from here to tomorrow

8/7/2019 From Here to Tomorrow

1/44

From Here to Tomorrow

Reasons for optimism, or despair?

AUSIT QLD Professional Development

presents

presented by


2/44

Why the need for this talk?

Chilling news

Chilling ignorance

Chilling attrition and death of languages atthe expense of English

Globalization

Changes to industry in response to

globalization


3/44

The Revolutions

Pen-&-paper => PCs, CATs => othertechnologies (are we inadequate?)

Manual => automatic (are we redundant?)

Craft => industry (are we becominglabourers?)

Home => English-speaking world (can we

compete?)

IS THERE A FUTURE FOR US?


4/44

Translator

Business

World


5/44

Lets start with basics

Not just any old PC, but

Change computer every two years

Top-class coloured printers

Multimedia, DTP, Trados

Other software upgrades (every 1/2 years)

Training costs to master new versions

Two ISP providers

Multiple external storage devices Clients (agencies) EXPECT us to have software

that fits their requirements..

Can we afford this? Does the work pay?


6/44

No longer just words

To remain competitive, a translator needs tobe conversant with:

a number of DTP packages (Adobe, Publisher,

Macromedia, etc) web editing/creation software that

changes/upgrades every few months

electronic translation tools

the Internet

Localisation software

Training is not for free!


7/44

Translation tools

Software for terminology extraction andmanagement

Translation Memory systems

Subtitling, web site cloning and localisationsoftware

Voice recognition software

Translation workflow management software

Terminology databases/glossaries

Membership in forums/lists


8/44

What IT Had Wrought on Us

Has a major impact on the industry

Created a rift between the have and havenots

Created a rift between those who can andthose who cant (ageism)

Those who have not are increasingly

dependent on agencies => lower income=> have not and will continue to have not.


9/44

What IT Had Wrought on Us

Technology UserWord processor +TM

+TMS + Internet

=

Low remuneration

Technology UtilizerAs on left + more

elaborateservices/specific type

of materials and mediausing sophisticatedsoftware systems

(subtitling/localisation/TP

MS/customizedsoftware

=

High remuneration


10/44


11/44

The Good..

E-mail speedy communication

WWW forums, clients, resources,information, mining terminology, no

isolation, direct access to clients, relativelycheap marketing, global market,collaboration on projects

IT Boom generated huge translationmarkets in web/software localisation,documentation, etc. 20 -30% annualgrowth. Also generated tons of corpora.


12/44

The Bad

MT 95% poor but 5% very good (and expensive). Willimprove with time. Wobbly markets technical writing,information monitoring.

Localization largest market. Software localizationamenable to MT. Also, needs software coding and other ITknowledge plus specialized software. Can be prohibitivelyexpensive to enter.

Global Village copywriting and globalizing: big markets.Need cultural consulting and multimedia skills, must becreative.

Global English majority of translations from and intoEnglish. Other language combinations poor cousins except for a few Asian languages with economic clout.

Translator Training does not (yet) include IT.


13/44

The Really Ugly

No longer cottage industry, but an industrialprocess: Increased volume => tools toprocess => standarization = increasingly

heavy financial and time investment in toolsthat will not end.

Globalization competing on price

IT slaves to computers, contact viascreen. More money only via moretime/money spent on IT.


14/44

WE ARE ONLY PRODUCING MORE TO STAYIN THE RACE, NOT TO WIN IT.

WORK PROVIDERS TAKE THE BIGGESTSHARE OF OUR PRODUCTIVITY.

WE WORK HARD PRODUCING CORPORATHAT ARE FED INTO MACHINES THAT

REPLACE US.


15/44

The Joys of Industrialization

The effect of the translation marketbecoming industrial

Affects all professional practices and attitudes

(including ethical ones)Affects all the players freelancers, in-house,

agencies, clients

Influences how translation is taught (more

techie and business stuff)

Freelancers as hired, temp labour noprotection, inordinate demands


16/44

The Downward Spiral

New MarketAppears scarce

resource Translator invests

in software to

benefit

More translators

invest, more

competition

MT takes overin the New

Market

translators

OUT!


17/44

It Happened before

The IndustrialRevolution replacedcottage industries withfactories, and wageearners with machineswith which theyhad tocompete.


18/44

MT the Unfriendly Revolution?

Governments pump heaps of money into MTresearch. Why?

MT never complains about

MT never

MT never gets

MT never goes on leave

MT is never in mood.


19/44


20/44

Levelling the Playing Field

MT rivals us (so far) only in jobs we dontmind it doing anyway: repetitive, notpaying, huge volumes at short deadlines.

(DANGER) They compete on price per volume. We can

show that we can produce better quality

under the same conditions (low quality, oraltranslation, etc.)


21/44

So whats the POTENTIAL?

The JustWant To Know What It Is Aboutmarket often scientists and academics: offergisting, synopses, summaries, oral translationsetc.

Use it to speed up time consumed by typing.Post edit instead of typing from scratch.

MT will never forget a line or even a word. Use

as dictionary/glossary Prepare ST for MT (remove ambiguities, simplify)

Offer free translation, but charge heaps for

post-editing.


22/44

The Danger

MLIS Projects (as example):

MT of financial statements

MT of contracts

Lucrative specialized markets high use oflanguage stereotypes, therefore good forMT - where translators will be reduced to

translating:What the machine cantyet translate, and not

what they do not want to translate


23/44

The Translation Factory


24/44

Massification

Mass volumes need

to be translatedpermitting industrialisation

Industrialisation allows for

more massive translationsusing IT

IT promotes

larger markets

and therefore

more documentation


25/44

Processability of Media

Everything can be made digital


26/44

Standardization (aka control)

Standard specifications of the ST(formatting, style sheets, style guides, etc.)

Standards of clarity, readability, register,

etc.)

Facilitate automatic processing of material

@the expense of translators creativity andfreedom


27/44

Pro-Industrial Work Organization

Well-organized production processreplicates industrial type models:

Protocols

Procedures Improvement of quality/productivity ratio

Path analysis (planning)

Increased efficiency and cost-effectiveness Reduced time-to-market

Product standardization (style, templates,terminology models, info-maps, etc.)


28/44

Productivity-enhancing Tools

Software =>Automation of tasks

Industrial productionmanagement andworkflow tools

Translators monitoredand their work

checked automatically


29/44


30/44

Khello Brisbane, this is Indiacalling..

Global market service providerseverywhere

24/7 shift-based systems

Competition on prices => off-shoring tocheaper countries

Sub-contracting to smaller, cheaper fry

Many non-native English speakerstranslating into English no longerconsidered unprofessional.


31/44

Outsourcing

Direct clients no longer translating in-house(too much work)

Big loss to in-house translators BUT

Increased translation sales

Increased number of agencies

Increased number of freelancers/in-house

translators in agencies


32/44

The Rise of the Middleman

Huge increase in translation companies,agencies and brokers.

Large volume necessitates industrial

approach Largest job rise project managers and

marketing people.

Very fragmented market gives freelancerssome degree of independence


33/44

The New Pyramid

Industry Client

Agency/Broker/Translation

Company:

The Cogs (us)

ProjectManagers, Sales,

Marketing, Quality

Control, Software, etc.


34/44

Faster, faster

The industry (like all others) is driven by thequest for higher productivity.

This is measured as #of words per minute

(not quality). Enhanced quality and increased productivity

do not go hand in hand. The second wins in

industrialized environment.


35/44


36/44

Our Future on AssemblyLine

Three main divisions of labour Between specialised operators within the same

team

Between broker and sub-contractors

Between top brass and no-value addingtranslators

No control over our work

No overall vision of the project In future, some workflow software pushes

disassembled segments without any contextonto our workstation


37/44

Market Divided

A. Industrial translation

B. Craft translation

C. Amateur translation

Traditionalists Modernists - consortia


38/44

The Demise of Small Agencies

Small agencies go out of business orbecome cells as:

Business concentrates (like multinationals)

Multilingual projects are tackled (monolingualcountries at loss)

Cant subsidize to take over markets with pricedifferentials

Cant invest in the technology, processes, etc.necessary


39/44

AUSTRALIA?

No industry as such

No understanding on governments behalfof the potential

No financial incentives

WHO WILLWAKE THE SLEEPERS??


40/44

Man is Wolf to Man

We are competing for clients against Other translators

Other agencies

Here and worldwideAs a result of productivity gains + quality

not being important

We can no longer add value by doing a betterjob

It is basically about who can drop theirwhatever lower.


41/44


42/44


43/44

WHAT IS TO BE

DONE?


44/44

This:

Effective virtual pools (teams) offreelancers. This includes the necessarytechnology for e-teams.

United we stand (a better chance) Professional = doing it for the money.

Need to re-focus. Become realistic.

Gender issues need to be looked into

Become better at the business side of it.

Become consultants (in translationmanagement, not translation proper)

from here to tomorrow

Documents