| Pages in topic: < [1 2] | Off topic: Why is there such a huge worldwide effort to slash translation costs? Thread poster: José Henrique Lamensdorf
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Robert Forstag 
United States
Local time: 02:54
Spanish to English
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| I think that, in many ways, the opposite is true | Jul 11, 2012 |
Riccardo Schiaffino wrote: José Henrique Lamensdorf wrote: Everyone sees an immense worldwide effort to eliminate translation costs, either by developing further machine translation, or in initiatives like Duolingo. Is translation really so expensive? In other words, do translators really make/cost so much money to justify such investments in replacing them with cost-free alternative solutions? [Edited at 2012-07-11 12:37 GMT] I believe that such efforts are mainly due not so much to the desire to slash costs, but to the fact that the demand for translation far outstrips (reliable) supply.
In at least some language combinations, I think the opposite is true. In other words, there is an oversupply of translators, many of whom are unqualified or marginally qualified. This seems to be a phenomenon that drives prices down (and, incidentally, one that does not exactly promote reverence for the profession).
[Edited at 2012-07-11 21:40 GMT]
| | | | | We are not the only ones | Jul 12, 2012 |
I suppose farmers feel the same about the milk and telecom companies about internet connections. I have no idea how much work and money takes to milk a cow or the costs and time needed to built a satellite or put a cable around my house to bring me the internet, but I would like to pay less.
Everybody wants to reduce its costs. The main difference is that you can compare different types of milk and internet providers until you find the one that offers a quality you are willing to ... See more I suppose farmers feel the same about the milk and telecom companies about internet connections. I have no idea how much work and money takes to milk a cow or the costs and time needed to built a satellite or put a cable around my house to bring me the internet, but I would like to pay less.
Everybody wants to reduce its costs. The main difference is that you can compare different types of milk and internet providers until you find the one that offers a quality you are willing to pay for. In our profession it is a bit harder. Personally, I would no t be able to tell whether a Spanish to Polish translator is doing a professional job or just putting my text trough a machine by the time I find out, if I do, will be to late. However I know this could happen and I will do my homework to avoid it. Many of our customer don´t even now that.
This applies to individual, if we were to talk about agencies, the story is quite different. ▲ Collapse
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[quote]Theo Bernards wrote:
when we as professionals didn't outright reject the idea of discounts for repetitions when some developer conceived the idea of such discounts. After all, it seems unlikely that this was put into the market untested, so it stands to reason that translators were asked at some point during the development of the first CAT-tool(s) how they felt about such a time saver. I guess it didn't dawn on the profession that such time savings might have financial implications.
[quote]
Although I understand the sentiment, I don't think it would have mattered what translators thought in the early days of CAT-tool development, even if they had the foresight to connect the cost implications. This happens to virtually every industry, so why not translation?
Think of it this way, twenty five years ago or so, even twenty, if you wanted to plan a vacation you went to a travel agent who was thought of as the expert in travel planning. Well, the Internet came along and made everyone capable of doing the exact same thing. Travel agents and agencies were in a frenzy when sites like Expedia and Priceline came along and they made the same arguement about being irreplaceable professional, experts. Many such agents were indeed extremely well versed and true experts on destinations, airlines, hotels, etc. But no one cared. Why should they if they could do the same thing themselves and cheaper with no additional fees. A lot of agencies went out of business because they simply could not adapt. Travel agencies are still around, but they are fewer and have become far more specialized.
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