Sad Truth About the Translation Industry

[writer99025]

I don’t want to know how the world would look if really everyone always acted selfish and didn’t think further. The world always needed and had people like that and it has them. People are perfectly fine with even risking their own lives for people they don’t even know, and some thoughts and things need time, a lot of time.

We have come a long way, and we have a long way to go.

But this is not the forum for writing and reading books instead of posts indeed 😉 so let’s agree to disagree and to be and think all different and all that is okay, and have a nice Sunday. ⛅

People are perfectly fine with even risking their own lives for people they don’t even know, and some thoughts and things need time, a lot of time.

You mean soldiers. Soldiers’ mentality is different. Sure, I can risk my life for my country and would have become an officer in the Indian Army had I not dropped out the last minute from college, and failed to graduate…but the nation is a part of my identity. Would I risk my life for some random Indian bureaucrat who asks for bribe or a bank official who is rude to me? Don’t think so. Even risking your life for your country as soldiers do is selfish, but in a good way - because you are doing it for yourself, just as you would risk your life for your family.

[eoinfinnegan]

Hi eoin, though I am a rank newcomer at fiverr, I have been working as a translator for more than 3 years now. And though, the rates mentioned by the author on his site may be a bit high, there are clients who do pay those rates.

It’s like you get a jeans for 1000 bucks, but there’s one for 15000 bucks too.

Likewise, if there are 1000 tasks to be done, even if yours is the lowest rate you won’t get all. There will be some who do it at maybe double your rate, but half the work.

All actors never get the same pay…Then how can it be that the translation rates for all be standard.

Well, different customers, different budget.

There are always levels.

So, effectively noone is right or wrong, even the author is not wrong. Maybe not even you may be fully correct or fully wrong…

Everyday is a new learning, so be open to ideas…🙂

I do agree with you to a point and people are free to charge what they want. It just seems strange to me that you would take what the blog author wrote and share it in the manner of an endorsement while you disagree with my point but yet say noone is right or wrong and that I should be open to new ideas. Did you say that to the blogger?

It seems to me that he is the one who isn’t open to new ideas, new thinking, modern requirements but is stuck in the past with pricing that is more befitting those of ancient times where there was one person in a city who could translate to a certain language and could effectively charge what they liked.

[miiila]

People are perfectly fine with even risking their own lives for people they don’t even know, and some thoughts and things need time, a lot of time.

You mean soldiers. Soldiers’ mentality is different. Sure, I can risk my life for my country and would have become an officer in the Indian Army had I not dropped out the last minute from college, and failed to graduate…but the nation is a part of my identity. Would I risk my life for some random Indian bureaucrat who asks for bribe or a bank official who is rude to me? Don’t think so. Even risking your life for your country as soldiers do is selfish, but in a good way - because you are doing it for yourself, just as you would risk your life for your family.

No, I meant the 3 random passers-by who jumped into a river to save a child who had fallen in and the child’s mother who couldn’t swim but had jumped in after her child, for instance. But soldiers, too, yes, I meant a general thing we all, or many of us, have in us.

But yeah, I know, I know, they did it to feel fuzzy afterwards. They didn’t really though, I think, because they could only save one of the two. At least I didn’t feel fuzzy at all, even if happy about the one saved.

But I should work on not feeling compelled to reply when I get tagged or quoted and carry out my selfish plan to go to the gym now, I think you’ll agree with that? 😉 I’d ask how your training plans are evolving but i fear that’s really getting too OT now, see you in some other thread, Bhai. 🙂

[eoinfinnegan]

@miiila @writer99025
So if I am Chandler…

[newsmike]

@miiila @writer99025

So if I am Chandler…

@eoinfinnegan

Normally I would apologize for taking this thread even more OT, but I think that ship has sailed. I sort of find it funny that among all the sales pitches that Madison Avenue has, only one has become a virtue signaling “religion.” The “green or eco” pitch is actually amazing in that it allows someone in a Chevy volt (basically a golf cart) to look down their nose at someone in a BMW 7 series because they care more.

My neighbor has the Nissan version of the Volt and in huge letters across the side doors it says “Zero Emissions”. On several occasions when he has decided to tell me all about how environmentally friendly his car is (* see note) I have mischievously delighted in asking him “where the hell do you think the electricity to charge that thing comes from?” After the wheels spin in his head for a few seconds, I remind him that it comes from a coal fired power plant. Yes, your “zero emissions” 15 horsepower golf cart is fueled by COAL. Man you should see the wisps of smoke come out of his ears. Was just in the news that the Tesla batteries are so bad because of the mining they have to do to extract the various materials, plus the fact that they also run on electricity mostly generated from fossil fuels, are not as good for the environment as most think, or as their marketing claims.

I’m all for buying whatever you like, but I wish the “socialist marketing” as referenced above was at least honest. Instead of saying “Save the planet, or Fair Trade Coffee” it really should say, “Make sure everyone knows you care more than them.”

**Note. I mentioned that every time my neighbor decides to once again tell me how awesome he is because of his golf cart, you notice that he brings it up himself. That’s part of the virtue signaling I mentioned. It’s like if you buy a “Fair Trade” coffee st Starbucks, but no one is there to hear you order it, then whats’ the point? I have another friend who after many years as an omnivore has decided to become a vegetarian. Even so, one of his best jokes about the virtue signaling in that community goes as follows.

How can you tell someone’s a vegetarian?

Don’t worry they’ll FU**ING tell you!

[writer99025]

@eoinfinnegan

Normally I would apologize for taking this thread even more OT, but I think that ship has sailed. I sort of find it funny that among all the sales pitches that Madison Avenue has, only one has become a virtue signaling “religion.” The “green or eco” pitch is actually amazing in that it allows someone in a Chevy volt (basically a golf cart) to look down their nose at someone in a BMW 7 series because they care more.

My neighbor has the Nissan version of the Volt and in huge letters across the side doors it says “Zero Emissions”. On several occasions when he has decided to tell me all about how environmentally friendly his car is (* see note) I have mischievously delighted in asking him “where the hell do you think the electricity to charge that thing comes from?” After the wheels spin in his head for a few seconds, I remind him that it comes from a coal fired power plant. Yes, your “zero emissions” 15 horsepower golf cart is fueled by COAL. Man you should see the wisps of smoke come out of his ears. Was just in the news that the Tesla batteries are so bad because of the mining they have to do to extract the various materials, plus the fact that they also run on electricity mostly generated from fossil fuels, are not as good for the environment as most think, or as their marketing claims.

I’m all for buying whatever you like, but I wish the “socialist marketing” as referenced above was at least honest. Instead of saying “Save the planet, or Fair Trade Coffee” it really should say, “Make sure everyone knows you care more than them.”

**Note. I mentioned that every time my neighbor decides to once again tell me how awesome he is because of his golf cart, you notice that he brings it up himself. That’s part of the virtue signaling I mentioned. It’s like if you buy a “Fair Trade” coffee st Starbucks, but no one is there to hear you order it, then whats’ the point? I have another friend who after many years as an omnivore has decided to become a vegetarian. Even so, one of his best jokes about the virtue signaling in that community goes as follows.

How can you tell someone’s a vegetarian?

Don’t worry they’ll FU**ING tell you!

Well said brother, well said.

[newsmike]

Well said brother, well said.

Well said brother, well said.

I have to admit I knew you would like that one. Have you seen the meme about the millennial in a Che Guevara T-shirt, blogging about how capitalism sucks on their MacBook Pro from a Starbucks?

[writer99025]

https://www.amazon.com/Virtue-Selfishness-Ayn-Rand/dp/0451004876

Loved this book.

[newsmike]

https://www.amazon.com/Virtue-Selfishness-Ayn-Rand/dp/0451004876

Loved this book.

Loved this book.

A "What is your favorite book?’ thread would be interesting. What you say? Nudge nudge, wink wink.

[deeptijadli14]

Yeah , it’s a great idea. The idea for this group was to have a place for translators to share views. It will be great to have a group of writers…

[fitrigwrites4u]

lol, indeed…

Right on cue, I got a message saying my price is too much and telling me how much I should charge…

Literally one-tenth of what Mr. Blog Post would quote.

And yes, those Russian companies are fantastic to work with. Polite, friendly, easy to communicate with, no issues with price (now I see why) and no hassle afterwards.

Russian

no issues with price

OT.

Not replying to you specifically. I just have been wanting to say something about Russian buyers. Now it is the good chance for me to ´sneak in´. During my travels (when I travel) I have got many reports from business people who are in tourism industries. They told me that Russian are extravagant (they told me that of all extravagant peoples, Russians are the most extravagant people, or maybe generous is the better word), and of course I can imagine how happy them business people in the tourism industry who make businesses with them Russian. I hope this post is not offensive to anyone.

[deeptijadli14]

I do agree with you to a point and people are free to charge what they want. It just seems strange to me that you would take what the blog author wrote and share it in the manner of an endorsement while you disagree with my point but yet say noone is right or wrong and that I should be open to new ideas. Did you say that to the blogger?

It seems to me that he is the one who isn’t open to new ideas, new thinking, modern requirements but is stuck in the past with pricing that is more befitting those of ancient times where there was one person in a city who could translate to a certain language and could effectively charge what they liked.

Yeah, I do agree to the author’s points so shared it here. But, see I suggested you to be open to the author’s ideas, even though you are not on the same page, because of the simple fact that “the author” is not here.

He shared his views, whether right or wrong as per you, on his site. There will be no use berating his views here. As a fellow translator, we must show mutual respect for each other’s views.

So, I do respect your views too, only request is let’s show respect to the author too…At least he took an initiative to express himself…

And who knows, if applied properly, it might benefit us.

[eoinfinnegan]

Yeah, I do agree to the author’s points so shared it here. But, see I suggested you to be open to the author’s ideas, even though you are not on the same page, because of the simple fact that “the author” is not here.

He shared his views, whether right or wrong as per you, on his site. There will be no use berating his views here. As a fellow translator, we must show mutual respect for each other’s views.

So, I do respect your views too, only request is let’s show respect to the author too…At least he took an initiative to express himself…

And who knows, if applied properly, it might benefit us.

There will be no use berating his views here. As a fellow translator, we must show mutual respect for each other’s views.

So, I do respect your views too, only request is let’s show respect to the author too…At least he took an initiative to express himself…

And who knows, if applied properly, it might benefit us.

If there is no use berating his views then there is no use in sharing his views either? When someone posts an opinion of someone else that I disagree with, I can completely disagree with them while still being respectful of their right to an opinion. However, in this situation I believe that the blogger is wrong in what he says.

His article suggests that there are 3 options for translators:

1. Him and people like him ($100-180/1000 words)
2. Many translation agencies that emerge on the market have no idea about actual translation processes and apply methods that devalue a translator’s labor. They take an easy way out dumping the prices both for the clients to resist high competition between the agencies and for translators to increase marginal income.
3. There are many self-proclaimed translators who are ready to work for peanuts, but cannot offer anything but pitiful translations that often represent poorly edited machine translation.

He leaves no alternative for anything else and declares that basically people have to pay his kind of prices or be screwed with bad translations. I believe that to be wrong but I do respect his right to say it, I don’t have to accept it though and I will challenge this view each time I see it.

[deeptijadli14]

There will be no use berating his views here. As a fellow translator, we must show mutual respect for each other’s views.

So, I do respect your views too, only request is let’s show respect to the author too…At least he took an initiative to express himself…

And who knows, if applied properly, it might benefit us.

If there is no use berating his views then there is no use in sharing his views either? When someone posts an opinion of someone else that I disagree with, I can completely disagree with them while still being respectful of their right to an opinion. However, in this situation I believe that the blogger is wrong in what he says.

His article suggests that there are 3 options for translators:

1. Him and people like him ($100-180/1000 words)
2. Many translation agencies that emerge on the market have no idea about actual translation processes and apply methods that devalue a translator’s labor. They take an easy way out dumping the prices both for the clients to resist high competition between the agencies and for translators to increase marginal income.
3. There are many self-proclaimed translators who are ready to work for peanuts, but cannot offer anything but pitiful translations that often represent poorly edited machine translation.

He leaves no alternative for anything else and declares that basically people have to pay his kind of prices or be screwed with bad translations. I believe that to be wrong but I do respect his right to say it, I don’t have to accept it though and I will challenge this view each time I see it.

Let’s stop discussing the author now…And move on…😁

My opinion is, there will always be levels in society, and also in the world of translators…The one higher will work less, charge more…The one at lower level will work more, maybe charge less…both maybe winners…As you are 😁

[eoinfinnegan]

Let’s stop discussing the author now…And move on…😁

My opinion is, there will always be levels in society, and also in the world of translators…The one higher will work less, charge more…The one at lower level will work more, maybe charge less…both maybe winners…As you are 😁

Let’s stop discussing the author now

Isn’t the author’s piece the whole premise for this topic though?

The one higher will work less, charge more…The one at lower level will work more, maybe charge less

That isnt what the article says though, it declares that the ones who charge less deliver substandard quality.

If the only reason for a higher price is so someone can work less then surely that is not really justified. Of course there are different prices available for everything, different qualities of work etc but my point in the discussion is that the the author’s point (which you seem to be endorsing) he doesn’t allow for the possibility of there being sufficient quality available at a lower price. That’s all.

[deeptijadli14]

Let’s stop discussing the author now

Isn’t the author’s piece the whole premise for this topic though?

The one higher will work less, charge more…The one at lower level will work more, maybe charge less

That isnt what the article says though, it declares that the ones who charge less deliver substandard quality.

If the only reason for a higher price is so someone can work less then surely that is not really justified. Of course there are different prices available for everything, different qualities of work etc but my point in the discussion is that the the author’s point (which you seem to be endorsing) he doesn’t allow for the possibility of there being sufficient quality available at a lower price. That’s all.

Well yes, it was intended to kick-start a group for translators…We had the good fortune to hear you because of this group…

So, likewise, let’s try n take the positives, if any, out of this whole discussion…And move on…

[fastcopywriter]

A lot of people can do that, whether they do it well is a different story, but I’m not going to charge $50 for 1 headline unless I have a queue of 50. I’m gonna charge $5 for 5 and hopefully the buyer won’t demand revisions.

Brand names is even more complicated. On the 28th I made $128, the next two days I made $0 and $16. So I had to lower my prices dramatically, and today I made $56.

Incidentally, I proofread a couple of books the last 2 days and made over $200 for 7-10 hours of work. I love proofreading, I’m good at it, find it easy, and can make big money from it…but only get 3-4 proofreading orders for the whole month, maybe because of my nationality. Can’t think of any non-native proofreader who has done well on Fiverr. That’s okay, not complaining…but I find it surprising as I never had any trouble getting orders for my articles and blog posts.

$200 for 7-10 hours of work is not too bad. I have a proofreading gig as well, but I’m too lazy to proofread an entire book. I wouldn’t do it if you paid me $2,000.

[Guest jenihiggs]

I don’t want to know how the world would look if really everyone always acted selfish and didn’t think further. The world always needed and had people like that and it has them. People are perfectly fine with even risking their own lives for people they don’t even know, and some thoughts and things need time, a lot of time.

We have come a long way, and we have a long way to go.

But this is not the forum for writing and reading books instead of posts indeed 😉 so let’s agree to disagree and to be and think all different and all that is okay, and have a nice Sunday. ⛅ Everyone is different and we all have different levels of empathy. Plenty of people are concerned with the needs of other people. Human beings are all complex and different. It’s just not possible to paint everyone with a broad brush 🙂

[fitrigwrites4u]

I agree with you miila 🙂 Everyone is different and we all have different levels of empathy. Plenty of people are concerned with the needs of other people. Human beings are all complex and different. It’s just not possible to paint everyone with a broad brush 🙂

Human beings are all complex and different.

This is true. At the end of the day, we are just a bunch of species living our lives on this planet. I don´t think I posses a perfect phylosophy whatsoever in my head by all means (meh, nobody´s perfect anyway). What I think is right/good might be wrong/bad to other people, what I think is wrong/bad may be right/good to other people. At the end of the day, it could be, it doesn´t matter anyway. But of course, I always try to be a good human being as best as I possibly could despite all my flaws and try not to hate anyone for whoever/whatever they are (actually I do that for my own sake. I am not the I LOVE EVERYONE type of person, but hating always feels bad) even though there are times when I feel like punching someone in the face. 😇

[deeptijadli14]

The feature of showcasing a portfolio would be a great addition to the Fiverr site…any views?

[Guest offlinehelpers]

The feature of showcasing a portfolio would be a great addition to the Fiverr site…any views?

Portfolios are being re-introduced to certain categories for TRS sellers I believe.

[deeptijadli14]

Portfolios are being re-introduced to certain categories for TRS sellers I believe.

Okk, I am a newcomer on Fiverr, so didn’t know that it was there some time back.

[Guest offlinehelpers]

Okk, I am a newcomer on Fiverr, so didn’t know that it was there some time back.

It was all very confusing, and nobody really knew how it worked, so they got rid of it! 🙂

[deeptijadli14]

Ok…;(

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