Translation from/into Asian languages. How difficult? Thread poster: Chien Nguyen
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Chien Nguyen 
Vietnam
Local time: 07:35
English to Vietnamese
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After more than a decade working as translator/interpreter of English Vietnamese pair and touching various fields including from charity, community development, business, finance and so on to high level government issues. Also, I met and connected with many translators, interpreters and I now can conclude that:
- Translation or working on terminology from Asian languages to Romance/latin and Anglo-Saxon languages such as Vietnamese, Chinese, Japanese, Khmer should be much more diff... See more After more than a decade working as translator/interpreter of English Vietnamese pair and touching various fields including from charity, community development, business, finance and so on to high level government issues. Also, I met and connected with many translators, interpreters and I now can conclude that:
- Translation or working on terminology from Asian languages to Romance/latin and Anglo-Saxon languages such as Vietnamese, Chinese, Japanese, Khmer should be much more difficult than translating around Romance/latin and Anglo-Saxon languages, for example from English to Spanish, or from Portuguese to French, etc.
This is due to the fact that in Oriental languages like Chinese, Vietnamese, and in many case the Latin languages alike, a word can carry different meanings or a specific context can be expressed by many different words/expressions.
it is always tricky and tough to work on terminology in such pair, for example English - Vietnamese, even you are provided with context.
Unfortunately, despite of the difficulties in terminology and particularities of Oriental languages, the translator/interpreters in the region are paying sub-standard and very very low as compared to their colleagues working in Europe or America.
When you are looking for translator in ProZ or translatorscafe, you may receive dozens of quotes with price of 0.03$/source word. Both sides of the coin contribute to this painful competition. The agencies want the best rate and try to lower and lower. The translator are hunting for job and willing to work at such a low rate of compensation.
What do you think? How we can lift the rate up from that very bottom line? ▲ Collapse
| | | | Henry Hinds
United States
Local time: 18:35
English to Spanish
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In memoriam
So many translators of such languages live in developing countries where the cost of living is or is perceived to be lower, so if you live in Vietnam, for instance, agencies are always going to low-ball you on the price. To a certain extent, translators everywhere are concerned about pressure to lower prices. One solution is to work for direct clients, which may or may not be easy to obtain depending on your location, contacts, etc.
| | | | Chien Nguyen
Vietnam
Local time: 07:35
English to Vietnamese
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TOPIC STARTER | frankly, the market rate is already low | Oct 7, 2014 |
Thanks, Henry.
Yes, I agree that the market rate in our Vietnam case is low. I work mainly with my direct clients, but rate is not as good as that of our mates in other countries can get.
I will surely never walk along with agencies in Vietnam since they are trying to tap at the low end of market. Regretfully, new translators are willing to "WORK" at rate of about 0.02$/source word.
But, everything has its own price. going with something cheap, what in return may be othe... See more Thanks, Henry.
Yes, I agree that the market rate in our Vietnam case is low. I work mainly with my direct clients, but rate is not as good as that of our mates in other countries can get.
I will surely never walk along with agencies in Vietnam since they are trying to tap at the low end of market. Regretfully, new translators are willing to "WORK" at rate of about 0.02$/source word.
But, everything has its own price. going with something cheap, what in return may be other expensive price for tradeoff.
[Edited at 2014-10-07 16:36 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | Phil Hand
China
Local time: 08:35
Chinese to English
Chien Nguyen wrote:
- Translation or working on terminology from Asian languages to Romance/latin and Anglo-Saxon languages such as Vietnamese, Chinese, Japanese, Khmer should be much more difficult than translating around Romance/latin and Anglo-Saxon languages, for example from English to Spanish, or from Portuguese to French, etc.
Chatting on here with translators in European language pairs, I'm struck by how similar our concerns are. It feels to me like we're solving the same kinds of problems, making the same kinds of choices.
But on the other hand, there does seem to be something a bit different about Asian languages, in that they are translated badly so often. My best answer to that is just sheer numbers of translators and traditions of good translation. For example, in my pair there are still often cases where the dictionaries are just wrong. That would be unusual in European languages.
So I don't think it's the case that Asian languages are intrinsically harder (for Europeans), I think it's just that we have to do a lot of the work that is done for you in European settings: things like identifying false friends, working out standard equivalences for tenses, developing translation conventions when writing conventions in the two languages don't match (here's an example going on right now: http://www.proz.com/forum/chinese/275711-到底怎么译yours_sincerely_yours_truly.html).
As for rates, you raise rates by raising rates. If you interpret, you're in a strong position. Make contact with overseas clients, and don't accept work from the local market. I haven't worked for Chinese entities for years.
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Balasubramaniam L.
India
Local time: 06:05
Member (2006)
English to Hindi
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SITE LOCALIZER | I would say as difficult as translation into any other language | Oct 8, 2014 |
Based on my experience of translating from English to Hindi, and occasionally in the reverse direction, I would say, it is about as difficult as translation into any other language would be.
In other words, the Asian-ness of a languages in itself does not define the level of difficulty. Unless of course, you take into consideration the lack or inferior-ness of external aids like dictionaries and software available in these languages, as Phil mentions.
Even in Hindi, the... See more Based on my experience of translating from English to Hindi, and occasionally in the reverse direction, I would say, it is about as difficult as translation into any other language would be.
In other words, the Asian-ness of a languages in itself does not define the level of difficulty. Unless of course, you take into consideration the lack or inferior-ness of external aids like dictionaries and software available in these languages, as Phil mentions.
Even in Hindi, the same problems that Phil mentions exist - lack of good dictionaries that are regularly updated to keep up with the latest changes in language and vocabulary; CAT tools; software for typing in Hindi, spell-checking, grammar checking, etc., which are all way below the standard of what is available in a language like English, for example. But most professionals at a very early stage of their career learn to get over these irritants as part of their professional development. I, for example, manually spell-check and grammar check every word I write or translate, as I cannot rely on existing Hindi spell-checkers or grammar-checking software.
On the positive side, this makes translation into Hindi all the more satisfying, because to get quality output, you have to take something out of you and put it into your translation. And that something is your experience, your knowledge of the culture associated of your language, and your dexterity with your language. These are not things that any translator can easily reproduce, so quality translators in Asian languages such as Hindi always come at a premium.
Whereas any English translator, to take an example, can produce a reasonably error-free (for eg. typos or grammar error free) translation using the basic tools available in a software like MS Word, the same cannot be said of a Hindi translator. It takes a much more accomplished Hindi translator to produce an equally error-free Hindi translation, for he/she works without such external aids. And because of this, his/her Hindi translation is linguistically more robust than that produced using software aids.
As for rates, if you are good at your work, you can always charge a premium rate, provided your market is big enough to support such a rate. Fortunately for me Hindi provides a huge market - according to some estimates, the third largest linguistic market after Chinese and English - and so I have not faced any rate-related issues. But it is possible that smaller language markets like that of Vietnamese, could feel such pressure.
My advice to you would be to carve out a niche for yourself which are less inhabited by similar translators, and then you will be able to charge premium rates even in your smaller linguistic market. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Chien Nguyen
Vietnam
Local time: 07:35
English to Vietnamese
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TOPIC STARTER | Into/from Asian languages vs among Latin/Romance languages | Oct 8, 2014 |
What I mean is that translating from/into Asian languages will definitely be more difficult than translation between Latin/Romance languages.
For example, it would be much easier for Italian or French translators to translate word like: production/producione, international, financial, etc.
With regard to the quality, yes each translator can produce different levels of quality. But in mane cases, agencies (they are willing) chase after the low end for very low pay becaus... See more What I mean is that translating from/into Asian languages will definitely be more difficult than translation between Latin/Romance languages.
For example, it would be much easier for Italian or French translators to translate word like: production/producione, international, financial, etc.
With regard to the quality, yes each translator can produce different levels of quality. But in mane cases, agencies (they are willing) chase after the low end for very low pay because they are business people, not a linguist or a language expert or language lover.
Fluency in language is also another issue since many translators just try to assemble the word-by-word from one to other language. This make the sentences, the expressions are too strange and "very foreign", I must say.
We have more translation/language workers than the linguists/translator. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Lincoln Hui
Hong Kong
Local time: 08:35
Member
Chinese to English
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| Between Asian languages | Oct 8, 2014 |
This is something that's not so often talked about in this parts, even though Japanese to Chinese is a major language pair. Even if the languages don't necessarily belong to the same group, there can be factors that make things easier than if one was to translate them into an European language.
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