Services and prices
I usually charge based on word count. For Word documents, you can see the number of words in the lower right corner or under Review/Document Review/Word Count.
Prices per word range from 0,10 € to 0,15 €, depending on the text.
For creating termbases during a translation, I charge 0,02 € per termpair
Proofreading: 0,02€ per word
Postedeting: see below
Certifications: Official documents usually require formatting in addition to the translation. In these cases, I usually propose all-in prices, based on number of words and formatting effort. Please send me a photo or a scan of your document and I will make you an offer.
PLEASE NOTE
Work exceeding translation, such as formatting (e.g. the necessary adaptation of photos’ and drawing’s positions to the translated texts, which might have become longer or shorter due to the translation), will only be accepted after explicit written agreement. Usually it IS NOT included.
EXPLANATION OF THE SERVICES
What is terminology work, what are termbases and what do you need them for?
Large companies usually have terminology specifications because they know how helpful consistent usage of terminology and structured language are to prevent misunderstandings, confusion and errors and also to signal competence.
For very little extra cost, I create termbases during the translations process which can be used in further translations and other work, firstly, to facilitate the translation process (the terms no longer have to be researched painstakingly) and secondly, to harmonise the (oral and written) wording in the company. This reduces the number of misunderstandings and errors in internal processes.
These termbases can be integrated into the CAT tool, i.e. the terms will be indicated to the translator while he/she works whenever the respective word appears in the text to be translated. This saves painstaking searches in glossary lists and reduces the amount of work to a fraction of the time, so it is highly recommendable also for small and medium-sized companies.
Fair advice on the application of technology
The use of technology reduces costs, but also quality. I work with all kinds of technology currently available:
OCR software turns PDF files, photos and scans into Word files. Then these Word files can then be further processed in CAT tools.
CAT tools (Computer Aided Translation) simplify the translation process by recognizing similar or identical sentences in previously translated texts and inserting them as a (fuzzy) match. These sentences do not need to be translated again, only changed a little bit, if necessary. CAT tools also offer numerous quality check functions such as comparing numbers and dates or punctuation marks. This prevents errors and facilitates the translation process.
Machine translation/AI have recently been integrated into these CAT tools and deliver quite amazing results.
However, a problem with technical translations is the inconsistent use of technical terms. Moreover, the translation of technical terms, although rarely complete scrap, it is often less than ideal and slightly off and that still makes it confusing. In addition, it happens that in apparently very well and correctly formulated sentences such small but important words as not disappear, or references between yes and no, up, down etc. get mixed up. I do not need to explain to you what that might lead to.
Correcting these not really bad results is still a lot of painstaking effort and requires a lot of attention and concentration and, of course, just as much expertise as any other translation.
It is also true that human translators make this kind of errors too. Nevertheless, it can already make understanding extremely difficult if the same technical part is repeatedly designated with different terms. If the text deals with a complex machine and some of the terms used are also slightly off, it may quickly become useless altogether and cause confusion. These texts are even more dangerous than texts of obvious "Google Translate" quality, which are handled with caution from the outset.
Therefore you need to consider where and how and if (at all) to make use of this technology for a specific translation in order to benefit from the financial savings associated with it. It is important for me to be able to offer you all the technological options that are currently available on the language service market. It is equally important for me to give you objective advice. That is why I make sure the use of technology does not lead to any advantages or disadvantages for me. If I use more technology, I have less work to do (for one task), I can charge less for it and get more tasks done instead. If I use no or less technology, I have more work to do and I have to charge more for it. This is my best way to guarantee independence.
My way of working
Most important for me is the intended use and the intended user of a translation:
-the specialist worker who has to operate a machine and needs clear and concise instructions
- the lawyer who needs to understand the technical facts a claim is based on in order to be able to develop a defence strategy.
-the engineer who needs to understand what the potential customer needs and wants when he makes an offer for a tender.
- the lawyer who needs to understand the foreign legal interpretations the claim of the other party is based on in order to be able to react appropriately. On order to achieve this sometimes extremely twisted formulations need to be unravelled into understandable language while transferring the content correctly into English, Spanish or German. (I used to have a sentence in a legal document [not English] that filled an entire DIN A4 page - no kidding!)
So the text must FUNCTION smoothly in its field of application, just like a machine. It is my job to ensure this.
Of course, it should also be as economic as possible. In order to achieve this I use a lot of technology, at least one CAT tool, possibly supplemented by machine translation with subsequent revision/postediting. This is done in consultation with the customer.
In case of tender documents, for example, large amounts of text often have to be translated in a very short time. This is mostly about getting the technical facts straight in the translation. Punctuation, spelling, and other formal aspects are less important. Instead, it should be reasonably economical.