Poll: Good translators are a dying breed. Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
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This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "Good translators are a dying breed.".
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Are we (I’m presuming I'm good…)? Even in a world inundated by machine translation a human touch will always be needed to understand layers of meaning in context and to create something pleasurable to read.
| | | | Mario Freitas 
Brazil
Local time: 19:25
Member (2014)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
| Good translators will always exist | Mar 2, 2019 |
The translation market is clearly split into two very distinct segments. One comprises people who work for peanuts, post-editing jobs, discounts for repetitions/fuzzies, and things like that. This group is responsible for all the terrorism and apocalyptic forecasts, for a very simple reason: They WILL be replaced by machines.
The other group comprises real professionals who will not be replaced by machines and who are not afraid of that, and who entirely agree with you.
Machines cann... See more The translation market is clearly split into two very distinct segments. One comprises people who work for peanuts, post-editing jobs, discounts for repetitions/fuzzies, and things like that. This group is responsible for all the terrorism and apocalyptic forecasts, for a very simple reason: They WILL be replaced by machines.
The other group comprises real professionals who will not be replaced by machines and who are not afraid of that, and who entirely agree with you.
Machines cannot and never will be able to translate:
- Misspelled words and typos. No algorithm can include all possible errors and typos.
- Poor word choice. The machine will translate the bad choice and not replace it with a better one.
- Humor, jokes, puns, metaphors, etc. No need to discuss, it's impossible to "program" a machine for that.
- Feelings reflected in the text or between the lines.
Now, we must admit the breed, although not "dying" will be largely reduced, so I still wouldn't advise a young person to invest in that career. ▲ Collapse
| | | | R. Alex Jenkins
Brazil
Local time: 19:25
Member (2006)
Portuguese to English
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I sometimes find it alarming, and reassuring at a later date, when I come across multiple pre-translated matches within documents that are simply not up to scratch. Who translated this, I ask myself, and why didn't they take more time before submitting the sentence or why hasn't this been properly revised? And then it occurs to me that because I notice these differences between my own standards and the standards already accepted by one of my agencies, there is very much a place for people like m... See more I sometimes find it alarming, and reassuring at a later date, when I come across multiple pre-translated matches within documents that are simply not up to scratch. Who translated this, I ask myself, and why didn't they take more time before submitting the sentence or why hasn't this been properly revised? And then it occurs to me that because I notice these differences between my own standards and the standards already accepted by one of my agencies, there is very much a place for people like me and other experienced translators, and always will be, even it it's just to sift out the chaff, and produce quality work. ▲ Collapse
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DZiW (X)
Ukraine
English to Russian
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| Specialists-polyglots | Mar 2, 2019 |
I agree that looking at translation in perspective, we need replacing so-called "pure translators" (not to mention MT post-editors and bottom-feeders) with decent specialists--engineers, doctors, builders, sellers, and so on--experienced in foreign languages.
As for the near future, the real translation is not a CAT-conveyor system, but rather intuitive, subjective, and emotional process, rendering it more as an art rather than a science, let alone a trade.
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Translators are not only getting better these days but also faster.
| | | | | I know many good, talented translators ... | Mar 3, 2019 |
... some of them just graduated or even still students. Talent will not die out.
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