Poll: Translators of the future will... Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
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This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "Translators of the future will...".
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I’m not good at predicting things, but I hope that the translators of the future won’t be robot-like…
| | | | | Fewer and better | Sep 26, 2019 |
I can only speak for myself: I will be fewer and better ...
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I really don't know.
It also depends on how long time into the future we are talking.
Things are changing faster and faster.
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Mario Freitas 
Brazil
Local time: 06:56
Member (2014)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
| Fewer specialists + a bunch of machine cogs | Sep 26, 2019 |
I'd never advise a child of mine to study and become a translator now.
For our generation, we'll still do just fine until machine translation becomes feasible (it's still far from it).
But in 20 or 30 years, MTs will replace humans in things like device manuals, commercial letters, etc. In China, for example, human translators will be very rare.
However, human translators will always be necessary in literature or any science that requires interpretation. Machines work with mat... See more I'd never advise a child of mine to study and become a translator now.
For our generation, we'll still do just fine until machine translation becomes feasible (it's still far from it).
But in 20 or 30 years, MTs will replace humans in things like device manuals, commercial letters, etc. In China, for example, human translators will be very rare.
However, human translators will always be necessary in literature or any science that requires interpretation. Machines work with mathematical formulas, and no matter how complex their logarithms are, a machine will never be able to interpret feelings, jokes, puns, all mistakes, typos, etc. There will always be some specialists.
Horses were replaced by cars long ago. We no longer have people taking care of the in every corner, but there are some very expensive specialists nowadays. ▲ Collapse
| | | | DZiW (X)
Ukraine
English to Russian
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| | A combination | Sep 26, 2019 |
If things pan out as my thoroughly unstatistical approach leads me to believe they will, then the field will be pretty much split down the middle. At one pole, my deliberately exaggerated suggestion will find the robots working their socks off to correct and edit stuff that has been pre-chewed by machines. At the other pole, you will have the goldsmiths fighting hard to maintain a liveable existence from fine-tuning and often improving what has already been improved by robots.
Sad ... See more If things pan out as my thoroughly unstatistical approach leads me to believe they will, then the field will be pretty much split down the middle. At one pole, my deliberately exaggerated suggestion will find the robots working their socks off to correct and edit stuff that has been pre-chewed by machines. At the other pole, you will have the goldsmiths fighting hard to maintain a liveable existence from fine-tuning and often improving what has already been improved by robots.
Sad thing n°1 is that the robots are not necessarily at fault, just also trying to earn a decent living.
Sad thing n°2 is that the goldsmiths may be in exactly the same position as the robots.
Amazing unique fun fact is that some of the robots and goldsmiths may actually be able to make a good living for being a good robot or a good goldsmith! ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Fewer but better | Sep 26, 2019 |
It is a very exciting time to be a translator and to study translation. Let's not forget that graduates of such programme acquire skills that can also lead them to careers in publishing, education, media and so on. Oh and the beautiful world of transcreation and localization. The possibilities are endless for those truly passionate about this ever changing industry .
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| Translators of the future will . . . | Sep 27, 2019 |
translate.
That's it, really.
| | | | | Many will be cogs in a machine | Sep 28, 2019 |
Given the way rates are falling, I don't know how real translators are going to survive if the profession doesn't yield enough income to live on. This morning an agency PM told me that my *minimum* rate (which I've been getting for at least 10 years) is three times higher than their maximum budget.
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