Hi,

next month I will start doing research in Bangkok for a couple of months. Since I don't speak Thai, I will need an interpreter when doing interviews and stuff. I will try to find a student who is willing to help me. However, I don't know what a good salary is for an interpreter. Does anyone know how much to pay a student when helping out for about 20 hours a week? Thanks!

Lara

I think that 4,000 baht wouldbe more than enough for 20 hours.

I know many that would do it for 200 baht an hour or less.

My wife made 16000 baht per week as an interpreter back in 1995. I doubt thats the going rate but that what my company offered her, and who were we to refuse.

Oh it was fun while it lasted. Only a 6 month job.

PKG

A guy who used to work with me charges 700 THB per page to translate legal documents. He seems to get heaps of work.

The money you "should" pay is all market forces. As usual in a market, you are most of the time more likely to get what you need if you use some type of criteria to assess the product (here interpretation skills). As usual in Thailand, you can find some kind of service at rock bottom prices, but you never know what you are getting unless you yourself come to the market well equipped with knowledge about what you should look for and need.

A person who is not an experienced interpreter or translator, but only bilingual (fluent in both languages), will typically have a few drawbacks:

1. Might not know jargon words, especially outside of the mother tongue, but also within it. Make sure your interpreter or translator has previous experience of the area in which your conversations will be going. As an example, if you are going to interview carpenters and use a native Thai university student of English as interpreter, you will almost certainly get stuck on the types of wood, the tools, the technical terms etc.

2. Will tire more easily because of no previous practice. Interpretation is very hard work and requires the interpreter to almost empty out her/his own thoughts and just become a processor for incoming information in the two languages. Too long work sessions means translation quality will deteriorate.

3. Might be scared to admit he/she doesnt know what he/she is talking about, because then you as the customer may feel cheated. The end result will be a number of misunderstandings.

So you need to assess the person you are going to work with. Check their credentials, and be critical. If their English when talking to you seems very broken or riddled with incorrect usage, you should do yourself a favour and find somebody else.

Thanks for all the info! I will probably try to find a student who is able to help me for a reasonable amount of money and has no problem with the persons I will interview. I will make sure that he/she is able to do the job the way I want to and has enough information about the subject I will do research on.

Thanks again!