Velior's Corporate Blog about Translation and Translation Industry

This post discusses Velior’s approach to charging for 100% matches against translation memory and internal repetitions. Generally, there are three opinions on this matter. Two of them are opposite: some believe that these matches and repetitions should be compensated fully just as any other words, while others maintain that no compensation is necessary, since processing these words does not require any specific effort. The third opinion, shared by Velior, is neutral: a reduced rate should apply to these words.

Reasons to Charge for 100% Matches and Repetitions

1. The context where a 100% match or repetition occurs may be different from the context of the original translation. It is therefore important to check whether all such words fit the new context. The time spent on checking should be compensated. Processing 100% matches and repetitions without compensation and hence without checking is justified only when the client is absolutely positive that the context is always identical, e.g. in a data sheet or parts catalogue. However, in our experience, such texts are rather the exception than the rule: they account for about 3% of our workload (translation from Russian to English, English to Russian, German to Russian).
2. 100% matches and repetitions often require the same amount of typesetting work as any other words. Even when 90% of your text are repetitions, you might end up spending just as much time on formatting them as if they all were new words. And unless this type of work is compensated separately, it should be included into the repetition rate.

Reasons Not to Charge Full Rate

1. Because the amount of work associated with 100% matches and repetitions is normally reduced as compared to the new words, it does not make business sense to charge full rate for them. You do not have to translate them from scratch, but just check whether the previous translation fits the new context, and it usually does. Truth be told, sometimes such words do require adjustment or even complete re-translation. For instance, an English to Russian translator may render the word “position” as “должность” when it means job position. This translation however will be of no use as a 100% match in the context where “position” means simply location and should be translated as “положение.” Yet, as I mentioned above, this happens to a very low percentage of 100% matches and repetitions, and a discount is therefore completely justified.
2. Translators who prefer full compensation for 100% matches and repetitions often refer to various examples from other industries to explain that a discount for repetitive work is unnatural. For instance, in the construction industry, you will not push the construction crew, which is building your new home, for a discount on the basis that one room is an exact match of the other. While this idea might have some truth to it theoretically, in real life, it is the actual amount of work/time/effort associated with the repetitive task that is important here. The new room might be indeed identical, but the amount of work required to finish it will still be the same. In contrast, the amount of work associated with 100% matches and repetitions is usually much lower as compared to the full-rate new words. Normally, the translation memory software inserts them automatically, and you only check whether the previous translation fits the new context. It is therefore fair to charge a reduced rate reflecting the actual time spent on checking instead of charging the full rate as if these words required the same amount of effort as the new ones.

This post is continued here.

In February, 2010, one of our regular clients enlisted Velior’s help for an urgent translation that was intended for their English-speaking partner: it was assigned on Friday evening and expected before noon on the next day. Please follow the link to read this case study.

This post is about situations where a client, typically a translation services agency, outsources the typesetting portion of a translation job to us. The process of pre-translation conversion, back-conversion, and typesetting for most DTP formats at Velior normally follows the procedure below:

1. You provide your DTP files such as INDD or QXP. It is also important to provide the fonts and images if applicable. To do so, use the respective “Export” feature in your DTP application. Because sometimes the fonts used in the source files cannot be used in the target files, you also need to indicate the font to be used or let us use our discretion in choosing an appropriate font.
2. You confirm the language the files will be translated into (English to Russian, English to Ukrainian, etc.), so that we can use the correct procedures for this language combination and save the files for translation with the correct combination.
3. You confirm the translation environment tool you want to use in this job such as Wordfast Pro or OmegaT. Otherwise, we can simply extract the translatable text into a table with the “Source” and “Target” columns.
4. We convert the original files and deliver the translatable files and also PDFs for reference.
5. Your translator completes the translation, creating bilingual files and using the PDFs for reference.
6. You send these bilingual files back to Velior.
7. We back-convert and typeset these files, then send the PDFs for your review.
8. Your reviewer (preferably, the original translator) reviews the PDFs and returns them with annotated corrections. Any explanations should always be in English or Russian. If a translation environment tool was used, you would normally ask your reviewer to also correct the bilingual files, so that you can update the translation memory for future use. However, we do not need them (see also the note 1 below).
9. We implement the corrections and create the final DTP files and also PDFs. If your reviewer made many corrections, they may also request or be requested to review the PDFs again to ensure that all corrections were implemented properly by Velior.
10. We deliver the final files to you and confirm the time spent on this job for the invoice.

Notes:

1. It is normally cheaper for you to send the annotated PDFs after review, but not the updated bilingual files. When you send the updated bilingual files instead, we have to completely redo the entire typesetting, which usually costs you more as compared to implementing the corrections to the already typeset files. For instance, when a reviewer made just a few corrections, it will take about 5 to 10 minutes to insert them in the existing typeset files, while redoing the entire typesetting from scratch takes at least 30 minutes and usually more. Additionally, the reviewer is supposed to check the PDFs for formatting issues, but when they return the updated bilingual files only, they obviously do not report any. And you can only wonder whether theу did not actually find any formatting issues or just did not care to report them. However, sometimes it is indeed easier to redo the entire typesetting from scratch—when a reviewer made so many corrections that implementing them will take more time than redoing the typesetting.Given the above, you would usually instruct your reviewer to insert any changes directly in the PDFs.
2. Since this conversion and typesetting process involves many steps and participants, it is normally difficult to establish any accurate deadlines beforehand. Velior therefore recommends to always reserve as much time as possible for the process.