translation is dead as a profession

Stephen Emm wrote:
but what is the attraction for the younger generation to become translators when you can't really make a decent living off it?

Stephen Emm wrote:

True to some extent, but what is the attraction for the younger generation to become translators when you can't really make a decent living off it?

Stephen Emm wrote:
This is not "tunnel vision" but rather looking at the general developments in the translation industry, rather than just focusing on your own practice.

Stephen Emm wrote:
Sure, some people have lots of direct customers and a rarer language pair which is great for them, but most translators rely on agencies to provide work to a lesser or greater extent and have been impacted by the changes in the industry,

Stephen Emm wrote:
True to some extent, but what is the attraction for the younger generation to become translators when you can't really make a decent living off it?

If people don't enter the industry or leave the industry as they are currently doing in droves, what is the future?

It is the large translation companies and new technology that are driving prices down - not poorly-paid translators.

Peng Zi wrote:

Especially with the advent of ChatGPT, the translation industry may face even more challenges. However, based on my experience using ChatGPT, its best role is still as a translation assistance tool (for polishing text). Moreover, it may provide inaccurate information for the topics it is not familiar with or has no knowledge about. Therefore, it still requires a considerable amount of human intervention. As an audio industry professional, when translating, I naturally refer to ChatGPT for text polishing, but I never trust it for the topics I am not familiar with.

Lieven Malaise wrote:



Looking at the general developments also includes adapting to it. I'm able to offer a reduced MTPE rate without earning less money in general. In the mean time I'm still doing mainly conventional translation, but looking at certain trends without acting on it might not be the best idea. Things change and that goes for every profession.



I have one direct client that represents about 1% of my turnover. All my other clients are agencies (only 4 of them are Belgian, so I wouldn't over-estimate my 'bilingual' situation) that offer me loads of work, mainly conventional translation work. You just can't generalize.


But you are aware that the amount of the MTPE work is only going to increase? How will you maintain your income, when the majority of your work is MTPE?

Also, you charge .09 euros per source word, some French to English translators were charging this rate over 20 years' ago! What does that tell you about translation rates and the general trends in the industry? Not particularly healthy, I would say.

Of course, you can make a living from it, for now...

It would be really interesting to know, on an anonymous forum perhaps, how much people actually earn and how many hours they work as this would give a true picture of the earnings situation.

Baran Keki wrote:


If you're not too fussy about where you live, you can make a more than decent living. I occasionally see Dutch or Swedish translators here hailing from countries like Peru, Philippines, Thailand etc.. they must be living the high life in those places if they're working with European agencies (well, their body clock must suffer as a result of that, but you've gotta make sacrifices, no?).
I don't know about the British youth (you must know them better, being a teacher), but the younger generation here is mostly clueless as far as the mastery of their target (and source) languages due to not having read any books in their lives (reading stuff on social media or watching TV series on streaming services doesn't improve your literacy and linguistic skills that much, it would seem). So I increasingly notice that the MT is producing a lot better output than young human translators, which is a worrying sign, but also an encouraging sign in that you see how crap they are and it makes you realize how good you actually are (thanks to the education received prior to the advent of the internet).
I make decent money out of this job, but there are other aspects of it that I truly hate about like unpredictability, having to be available all the time, being deskbound and cooped up at home etc.
If I could back in time I'd have chosen a different profession for those reasons alone, not because of financial concerns.

Stephen Emm wrote:
The increasing number of PMTE jobs and rate stagnation meant that I needed to find a more secure profession, but I imagine that you can make a comfortable living working in your language pair.
I hope you continue to!

Stephen Emm wrote:
But you are aware that the amount of the MTPE work is only going to increase? How will you maintain your income, when the majority of your work is MTPE?

Stephen Emm wrote:
Also, you charge .09 euros per source word, some French to English translators were charging this rate over 20 years' ago! What does that tell you about translation rates and the general trends in the industry? Not particularly healthy, I would say.

Stephen Emm wrote:
Of course, you can make a living from it, for now...

Stephen Emm wrote:
It would be really interesting to know, on an anonymous forum perhaps, how much people actually earn and how many hours they work as this would give a true picture of the earnings situation.

Ice Scream wrote:

I wouldn’t recommend translation as a career

Sadek_A wrote:

I see no point in having such a translation in the first place. What could be the point of a translation if it can't convey the actual meaning?


That's now the point where MT is stuck, and MT-subordinates are, however, shamelessly 24/7 cheering a usable product. But, is it really?

Lieven Malaise wrote:
I post-edit more words per day, but in the same time as conventional translation.

David GAY wrote:
so it s your trade secret...