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How to price Japanese translations?
Autor de la hebra: javierd85
javierd85
javierd85
Singapur
Local time: 22:36
Sep 30, 2013

Hi everyone, Japanese and non-Japanese translators

I want to know more about the rates to translate Japanese. As I’m sure most of you know, Japanese has different writing systems: the Kanjis and the Kana, which makes the standard rate per word impractical.

A quick research shows me that people quote in 2 ways: Either quoting per word in the target language (e.g English) or assigning a scale of about 3kanas=1 kanji. Also, what do you think is the proper English word-J... See more
Hi everyone, Japanese and non-Japanese translators

I want to know more about the rates to translate Japanese. As I’m sure most of you know, Japanese has different writing systems: the Kanjis and the Kana, which makes the standard rate per word impractical.

A quick research shows me that people quote in 2 ways: Either quoting per word in the target language (e.g English) or assigning a scale of about 3kanas=1 kanji. Also, what do you think is the proper English word-Japanese character ratio? I’ve been told about 1 EW=3 Japanese characters but that sounds too simplistic to me

I want to know to fellow Japanese translators what you think of the current system. What way do you think is better, or what way do you think is more efficient but it hasn’t been implemented

Thanks for helping! ▲ Collapse
 
Lincoln Hui
Lincoln Hui  Identity Verified
Hong Kong
Local time: 22:36
Miembro
chino al inglés
+ ...
Why not source character? Sep 30, 2013

Japanese text with heavy kanji would be easier to read and comprehend than ones filled with kana IMO. So source character still very much makes sense to me.
 
Corinne Jeannet
Corinne Jeannet  Identity Verified
Francia
Local time: 15:36
inglés al francés
+ ...
per caracter Sep 30, 2013

Hi,

as for other langage pairs, I charge either source or target, the main difference being that target rate is double the source rate.
Ex: 9 cents per Japanese caracter or 18 cts per target word.
The reason being that for Japanese-French (but I guess English is similar), it is considered that 400 Jp caracters = 200 target words.
"caracters" being indifferently a kana or a kanji.
I hope it helps !
 
javierd85
javierd85
Singapur
Local time: 22:36
PERSONA QUE INICIÓ LA HEBRA
anything else? Oct 1, 2013

Thanks Corinne and Lincoln for your input about grouping kana and kanki. Im really interested in hearing more opinions!

Lincoln, I didnt get our point clear, sorry, how does that relate to pricing?
 
Nilton Junior
Nilton Junior  Identity Verified
Brasil
Local time: 14:36
Miembro 2009
inglés al portugués
+ ...
Source character Oct 6, 2013

javierd85 wrote:

Thanks Corinne and Lincoln for your input about grouping kana and kanki. Im really interested in hearing more opinions!

Lincoln, I didnt get our point clear, sorry, how does that relate to pricing?


He suggested you to charge by Japanese source character, which I also think that makes more sense.
 
Katalin Horváth McClure
Katalin Horváth McClure  Identity Verified
Estados Unidos
Local time: 10:36
Miembro 2002
inglés al húngaro
+ ...
Previous discusions on this topic Oct 7, 2013

The volume of text in Japanese (and Chinese, and Korean, for example) is measured by the number of characters.
There were many discussions on this topic already, see a few here - some of these threads have further links to other discussions, as this topic had been discussed many times already.... See more
The volume of text in Japanese (and Chinese, and Korean, for example) is measured by the number of characters.
There were many discussions on this topic already, see a few here - some of these threads have further links to other discussions, as this topic had been discussed many times already.

http://www.proz.com/forum/localization/229393-word_count_when_source_language_is_korean_chinese_japanese_arabic.html

http://www.proz.com/forum/japanese_日本語/56772-converting_jpn_chars_to_eng_words.html

http://www.proz.com/forum/money_matters/212248-charging_based_on_source_characters_for_non_latin_languages.html ▲ Collapse
 
javierd85
javierd85
Singapur
Local time: 22:36
PERSONA QUE INICIÓ LA HEBRA
2,5jp=1ew then Oct 11, 2013

Thank you all for your input and pointing out to previous threads (I did search, i swear!)

Based on your feedback I think a source character quotation of 2,5jp=1EW is the best pricing to set

Thanks!
 


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