Translation / Transcription and the rates

We had this query on our Facebook page this morning:

Good heavens it is not easy to find a guide as to pricing for transcriptions! :) Not sure you can help, I have been asked to transcribe Afrikaans focus group discussions into English but don't know how to charge. Someone suggested the going rate is R100 for 100 words, that is R1/word. Is that roughly what people are charging? Thanks a lot!

This is the answer I provided:

Hi Ewald. Thanks for the question. To me R1/word is a good rate for TRANSLATION. But when a client makes this type of query, essentially they need to be educated that transcription and translation are two different things. First, you're going to need to transcribe the Afrikaans, and then you're going to need to TRANSLATE it into English. You can possibly do the translation as you transcribe, but that then will take longer than plain transcription. So you're going to need to charge a translation rate as well as a transcription rate. I would consider then having the transcript proofread, or at least proofreading yourself - as it's easy to make grammatical errors or type sentences that don't read smoothly when working this way. I hope this helps and give me a yell if you need any further help.

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