Japanese to English Subtitling Rate Range Thread poster: Scott Saylor
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Hello:
Recently I was asked to do a subtitling job that is just a rendering of the text from Japanese to English, followed by, I assume, making the text shorter to make it fit on the screen.
Can anyone lend some insight as to what the low, middle, and high ends of pricing this might be? Would you do per word or per minute of film?
Since this is Japanese to English, I specifically want to know the answer as geared toward Asian language translation rates.... See more Hello:
Recently I was asked to do a subtitling job that is just a rendering of the text from Japanese to English, followed by, I assume, making the text shorter to make it fit on the screen.
Can anyone lend some insight as to what the low, middle, and high ends of pricing this might be? Would you do per word or per minute of film?
Since this is Japanese to English, I specifically want to know the answer as geared toward Asian language translation rates.
Normally I would tend to just charge per word, but I am wondering if that doesn't do justice to the fact that I then have to go back and make the text shorter -- taking extra time to do that (for which I wont be paid) and then decreasing the base word count which is what I would have charged from anyway, net effect being I would actually decrease my price and end up doing more work.
Anyone know?
Help appreciated! ▲ Collapse
| | | | | No concrete information, but... | Sep 12, 2012 |
I don't have any concrete information for you but it is my understanding that subtitling work, like literary and manga translation, pays peanuts, presumably because so many people want to do it.
As to how you charge, I would recommend charging by the character at a rate you feel will average out to fair payment for the amount of work involved, or at least that you feel you can get away with (see peanuts comment above). Charging by the target word is unfair to the customer, especiall... See more I don't have any concrete information for you but it is my understanding that subtitling work, like literary and manga translation, pays peanuts, presumably because so many people want to do it.
As to how you charge, I would recommend charging by the character at a rate you feel will average out to fair payment for the amount of work involved, or at least that you feel you can get away with (see peanuts comment above). Charging by the target word is unfair to the customer, especially in this situation, because they have no idea how much the order will cost until it's finished and it'll be pretty much impossible to estimate. Meanwhile, it's also unfair to you because you'll be constantly second guessing yourself - Should you make this phrase smaller? You'll get payed less if you do. Should you keep this long sentence? Does it need to be long because it won't work otherwise or because you don't want to reduce your payment even further? ▲ Collapse
| | | | Phil Hand 
China
Local time: 13:41
Chinese to English
| I would charge translation + | Sep 12, 2012 |
I believe subtitling (audio to subtitle, done with specialist software) is usually charged per hour/minute of film, but if you're just getting it in text form, there's no reason why you shouldn't charge as for any other translation. But...
1) I'd add an extra editing fee on top for the shortening work (another 30%? 50%? you judge)
2) Are you being given the source video as well? My problem with jobs like this is that often you can't tell what a translation should be wit... See more I believe subtitling (audio to subtitle, done with specialist software) is usually charged per hour/minute of film, but if you're just getting it in text form, there's no reason why you shouldn't charge as for any other translation. But...
1) I'd add an extra editing fee on top for the shortening work (another 30%? 50%? you judge)
2) Are you being given the source video as well? My problem with jobs like this is that often you can't tell what a translation should be without seeing the image. Imagine if your text says "Look at that!" Do you translate it as a command? An exclamation? With fear? With admiration?
So I wouldn't be happy about working from text only. And if I have to look at the video, then that's just going to eat my time, so that implies a very significant rate hike. I couldn't really judge it, so I'd think about charging by the hour instead. ▲ Collapse
| | | | kmtext
United Kingdom
Local time: 06:41
English
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| Subtitling translation rates | Sep 12, 2012 |
In the UK, translations are normally paid per programme minute, regardless of how many words are involved, so you usually end up earning peanuts for a lot of work. It's at times like this I wonder if I should carry on subtitling, because I could earn much more as a plain text translator.
The rates vary according to the language pairs and the number of available translators. I don't know what the going rate for Japanese > English is, so it might be worth your while approaching one of... See more In the UK, translations are normally paid per programme minute, regardless of how many words are involved, so you usually end up earning peanuts for a lot of work. It's at times like this I wonder if I should carry on subtitling, because I could earn much more as a plain text translator.
The rates vary according to the language pairs and the number of available translators. I don't know what the going rate for Japanese > English is, so it might be worth your while approaching one of the subtitling houses directly to ask them what they pay their translators. (I would guess at £5-£7 per minute at best, but probably lower as "these are hard times for everybody".)
As Phil says, I would insist on being sent a copy of the source video too, as that will give you many visual cues which the translation template won't. ▲ Collapse
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Parrot
Spain
Local time: 07:41
Spanish to English
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Scott Saylor wrote:
Normally I would tend to just charge per word, but I am wondering if that doesn't do justice to the fact that I then have to go back and make the text shorter -- taking extra time to do that (for which I wont be paid) and then decreasing the base word count which is what I would have charged from anyway, net effect being I would actually decrease my price and end up doing more work.
If you're informed at the outset of allowable character count per line, you get used to thinking in those terms. It's not literal work, if you'll notice from subtitling for the deaf -- the subtitler uses paraphrases. Kmtext is right, you're paid by the video minute. You can normally process around 30 minutes a day, so maybe you can quote around that figure (based on what you want to earn per day).
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