+ Reply to Thread
Results 1 to 4 of 4

Thread: State of industry

 
  1. #1
    New Member
    Join Date
    May 2011
    Posts
    1
    Rep Power
    0

    Smile State of industry

    Hello, fellow translators!

    I am a English-French/-French/English translator who did a lot of corporate work in the late 80s and early 90s, primarily through a company in the New York area. I then changed my career focus and worked in banking for the past 15 years or so. I'm now interested in getting back into translation, but wondered what the general state of the industry is, since I believe things have changed since I was involved in it.

    - Is there still a lot of corporate work out there?
    - What is the effect of machine translation? Are you doing a lot of rescue jobs? Have you lost jobs to machines?

    Gracias!

  2. #2
    Senior Member Xóchitl L.'s Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2011
    Posts
    429
    Rep Power
    616

    Default Re: State of industry

    Hello Lisette,

    My situation is, in some way, similar to yours.

    I did English/Spanish/English translation in Mexico for several years, but moved to the USA 11 years ago to start my own family, so I quit translating. I have now retaken translations, but it's being difficult to find new clients.

    It might be easier for you if, somehow, you have kept in touch with your former clients; otherwise, be patient.

    I personally think is getting harder since there is a lot of competition out there (at least for the language pair I know), and machine translations are becoming more popular. From my point of view, it could take years to build a good client portfolio.

    ¡Buena suerte!

    Xóchitl

  3. #3
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    May 2008
    Posts
    721
    Rep Power
    362

    Default Re: State of industry

    Hello Lisette,
    Machine translation is being used more and more now, and the quality of the translations has improved considerably in terms of getting the general idea of a regular text (not scientific or highly technical). However, machine translation still needs to be fixed by human translators.

    There are also CAT tools (like Trados, Omega T, Wordfast) that reduce turnaround times a lot, you should get them and use them if you want to get back in business.

  4. #4
    Forum User
    Join Date
    May 2011
    Age
    43
    Posts
    25
    Rep Power
    165

    Default Re: State of industry

    I have to say, I'm really not worried about machine translations for the time being. Some of the problems with machine translations are their often literal approach, their inability to comprehend many phrases, and other odd syntactical devices, and the fact that a machine will never be able to reproduce a person's style with any degree of accuracy. So I agree with Andrea; they have improved and and can-often-transmit a general thought, but I don't think we humanoid Translators have anything to worry about, at least for the time being.

+ Reply to Thread

Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)

Similar Threads

  1. Termbase for the oil industry
    By gentle in forum English to Spanish Technical Translation
    Replies: 4
    Last Post: 04-06-2016, 09:50 AM
  2. State board skills
    By Catita in forum General English to Spanish Translation
    Replies: 4
    Last Post: 11-20-2010, 08:38 AM
  3. State duty paid
    By verica in forum English to Spanish Financial Translation
    Replies: 4
    Last Post: 12-01-2009, 12:26 PM
  4. TDD/State relay
    By Octavia in forum General English to Spanish Translation
    Replies: 3
    Last Post: 07-31-2009, 08:56 AM
  5. Federal and State Patient determination act 482.13
    By Stephanie Peterson in forum Spanish to English Medical Translation
    Replies: 3
    Last Post: 08-28-2008, 11:56 AM

Tags for this Thread

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •