Value for money or the same begets the same Thread poster: Alan Wang
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Alan Wang 
China
Local time: 07:54
English to Chinese
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I realized that compensation is a hot topic, but when we touch on the subject of outsourcers reluctant to pay a higher or decent fee for services, we may be missing out something too. For, they do seem to have a principle called Value for Money. In fact this is implied in what WE ALL DO except perhaps the most extravagant cases. You can’t really blame people who applies a principle to their work, can you?
To some people, this principle requires the demonstration of
“value ... See more I realized that compensation is a hot topic, but when we touch on the subject of outsourcers reluctant to pay a higher or decent fee for services, we may be missing out something too. For, they do seem to have a principle called Value for Money. In fact this is implied in what WE ALL DO except perhaps the most extravagant cases. You can’t really blame people who applies a principle to their work, can you?
To some people, this principle requires the demonstration of
“value for money in terms of effectiveness, efficiency and economy. This does not always mean using the cheapest goods and services, but it does mean we all need to make informed choices. In the case of significant expenditure (for example when organising a large workshop, hiring a consultant or booking international travel), we need to be able to show that such choices have been based on several quotes (typically three quotes).”
(The above is taken from an assignment. Actually I was doing the proofreading, and found “organising a large workshop,” was translated as 租赁一家大型工厂。Also, “value for money” was translated as 货币价值。)
With that said, as translators or service providers, are we really clear about what we ought or should do with respect to this principle? Perhaps, in our case, there is a little twist to the principle and it becomes Money for Value or the same begets the same (if I understand this saying correctly). This is meant to argue that we will be looking at the rate of the payment to decide (perhaps subconsciously or without your admitting it) how much time we will spend on a project or how energetically we will be working on it, all with the contingent consequences.
I am certainly not an expert on this, but I’d like to hear opinions. Also I know people like to moralize on a subject like this, and I am prepared to be elucidated. By moralizers I mean those who hold that once you take a job, then you should or must do your utmost for it irrespective of how unpalatable the rate is. Between a lower rate job and a higher rate job, you give the same unit time for both, there should be No Difference.
Which argument is against the fundamental principle of nature? The No Difference argument or the same begets the same argument?
[Edited at 2014-11-03 05:59 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | Loise
France
Local time: 01:54
French to Chinese
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| 若是 Money for value, 如何？ | Nov 3, 2014 |
根据公平往来的原则，我认为，provider提供的货物和服务的价值及质量，应该与client所愿意付出的价格成正比——Providers deserve to have money for the value they provide.
[Edited at 2014-11-03 05:35 GMT]
| | | | lbone
China
Local time: 07:54
Member (2006)
English to Chinese
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我觉得这里有一个诚信问题，照理卖服务时你是在展现你有什么能力，能做出什么样的东西来。这样的卖法，按一般人的理解，如果你没有区分描述不同类型不同层级的服务，那你卖出来的就应该是大致单一级别的东西。
如果你当初描述时就明说我按不同价格给不同东西，你要便宜货，我可以给你成本低的便宜货，你出价高，我给你成本做工扎实的高档货，那你真这样做当然毫无问题。这时你应该说清楚哪种价格对应哪种服务，如果别人了解时你出示了A级样品，谈好价格交货时你却交了C级货，那就是欺诈了。
如果你事先出示了C级样品，对方也接受了，当然没有问题。
| | | | Phil Hand
China
Local time: 07:54
Chinese to English
| 不是应不应该的问题，是能不能的问题 | Nov 3, 2014 |
要是有能力在半价的作业上投入一半的时间和一半的精力，我肯定会这样做。可惜，我发现自己没有变速器，基本上只有一个挡位。
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Alan Wang
China
Local time: 07:54
English to Chinese
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TOPIC STARTER
Phil Hand wrote:
要是有能力在半价的作业上投入一半的时间和一半的精力，我肯定会这样做。可惜，我发现自己没有变速器，基本上只有一个挡位。
你这个回答太妙了。
| | | | Jinhang Wang
China
Local time: 07:54
English to Chinese
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| 审校者对待这样的译者的态度 | Nov 3, 2014 |
Alan Wang wrote:
(The above is taken from an assignment. Actually I was doing the proofreading, and found “organising a large workshop,” was translated as 租赁一家大型工厂。Also, “value for money” was translated as 货币价值。)
老实说，要是我碰到这样的译文，我肯定会给翻译公司如实反映，并建议他们辞掉这样的译者，因为他们缺乏基本的语言能力，完全不能胜任翻译工作，而且往往给校对带来很大的麻烦。
[Edited at 2014-11-03 15:45 GMT]
| | | | Jinhang Wang
China
Local time: 07:54
English to Chinese
+ ...
我相信，“租赁一家大型工厂”这样的事情在现实中是极少发生的。“租赁一大块工地”没问题。
[Edited at 2014-11-03 11:34 GMT]
| | | | Jinhang Wang
China
Local time: 07:54
English to Chinese
+ ...
从原则上说，只要你接下一个翻译稿件，不管价格如何，只要是你愿意接受的，就有义务保证质量。
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Simin Tan
Local time: 07:54
Chinese to English
| All else being the same... | Nov 3, 2014 |
Of course the right thing to do is to apply the full force of your professionalism to every job one accepts, regardless of rate.
Except, of course, when market/outsourcer rates are so horribly depressed that a translator has to, say, accept 10 jobs in a week instead of 5 for sheer practical purposes when there are only so many hours in a day and week.
As someone who does a fair bit of editing/clean-up (not machine output!): I personally reckon that if more of us don't... See more Of course the right thing to do is to apply the full force of your professionalism to every job one accepts, regardless of rate.
Except, of course, when market/outsourcer rates are so horribly depressed that a translator has to, say, accept 10 jobs in a week instead of 5 for sheer practical purposes when there are only so many hours in a day and week.
As someone who does a fair bit of editing/clean-up (not machine output!): I personally reckon that if more of us don't have to struggle so much to achieve a comfortable wage the quality of output would be significantly higher across the board.
(Which brings me, of course, to the related topic of how much outsourcers are willing to pay, and how much freelance translators are price-takers in this market. I received a rather presumptuous message via this site from an outsourcer who brashly declared that "we know the market rates, so if you can't meet our offer defer (sic) from contacting us". I added that outsourcer to my block list. But I know there would be someone, or someones, who would have caved in to that sort of unproductive cycle anyway.)
[Edited at 2014-11-03 13:18 GMT] ▲ Collapse
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