The estimation of translation word count per day varies according to language pairs. If it is Chinese to English and the contents are not scientific or medical, my word count can reach 2,000 words per working day. For novel or subtitle translation, translating 3,000 Chinese words into English is possible – if the content does not involve a lot of technical terms.

For English to Chinese, my output is usually lower. English language is a very sensible language with complicated structures and styles. In other words, it takes more time when I am translating into Chinese. Translating 1,500 English words into Chinese is about my maximum for one day for more complicated contents.

I work faster when writing into English because I can think faster when processing English sentences. And I guess this is because I read English printed and online contents a lot more than Chinese ones.

一日翻譯量的估算因語言配對而異。若中譯英內容不涉及工程學或醫學,我的一日翻譯字數可以達到兩千字左右。若是小說或字幕翻譯而且不涉及很多專業詞彙,一天內將三千中文字翻譯成英文是辦得到的。

我的英譯中產量通常比較低。英國語文非常理性,而且句子結構與風格可以非常複雜。這也意味著我需要更多時間處理英譯中,一日一千五百字大概是較為複雜文件的極限。

我寫英文速度較快,因為我寫英文時頭腦轉數較快。我日常生活中閱讀紙本和網路的英文內容,其實遠遠多於中文。這或許是原因。