Job Discussion Forums

notamiss · Posted: Sat Nov 10, 2007 2:20 am Post subject:

jfurgers, I charge $180 MN per hour here in Mexico; this would be a pretty low price in the US.

Coincidentally, I'm doing one right now.

MO39 · Posted: Sat Nov 10, 2007 3:30 am Post subject: Re: translating

jfurgers · Joined: 18 Sep 2005 Posts: 442 Location: Mexico City

Thanks for the reply. I have a lot of students who want help with applications and resumes. I had a student from Mexico last week ask me if I could write a note for him to take to the school of one of his sons. He's going to Mexico in December for a wedding and needs to take his kid out of school early and the school told him he would need to write a note asking for permission.
He wanted to know if I would write it real fast. I've learned that you have to be careful with students or they'll use you. They never want to pay.

Phil_K · Joined: 25 Jan 2007 Posts: 2041 Location: A World of my Own

Having just finished and delivered a monumental translation, the biggest by far I've done, may I just pass on a few tips for those wanting to start in this field.

1) Get an advance, say 20% - It's not much fun working that hard for nothing - unless you are very sure of the honesty of the person you are working for.

2) Summarise, then translate. The book I was working on was not a literary masterpiece, nor was it supposed to be, it was for information.

3) Don't trust a dictionary for the idiomatic phrases. I used Larrouse's Gran Diccianario, only to be told, "We never say that".

4) However good you think your Spanish is, get an educated native to proof-read and do correction of style.

5) Don't undersell yourself. This is specialized field and you are worth it. My client paid nearly 10 X the price of the original book.

6) Be professional in your presentation, as in any job you do, you want repeat business and referrals

7) Add your credits to the front page. Name, email, web address, etc.

MO39 · Posted: Tue Nov 20, 2007 6:19 pm Post subject:

Phil_K, I'm impressed that you feel confident enough with your language skills to translate into Spanish from English. With all my years of study and living in Spanish-speaking countries, I wouldn't attempt it. Most experts in the field say that unless you're truly bilingual, you should always translate into your stonger language. What's the secret of your success?

Phil_K · Joined: 25 Jan 2007 Posts: 2041 Location: A World of my Own

MO39 · Posted: Tue Nov 20, 2007 8:46 pm Post subject:

notamiss · Posted: Tue Nov 20, 2007 8:51 pm Post subject:

I receive expert opinions on my Spanish at home, too, but I don't know that "help" would be the right word for them. "Mom, you should never say it that way!" "Mom, can't you tell you're pronouncing it wrong?" "Mom, only lower class people say that."

MELEE · Posted: Tue Nov 20, 2007 9:24 pm Post subject:

Vanica · Joined: 31 Aug 2006 Posts: 368 Location: North Carolina

notamiss · Posted: Wed Nov 21, 2007 6:27 pm Post subject:

A note on translation resources

I like the Gran Larousse for its completeness, but it's a little bit too fond of cognates. I find the Oxford Spanish Dictionary (http://www.amazon.com/Oxford-Spanish-Dictionary-Beatriz-Galimberti/dp/0198604750) a perfect complement to that one defect of the Gran Larousse.
The best all-round technical dictionary (covering a wide range of areas) to my knowledge is the Orellana Glosario Internacional (http://www.universitaria.cl/consulta.pl?q=pub&c=23&id=855).

Nevertheless, I hardly use paper dictionaries anymore. Some good online dictionaries are:
-Espasa Calpe (http://www.wordreference.com/) One excellent benefit to this one is the discussion forums. Often if a word isn't in the dictionary per se it will be in the forums. Or even if it is included in the dictionary, the discussions shed more light on usage, context and nuances. (Wide range of quality, though, in the postings.)
-Babelpoint (http://www.babelpoint.com/). Also includes an ever-increasing stock of phrases.
-Collins (http://dictionary.reverso.net/spanish-english/).
-Webster's Online (http://www.websters-online-dictionary.org/). Includes a multilingual component.

English language resources
-Dictionaries
http://www.yourdictionary.com/
http://dictionary.reference.com/
http://www.m-w.com/
-Thesaurus (http://thesaurus.reference.com/)
-Reverse dictionary (http://www.onelook.com/reverse-dictionary.shtml). For those tip-of-the-tongue moments.

Spanish language resources
-RAE (http://buscon.rae.es/draeI/)
-Diccionario breve de mexicanismos (http://www.academia.org.mx/dicmex.php)
-Jergas de la habla espa�ol (http://www.jergasdehablahispana.org/)

I use a translation memory program which is much superior to Trados. These programs don't translate for you (unlike automatic machine translation). The only thing in my program's translation memory is my own work. The program is invaluable for pulling up terms, expressions and names that came up in translations done months or years ago and saves me searching for them (which I'd only do anyway if I actually remember that I've done them before). Of course I don't blindly fill in the results from the memory without reviewing, either. The program shows me how I translated the phrase or term on all previous occasions, and I decide which past version to use, if any.

Vanica · Joined: 31 Aug 2006 Posts: 368 Location: North Carolina

[quote="notamiss"I use a translation memory program which is much superior to Trados.[/quote]

Probably less expensive, too. Which one?

Oh, OTTIAQ suggests 50 cad per hour for revision (proofing, editing) and up to 20 cents a word for legal and financial translation.

MO39 · Posted: Wed Nov 21, 2007 7:42 pm Post subject:

Vanica · Joined: 31 Aug 2006 Posts: 368 Location: North Carolina

50 CAD per hour is for Ottiaq certified translators (dues 500$ a year, probably federal and provincial tax on top of that). I think you're cool at 30 usd an hour with lower living expenses. On the other hand, I just charged 100 an hour for a rush job for an agency in Sask.

I really don't like to do editing. I often must cross out the entire text and retranslate.

Do you use the side by side feature in Word? Sometimes I have no problem with it, other times I can't keep the sides even.

notamiss · Posted: Wed Nov 21, 2007 8:03 pm Post subject:

Allow me to tell you about a very convenient freeware set of macros for Word that puts the source and target texts in two open Word windows. The target text is in the lower window and there you can overtype your translation into the original version of the file while the source remains unchanged in the upper window. As you scroll down in the lower window, the upper source window automatically scrolls down in synch. An additonal convenience is that if you close the project, when you later open it again it will place you at the point where you left it, instead of at the top of the file (like Word does by default.)

It includes some fairly sophisticated glossary management and search and replace tools which can come in handy for certain types of texts but you don't have to bother with them if you don't need them; the program is very worthwhile just for its function of keeping the source and target open and sychronized and remembering your place.

http://wordfisher.com/