Amount of discount on light MTPE? Автор темы: Andrus Lauringson
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Andrus Lauringson 
Эстония
Local time: 08:56
Член ProZ.com c 2022
английский => эстонский
Hello!
A client has asked me whether I would accept light MTPE tasks with a 28% discount. I have accepted some light MTPE tasks from other clients before, but in at least one of those cases it turned out that basically still full MTPE was expected, just with a big discount. I ended up revising the translation several times, spending more time than for a usual MTPE (or translation from scratch, for that matter).
What would be a common discount for light MTPE? How do you ... See more Hello!
A client has asked me whether I would accept light MTPE tasks with a 28% discount. I have accepted some light MTPE tasks from other clients before, but in at least one of those cases it turned out that basically still full MTPE was expected, just with a big discount. I ended up revising the translation several times, spending more time than for a usual MTPE (or translation from scratch, for that matter).
What would be a common discount for light MTPE? How do you keep it "light" MTPE if the client keeps asking for more? ▲ Collapse
| | | | Lieven Malaise
Бельгия
Local time: 07:56
Член ProZ.com c 2020
французский => голландский
+ ...
| Don't do it. | Dec 27, 2024 |
Every translator with self-respect will end up doing more than is strictly necessary. So for the same low rate the client will get more (more corrections than the rate allows) and the translator less (more time spent for a rate that is too low). As far as I'm concerned light MTPE is a trap and mainly an excuse to lower rates even further.
| | | | Dan Lucas
Великобритания
Local time: 06:56
Член ProZ.com c 2014
японский => английский
Lieven Malaise wrote:
As far as I'm concerned light MTPE is a trap and mainly an excuse to lower rates even further.
Quick question from someone without any real experience in this area - is it the case that you offer a discount compared to normal translation, but that it is not as large as this?
Dan
| | | | Zea_Mays
Италия
Local time: 07:56
английский => немецкий
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| definition of light MTPE | Dec 28, 2024 |
Andrus Lauringson wrote:
light MTPE tasks with a 28% discount.
For acceptable MT quality this would be a good rate for light post-editing. Full MTPE is generally paid around 2/3 of your standard translation rate.
You just need to agree with the agency on the definition of light MTPE.
Light post-editing is focussed on understandability making only necessary edits (grammar, spelling, wrong meanings; no style and terminological consistency, no attention to fluency, no cultural localisation), while full PE is focussed also on quality to make the final text sound like a human translation, paying attention to style, consistent use of terms and considering the target.
Good translators will tend to do more than requested as Lieven said, but it's just a matter of habituation. Just do what you will be actually be paid for.
The main question is the quality of the MT output.
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Thayenga
Германия
Local time: 07:56
Член ProZ.com c 2009
английский => немецкий
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| The only acceptable rate | Dec 28, 2024 |
Regardless of the alleged easiness of the project, the only fair rate is to charge your normal hourly rate like you would for any other editing project.
| | | | Lieven Malaise
Бельгия
Local time: 07:56
Член ProZ.com c 2020
французский => голландский
+ ...
Dan Lucas wrote:
Quick question from someone without any real experience in this area - is it the case that you offer a discount compared to normal translation, but that it is not as large as this?
...what you are asking here, Dan. Light MTPE could be described as a faster and shallower form of full MTPE (where the end result should equal human translation quality), as already explained by Zea. So the rate for light MTPE should be lower than the rate for full MTPE. I can't say what the exact rates are since I haven't yet accepted light MTPE projects and I'm not planning on doing it in the near future.
| | | | Lieven Malaise
Бельгия
Local time: 07:56
Член ProZ.com c 2020
французский => голландский
+ ...
Zea_Mays wrote:
Good translators will tend to do more than requested as Lieven said, but it's just a matter of habituation. Just do what you will be actually be paid for.
The main question is the quality of the MT output.
The problem is you would basically be training yourself to ignore linguistic problems that you normally wouldn't ignore. That can't be a good thing for a translator trying to deliver the best they can offer. That's why I wouldn't accept these projects.
| | | | jyuan_us
США
Local time: 01:56
Член ProZ.com c 2005
английский => китайский
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| Light MTPE projects would end up costing about the same amount of time as full MTPE projects | Dec 29, 2024 |
Lieven Malaise wrote:
Zea_Mays wrote:
Good translators will tend to do more than requested as Lieven said, but it's just a matter of habituation. Just do what you will be actually be paid for.
The main question is the quality of the MT output.
The problem is you would basically be training yourself to ignore linguistic problems that you normally wouldn't ignore. That can't be a good thing for a translator trying to deliver the best they can offer. That's why I wouldn't accept these projects.
It sometimes takes more time pondering whether a linguistic problem could be ignored than simply correcting it.
[Edited at 2024-12-29 23:39 GMT]
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Dan Lucas
Великобритания
Local time: 06:56
Член ProZ.com c 2014
японский => английский
Lieven Malaise wrote:
Not sure...what you are asking here, Dan.
I wasn't really sure myself to be honest, but the combination of your comments and those of Zea has cleared up the difference between full and light MTPE, so now I understand the issue a little better (I think).
Thanks to you both,
Dan
| | | | Zea_Mays
Италия
Local time: 07:56
английский => немецкий
+ ...
jyuan_us wrote:
Lieven Malaise wrote:
Zea_Mays wrote:
Good translators will tend to do more than requested as Lieven said, but it's just a matter of habituation. Just do what you will be actually be paid for.
The main question is the quality of the MT output.
The problem is you would basically be training yourself to ignore linguistic problems that you normally wouldn't ignore. That can't be a good thing for a translator trying to deliver the best they can offer. That's why I wouldn't accept these projects.
It sometimes takes more time pondering whether a linguistic problem could be ignored than simply correcting it.
Not always. As said, the core question regards the quality of the MT output. And light MTPE is generally done on non-critical content.
Once you are familiar with the process, it should be a smooth flow.
As for "training yourself to ignore linguistic problems that you normally wouldn't ignore", it depends on how much MTPE you do. If it takes up most of your daily workload, I agree that it could cause problems in the long run. But this is something a translator should never do.
| | | | Lieven Malaise
Бельгия
Local time: 07:56
Член ProZ.com c 2020
французский => голландский
+ ...
Zea_Mays wrote:
As for "training yourself to ignore linguistic problems that you normally wouldn't ignore", it depends on how much MTPE you do. If it takes up most of your daily workload, I agree that it could cause problems in the long run. But this is something a translator should never do.
My mind is always set to deliver the best quality, be it for conventional translation or full MTPE. It would be the switch from top quality to hardly acceptable quality and vice versa that could cause trouble, in my opinion. It's like asking a professional racing cyclist to ride a race with an inferior, heavy bike one day, and a race with a top-notch professional bike the next day.
| | | | jparis
Local time: 06:56
русский => английский
+ ...
| what is acceptable to you | Dec 31, 2024 |
Lieven Malaise wrote:
Zea_Mays wrote:
As for "training yourself to ignore linguistic problems that you normally wouldn't ignore", it depends on how much MTPE you do. If it takes up most of your daily workload, I agree that it could cause problems in the long run. But this is something a translator should never do.
My mind is always set to deliver the best quality, be it for conventional translation or full MTPE. It would be the switch from top quality to hardly acceptable quality and vice versa that could cause trouble, in my opinion. It's like asking a professional racing cyclist to ride a race with an inferior, heavy bike one day, and a race with a top-notch professional bike the next day.
I don't like MPTE in my language pairs because the AI translations have been so poor that I have ended up retranslating chunks of the source. Which means that essentially, I've been translating the source but for a cheaper rate. The agency wins, because they get a professional translation for 60% of the cost, and their client presumably pays less too. But this is not a good way for me. So I don't take these projects any more. The agency I did this project through used ChatGPT to translate the source text. They claimed that they used a "bespoke AI that is professionally trained on the source" but really what they did was feed a previous translation I had done into ChatGPT. That does not really help, since they just fed it an English text. ChatGPT just predicts what the next word is most likely to be based on statistical probability, it does not "think."
I dislike this work because it feels like an excuse to poorly pay translators. That is because it is an excuse to poorly pay translators.
I mean, look, sure you could take this job and just NOT do what I did, you could just lightly copyedit what ChatGPT vomited out. Is that what you became a translator to do? What percentage of your work would you accept as this?
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Samuel Murray
Нидерланды
Local time: 07:56
Член ProZ.com c 2006
английский => африкаанс
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| Depends on the language combination | Dec 31, 2024 |
Andrus Lauringson wrote:
What would be a common discount for light MTPE?
I regularly see 35% discounts for full MTPE, so 28% for light MTPE doesn't sound bad to me. However, as you point out, since a light MTPE would result in a text that is not fully of human quality, it is more likely that a client might want you to spend more time on revision rounds to get it perfect.
How do you keep it "light" MTPE if the client keeps asking for more?
You have to explain to the client before the job starts what "light" MTPE entails, so that they have the correct expectations. And you have to be strict about it when they try to pull too many revisions because they misunderstood what a "light" MTPE would result in.
| | | | Lieven Malaise
Бельгия
Local time: 07:56
Член ProZ.com c 2020
французский => голландский
+ ...
| Are you talking to me? | Jan 1 |
jparis wrote:
I mean, look, sure you could take this job and just NOT do what I did, you could just lightly copyedit what ChatGPT vomited out. Is that what you became a translator to do? What percentage of your work would you accept as this?
Are you talking to me? I don't do light MTPE. As far as full MTPE is concerned: my rate is high enough to make sure it's a profitable activity, so no problems there.
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