Author: LLM Staff Writer

Problems Within the Translation Industry:
Status, Quality and Professionalization

Commentary,  Issues,   | February 22, 2018

One thing that most translators would agree with is that the status of translation as a profession is dynamic – always changing and developing (or not) depending on market forces and how it deals with threats to the industry. Over the past few decades, huge efforts have made to accord translators (and also that of interpreters) a similar status to other regulated and respected occupations, such as dentists, surveyors, and architects. Education and training opportunities for translators and interpreters have expanded, giving various qualifications from degrees to certificates and diplomas. Professional associations have also proliferated, with their own systems of accreditation and codes of practice ensuring the quality of their members. Linguistic research communities are constantly producing papers and journals highlighting new findings. Yet despite all of this, the translation profession has remained hard to define, its boundaries ever changing as it reacts to the world around it.

It is hard to imagine an unqualified dentist setting up in practice, and yet there are many unqualified and unaffiliated people all over the world who call themselves translators. The dentist may actually know what he is doing, but without a bit of paper and some professional affiliation, would you risk it? In the same vein, clients of unqualified and unregulated freelance translators do not know whether they are getting a quality service, or paying money for substandard work. In the words of Forrest Gump, it’s a bit like ‘a box of chocolates.’

Does an Educational Qualification Even Matter?
Training in translation takes many forms, although most professional translators are graduates or postgraduates. However, it appears that not all courses are equal. In a study carried out by Anthony Pym and Esther Torres-Simón looking at the European Masters in Translation program, they found many discrepancies in what was taught. The European Masters in Translation is ‘a network of programs selected because they meet quality standards for translator training.’1 They analyzed 67 programs from 61 universities in 21 countries and found that several of them had a minimal amount of compulsory language-specific translation content in their course. On the other hand, there was, in all of them, a high level of translation theory and emphasis on research. Training for translation as a career was also under-represented. In one case in a UK university, it was, in theory, possible to pass the Masters without taking one module in practical language-specific translation.2

It is not surprising that academic institutions would wish to create a program on theoretical, rather than practical skills, and where more than one language pair is offered on the courses, resources become more expensive. Therefore, it is easier for the universities to provide more language-neutral subjects, such as theory, ethics, and research methodology. This does raise the question though about the quality of graduates and about how many are actually equipped to work in the translation profession. If a supposedly high-quality masters program that encompasses many countries cannot guarantee a degree of homogeneity between its participating institutions, how can employers be sure that someone with that qualification is actually good enough to work in the industry?

One way of addressing this, suggests Pym, is to have an open translation examination, the standard of which should be similar to those already used by organizations such as the Chartered Institute of Linguists or the American Translators Association.3 These exams have pass rates of around 20% and would undoubtedly give employers a reliable indication of the skills available in a potential job candidate. It is unlikely that universities will introduce such rigorous tests, however if the pass rate is so low. After all, if students see the difficulty of passing, many would be discouraged (especially those who only want to do translation studies), and this would see enrollment figures drop.4

The job market for full-time translators is actually rather small compared with the number of known qualified workers who are also part of a professional association. In his talk on ‘The Market for Translators and Interpreters,’ Anthony Pym described a survey that studied the demand for translators versus the number of translators in associations.5 In it, he counted that 74% of translators were freelance, 60% were part-time, and 70% women. Although a correlation between gender and full-time working cannot be proved, it does seem that a large proportion of the industry is not employed in a stable or long-term position as translators and that most of them are women. Instead, they may also be teaching, editing, or working as interpreters, or even bringing up children. Pym attributes this low intensity of stable full-time employment as one of the factors in the ‘relative lack of professionalization’ of the translation industry.6

Threats to the Industry
The old model of the translation business was that literary translators formed the bulk of the industry – with most employment being found in that niche, although with the rise of globalization, business translators have now occupied that position.7 Even this model is experiencing some instability as new pressures from both inside and outside the industry threaten both the status and professionalism of translators. New technology and crowdsourcing, in particular, are two issues that have the potential to destabilize the industry, but perhaps the most surprising one is from translators themselves.

Instead of forming a united lobbying group for the furtherance of translation as a profession, translators have long been fragmenting into separate associations and organizations depending on their specializations. In the 70s, literary translators formed their own society, and then a little later, the sworn (legal) translators did the same thing. After that, nearly every different branch of the translating profession had its own organization, until there were hundreds worldwide – and they are still being founded today. With so many associations and societies representing different skills, it is inevitable that any power to strengthen the professional status of translators has become diluted. These organizations also have different aims: some are national, some promote training and have their own certification schemes, some are lobbyists, fighting for a greater recognition of the industry, and some are more concerned with their members’ rights and working conditions.8

There are also sectors of the translation community that resist the call for professionalization. For example, in Israel, an elite group of literary translators see themselves as ‘artists’ rather than as professionals. In other words, they see their work as a vocation rather than an occupation and do not wish to be restricted by regulations and codes or to be grouped with other translators whom they perceive as inferior.9 Conversely, ad-hoc translators, who work mostly freelance and part-time and who do not necessarily have any qualifications, also resist having their work professionalized. Although they regard themselves as having the skills for the job, unlike the elite literary translators, they work to make money and nothing else. For them it is not a calling – just a way to either make ends meet or else earn a bit of pocket money.10

In between the two extremes are the translators who seek the security of having a professional identity. The majority of these have a degree of some sort in translation and have invested in their education and the furtherance of their career. They seek out membership of professional associations and hope that will help them into a good, stable position with either a big company or governmental organization. While their qualifications may indeed be a factor in finding work, it is not the only thing that matters. The Optimale survey, carried out on employers who use translation services mainly within Europe asked what was important in employing a new translator. Qualifications were deemed important, but experience even more so. It mattered that the new employee should have had previous positions, that they had developed other translation and business-related skills, and that they had a good understanding of professional ethics and standards.11 Word-of-mouth recommendations also carried a lot of weight. Of course, this survey only covers a small part of international translation needs. In less wealthy countries (or companies), employers will be happy enough with someone who is bilingual, preferably experienced, and who costs them less.

So, it appears that there is no one standard way of obtaining employment – whether freelance or in-house, part-time or full-time in the translation industry. With such fragmentation in the industry whether through education standards (or lack of), the variety of professional organizations and their aims, or the needs of employers internationally, it is little wonder that translators sometimes have to fight to be seen as part of a respected profession. Studies by Dam & Zethsen 2008, 2011, and Katan 2009 have shown that even translators rate their own status as ‘middling or lower.’12

Technology Armageddon?
Translation also faces other threats to its already vulnerable professional status. The first of these is the rise of new technologies. Artificial intelligence has revolutionized the field of machine translation, with new advances being made. While it is nowhere near perfect, it still manages to throw a shadow over the industry. To begin with, translation technologies like Google Translate (which has improved beyond all recognition lately thanks to the implementation of neural networks) are being used by businesses to communicate with each other worldwide. A number of industry conferences have also regularly met to advance the use of machine translation technologies. For example, the International Association of Machine Translation’s Association of Machine Translation in the Americas (AMTA) is hosting their 13thconference this March 17th-21st in Boston. During this multi-day event developers, researchers and users of machine technology from government and the corporate sector will gather to discuss best practices and cutting-edge research into this still growing field.13 In Europe, Belgium will host the Third Conference on Machine Translation on October 31st 2018. This conference, according to its website, “builds on a series of annual workshops and conferences on statistical machine translation, going back to 2006.”14

While this may be good enough for brief conversations where you just need to get an idea of what is being said, a human translator is still required for complicated negotiations or contracts.15 However, it does threaten to reduce the number of translation skills needed in a business, especially if that business does not already have an in-house translation department or if it is thinking of scaling down its costs.

Computer-aided translation (CAT) tools are now widely used in translation. The machine makes the first, rough translation, and then the human translator does the post-editing – correcting the mistakes and making it readable. Sometimes pre-editing is carried out as well. While this may seem a beneficial addition to the translator’s job, it has also had some adverse effects. For example, in a survey of Danish translators, CAT tools were deemed to have pushed rates down and increased competition and pressure on delivery deadlines.16 It appears that the translator is increasingly becoming just an editor in many sectors, which may have a positive effect on the employer’s budget, but puts further pressure on the professional status of the translator, as well as on their way of making a good living from their skills.

The Rise of the Amateur & Crowdsourcing: Emerging Peripheral Pressures?
The other emerging threat is that of crowd sourcing, made possible by the increasingly easy access to the Internet worldwide. This uses the power of community or hive-mind to translate text, usually on a voluntary and free basis, using a combination of machine translation and human translators. With a pool of bilingual collaborators using the instant power of translation technology, a good quality of translation becomes readily available to all, at no, or little cost. Crowdsourcing is nothing new, or even unique to translation. Ever since 2006, when the term was coined by Jeff Howe of Wired Magazine, finding solutions through web-based cooperation has helped several different types of industry – from designing and marketing to mechanical and technical problems.17

If crowdsourcing translation grows, as it appears to be doing, it poses a problem to those who seek to earn a living as a translator, especially those at the margins of the profession. Professionals will still be needed for specialized texts and also for contracts and negotiations, but in times of economic crisis, many companies may seek to go down a more affordable route, where their translation needs are achieved inexpensively and quickly.18

It now seems that those people previously on the periphery of the translation community, such as the crowdsourcers, fan subbers (film fans who subtitle foreign films, albeit illegally), and ad-hoc community translators, are slowly making inroads not just into the economics of the industry, but also the professionalism. Just as it is being diluted by specializations and multiple qualifications and professional bodies, it is now under attack from an amateur (even if sometimes quite capable) body of translators who have not, and may never intend to follow a career path in the business. If those who have invested time and money into their education want to preserve and raise the awareness of translation as a respected profession, then they need to look at a greater cohesion of standards and practices that will work not just in the US, Canada, China, or Europe but also in developing nations. This is an arduous task, to say the least.

A New World Order: Who will Prevail?
It has been suggested that an international certification is needed in order to bring together the different sorts of accreditation existing throughout the world.19 It could be based on an already existing model and rewritten so that it was suitable for all countries, or it could come from several nations collaborating and agreeing on the best way forward. It could, as is the case in Australia and China, recognize different levels of skill and training so that those who have the experience but lack the qualifications could also attain some professional recognition. Such a certification scheme would then be all-inclusive and truly international and would allow for a uniformity of good practice and ethics. This would certainly put translation on a higher professional footing but is it at all possible, or just a pipe dream? Given the state of a lack of agreement on other global matters it certainly seems like a hard nut to crack. On the other hand, something needs to be done to bring those who exist on the periphery, unregulated and often unheard, closer into the heart of the industry where they could help to create a professional standard that did not just depend on elitist education.

As things stand, the translation industry is on the edge of great change prompted by the rise of better technology and the large numbers of skilled but unqualified translators on the periphery. Differential standards of education, even in the big universities, create a disparity in what is taught versus what is required in the real world – where experience is just as important. Resistance to professionalism from both within the skilled elements of the industry, as well as the unqualified who see it as only one aspect of making a living also threatens the need to create a more coherent framework. In addition, the large number of professional organizations, all with different aims are dividing the potential membership pool between them – a bit like horses pulling in different directions instead of driving steadily forwards. Until these issues at looked at by all involved, and a solution found, the professional status of the translation industry will always be insecure.

  1. Esther Torres-Simón and Anthony Pym, ‘European Masters in Translation. A Comparative Study,’ accessed at https://www.academia.edu/31635052/European_Masters_in_Translation._A_comparative_study on 02/19/2018
  2. Ibid.
  3. Ibid.
  4. Anthony Pym, ‘A Sociology of Translator Training,’ at the WITTA conference in Guangzou, 2016, transcribed from a YouTube video accessed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jzOLZc_sMQ on 02/11/2018
  5. Anthony Pym, ‘The Market for Translators and Interpreters’, 05/11/2015 at the University of Vienna, transcribed from a YouTube video accessed at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbrxnXor5co, on 02/11/2018
  6. Ibid.
  7. Minna Ruokonen, Elin Svahn, Leena Salmi, ‘Panel 10. Translator Status and identity: constructed and experienced boundaries of the translation profession,’ EST Congress 2016, accessed at https://conferences.au.dk/est/panels/panel-10-translator-status-and-identity-constructed-and-experienced-boundaries-of-the-translation-profession/, on 02/15/2018
  8. Anthony Pym, ‘The Market for Translators and Interpreters’, 05/11/2015 at the University of Vienna, transcribed from a YouTube video accessed at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbrxnXor5co, on 02/11/2018
  9. Rakefret Sela-Sheffy, ‘Elite and non-elite translator manpower: The non-professionalised culture in the translation field in Israel,’ The Journal of Specialised Translation, Issue 25, accessed at https://www.jostrans.org/issue25/art_sela.php, on 02/18/2018
  10. Ibid.
  11. The Optimale employer survey and consultation, accessed at https://www.ressources.univ-rennes2.fr/service-relations-internationales/optimale/attachments/article/52/WP4_Synthesis_report.pdf, on 02/19/2018
  12. Minna Ruokonen, Elin Svahn, Leena Salmi, ‘Panel 10. Translator Status and identity: constructed and experienced boundaries of the translation profession,’ EST Congress 2016, accessed at https://conferences.au.dk/est/panels/panel-10-translator-status-and-identity-constructed-and-experienced-boundaries-of-the-translation-profession/, on 02/15/2018
  13. Association of Machine Translation in the Americas 13th Biennial Conference, March 17th- 21st, 2018. https://www.conference.amtaweb.org/
  14. EMNLP 2018 Third Conference on Machine Translation (WMT18) https://www.statmt.org/wmt18/index.html
  15. Michael Skapinker, ‘Google Translate: good enough to use in business?’, Financial Times, 2015, accessed at https://www.ft.com/content/8cae0fec-3aac-11e5-bbd1-b37bc06f590c on 02/19/2018
  16. Helle V. Dam, Kaisa Koskinen, ‘The translation profession, centres and peripheries, Introduction, ‘The Journal of Specialised Translation, Issue 25, Jan 2016, p.7
  17. Irina Lychak, ‘Crowdsourcing Translations,’ language-translation-help.com, accessed at https://www.language-translation-help.com/crowdsourcing.html, and 02/18/2018
  18. Ibid.
  19. Anthony Pym, ‘A Sociology of Translator Training,’ at the WITTA conference in Guangzou, 2016, transcribed from a YouTube video accessed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jzOLZc_sMQ on 02/11/2018

LLM Staff Writer

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