Professional translation cost

I'm putting in an application for some funding regarding a trip to Japan for work. As the meeting will be a business meeting I'm not confident in my language skills, so I'm looking to factor in the cost for a meeting attendance plus translation (I'd imagine 2-3 hours, and the company HQ is located in Tokyo). What should I be putting in, assuming the meeting will go for a few hours? A bit of feedback online suggests $500 - $800 should be around the mark, but figured some of the residents here might be able to help. Any feedback would be awesome!

 

It all depends upon the field. Say it is finance or bio tech, you are going to need a specialist which will run you a lot more. If it is a normal business deal, it still won't be cheap.

 

I have found one of the local associations for my industry in Japan, so I might drop them a line (they're also the group I want to visit as part of the study tour). However, in terms of cost, do you think $800 would be a fair amount to allocate in the proposal budget?

 

Not to be pedantic (in fact, this is pretty important in making sure you're getting the right service), but what you want is interpretation, not translation. Translation is the conversion of written words from one language to another; interpretation is the conversion of spoken words, usually performed on-site and in real time. I'm not particularly familiar with the costs of interpretation, but the numbers you throw out are not outside the realm of possibility, given what little I know. You could always drop that society/an interpretation company/freelance interpreter a line and ask them for a general quote. They should be happy to help since, after all, it is their job. Just remember that you get what you pay for - a "bargain" might turn out to be anything but that if the interpreter you hire can't event understand the technical language in your conversations, or offends the people you are talking to you by misquoting what you are saying.

 

Agreed. I looked at this heading and thought you wanted a document translated, for which you'll probably find a general per-word charge. Interpretation is different.

You are right about the bargain, too. You don't want to end up like this....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRskvLyCoU0

 

Thanks for the feedback guys, including picking up how I was using "translation" instead of "interpreter". I've submitted my proposal and I'll find out in a couple of months if it was successful. In the meantime I'll contact the industry association to get an idea of what the cost will be and will get my brother to help put a translated email together for me (he's comfortable helping on that side, but not comfortable on the technical/industry jargon side of things). I'll do some hunting and see what happens, and hopefully I'll be successful with my submission!

 

Can you tell us what industry it's in? Some tech is harder than others. Programming and administration is in my wheel house. Semi-conductors and those motors they put in vibrators are not.

 

How did you discover that you're not the man to take into a talk about vibrator motors?

 

@GP: Library sector (of all places!).

 

A late night with lots of Chuhi. Don't ask.

Wow, that's a sector. I never learned the Dewey Decimal system.