Is it normal for a DJ to charge extra to make bilingual announcements?

Is Chinese a common language in your area? If not the extra money could indeed be for some kind of classes or teaching tool.

@FutureMrsO, I live in the SF Bay Area so Chinese is pretty common. I was just a bit taken aback and feel like he threw in that extra charge simply because I asked about a bilingual DJ.

Have the same issue so going to do English only.

We don't have the charge but we need English and Spanish so it's a little more common here in Arizona.

Coming from someone who is trilingual- unless he's interpreting, I find it pretty ridiculous that he'd charge extra money.

ETA: if it's rare in your area then he probably just knows he's one of the few (or the only) that can offer that service- so he simply charges more because he can.

Usually they would not charge extra unless they have a roster of DJs and the only one who is bilingual in your language just has a higher cost.

Some DJs of mine offered to say a few words in a different language even though they do not know Chinese for free but they wanted to impress us and our guests. They were also extremely expensive, not for the language part but in general lol.

If the DJ is bilingual, there doesn't seem to be any reason to charge extra, and I would not hire a DJ who suggested that this is appropriate. However, if they do not speak your desired language and are going to need to bring another person who does, then I can see the reason behind the extra cost. If I were you, I would focus on hiring someone bilingual and don't stand for any foolishness if they try to charge you more.

Until I got to the part about you in the SF Bay Area and Chinese being common I literally laughed out loud when I read "English and Chinese, nothing major". I was dying. But anyways, onto the help. This DJ has a specific set of skills and I'm not surprised they're charging more. Like a PP said maybe the up charge is because the bilingual DJ is so highly requested so they get booked faster and earlier.

My DJ & Officiant are both bilingual and aren't charging us anything extra. I've never seen an extra charge for bilingual services.

I guess I could see him needing to bring an additional person if he is unable to translate.

I feel like anyone who CAN charge more WILL charge more. I had a MUA tack on $10 when she heard I was getting married.