French to English Translator Translation on Dec. 18

Communication with customer concerning French to English translation projects:

I have a French to English translation of 4,424 words which I need to have translated asap. Would you be able to take this on, by when and how much would your charge be?

The documents relate to a divorce & property settlement.

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Many thanks – and actually it’s still OK, it’s only 15.30 in Ireland

here is the last file. Sorry for the delay.

Many thanks for these files, I appreciate the prompt delivery!

sending in the two big files and the last little one should come in a few seconds. Will write you a note in a separate email. Please confirm receipt.

also, I noticed that sometimes the woman to be divorced is referred to as Miss, other times as Mrs. Not sure if this is correct, considering she is divorcing, but just thought I'd mention it.

Thanks for the update, much appreciated!

Well spotted -I will flag that discrepancy with this French to English client and let you know that they say.

found some good help, translation proceeding well and feeling very confident. Just wanted to point out that I stumbled across the following text
La moitié de la masse à partager soit : Deux cent trois mille trois cent quatre-vingt dix sept euros et dix huit cents, ci 205.147,18 € Mademoiselle Linda WALSH a droit : La moitié de la masse à partager soit : Deux cent trois mille trois cent quatre-vingt dix sept euros et dix huit cents, ci
on page 4/9 of the first document PARTAGEDINEENWALSH12160701.doc. The numbers don't match at all it seems. Perhaps point this out to your client and let me know what to do?

The order number is O-074.

Hello Nana, can you tell me the order number for this French to English translation?

Thank you for getting back to me on this. Please find the documents attached. They are from FR to EN. Ideally, I would like to return them by tomorrow evening, but Monday afternoon would also be OK. Looking forward to hearing from you and all the best,

I am running some errands now but will take a look at your document in about two hours and will let you know asap. To French I usually charge from 0.08 Euro/w.

Communication with translators concerning French to English translation projects:

Thank you for expressing your interest in helping me with this French to English translation project.

In case you have no experience with the Transit translation memory tool you will find detailed instructions on these Transit Termstar Star Instructions page, where you will also find a link from where to download the free freelance version.

Once you have installed it on your computer you can download the file I am working on from here (just to look at, for the moment, and not to start).

It is due Monday afternoon and I would like it all completed by Sunday evening so that I can spend Monday proofreading and finalizing it.

Segments/sentences that I did not feel confident enough translating I've left Untranslated, which you can quickly access by pressing the ALT INS keyboard combination.

Otherwise, if I did mark a segment as Translated, I may have marked some words with a + character, which you can find through the usual ctrl f approach. Whether I marked a segment as Translated or Untranslated, I'd still like you to go through everything to make sure everything looks good. Like I wrote in my first approach letter to you, I do not need to make any money on this French to English translation but want to satisfy the customer while exercising my French skills. If you have any tips for me to help me develop my French skills, you may write them in a separate Word file and charge me per hour for that work separately. Perhaps you will find this work easier than a regular translation, in which case we can talk about a possible discount from your regular translation rate later.

There should be 4,400 words in total and I am prepared to divide this among several French to English translators, if necessary.

I have started this morning and the Transit file you can download above has only been "translated" by me up to segment 187 of the first file.

I would like to try and "complete" this file by this evening, after which you could start on it tomorrow Friday (I would send you a new file for that).

Looking forward to any input you might have, as I too have never worked in this manner. I expect to operate like this for future French to English translation projects as well, although I expect the quality I would deliver to you would improve over time.

I would like your help with some French to English translations. For a quick background, you applied to my translation agency 001yourtranslationservice.com, for which reason I have your details in my database. Sometimes I also translate myself and now I am making an attempt at translating from French to English, after translating from Czech to English for more than 15 years. I studied French in Canada for 12 years, including 1 year in university, but I haven't used the language in several decades, for which reason I am quite rusty. In any case I have managed to find some translation work and propose help in the following manner: - I use Transit Termstar as a translation memory tool, and for you to work with me you'd need to install the freely downloadable software found through Star Transit Termstar Help. That page also has abbreviated instructions how to use the software - into this software I imported google's translation, to help me, but I'm skipping a lot of sentences - by pressing ALT INS it will immediately take you to those sentences I skipped. You will be able to see the original and google's translation at the same time I do not need to make money on this translation but want the opportunity to exercise my French skills. Over time I assume I will require less help, but since this is my first French to English translation, I will need more help, and want to make sure I satisfy the customer. I feel the original is fairly easy – at least easy enough for me to start with. It is a divorce contract. I assume that any projects I take on in the future and ask your help with will be on the easier end and within my capabilities. If you would be interested in helping me with this and future projects (I hope to get a lot of work) please answer the following questions: - your regular charge for translation in Euro per source word: - your price per hour for this type of work: - your native language and how well you rate your English (it does not need to be native as I will be proofreading it all): I can send you the Transit file to look at if you like.

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The project is in its proofreading stage. Your response is rather slow and I cannot manage projects like this. Perhaps you could help out during the proofreading stage.

I thought after writing to accept anything they are paying you.(or a percentage) Please let me know if you still want me to do the work. It will be good experience too.

I'm getting 8 Euro cents per word so I'm afraid this would not work, but occasionally I get work from direct customers (this is for an agency), so hopefully I'll have a higher budget for you some time in the future.

Thank you, yes. I would like to see the transit file.

I am more familiar with Canadian dollars but a basic rate in Euros per word (estimating about 100 words an hour) could be .10 euros or hourly at 10euros (about 15$). Please let me know if that is much higher than the common rate. English is my native language and French was a second language used to study at University in Quebec so I have no problem working in either. I am very interested in working with you

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Yes, in principle I am interested and that could lead to a more extensive cooperation in the future. I am a Hungarian native but studied to be a teacher of English and French and I assume my level of English is fairly good, at least it was good enough to teach English Lit. at the University of Miskolc for 10 years. Also, I have a Cambridge Certificate of Proficiency in English and I quite regularly translate into English. Otherwise, I have just bought the new Transit NXT software so this would also give me a chance to familiarize myself with that. Unfortunately, I am rather busy this week and next but will try to find some time to help you out. French to English translation is rather unfrequent in my practice but I would say the rate would be around 0.07 EUR per source word. On an hourly basis I would charge what I usually do between 20 and 25 EUR per hour. Have a nice week-end and looking forward to hearing from you,

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Just put me in your shortlist.

okay, I will log your details, but I do not have a system set up to manage well these isolated cases. I will try to log it in my brain, but would ask you to make the following decision. If you would like me to shortlist you as part of my French to English consultant team, it may happen that I send you some offers that do not fit your area of expertise. In this case you can simply ignore my emails. Otherwise, if you do not want to receive such emails at all (some of which may fit your area of translation), it would probably be better that I simply remove you from this shortlist. But this will not affect other job offers I may approach you with.

For English to French or French to English, I do general translations, travel, tourism, some technical, user manuals, letters. For English or French to Romanian, I do all the above plus technical -heating and cooling, psychology, history, contracts, sociology, transportation, etc. My rate is 0.05Euro per source word for non-urgent projects, my native language is Romanian and I rate my English as very good.

unfortunately, besides the medical, the rest are my areas of expertise, but occasionally I get easier stuff as well. What areas do you cover?

Whenever you will have a project, you send it to me and I will tell you if I can do it or not. I don't make translations in medical, IT, finance, banking, etc, areas. Looking forward to hearing from you again. All the best and good lock with your new project.

thank you for your solid answer and hope I can find you some work in the future. Can you handle other subjects from French into English? I imagine I will be receiving a broad range of subjects.

I saw the files but it's a little bit beyond my expertise for this language combination so I cannot guaranty a 100% accuracy and I only take projects I am sure I can do the best translation. Therefor, I cannot accept to work on this project even if I am very sorry I cannot help you. If you will ever need to translate English or French to Romanian, I would be very happy to work with you.

you can view full details of the project here: http://001yourtranslationservice.com/translations/projects/2009/12.11_French-to-English_consultation..html < When downloading the Transit file you may have to right click on the link and select "Save Target As" (don't left click on the link). Looking forward to hearing from you,

Thank you for getting in touch with me. Lately, I only translate from and into my mother tongue, that means English and French to Romanian. But please send me the file and I will tell you if I can help you or not and the other information you need because I don't want to entangle you.

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You welcome. Below are my answers to your questions. However, I'd like to bring to your kind notice that as far as French-English combination is concerned, I only translate technical materials (Please see table of sample projects in the attached recent resume for an idea of the fields I translate in). Also to be noted is that I prefer not to use TM tools, I simply don't like automation in translation; I take pleasure doing the job myself leaving just the count of words and storage of dictionaries / glossaries to the computer! Besides, I don't like to be paid on a fuzzy match basis (I tried Trados and Transit once but it was not so pleasant an experience!) - regular charge for translation in Euro per source word (in this combination): 0.06 - price per hour for this type of work: 20 - native language and how well you rate your English (it does not need to be native as I will be proofreading it all): Arabic: native, English: fluent, to be precise: quasi-fluent.

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unfortunately for me I have just been diagnosed Left Ventricle Hypertrophy which requires angioplasty. To make things worse on that same day I caught Klepseilla Pneumoniae. This is relative rare nowadays particularly for healthy people and healthy living. I was hospitalized for a week, my poor digestive system was crammed with antibiotics which were no good, so finally I insisted on analysis and antibiogram. I am now eginning to recover but taken all in all I would be no good to you till after end of January.

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I've spent some of the afternoon looking over the documents and familiarising myself with the programme. I regret, however, that the French seems to be somewhat beyond my reach. I am very sorry, but I'm afraid I must withdraw. I note that some of the written numbers ("deux cents trois mille..." vs. "205,000") do not seem to be consistent. I am unsure as to why this would be.

0.08 is what I am getting for this project, but like I said, I'd rather make no money but provide good work, improve my French skills and keep this customer. But perhaps after I complete my first draft it will go easier for you and you might reduce your rate a bit.

Thank you for your e-mail of even date. I should be delighted to help you with your French document if I can do. Be warned, however, that I am rather more confident with my German than with my French. For this reason, I prefer to translate shorter, simpler documents from the French. For this reason, too, I should think, I do not get much French work. (Same goes for Latin, too.) Of course, I did some French at University (two or three years), and the Parisians tell me that my French is good. I'm sure, though, that they are just being kind. "Comme une vache espagnol" is how I'd put it! That said, though, I am happy to give it a go. I do have problems with mechanical translations (Google, various Trados-type programmes), since they tend not to be accurate, and the translations are often quite strange. I will, however, look at the site and the results and so on. To answer your questions: I generally charge between €0.08 and €0.10 per word in the original document, depending on the complexity of the document and the format. The hourly charge is hideously expensive: £35.00 per hour, so I generally prefer to charge by the word - easier for me and less expensive for the Client! Apart from which, I rather think that a translation takes just as much time as it takes. My native language is English and my English is superb, lyrical and literary. I must confess, though, that I'm not very good in the advertising register. I'm too boring, possibly. In any case, I always recommend proofreading any translation by any translator, as every human being makes mistakes from time to time. My proofreading is particularly good, and it's only half the cost of my translating. Please feel free to send the Transit file. In the mean time, I shall have a look at the site.

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How will I get paid? Have you accepted my rates? I'd like a contract please. I don't do anything without an agreement. Aimee

Its due Monday afternoon and I'd like it completed by you by Sunday evening. In this case it has to be through this software. It is a world-wide reputable company, like Trados.

You need 4400 words translated by tomorrow? I am not comfortable in downloading any software to my hard drive. I'd like to use my software. I do legal French translations, and it works just fine. Aimee

I use my own software my native language is French I am perfectly trilingual (spanish/english) I charge $0.05 /word

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project is successfully completed but I would like to ask if you would be interested in helping on the future projects. Yes, I can furnish you with a contract beforehand, yes, the use of other software is possible, but will probably decrease the chances I assign you something because I need to centralise operations around a single system. If you insist on your own software, perhaps I could ask for your consultation help only, near the end of a project. I can be flexible but I also need to set up an efficient system which works, for when several people work on the same project. Once you get used to the software you'll find its easy to use and pleasant enough.

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Here are the conditions according to which I can work with you:

1. French is my mother language (I am Belgian).

2. Knowledge of English: 95%. More than 20 years translation work for US corporations. 3. Fee: 0.12 Eur per source word. 4. Payment: 1st project : total estimated fee paid up front before starting by electronic wire. (NO Checks ). 5. Any possible overpayments due to clerical errors in relation to such projects will only be refunded after our bank certifies original wire is good.

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Bonjour!

Thank your for your e-mail and your interest in my work. I am currently here in the Philippines working as a call center trainer and as a part time writer and translator. My native language is Filipino but I have an excellent command of English and French. I got an over all band score of 8 for my IELTS. And I used to lived in France for more than five years where I honed my French. I studied management, nursing and philosophy in the university. The rate I could give you would be in dollars. I can work for about $10 an hour. Or I could do also a per page basis at $5 per page. And yes feel free to send me the transit file. I shall be looking forward of hearing from you again.

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Thanks for the inquiry. The opportunity sounds quite interesting, and I would be happy to help. Please send me the Transit file for review. I generally do translations on an ad-hoc basis, so I do not have a "standard" translation rate per se. Normally, I charge the following: Regular charge for translation in Euro/source word - 12 cents/word Price for hour: 25 Euro. Since I immigrated to Canada at the age of 4, I consider English my native language, with French and Polish a close second. I am currently based in England. If you need any additional information, please do not hesitate to ask.

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I do not plan on receiving any payment for this; I just wanted to know if I did it properly. Can you tell me that please? Law is not my strong point. I am an Organic chemist, a scientist, as you know. I prefer not to translate legal documents, especially in French. German would be far preferable.

how much work did you do? I hope not much because I did not officially assign you anything and have already farmed out the files to two French to English translators. I sent you the last file because you said you were having problems with the other one, although several translators already opened it, and you opened the sample file. But I'm glad you got it working and hope we can work together on future projects. My plan is to get a constant stream of work flowing and a good team running. How familiar are you with this subject? I am still looking for a consultant or possible proofreader for this project.

I have done some work on your project, but did not complete it since I have no purchase order. Is the attached document in proper shape for you to receive and process?

did you let the software install in its own directory without changing anything? That is often a problem. Attaching what should be the latest file. See if that opens for you.

I think I am ready to work on the file that is due Sunday. I have managed to open the sample file and play with it a little.

probably because you don't bother to read instructions. Already one person opened the file fine.

OK, I changed the zip to pxf and got it into the Transit Projects folder. I opened it, but nothing showed up on the Transit screen. Word2007 also could not open it. I have spent enough time on this foolishness.

you should read the Transit instructions I sent you, as there it explains that sometimes Windows changes the file extension from .pxf to .zip. You need to change it back manually. Just another goofy Windows glitch.

I have installed Transit, and downloaded your zip file. However, there is no pxf file in your zip file, and therefore I cannot load anything into Transit. What is wrong?

all sounds good. Do you have experience with legal text? My native language IS English - I just need help understanding the French, until I polish up my understanding in it.

Thank you for your offer.

I have Wordfast and Across as CAT tools. I hesitate to add another one until I am certain I will be using it. Please visit mysite.verizon.net/cclaff to view my qualifications. My rate for French to English is US $0.06 per ENGLISH word, or approximately US $0.05 per FRENCH word. My native language is English - you are completely wrong to try to translate into any language other than your native language. That never works! Preferred payment is via PayPal. I will add 4% to my invoice to pay for their currency conversion surcharge. You can calculate my rates in euros by the current conversion rate at the time you receive the translation from me. It varies from day to day, but is roughly 0.66 euro per US dollar. If you would kindly send me the Transit file you mentioned, I would be pleased to review it.

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Here are the file. Please, let me know what you think of them.

Very well. I'll take care of this tonight and let you know if I feel comfortable enough with this sort of material.

I am attaching the sample French to English translations I was talking about. Not sure how long it will take me before I can translate myself, but I assume I'll need your help for quite a while. Do you think you could handle translating the attached? I translated some of it myself, other parts I used Google's machine translation. They are samples for two different agencies interested in cooperating with me and I can pay you for it. I will proofread it after you and if they like it we will have to figure out some system of cooperation, perhaps by mobile, so I know immediately if you are available for a project. During such projects I can improve my French, otherwise I just get too lazy when I read French newspapers for free. At least this way I'll make a little bit of money. And in the future, even if I will be able to translate myself, once we are practiced I can take on more work than I can handle and proofread your work.

okay, managed to get it converted. Thank you,

Okay, I'll put it into the accounting. Can you send me a .doc file? Or maybe rtf? Google cannot seem to convert your file. Do you not have Word? It seems absolutely essential for translations. The last file you sent me was full of question marks and the formatting thrown all over. I couldn't even use it.

Here you go. I think a 20 euro charge for all my work so far would be appropriate. Would you agree?

Nearly there. a few more minutes

Hi Andrey, how is it looking? Job due now and I'm sending in the other files. Thank you for your help.

Got it. I'll take care of it straight away.

I forgot one small file. Can you translate the attached right away? It is about a paragraph.

I forgot one small file. It's only about a paragraph. I asked one translator to take it but if she does not respond will you be available over the next couple of hours to take it?

That's very nice of you Andrey, but I still think you should get paid for your time. I can add it to the accounting and pay in a lumpsum once the amount gets higher. I hope to turn this into a steady stream of work. Thank you,

There was quite a bit of confusion and in the end I ended up not doing very much, so lets put this one down to experience and I'll charge you the next time.

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and the second one.

I made the changes where I could, but I left all the + signs in place, so that you can easily retrace them. If I didn't make any changes to a word or phrase before the + sign, it means that I agree with the wording.

Here is the first one.

Yes Andrey, but just work on those sentences or words where you find the + character. The rest should be okay. But you can always quickly scan those areas if you find something odd or out of order.

Alright. I got it. I'll take a close look at the files. As far as I can tell, they are both fully translated and I just need to proof them That will take me about 2-3 hours. Does that work for you, if I send you them both back with my corrections and comments by 13:00 CET?

okay, sending you the latest files. Please make changes to the Word file since someone else is working on the files at the same time. You can use the Transit file to quickly see the original. Just focus on those parts where you find (ctrl f) the + character. The rest is already proofread and should be okay. How long do you think this will take you? Note there are two files in the Transit file. Thank you,

Let me see, if I understand correctly what you need from me. 1. Proofread the "Procuration" file inside the 9048_F2E_2_Andrey.proof.PXF. - I'll be done with that in a couple of hours. 2. Send you whatever I have done with the "PARTAGE" file inside the 9048_F2E.PXF - coming up within the next 60 minutes (I need to get to my work computer) 3. Not do anything else until I get your go ahead - waiting for your mail

a quick note for once you start working on the files: I forgot to mention but I mark areas I am not sure about with the + character. Please leave them in the document but just concentrate more on those areas. If the + is after a word it refers to that word, otherwise if it is after a comma or period it means the entire phrase or sentence preceding it should be looked at more carefully. Words marked in red are in the dictionary I created from my research on the internet, but is not necessarily correct (my best guess). You should be able to see my dictionary terms in a separate window while you are proofreading and the cursor is in the segment with the red marked word. Once you are done I have the first but larger file I could also send you. I am working on it now.

actually, I have one French to English translator in India so he would be able to start before we wake up. I'd like to try him out with the second file. Hopefully he will be done before you wake up. Send me an email once you're up so don't start until I give you my goahead.

okay, the other French to English translator only did the first file, although I accidentally sent her both, so I will need you to look at the second file, which I am attaching. And she did not do many changes to the file, so I will need to see what you have done to the first file. I may still need you to complete it. Not sure if I am overly happy with her terminological choices or work.

since I took a nap earlier I'll probably be up for a while. Can you send me what you have done so that I can use it? Thank

My mistake so you should definitely get paid for your work. Now I will import the work from the other translator and see what she did. I think she actually did both files. How much time did you spend?

OK. Let's recap. I've got PARTAGEDINEENWALSH12160701 inside of the Transit project. (which is why I got confused when you sent me the DOC with the same name) If you don't need it anymore, let's ignore my progress with it. I can waive it. Please, send me the file that you actually need and I'll handle the 950 words till tomorrow.

Darn it, I think I screwed up and assigned you the same file as I did to someone else. What is your progress? Will you be available tomorrow to do the second file? It is only about 950 words.

Just to confirm - am I still handling the file after the +++, or should I do the whole thing?

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Alright. I only have the Satellite PE version of Transit, so I hope it supports all the functionality that I need. So far I've worked with Transit a couple of times (maybe 4 or 5 to be precise) and nearly every time it turned out to be a deadline disaster, because the program slows me down so much, hence at the moment it is my least favourite CAT. Lets see if that opinion changes after working with you on this. As for the payment, I'll just time myself carefully and charge you at 20€ an hour. Hopefully, I can get a lot done in an hour. In any case I'll get back to you after completing one hour of work (hopefully today, but if not, then tomorrow morning) and we can decide if this is working out for both of us.

this is what I've accomplished so far. Please read the instructions below for this and all future projects of this type. I've just started on the second file, and the person to whom I assigned the first half of the first file has not responded yet. Perhaps you could start after the second +++. Looking forward to your feedback.

Sure. It would be great if this works out as a steady stream. Let me take a look at what you have done so far. I can't promise that I'll do much today, but at least I'll get an idea. As for the rates for regular translation at the moment I'm charging €0,05 per word.