Poll: Do you feel translation work has changed drastically in the last 5 - 10 years?
Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
ProZ.com Staff
ProZ.com Staff
SITE STAFF
Feb 10, 2018

This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "Do you feel translation work has changed drastically in the last 5 - 10 years?".

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neilmac
neilmac
Spain
Local time: 23:25
Spanish to English
+ ...
Yes Feb 10, 2018

The widespread availability of MT has led to greater market intrusion by the inept or desperate and increasingly downmarket demands from agencies and potential clients who no longer value the art of translation (if they ever did in the first place).

PS: And a rise in requests for PEMT services rather than translation per se.

[Edited at 2018-02-10 11:01 GMT]


 
Mirja Maletzki
Mirja Maletzki  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 07:25
Korean to German
+ ...
More online work Feb 10, 2018

For me, it's turned into a lot more online work in the past 5 years.

It went from Trados files and packages, Word and Excel files that I received per email to MemoQ online projects and Google spreadsheets.

If I were to guess, I'd say 80% of my work now requires being online.


 
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida  Identity Verified
Portugal
Local time: 22:25
Member (2007)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
Yes Feb 10, 2018

I can't speak for others, but for me it changed a lot: I left an in-house translator position (retirement) where I worked within a team of 15 translators and had an excellent reference library, a terminology unit and a helpdesk at my disposal to being a freelancer with all that entails. After a small adjustment period, I’m quite happy with what I have…

 
Muriel Vasconcellos
Muriel Vasconcellos  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 15:25
Member (2003)
Spanish to English
+ ...
Yes Feb 10, 2018

Agencies have exerted strong pressure to lower rates and many translators have caved. Some of the offers I've seen via ProZ are rates that were being paid 40 years ago. It is a strong, aggressive trend.

The search for a quality metric has prioritized flat, inexpressive styles that undermine comprehension in contexts where more creativity is needed.


 
Gianluca Marras
Gianluca Marras  Identity Verified
Italy
Local time: 23:25
English to Italian
Yes Feb 10, 2018

- use of MT
- use of Project management platforms
- more and more agencies now provide the word-count with CAT tools and ask for more discounts
- a huge number of people start this profession without a clue and just thinking that CAT tools = "Wow I can offer a discount so I can have more clients"


 
Steffen Walter
Steffen Walter  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 23:25
Member (2002)
English to German
+ ...
No Feb 10, 2018

If at all, it has changed gradually, but not drastically, thanks to my close relations with my core direct client base (which accounts for more than 80-85% of my revenue) that has largely remained stable during this period, with the occasional client loss but also new additions here and there. Note that I offer both translation and interpreting services. PEMT does not play any role at all in my market segment.

 
Tina Vonhof (X)
Tina Vonhof (X)
Canada
Local time: 16:25
Dutch to English
+ ...
Yes Feb 10, 2018

Not for me personally but I can see all around me a huge change toward the 'commercialization' of translation, a move away from the art of translation and personal communication between client and translator toward the use of CAT tools with the downgrading of language into a collection of words or phrases and a concomitant scale of fees, the use of machine translation by those who don't know any better, and the demand for working via online platforms for the sake of efficiency. It's all about th... See more
Not for me personally but I can see all around me a huge change toward the 'commercialization' of translation, a move away from the art of translation and personal communication between client and translator toward the use of CAT tools with the downgrading of language into a collection of words or phrases and a concomitant scale of fees, the use of machine translation by those who don't know any better, and the demand for working via online platforms for the sake of efficiency. It's all about the money. This ties in with what I see as a trend in society as a whole toward cheap mass-production and away from art, quality, and care. Both in translation and in society at large, there are many who jump on the bandwagon, either because they simply swallow what's put before them, or out of necessity because their livelihood depends on it; it's sad either way. Hopefully, as has often happened throughout history, the pendulum may be a swing the other way at some point.Collapse


 
Sheila Wilson
Sheila Wilson  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 22:25
Member (2007)
English
+ ...
Which market? Feb 10, 2018

I reckon there's a translation industry (high volumes for ever-lower rates) and a translation profession (higher rates for quality, crafted translations). The former is in a downward spiral, with human translators trying to.justify their existence when GT is free. The latter is a contracting market, as much of the technical side unfortunately gets taken over by trained MT systems, leaving humans to do PEMT. But the high-end marketing sector is standing firm as GT will never do it justice.

 
Mario Freitas
Mario Freitas  Identity Verified
Brazil
Local time: 19:25
Member (2014)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
Not yet Feb 11, 2018

I voted "no". Although the CATs, post-translations, Chinglish documents, etc. are all growing fast, we have seen some changes, but they haven't been drastic, yet. We're all expecting the drastic changes, but their boom is still uncertain.

 


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Poll: Do you feel translation work has changed drastically in the last 5 - 10 years?






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