RE: Personal Power Phrase

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That looks great!

!PIMP



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(Edited)

Thanks. I’m happy with how it came out.

Btw, you do translation work, don’t you? Do you have a process for giving an estimate? I was asked to translate a marketing phrase for a design firm in the city I live in and had no idea how to charge for it.

I’ve read a few articles about the process, but they all became unclear when it came to marketing translation because of the need to know your audience, create translations that are culturally appropriate (rather than being true to the original language), and work with specific lengths or available spaces.

I’d like to do more work like this in the future so I’d like to have a system that is easy to understand for future clients.

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Hmm.... that's a tough question. I have no experience doing marketing translations. A marketing phrase is just a few words, right? That'd be outside what I've done before.

My system is just two prices. In general I was always told 20 yen per character is the standard. That might be high these days, I don't know. Or maybe low with the inflation of the past year. I think some really good translators charge up to 30, but I just stick with 20 since we are competing with Google Translate which is free. Then if I also have to localize the text, I charge 30% more. Localization can be very time consuming.

A marketing phrase would probably fall under localization, so I'd charge more. But that still might not be a lot by my system. Some people I know work out an hourly rate for larger jobs so that could work for you. I'll ask some of my friends and see if I can't find a better answer for you.

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Yeah, marketing phrases and content specific headlines, sub-titles, etc. tend to be very short and sometimes loaded with meaning. I find with longer translations, if there are areas that are difficult to translate line by line, you can generally use the context to help you cover those patches and present the reader with a text that is authentic in the sense that it will be culturally appropriate and easy to understand for the reader.

Sometimes, though, with marketing, there is no context other than the goals of the company or the articles hidden in the magazine that you may or may not have access to; so it’s tricky.

I was recently asked to translate this so that the English text could be attached to a logo.

Cheesecake meets 4 seasons.
その移ろいを織り込んで生まれる
心も色づく濃厚なグラデーション。

Having the English included in the first line, I found, was a bit of a curveball.

Since I wanted to present the design firm with options, I made a number of possible translations, then weeded them down to my top three long choices and top three short choices. After that, I made a document explaining why I decided to use certain words, what certain expressions mean and infer to native English speakers, etc. This part was more work than the translation itself, but it seemed like a necessary step for the design company to make a final and informed decision, and also to be able to explain their decision to their own customer.

I’m thinking that if I can get more work like this, part of the billing process should include the preparation of an explanatory document like this. That would make it very easy for me to explain my asking price should anyone want to know. But, not having much experience doing freelance translation, I’m wondering if anyone else does something like this.

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