Q. How much does it cost to translate a slogan?
A. Market rates do differ with this respect and they may be per hour or fixed, and can by no means established on a per-word basis because the task is complicated. Translation of a slogan, or its localization or even doing justice to the original, makes a language expert resort to his/her wide
knowledge in multiple areas of expertise, analyse the contents, try to compare it with already existing slogans having some similar wording and... invent something new!
A standardized price calculation method isn't helpful. Basically, a price of 100 euros per slogan is applied. In any way it is to be adjusted taking into account client's budget and slogan's intended use.
Important factors to be taken into account (not a limited listing):
- Target audience (customs and habits, marketing purpose)
- Application environment
- Text length limitations (if used in graphics for instance)
- Target language realities (translating the untranslatable)
- Stylistic requirements
Q. Wie sicher ist Vieraugenprinzip zur Qualitatssicherung? (How reliable can quality assurance be if the four-eye principle is applied?)
A. This question can be paraphrased: How to avoid errors appearing in connection with human factor. First, it depends on experience (number of years in translation business and competence as a proofreader/editor) of the persons doing such a work. Next it is vital to have sufficient time for QA. Rush jobs, or rather unexpected changes in working schedule, increase the risk of omissions or inaccuracies. And finally, multiple use of special tools allows to practically exclude errors. Among them are: the Word spellchecker feature (initial checking), integral means of verification in Computer-Aided Translation software (CATs) making a translator keep terminilogy consistent and maintain overall accuracy. Some other tools also allow to control numeric consistency (same numbers are preserved in the target language), text omissions and some other types of errors.
Inspite of all this, the translated text quality fully depends on the original text. Wiith "hidden" errors, when the original is a translation itself not done by a native speaker of the target language, quality assurance may reveal errors or may not. For example, if a proofreader suspects loan translation that particularly changes the meaning (eg. a misplaced substantive and adjective, like "control unit" vs. "unit control") the good practice should be to contact the client and discuss the issue before completing this procedure.
Q. What can you offer your established customers?
A. Regular customers sending jobs as the need arises can benefit from the following:
- Their materials are processed on a priority basis
- Lower translation rates and delay of payment (cumulation of smaller amounts to be paid later at once)
- Less expenses in case of additional text adjustments and reviews as the assigned translator is already in the know and can solve any problems promptly.
Frequently