
I'm a native English speaker, I have a BA and a Masters in Translating and Interpreting specialising in Chinese Translation. I'm Australian and here we have a national body that manages translators and interpreters and if you want to work you have to be certified by them - I've been certified for 6 years now.
You may not be approached by or get responses from as many agencies or clients if you don't have a qualification in translation. As other people have suggested you may also want to fork out for a ProZ membership.
Despite my qualifications and experience, I've never had enough work to do this full time or live on.
I've been working full time in other fields and (at times) supplementing my incoming with translation.
Sometimes I've gone 6 months+ without any jobs.
0.01 USD is an absolute joke of a rate, though.
I did a job yesterday that was originally paying 30 USD per hour, and I actually requested an increase to 40 USD per hour due to complexity and they agreed. So you can find decent paying jobs, but they may be few and far between.
Prior to this job I did yesterday, my most recent work was in March for a total of 70 GBP, not bad, but now this company has not paid me and is not responding to my emails.
So yeah...good luck to you! ▲ Collapse
| | | | Baran Keki 
Türkiye
Local time: 20:20
Member
English to Turkish
Maddison Norris wrote:
Sometimes I've gone 6 months+ without any jobs.
Do you think your location may have to do with lack of jobs? I know of an Aussie translator who has completely changed (or should I say ruined?) his body clock (getting up at 3 AM every morning) just to be able to reply to emails coming from European agencies within 10 to 15 minutes. You have Asian agencies in your timezone, and I wouldn't be surprised at the rates offered by Chinese agencies if they are your only bread and butter...
As beautiful as Australia must be, I wouldn't fancy working there as a freelance translator.
Perhaps you can consider going to Europe and learning a European language while working there as a freelance translator?
[Edited at 2022-05-13 07:57 GMT]
[Edited at 2022-05-13 07:58 GMT]
| | | | jyuan_us
United States
Local time: 13:20
Member (2005)
English to Chinese
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| Increase of the hourly rate | May 13, 2022 |
Maddison Norris wrote:
I did a job yesterday that was originally paying 30 USD per hour, and I actually requested an increase to 40 USD per hour due to complexity and they agreed.
I thought you could request more hours to spend in working on a complex text. I never though you could increase your hourly rate because of text complexity.
| | | | LIZ LI
China
Local time: 01:20
French to Chinese
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| Among other factors | May 16, 2022 |
An "ordinary" translator in ZH>EN is able to handle 3-4k words per day, which will be "normally" (2+-0.5k) in its English translation.
For example, for the word "Covid-19" in English, you'll be paid for 1 source word; whereas it becomes 新型冠状病毒 when you're translating from Chinese into English, so that's 6 source words to charge, thus, 6x higher than EN>ZH. The more technical, the higher this ratio.
What's more, you'll get paid for puntuations in Chinese!
I didn't k... See more
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| "Lobby, I think" | May 16, 2022 |
LIZ LI wrote: 
... wonderful!
| | | | Sadek_A
Local time: 21:20
English to Arabic
+ ...
"Between the pee." That's like mid-career. You go inside, you're getting a promotion.
Here is one from risoni-pasta package:
"Heat Oil in a saucepan over medium heat. add 1/4 kg rice, cook, stir constantly, until golden brown, add SOAP."
Sadly, they didn't specify bars or liquid!
That's the abundant supply of translators on the market!
| | | | Baran Keki
Türkiye
Local time: 20:20
Member
English to Turkish
| TTilch
Local time: 19:20
English to German
+ ...
| Don't go looking for clients here on ProZ | Jun 20, 2022 |
If you want to make a living, you'll need to work for direct clients, not for agencies like those here on ProZ who only go by the cheapest price.
And be firm and say "no" to undecent job proposals. There are enough companies out there who know that good work also requires adequate prices.
Best,
Tanja
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Kay Denney
France
Local time: 19:20
French to English
jyuan_us wrote: Maddison Norris wrote:
I did a job yesterday that was originally paying 30 USD per hour, and I actually requested an increase to 40 USD per hour due to complexity and they agreed. I thought you could request more hours to spend in working on a complex text. I never though you could increase your hourly rate because of text complexity.
If the text is complex to the point that you need specialist knowledge to work on it properly, you've invested a lot of time and money in acquiring that knowledge, meaning that you deserve to earn more.
Personally, I charge the same rate whether I'm working on a complex text describing Roman relics or a "please find enclosed" letter, because the time spent working on the letter could also have been spent on the Roman relics. If it's too expensive, clients can always find someone cheaper.
The upshot is that I'm getting more and more very interesting texts to work on, I'm learning a lot, and enjoying my work.
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