Question regarding costs for simultaneous translation
 

I have to organize a conference in PEK and I have got the feeling that my Chinese organizer tries to gain a (too) substantial margin for the costs of for simultaneous translation. We have the full equipment installed, so what we need are the "plain" translators for a four hours meeting (English to Mandarin). The figure I was given is 25k Yuan RMB, which is certainly much more than I would pay for four hours in London and which appears to be outrageous considering the general price level in China.

Could any of the China insiders give me their ideas about this?

Thanks a lot
TFL

Well, my former employees (who aren't completely bilingual, but certainly do "English-->Chinese" admirably) are now asking $500 per day to perform similar services, but I'd be shocked if $100 wouldn't be enough to get them out of the house.

Questions: how many bodies are you looking for? what degree of technical knowledge do you require (i.e. in light of your handle, I'm guessing that some legal terms will be tossed around, but if they aren't substantially more complex than "litigation" or "intellectual property", you certainly don't require Chinese lawyers for this task,... though I have a hunch that that's what your partner is thinking).

In any case, if your figure is still north of $1500, I encourage you to publish an RFP here so the China Forum regulars can get in on the action. :)

I'll do it for 23.5K! Let me know when you need me.

Seriously, this is extremely overpriced. I would think that even 2500 for 4 hours is too much but if you have lots of specific legal language you might have to pay around that amount. Check with the commercial division of your embassy, they'll be able to recommend someone. It wont be the cheapest option but it'll sure beat 25K RMB which is absolutely highway robbery. Do you do business with the "chinese organizers" in other ways because I'd be scrutinizing my invoices from them!

Depends on the number of interpreters you will need. On average i would say for English simultaneous interpretation the costs are around 2000-5000 RMB/Person/Day, with a day being 8 hours.

The key here is that the OP specified "English--> Chinese" which is a skill that many ordinary Chinese people possess. For the reverse or the <--->, it's an entirely different ballgame because the field is substantially (i.e. factor of 100) smaller, but even many people in this group would be pleased with 2000 if hired directly (and double that figure if you use a third party to find, screen, and deliver them).

Very true. i assumed CN->EN.
Range i quoted was what we were quoted a couple years ago for CN->EN for a day, with petroleum/engineering terminology required.

The last time my organizers (a Chinese state entity) paid for the costs, however, they claim they have no money left and I need to pay.

Objectives are as follows:

- Legal terminology
- four hours
- English to Mandarin (Chinese audience, English/HKG speakers)

At the beginning they asked for 35.000 RMB. I asked them whether they are serious. Then they came up with a best price of 25.000 RMB which still appears to be a rip off. If anybody here could propose a reknowned agency offering services for reasonable (chinese) prices I would propose to my Chinese counterpart to use these. Not sure if they could get the job or whether "my" Chinese just go down with their price, however, it would be great help for me.

Thanks
TFL

moondogco, llc

(BTW, you still haven't answered the most important question: how many people?)

About 120 pax. Last time we had two translators.

And this is why there are so many "state workers" making 4000RMB in salary a month driving A6's and living in million dollar flats;)

Hire me, I can do it for one tenth of the price...

"Simultaneous" interpreters in China are cheap. They also are generally not very good. If accuracy is important I would recommend not using ANY interpreter that wasn't vetted in advance or a totally known quantity. True continuous simultaneous conference interpretation, by the way, requires 3 interpreters, working in rotating 20 minute shifts.

You should be easily able to get a good simultaneous interpreter in China for RMB1000 a day. You will also get lots of bad ones at the same price. So yes, even if the folks you were talking to planned to have 3 interpreters, you are being overcharged by approximately a factor of 8, in my judgement.

Being bilingual is not enough to make a good interpreter. Without specific training and experience, what you usually get out of this group is what I call a "summarizer" -- they take in what one side says and try to summarize it in the other language. This rarely works unless the summarizer is an expert in the field, which few are.