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Off topic: Autumn trends in the translation industry
Thread poster: Oksana Weiss
Oksana Weiss
Oksana Weiss  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 19:36
Member (2011)
English to Russian
+ ...
Nov 27, 2024

Have you noticed how everyone is trying to end this year earlier? Emails saying “As a small successful agency that was bought by a large global company, we thank you for your cooperation and want to tell you about our achievements in 2024”. Usually, such emails came on December 19-20 before everyone went on Christmas holidays, and by January 15 you did not receive anything apart from spam and a few desperate requests from the remaining "skeleton team". This year, I started receiving these en... See more
Have you noticed how everyone is trying to end this year earlier? Emails saying “As a small successful agency that was bought by a large global company, we thank you for your cooperation and want to tell you about our achievements in 2024”. Usually, such emails came on December 19-20 before everyone went on Christmas holidays, and by January 15 you did not receive anything apart from spam and a few desperate requests from the remaining "skeleton team". This year, I started receiving these end-of-year emails already on November 20. I assume that by Thanksgiving Day everyone will say goodbye to me and with a sigh of relief leave for the winter holidays.
But there is no rest for the wicked! Meanwhile, Google, Facebook et al started sending emails with changes to their privacy policies. And what does this mean? That's right: those of us who work with legal translations will have a job (or a headache) until the end of the year – to make changes and amendments to the existing translations of EULAs. I always say that lawyers are translators' best friends. But no one expected such a dirty trick from them at the end of the year! They will go on vacation, and we will have to translate 25 amendments created by these pen pushers.
And the third trend – which, they say, has been around for a long time, but I only noticed it a couple of days ago, when I bought a selfie stick – is Chinese-English translation of instructions for all kinds of devices, made with this very selfie stick. God forbid translating this nonsense from English to the target language! I shall immediately return it to the client with a note: GIGO.
I am curious, what other trends have you noticed this year? What are your predictions for the translation industry in 2025? ▲ Collapse
 
Lieven Malaise
Lieven Malaise
Belgium
Local time: 19:36
Member (2020)
French to Dutch
+ ...
No trends Nov 27, 2024

I have seen no trends whatsoever, unless you can call a totally crazily stuffed month of October and an only crazily stuffed month of November a trend. December also started off nicely, with already 3 days being fully booked. If things continue like this I'm heading towards at least one of my best quarters ever.

I assume the past year the amount of MTPE work will have further increased to the detriment of conventional translation, but I didn't keep records so I can't be sure of this... See more
I have seen no trends whatsoever, unless you can call a totally crazily stuffed month of October and an only crazily stuffed month of November a trend. December also started off nicely, with already 3 days being fully booked. If things continue like this I'm heading towards at least one of my best quarters ever.

I assume the past year the amount of MTPE work will have further increased to the detriment of conventional translation, but I didn't keep records so I can't be sure of this.

As far as my expectations for 2025 are concerned, they are the same as last year: apart from more MTPE work (which is an inevitable evolution in my opinion) they are inexistant. I always look at my professional future with a certain fear, which has been groundless until now, so once again I will hope for the best. ▲ Collapse


Oksana Weiss
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Autumn trends in the translation industry






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