Poll: Which best describes how you feel about the future of freelance translation? Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
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This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "Which best describes how you feel about the future of freelance translation?".
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| | | | Muriel Vasconcellos (X) 
United States
Local time: 14:54
Spanish to English
+ ...
| Unsure, leaning toward pessimistic | Jan 4, 2019 |
Rates are going down, not up. This means that it will be increasingly difficult for good professionals to stay in the business unless they have an additional source of income.
I'm really annoyed at the practice of not getting paid for repeat occurrences of a word. It may not be translated the same way each time. The professional still needs to make a decision about it. In the past, the thinking was always that the word count was only a rough idea: some words will require research wh... See more Rates are going down, not up. This means that it will be increasingly difficult for good professionals to stay in the business unless they have an additional source of income.
I'm really annoyed at the practice of not getting paid for repeat occurrences of a word. It may not be translated the same way each time. The professional still needs to make a decision about it. In the past, the thinking was always that the word count was only a rough idea: some words will require research while others will be easy repetitions and the task will balance out in the end (if not with the current job, maybe the next one). Now the bean counters are measuring a phenomenon that cannot really be measured and taking the creativity out of translation.
I often feel thankful that I am nearing the end of my career instead of starting out.
[Edited at 2019-01-04 08:59 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Unsure, leaning towards optimistic | Jan 4, 2019 |
I’m optimistic by nature. I have no crystal ball and I’m no good at predictions (I missed the mark by a long, long way regarding Brexit, Trump and Bolsonaro), but I'm one of those people who always see the glass as half full and I don’t believe things will change dramatically during the remaining of my professional lifetime...
| | | | | MT is coming slowly | Jan 4, 2019 |
IMO, we can expect gradual progress of MT that will be used to process relatively simple texts like manuals and handbooks... Human translation volume will decrease...
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DZiW (X)
Ukraine
English to Russian
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As far as biz (1) growing international (2) requires outsources from poor countries while (3) targeting the rich world, they will always need out-of-staff employees aka freelancers.
However, I still find that diversifying the source of income and promoting various services (esp. interpreting) works best for me, let alone local direct clients
[Edited at 2019-01-04 13:07 GMT]
| | | | Mario Freitas
Brazil
Local time: 19:54
Member (2014)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
| Good for us, unsure for future generations | Jan 4, 2019 |
For those who are already experienced translations, life should go on as usual until we die. I don't think we'll have any trouble caused by the MTs and their magnificent algorithms. There will still be plenty of work in our market for us to live well for another 30 years or so.
However, many sectors are slowly moving on to MT and post-editing, such as manufacturers of electronics and appliances in general, subtitling for movies, and other areas where the quality of the translation does not... See more For those who are already experienced translations, life should go on as usual until we die. I don't think we'll have any trouble caused by the MTs and their magnificent algorithms. There will still be plenty of work in our market for us to live well for another 30 years or so.
However, many sectors are slowly moving on to MT and post-editing, such as manufacturers of electronics and appliances in general, subtitling for movies, and other areas where the quality of the translation does not really affect their sales. The market is clearly being split into two very different segments, one where quality and accuracy are a must, and one where these are not essential.
Therefore, I think we'll have less then half as many translators in 30 years as we have now.
I wouldn't motivate my children to become translators anymore. But if they do, they'll have to be excellent at what they do to succeed. ▲ Collapse
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