In the first two instalments of this 3 part series, I discussed why translators needn’t fear losing their jobs or downgrading their skills by adopting CAT Technology. In the third and final blog, I discuss another common fear.
Fear #3 I will be exploited by agencies if I use CAT
There is a perception among some translators that adopting a CAT tool will render them wage slaves to the translation agency, their per word rates slashed, forced to work for free.
It’s true that agencies that use a CAT tool often pay according to the percentage of phrases which are new, updates of existing translations (so-called “fuzzy matches”) or exact matches of previous translations. So if your usual rate is 5 cents per word, you might be paid say 5 cents per new word, 3 cents per fuzzy match, and 1.5 cents per exact match.
I can understand why people might find this dubious and wonder, “Hang on, why do you want to pay me only 60% of my usual rate for those sentences, and even LESS for those ones?!” But once you get used to working with CAT and the way it analyses the number of words in a document, you will realise that it’s actually a pretty fair deal.
If you or another translator has already translated one of the sentences in the document and it can be easily retrieved from the memory, it’s known as an exact match and the rate will accordingly be pretty low. For example, a document title, such as:
XYZ Software User Guide
The electronic package you receive will contain that phrase and it will be automatically populated on your screen, so all you need to do is check that it’s OK in this context and click OK. If it’s not right then of course you need to make a change, but that is fairly rare. Either way, it takes a lot less time than translating a sentence from scratch. It hardly seems fair that you would be paid your full rate to translate something that’s already done for you.
Likewise, if the sentence is a fuzzy match, you may only have to make a couple of tweaks to update the previous translation to match the new source text. For example, changing the main verb from opening to saving:
- Opening a File
- Saving a File
In such cases you can replicate the surrounding words, structure and style, making it much easier that starting from scratch. You’ll probably spend about two thirds of the time you’d spend on a new translation, and the rate is reflective of this.
In contrast, all the “new” phrases and sentences will show up completely blank and you will be left to your own devices to translate them. You are therefore paid your full rate as these are all new translations that require you to work harder.
After following this system for a while, I am pretty sure you will find that the pay structure is not exploitative but rather reflective of the amount of time, skill and effort required for each individual sentence.
There are other benefits too
While the string of statistics may be baffling at first, once you get used to it you will find it a handy way to get an overview of the project content.
For example, if you can see that 70% is new, 20% is fuzzy and 10% is an exact match, you’ll be able to estimate the time it will take you based on these stats – and it should take you around 85% of the time it would take for an all new project. This information helps you schedule your project and manage other offers that come in once you’ve started.
Then again, if 70% is fuzzy and 30% is new, you may come to the conclusion that the job is more hassle than it’s worth. That’s because in some cases, reworking existing translations is actually harder than creating your own – especially if you are asked to adhere to strict style guidelines, or conform to previous translations that vary greatly from your own style.
But if you see that 40% of the project is made up of exact matches, you may do a fist punch as you realise that this job is going to be largely review and will take around half the time of an all new translation job.
As you can see, CAT tool-based payment structures are not inherently bad, and they can even help you manage your workload. Problems only arise when you don’t understand the system.
The more you understand the analysis statistics and pay structures associated with CAT, the better a bargaining position you’ll be in when the next job offer arrives in your inbox. You’ll also gain an insight into your translation speed and the kind of sentences you enjoy or dislike translating.
The Kanji Code 