| Pages in topic: < [1 2] | MPTE current prices Thread poster: Cristina Bejan
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Lingua 5B 
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Local time: 15:23
Member (2009)
English to Croatian
+ ...
| But it’s an endless process | Mar 23, 2023 |
Every time someone accepts an extremely low rate, there will be someone else who will accept even a lower one. This is how we started getting threads these days where clients pluck random words and decide on new categories of speech/words that will be paid a zero. Someone will accept that too. It can go on endlessly, to the point where translators will be paying to agencies to allow them to get busy for free.
Lowering your rate to be competitive is a very short-term thinking. Long-t... See more Every time someone accepts an extremely low rate, there will be someone else who will accept even a lower one. This is how we started getting threads these days where clients pluck random words and decide on new categories of speech/words that will be paid a zero. Someone will accept that too. It can go on endlessly, to the point where translators will be paying to agencies to allow them to get busy for free.
Lowering your rate to be competitive is a very short-term thinking. Long-term thinking is described in my passage above. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Lieven Malaise
Belgium
Local time: 15:23
Member (2020)
French to Dutch
+ ...
Lingua 5B wrote:
Lowering your rate to be competitive is a very short-term thinking.
You would be right if lowering your rate would mean a lower income. But we're not talking about poor translators who struggle to survive because of their ridiculously low rates, but about trained MTPE editors who happen to be good translators and keep earning the same while giving a 30% discount. So I have to disagree. It's a strategy like any other to be, stay or become more competitive.
On a side note I also think it's kind of funny how translators on this platform are basically saying we should fix rates among ourselves, which in many other industries would be totally illegal.
| | | | | Never go down | Mar 23, 2023 |
Lieven Malaise wrote: Lingua 5B wrote:
Lowering your rate to be competitive is a very short-term thinking. You would be right if lowering your rate would mean a lower income. But we're not talking about poor translators who struggle to survive because of their ridiculously low rates, but about trained MTPE editors who happen to be good translators and keep earning the same while giving a 30% discount. So I have to disagree. It's a strategy like any other to be, stay or become more competitive.
A lower rate always means a lower income. Just do the same work for a higher rate, so earning more and helping your colleagues.
| | | | | Hourly schmourly | Mar 23, 2023 |
Thayenga wrote:
I've said it before, I'll say it again. There is only one rate that will cover the time and effort you might end up having to put into any MTPE project: you hourly rate.
Even if you charge 0.15 cents per word, if the MT is bad or confusing or makes you wonder what might be meant by it, then you might have to work 10 - 20 minutes on a few words.
Trouble is, exactly the same can be said about normal translation. Do you insist on an hourly rate for that? Or do you approximate it by glancing at the text and estimating the time it will take and/or just hoping it averages out across all the jobs you do?
I don't do MTPE but I'm sure that if I did sell my soul to the devil I would soon be able to gauge its quality and my time consumption just as quickly as when translating something myself or reviewing a human translation.
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Thayenga
Germany
Local time: 15:23
Member (2009)
English to German
+ ...
| There is indeed always an exception | Mar 24, 2023 |
Lieven Malaise wrote:
"Translators determining their own future and rates" is just a fairy tale. Not 1 general professional is able to determine his own future and rates (in the long term) without taking into account new technology and trends. But good luck with that. People who refuse to adapt will be among the first to disappear from the market (I know, there will always be exceptions so you can always hope you will be one of them).
I have set my rates and will not accept any work for less with the exception of NGO's. And yes, I can afford to stick to my own rules.
The point is, rates depend primarily on what translators accept. If all translators stand as one - without a single one accepting to work for peanuts (and just the same amount of respect for their work - that's the fairy tale you mentioned), then all customers have two options, a) settle for the still rather poor quality of MT output with no human being to check it, or b) pay decent rates.
| | | | Lieven Malaise
Belgium
Local time: 15:23
Member (2020)
French to Dutch
+ ...
Thayenga wrote:
If all translators stand as one - without a single one accepting to work for peanuts (and just the same amount of respect for their work - that's the fairy tale you mentioned), then all customers have two options, a) settle for the still rather poor quality of MT output with no human being to check it, or b) pay decent rates.
That's true. Also true: if everybody would be nice to each other, people wouldn't fight no longer and there wouldn't be war any more.
Interesting thoughts around a camp fire, having drunk a couple of beers too many or having smoked a joint or two. The next morning, though, you will wake up with a hangover.
[Edited at 2023-03-24 13:44 GMT]
| | | | Zea_Mays
Italy
Local time: 15:23
Member (2009)
English to German
+ ...
| 66-70% of my average translation rate BUT | Mar 24, 2023 |
only for MT output with known quality, starting from predictable content and coming from a dedicated neural engine. So no creative copy et sim.
The main thing that is rarely mentioned is that the source copy in almost all cases was not written for MTPE.
[Bearbeitet am 2023-03-24 16:57 GMT]
Edit: With the mentioned MT quality my own output and earnings are higher than with regular translation.
[Bearbeitet am 2023-03-24 17:16 GMT]
| | | | Lieven Malaise
Belgium
Local time: 15:23
Member (2020)
French to Dutch
+ ...
| Monthly income | Mar 24, 2023 |
Ice Scream wrote:
A lower rate always means a lower income.
I was obviously talking about an average monthly income.
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| Never go down every month | Mar 25, 2023 |
Lieven Malaise wrote: Ice Scream wrote:
A lower rate always means a lower income. I was obviously talking about an average monthly income.
Ok, then: A lower rate always means a lower monthly income.
😂
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