project feasibility Thread poster: Srini Venkataraman
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I need a help- a learning experience.
Received an enquiry for translation. details as reported are: ~35K words, ~22k repeats, delivery 3 days -4th Dec) or 5 days including weekends; rate 2/3 of normal rate ( he knows my rate from a prev job I had done) for new and 1/3 for repeats ;excel sheet; xml files; delivery terms 60days+( need reminders for payment).
I replied: on delivery time ( @3000 words/day, it will be ~10 days incl proofing- proofing is manual as there is no dictionary su... See more I need a help- a learning experience.
Received an enquiry for translation. details as reported are: ~35K words, ~22k repeats, delivery 3 days -4th Dec) or 5 days including weekends; rate 2/3 of normal rate ( he knows my rate from a prev job I had done) for new and 1/3 for repeats ;excel sheet; xml files; delivery terms 60days+( need reminders for payment).
I replied: on delivery time ( @3000 words/day, it will be ~10 days incl proofing- proofing is manual as there is no dictionary support for Indian languages, as far as I know )and rate being not feasible( in total, I will get 50% of normal invoice) and have not done xml in wfp 3.2.2 earlier. He is yet to respond.
Could I have handled this differently and made it workable? Thx in advance
Edited at 09:00
sorry I forgot something:
~15 folders with 553 files contain those 35k words.
[Edited at 2013-11-30 14:59 GMT]
[Edited at 2013-11-30 14:59 GMT] ▲ Collapse
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Imagine you would work in a company and they would demand that you do overhours, work over the weekend and agree to a deduction of your monthly pay check. Would you agree?
Some jobs are just not feasible for a single translator and also doing a job with several people would need one very good proofreader, who would have to check all inconsistencies between the different translators - and this would cost money. I think it had been a wise decision to refuse this job, respectively to s... See more Imagine you would work in a company and they would demand that you do overhours, work over the weekend and agree to a deduction of your monthly pay check. Would you agree?
Some jobs are just not feasible for a single translator and also doing a job with several people would need one very good proofreader, who would have to check all inconsistencies between the different translators - and this would cost money. I think it had been a wise decision to refuse this job, respectively to say that you would need more time. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Gerard de Noord 
France
Local time: 10:50
Member (2003)
English to Dutch
+ ...
| You look my age | Nov 30, 2013 |
30K words is 2 to 3 weeks work for the average translator. All other options aren't open to you if you don't have the experience to do it in a few days. 30K word assignments are ideal for subcontracting but make sure you're not the last one in the row.
Cheers,
Gerard
PS When I wrote that you look my age I just wanted to imply that you should know by now that you shouldn't take on jobs like this.
[Edited at 2013-11-30 21:44 GMT]
| | | | Srini Venkataraman
United States
Local time: 03:50
Member (2012)
Tamil to English
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
I would have given a shot if I could, based on time/rate/txml to my convenience .
Each of the lines have different tags in xml that no *.properties can be made, to do thru wfp. may be it was a Trados -type of job.
One more thing was it was in IT domain, where as I work in medical domain essentially ( I enjoy even 10-12 hrs a day doing in this domain). If there is a need for me to subcontract then I will not do.
[Edited at 2013-11-30 23:53 GMT]
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Edward Vreeburg
Netherlands
Local time: 10:50
Member (2008)
English to Dutch
+ ...
| Stop there: rate 2/3 of normal rate | Dec 2, 2013 |
Why even bother to reply - if they cannot pay you your normal rate, just send them an e-mail:
"please explain why I should acccept this" - what if all my other clients found out I'm supplying the same quality at 2/3 of the price to you? All my clients would demand the same "discount"...
More work at lower rates is not acceptable !
Ed
| | | | | Spelling dictionaries for Indian languages | Dec 2, 2013 |
Srini Venkataraman wrote:
proofing is manual as there is no dictionary support for Indian languages
You may want to have a look at
https://fedorahosted.org/ibus-hunspell-table/
and
ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/aspell/dict/0index.html
for some Indian spelling dictionaries. For some, not for all 400+ Indian languages, I'm afraid. But the big ones are there, Hindi, Tamil, Punjabi, and quite a few others.
Cheers,
Hans
| | | | Srini Venkataraman
United States
Local time: 03:50
Member (2012)
Tamil to English
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
thanks for the url. I have been using online dictionaries. But for proofing help, like in English like in MS word, (red and green marks for spelling and spacing errors), whether this url will help, is to be seen.
| | | | Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 09:50
Member (2008)
Italian to English
Srini Venkataraman wrote:
I need a help- a learning experience.
Received an enquiry for translation. details as reported are: ~35K words, ~22k repeats, delivery 3 days -4th Dec) or 5 days including weekends; rate 2/3 of normal rate ( he knows my rate from a prev job I had done) for new and 1/3 for repeats ;excel sheet; xml files; delivery terms 60days+( need reminders for payment).
I replied: on delivery time ( @3000 words/day, it will be ~10 days incl proofing- proofing is manual as there is no dictionary support for Indian languages, as far as I know )and rate being not feasible( in total, I will get 50% of normal invoice) and have not done xml in wfp 3.2.2 earlier. He is yet to respond.
Could I have handled this differently and made it workable? Thx in advance
Edited at 09:00
sorry I forgot something:
~15 folders with 553 files contain those 35k words.
[Edited at 2013-11-30 14:59 GMT]
[Edited at 2013-11-30 14:59 GMT]
If you accept this, you'll be forced to accept similar conditions for all future jobs. Is that really what you want?
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Srini Venkataraman
United States
Local time: 03:50
Member (2012)
Tamil to English
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER | will be selective, of course | Dec 2, 2013 |
With this company( since last 6 months only), I have a good rate with first PM, second PM keeps showing carrot, never gave a project, and this 3rd PM goes for highly competitive rates!!!. That's why I never accepted, or else first PM may feel bad
| | | | Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 09:50
Member (2008)
Italian to English
| Internal competition | Dec 2, 2013 |
Srini Venkataraman wrote:
With this company( since last 6 months only), I have a good rate with first PM, second PM keeps showing carrot, never gave a project, and this 3rd PM goes for highly competitive rates!!!. That's why I never accepted, or else first PM may feel bad
This sounds like one of those agencies where the PMs are required to compete against one another to see who can get the lowest price out of you.
Always for your best work, of course !
[Edited at 2013-12-02 16:32 GMT]
| | | | | No online dictionaries | Dec 2, 2013 |
Srini Venkataraman wrote:
thanks for the url. I have been using online dictionaries. But for proofing help, like in English like in MS word, (red and green marks for spelling and spacing errors), whether this url will help, is to be seen.
The links I provided above, don't point to online dictionaries at all. They are only online to be downloaded and integrated in your applications. I'm not sure they'll work in MS Word for Windows, but they should work in LibreOffice and OOo, both free (beer and libre).
It's more than 40 years ago I tried to study Indian languages (Sanskrit, Prakrit, Pali, and Hindi), and failed miserably, so my example above shows in Bahasa Indonesia in LibreOffice, another "minor language" - only spoken by some 400 million people - for which a spelling checker is usually not available.
Cheers,
Hans
| | | | Srini Venkataraman
United States
Local time: 03:50
Member (2012)
Tamil to English
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Looks like there is a need for more learning curve. Till then, I think I will stick to familiar MS word and manual proofing of Tamil/Telugu docs, keeping my eyes wide open.
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| | Srini Venkataraman
United States
Local time: 03:50
Member (2012)
Tamil to English
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Thank you so very much. I just installed for Tamil in MS word 2013 X64 version and checked- works fantastic. So proofing hassles will disappear hopefully. I owe you one.
| | | | | From my own experience as a PM | Dec 28, 2013 |
there is probably some more room for Deadline extensions with this job. Too often, clients give feedbacks after weeks when the job was initially urgent.
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