For a majority of companies, being able to estimate the cost of translation remains an impenetrable mystery. But staying
in the dark can end up being surprisingly expensive
What the hell is this? And why does it cost so damn much?" Such exclamations can be heard with increasing frequency from upper
management when first seeing the translation costs topping their budget.
The question that inevitably follows is: "What can we do to cut these costs?"
This article hopes to tell you just that. But first, let's deal with the issue—why does pharma translating cost so much?
Many factors
In the past five years, language requirements have multiplied. Companies routinely translate into up to 20 languages just
to enter markets and stay competitive. Pricing varies as well, depending on function and format. For instance:
Languages The most obvious variable is language itself. Costs depend on number of available linguists working in a given language, the
difficulty of translating and/or formatting a language, and the demand for a language.
Western European languages tend to be the most commonly translated. French, Italian, German and Spanish ("FIGS"), Portuguese,
Swedish and Dutch, for example, all have a fairly wide range of linguistic pricing. The Scandinavian languages can be twice
as costly as, say Spanish or French. These more expensive languages tend to be more specialized and have fewer native-speaking
professional translators doing the work. Eastern European languages such as Slovak, Polish, and Croatian often are lumped
and are by and large, cheaper than their Western counterparts.
Similarly, there is a high variance in costs for Asian languages. Japanese and Korean are typically quite a bit more expensive
than Chinese, for instance.
Then there are languages like Arabic, Hebrew, or some of the Indian dialects that have different character sets, desktop publishing
rules and software, and relatively few professional linguists. These are typically very expensive.
And even within a language there are variances. Spanish for the United States or Central America can have different costs
than Spanish for Europe.
And whether you are translating into or from English affects the cost as well.
Document format. The most common types are traditional publications like instructions for use (IFUs), labels, manuals, and marketing brochures.
New media documents refer to computer-based training modules or videos, which are often delivered via the Web or through learning
management systems. Software occupies a category all its own. And then there is a catch-all category of projects like scanned
documents, PDF files, and handwritten faxes.
Most translation agencies base their processes on traditional documents, which are executed in common softwares like Microsoft
Word, Framemaker, or InDesign. Text is easy to extract and work with.
New media is an ever-evolving field, and projects are not easily quoted or estimated since the engineering time can vary wildly
from one project to another.
Software strings have their own quirks and nuances, such as character limitations and regression testing, that need to figure
into a project.
Content
The nature of the content also influences costs. Technical content is the most common and the easiest to quote. Marketing
content can be more expensive, since it often amounts to copy editing or rewriting in another language, more than translating.
This is because culture and context, as well as the importance of nuance and accuracy of tone, figures into the translation.
Training content can be similar to marketing. On the other hand, software translation is an art in and of itself. Software
translators often translate single phrases, out of context, and are constrained by the number of letters they can use to fit
a given space.
Budgeting
Faced with different variances, your best bet when budgeting for translation jobs is to budget them separately rather than
lumping them all together.
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