October 2005

“Your service was very professional. If I have any further translation projects, I will certainly give you a call. Thank you.”

Terry McQuarrie, Ph.D.
Executive Vice President
Glasforms, Inc.

By Sandra Bologna

Theoretically you could ask an agency for their translation rate in any given language and easily come up with the cost to translate your material. All you would need to do is multiply the word count with the standard rate. In our case, our standard rate for each language neatly fits into one of three categories. Under this theory, you wouldn’t have to send any documents for the agency to evaluate and subject matter and format would be irrelevant.

The reality is that not all translation rates will follow that straightforward 1:1 ratio. You will usually find that translation agencies will ask for the document prior to setting a rate. This is a good practice for various reasons. Not only do they need to know the subject of the documents, to determine how technical it is, but they also need to know what format the files are in and how complex the document is with respect to layout.

However, there are other situations where our rate is modified, for example, to meet our client’s budget. Here are a couple of case studies to illustrate these special situations:

Case Study: Client #1

We have an existing client who had a project that involved translating about 20,000 words from English into Latvian, Estonian, Lithuanian and Greek. After giving the client our rates for these languages, they asked if we could do the project for approximately 10% less than that quoted as they had a strict budget. After budgeting on our end, we reduced our rate 8% to meet the client’s needs.

Case Study: Client #2

We received a request from a new client who came to us with a project to complete that had already begun with another agency several months earlier. They had a related translation of a 20,000 word online study that needed translation very quickly – within one week. The client’s budget could not exceed an amount that was far below our cost for the entire project. The client asked if we could provide them with our 10% discount (for projects over 10,000 words) since that would put the total cost without GST just below their budget. With the combination of reducing our rate and using a translation memory tool, we were able to meet our client’s budget.

Although we can’t always reduce our rates given that our rate is related to the nature of the document, the turnaround time, and the layout, we do try to meet the requirements we’re given without sacrificing quality.

By Felicia Bratu

I used to think that the Portuguese language was spoken only in Portugal (European Portuguese) and Brazil (Latin American Portuguese) until somebody inquired about an African Portuguese translation. At first I was confused, until I remembered what I learned in elementary school: Portugal was one of the largest colonial and commercial empires – and the longest-lived. It started at the beginning of the fifteenth century, when Bartolomeu Dias discovered the Cape of Good Hope, opening a new route to India. Ten years after him, Vasco da Gama completed the first all-water trade route between Europe and India. And in the same century, another Portuguese explorer was the first European to set foot on Brazilian coasts.
As a result, the Portuguese language was spread around the world and is now the official language of several countries and is widely spoken as a second language in many others.
There are about 200 million Portuguese native speakers around the World. Here is a breakdown of the countries in which it is spoken and the population of Portuguese-speaking people:

- Portugal – 10,463,170 (source: 2005 www.world-gazetteer.com)

- Brazil – 181,823,645 (source: 2005 www.world-gazetteer.com)

- Angola – 57,600 - Portuguese is the official language (source: 1993 www.ethnologue.org)

- Cape Verde – 14,817 - Portuguese is the official language (source: 2004 www.ethnologue.org)

- East Timor – Tetum and Portuguese are the official languages

- Guinea Bissau – Portuguese is the official language

- Macao Special Administrative Region of China - Chinese and Portuguese are spoken

- Mozambique – around 30,000 people - Portuguese is the official language

- São Tomé and Príncipe

- Portuguese India – Goa, Daman and Diu, Dadra and Nagar Haveli - use of Portuguese in those territories is declining because it is not official or taught at school

Do you have feedback or comments about our site? wintranslation.com is interested in hearing from you. Click here.

About wintranslation.com: We are a technical translation bureau based in Canada. Some of our services include:

• Canadian English to French translation
• Chinese translation
• Arabic translation