| Pages in topic: < [1 2 3 4] | A BB for outsourcers' rates Thread poster: XXXphxxx (X)
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XXXphxxx (X) 
United Kingdom
Local time: 02:05
Portuguese to English
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TOPIC STARTER | What future for translation? | Apr 29, 2010 |
Rifraf wrote:
But in many cases, freelance translators depend on us agencies to get work! You don't want to know how many translators have called us this year to ask if we have (more) work for them. In many language pairs the competition is huge (to take Dutch-English as an example).
So whose determining the rates? The end clients in the chain are setting the rates.
As modern language teaching is almost wiped out from schools in Britain, the number of graduates is in turn dropping dramatically and we read about desperate shortages of native English-speaking translators in Brussels, I wonder why this is not reflected in the marketplace? Are you really swamped with Dutch to English translators who are native English speakers? I don't doubt your word, but it does surprise, nay, astonish me!
End clients shoehorn translation into their budget, if the rates we were asking were higher they would be obliged to adjust their marketing, legal etc budgets. I don't think we have enough self-respect for our profession and not surprisingly it is therefore not valued accordingly by the end client. We are (understandably) too focused on fighting off the competition, meanwhile we just keep spiralling down and down I'm afraid.
[Edited at 2010-04-29 14:43 GMT]
| | | | | Not the rule | Apr 29, 2010 |
Rifraf wrote: At our agency we DON'T work with freelancers who work for less than 0.07; I can't take them seriously and quality is of the utmost importance to us and it are precisely such rates which destroy the market! So the word rates our freelance translators work with vary between 0.07 and "the sky is the limit" 
Not our standard practice either; this was very much an exception. Like I said we actually encouraged the translator to up his rate. But if someone is good I would be hurting our own business if I dropped him on the basis of his low rate only to work with an untried colleague who charges more.
What I tried to do was indicate that there's too many factors that influence the rates to try and capture this in a BB that would assume that the agency dictates the rates it pays and consistently pays similar rates. If I look at our agency, that's simply not the case.
| | | | XXXphxxx (X)
United Kingdom
Local time: 02:05
Portuguese to English
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER | Currency fluctuations | Apr 29, 2010 |
Susan van den Ende wrote:
Translator had converted his target income to EURs for his quote and since the exchange rate had dropped considerably we were lucky. We actually pointed that out to him, and he told us that he was aware of the issue but did not want to change the rate he agreed to.
I understand your decision Susan, but what are we to do? Each time the Euro strengthens, should translators in the Eurozone find themselves without work? Perhaps we should introduce a 'Buy local'/'Fairtrade' kite mark for translation
| | | | | Not just translators! | Apr 29, 2010 |
Lisa Simpson wrote: I understand your decision Susan, but what are we to do? Each time the Euro strengthens, should translators in the Eurozone find themselves without work? Perhaps we should introduce a 'Buy local'/'Fairtrade' kite mark for translation
Ah, but it's not just you: agencies and, for that matter, anyone doing business with partners that work in a different currency can lose income or clients (or both) with currency fluctuations just as well. It's a business reality that's not limited to the translation world.
[edited for typo]
[Edited at 2010-04-29 16:22 GMT]
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XXXphxxx (X)
United Kingdom
Local time: 02:05
Portuguese to English
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER | Globalisation | Apr 29, 2010 |
Susan van den Ende wrote:
Ah, but it's not just you: agencies and, for that matter, anyone doing business with partners that work in a different currency can lose income or clients (or both) with currency fluctuations just as well. It's a business reality that's not limited to the translation world.
[edited for typo]
[Edited at 2010-04-29 16:22 GMT]
Absolutely, and the press is full of such stories and we endlessly discuss the pros and cons of globalisation, yet I'm struggling to think of another profession (teacher, lawyer, doctor, accountant, nurse) that has a similar system for paying a workforce according to rates established in far-off lands.
| | | | | swamped with English translators | May 3, 2010 |
Lisa Simpson wrote:
Are you really swamped with Dutch to English translators who are native English speakers? I don't doubt your word, but it does surprise, nay, astonish me!
Yes we are, and in all fields of translations (legal, technical and commercial).
And yes, this concerns either native or bilingual speakers.
But I have to be honest; out of 10 translators, perhaps only 2 will be up to our standard:)
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