Economics also plays a role in this trend. The price set by the Union of Translators and Interpreters is 3,300 Kc ($125) per day per person for interpreting and 200 Kc to translate one standard page of text - rates that are not necessarily followed by companies operating in the field. A recent study showed that full- time translators earn an average of 10,000 Kc per month, so it is much cheaper for a company to bring translators or interpreters on staff than to pay them by page or by day. "We have two full-time translators on staff because it's cheaper," confirmed Juraj Kizak, marketing manager at Coopers & Lybrand.

When foreign companies first came to Czechoslovakia, translation services were an indispensable part of doing business here. And for Czech companies exporting abroad, the same was true. But, with time, many foreign and local companies have replaced expatriates with Czechs who speak foreign languages. The result is less dependence on translation services. This is one reason most of the companies on The Prague Post list of the largest translation firms have been stagnating or decreasing in size. Babel Service, for instance, had 19 employees and a free-lance pool of 1,200 in the first quarter of last year; now the firm employs seven and has a free-lance pool of 530. Prague Information Service has shrunk from 12 full-time employees to four. "There is less translation work now," explained Milan Havlin, head of Presto, one of the few translation firms that has increased in size over the past year.

Havlin placed the blame for the decline on high fees. He said he's trying to keep Presto competitive. Written translations account for 80 percent of all work at Presto and 70 percent at Interlingua Servis. Interpreting accounts for the rest. Loose translations are sufficient for day-to-day verbal business, but every nuance and detail must be reflected in written translations - especially where money is involved, Havlin said. At one time or another, all the heavyweight foreign corporations in Prague have used the services of translation firms. And though most now have in-house translators, when work piles up, they often call on their former collaborators for help. IBM, Ford Motor Co., Nestle are listed as clients of the largest translation firms. Different languages, of course, are not only an obstacle for foreign companies, but for Czech ones as well.

Firms on the Post roster listed Czech companies such as CEZ, TV Nova and Pragobanka among their major clients. According to the survey, English is the most- often translated language in the Czech Republic, followed in descending order by German, Italian, Spanish and Russian. Many companies also have free-lancers who can translate or interpret other languages, including Japanese, Arabic and Chinese.

Most translation firms in the Czech Republic rely on free-lance translators to do much of the work but keep a small core on staff to handle day-to-day translations. These free-lancers, however, often find it more rewarding and profitable to work independent of any service. "Translating firms don't give you a choice of work, and then they keep a lot of the money," said one former free-lancer.

Reprinted with kind permission from:
The Prague Post
1995 The Prague Post News Service
Published weekly in Prague
Email: Prgpost@traveller.cz