Why Do Certain People Keep Telling Translators That They Must Increase Their Productivity?

 

Translators are often exposed to messages, sometime clearly stated, sometime subliminal, “to increase their productivity” by using various nifty “translation technology tools”. We are told that if for example we start using voice recognition software (such as Dragon Naturally Speaking), or start post-editing chunks of text that were “translated” by software, or using this or that CAT (computer-assisted translation tool), we will become much more efficient and make more money because we will double or triple our translating speed.

Is this really true? Well, the bit about using post-editing of machine translation to increase your translating speed is obviously nonsense. As I wrote about it in my last post and many other posts, I am not going to waste more time on this subject in this post.

Although I myself never tried voice recognition software, several translators who are using it have only or mostly positive things to say about it. But the interesting thing is, most of them only started using it when they had no other choice when frequent and repetitive typing resulted in carpal tunnel syndrome.

As most readers of my blog know, I am not a proponent of CATs and I will probably never start using these tools either. Although I do think that they must be suitable for some types of translations because many (but by no means all) translators are so enamored of these tools, I also agree with the opinion of a guest blogger who called them “the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the translation community” on this blog.

Translators who refuse to adopt the latest slew of “translation technology tools” are often ridiculed as silly technology haters. Is that really what those of us who are not exactly early adopters of latest technical “aids” are, just because we believe in old-fashioned translating methods that are based on specialization and constant learning about the subjects that we are translating, a methodology that has been used successfully since the times of St. Jerome about 1,500 years ago, instead of believing that the miracle of technology will miraculously double or triple our translating speed?

Consider the Source

The first thing that I would like to say in response to such characterizations of translators who refuse to jump on the bandwagon would be: Always consider the source! Who are the people who call us technology haters because we are not buying this or that nifty tool that would be so great for every translator? Who do they represent and why are they saying what they are saying?

They generally represent the corporate wing of what for lack of a better name is called “the translation industry”. This is the same translation industry that first sold translators on the notion that they will be able to easily translate ten thousand words a day, instead of only two or three thousand, if they start using Trados. And once enough translators fell into the trap, the same “translation industry” introduced new handy notions called “full matches” and “fuzzy matches” which are widely used in order to extract huge discounts from translators when the same or similar words are repeated in the text.

Most of these translation technology evangelists, if you will (although I think that translation technology propagandists would be a more appropriate title), are not really translators and many of them have only a rudimentary understanding of what translation is really about. Most of them run translation agencies, or they sell tools or services to the translation industry, including expert analyses of present and future business trends, a highly profitable science that has been practiced in ancient Rome by people called “haruspeces” who  were able to divine future from entrails of sacrificially slaughtered animals. (I think it was Cicero who famously said that he could not understand why a haruspex does not laugh when he sees another haruspex).

While it is in the interest of the “translation industry” to make translators work faster, it is not in the interest of the same industry to help them to make more money because the more money a translator makes, the less is left over for the brokers.

And although they like to call themselves “Language Services Providers (LSPs), the translation industry is an industry of middlemen and brokers. That is the real reason why they came up with the acronym LSP in the hope that it would over time replace the more honest term “translation agency”.

Different Translators Work Differently

What works for one person very well may not work at all for somebody else. We are all different people, with different strengths and weaknesses and different inclinations. Some of us translate only from one language and mostly in a relatively narrow field, some of us translate from several languages and in a number of fields. Some people work best in the morning, and some can pull an all-nighter when necessary.

How we work and what tools we use is really nobody’s business. People who try to tell a translator what CAT must be used are not really interested in the particular expertise and skills of that translator, they are just looking for an obedient worker bee.

I don’t tell the plumber what kind of wrench he should use to fix my leaking kitchen sink, and he would probably get really mad at me if I did. I just want him to fix it at a reasonable price. The result is what counts, I leave the choice of the tools up to the professionals.

Some people work very fast and some are not that fast. But just like it is a bad idea to demand that a certain set of tools should be used by every translator, it is also a bad idea to expect the same standardized method with a standardized output, measured in words, will be best for every translator.

Instead of Trying to Increase Your Speed with a New Tool, Try to Increase Your Rate

I know, something like that is easier said than done. But it can be done. It can be done because the translation market is so incredibly fragmented. While it is very difficult to ask for more money for the same work from the same customer, it may work with another customer, especially when a new customer is an end client rather than an agency.

It is also a fact that different translation agencies pay very different rates. Those that try to dictate to translators exactly how they should do their work, including what kind of tools they should be using, generally pay the lowest rates because they don’t see translators as professionals who deserve to be paid accordingly, but mostly as easily replaceable help that should be naturally as cheap as possible.

It makes sense to work instead for those who are much more interested in our education, experience and expertise rather than in what kind of technical tool we are using because people like that generally also pay much better rates.

Don’t tell me what tools I should be using. What tools I am or I am not using as a translator is nobody’s business.

The second part of the clearly stated or subliminal messages telling us that we should double our translating speed with this or that tool, which is never included in these messages, not even subliminally, is that if we in fact do double our speed, the people who are trying to sell us on this or that tool will insist on paying us half as much for our work as they used to and on keeping the profit from the increase in our productivity for themselves.