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How can one make a living making .04 per word for translations
Thread poster: alps
Cesar Silva (X)
Cesar Silva (X)
Brazil
Local time: 02:18
English to Portuguese
+ ...
It seems there are always some "bad curses" chasing companies who underpay Jan 31, 2015

But I agree that if an experience translator, after lots of jobs, acquainted with the market and prices, still maintain low rates (according to the life cost of his country), then I think this is bad for the market but only if he is planing to maintain this strategy for very long.

But who can say he will manage to maintain this for long? I don't think so.

Bad marketing, laziness, incompetence? Can this be the problem with this kind of translators?

Maybe. Bu... See more
But I agree that if an experience translator, after lots of jobs, acquainted with the market and prices, still maintain low rates (according to the life cost of his country), then I think this is bad for the market but only if he is planing to maintain this strategy for very long.

But who can say he will manage to maintain this for long? I don't think so.

Bad marketing, laziness, incompetence? Can this be the problem with this kind of translators?

Maybe. But I think we should be very careful on trying to suppose what is happening in the private life of a person we know nothing about. Maybe this fellow is just going through some bad times and taking cheap jobs while trying to recover, right?

By the way, that 1 million words project I mentioned was cancelled in the very middle, and that made me wonder: what kind of trouble should have happened to bring this outcome? Maybe the low rates helped only to attract lots of unprepared translators. I remember the language coordinator showing us some mistranslations that occurred, she was a bit angry and disappointed. I remember seeing lots of creepy stuff, mistakes that a well paid translator would never commit. Project managers spent lots of time dealing with undesired effects here and there. Lots of headaches I imagine.

It seems there are always some "bad curses" chasing companies who tries to save money by devaluing their translators, and it brings some natural justice. ▲ Collapse
 
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How can one make a living making .04 per word for translations







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