Translation has an impact on virtually every aspect of society,
politics, and economics, but how much of what you know about translation
is really true? You might be surprised to learn that translation is a
highly diverse and complex market -- and one that's bigger than you
might think. Here are ten of the most widely held myths about
translation:
1. Translation is a small, niche market. The global market for outsourced language services is worth more than
US$33 billion in 2012.
The largest segment of the market is written translation, followed by
on-site interpreting and software localization. The vast majority of
these translation services are provided by small agencies -- there are
more than 26,000 of them throughout the world. These companies
coordinate translation projects in multiple languages simultaneously,
often involving many different file types, processes, and technology
tools. The words themselves are translated and interpreted by the
hundreds of thousands of language professionals scattered all across the
globe. Many translators and interpreters also have direct clients, but
most are freelancers whose work comes from agencies.
2. The need for translation is fading away. The
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
estimates that there will be 83,000 jobs for interpreters and
translators by 2020 in the United States alone. This job market is
expected to grow by 42 percent from 2010 to 2020, significantly higher
than the average of 14 percent for all professions. Data from Common
Sense Advisory shows that globally, the market has a compound annual
growth rate of 12.17 percent.
3. Most translators translate books; most interpreters work at the United Nations. Literary
translation and conference interpreting are two of the most visible
specializations, but they actually represent very tiny segments of the
market at large. Who are the biggest translation spenders?
Military and defense agencies
spend the most on translation, with the United States routinely
spending billions on language services for defense and intelligence
initiatives. On the commercial side, some of the largest segments of the
translation market are manufacturing, software, health care, legal, and
financial services. As a result, freelancers often work in these
specialty areas -- as financial translators, medical interpreters, legal
translators, and court interpreters.
4. Any bilingual can be a translator or an interpreter. The
ability to write in English does not make a person a professional
writer. The ability to speak English does not make a person a
professional speaker. Likewise, the ability to write or speak two
languages does not mean that a person can translate or interpret. Plenty
of people who are perfectly fluent in two languages fail professional
exams for translation and interpreting. Why? Being bilingual does not
guarantee that a person will be able to transport meaning from one
language and culture to another without inflicting harm in the process.
Most translators and interpreters are highly educated, with advanced
degrees and training in either translation, linguistics, or a specialty
field. Also, while not mandatory, professional certifications are
widely recognized and strongly encouraged. In the U.S., translators are
certified by the American Translators Association, and a variety of
certifications exist for interpreters.
5. Interpreters and translators do the same thing. The
all-encompassing term that the general public uses to refer to language
professionals is "translators," but the reality is that translators and
interpreters have very different job skills. Translation refers to
written language, while interpreting refers to spoken language.
Translators must have great writing skills and training in translation,
but they must also be adept at using computer-assisted translation tools
and terminology databases. Interpreters, on the other hand, have to
develop their short-term memory retention and note-taking skills as well
as memorizing specialized terminology for instant recall.
6. Translators and interpreters work in more than two languages. One
of the most common questions translators and interpreters are asked is,
"How many languages do you speak?" In reality, many translators work in
only one direction -- from one language into another, but not in the
reverse. For translators and interpreters, it is better to have in-depth
knowledge of just two languages than to have surface-level knowledge of
several. Why? Of approximately one million words in English, the
average person uses only 4,000 to 5,000 words on a regular basis. People
who are "educated" know between 8,000 and 10,000 words. The professions
with the widest vocabulary, such as doctors and lawyers, use about
23,000 words. Interpreters and translators who work for these
specialized professions often use this kind of advanced technical
vocabulary in
two languages. Some translators and interpreters
do work in more than one language combination -- for example, conference
interpreters often have several "passive" languages that they can
understand. However, translators and interpreters are not usually
hyperpolyglots.
7. Translation only matters to "language people." The
need for translation crosses both the public and private sectors. In
the business world, executives at companies of all sizes are beginning
to recognize that translation is a pathway to enabling more revenue and
entering new markets. A
recent study
found that Fortune 500 companies that augmented their translation
budget were 1.5 times more likely than their Fortune 500 peers to report
an increase in total revenue. Also, government bodies are increasingly
taking an interest in translation. Indeed, even those involved in
development and non-profit work need to pay attention to translation. A
report on
translation in Africa
conducted for Translators without Borders in May 2012 showed that
greater access to translated information would improve political
inclusion, health care, human rights, and even save lives of citizens of
African countries.
8. Crowdsourcing puts professional translators out of work. As
online communities have become more popular, so has something called
"crowdsourced translation." This phenomenon typically emerges when
online community members get excited about a product and want to use it
in their native languages. Sometimes, these customers and fans even
begin creating their own translations and posting them in user forums.
Instead of leaving their customers to pontificate on the best
translations amongst themselves, smart companies are giving these
communities the ability to easily suggest their translations. Are
companies harnessing the work of these volunteers to obtain free labor?
Actually, as the research shows,
saving money is not a primary motivation
-- setting up these kinds of platforms can cost companies more time and
money than just paying for traditional human translation. They
typically pay human translators and translation companies to edit the
group-translated content anyway, but they believe the collective
approach gives power directly to customers and users, enabling them to
have a say in which translations they like best.
9. Machine translation is crushing the demand for human translation. The
opposite is true. Machine translation is actually expanding the demand
for human translation and fueling the market at large. How? Machine
translation -- especially the free online kind -- serves as an awareness
campaign, putting translation squarely in front of the average person.
Translating large volumes of information is never free -- it comes at a
cost, even with machine translation. Machine translation technology and
related services
make up a tiny percentage
of the total translation market. Of course, machine translation can
achieve some feats that humans cannot, such as quickly scanning large
bodies of text and provide summaries of the information contained within
them. However, as with most technologies, humans are needed to use
machine translation intelligently. As Ray Kurzweil points out,
technologies typically don't replace whole fields -- rather, they more often help fields to evolve.
10. All translation will someday be free. The
translation and interpreting industry adds tens of thousands of new jobs
to the global economy each year and there is no slowdown in sight.
Translators and interpreters are extremely important members of this
industry -- in fact, they are the very heart of it. However, much like
other professional service industries, the translation industry also
relies on countless other professionals: project managers, account
managers, vendor managers, production managers, schedulers, trainers,
quality assurance teams, proofreaders, desktop publishing professionals,
engineers, product managers, salespeople, marketers, technicians, and
even people who work in procurement, human resources, billing, and IT.
Research from Common Sense Advisory shows that
demand for translation is outpacing supply
-- so if anything, human translators are becoming even more important.
However, they are part of a much larger ecosystem, one that keeps global
business churning and international communication flowing.
Witten By Nataly Kelly in
huffingtonpost.com
