logo image
  • News
    • People Moves
    • Deal Wins
    • Demand Drivers
    • M&A and Funding
    • Financial Results
    • Technology
    • Academia
    • Industry News
    • Features
    • Machine Translation
    • — Divider —
    • Slator Pro
    • — Divider —
    • Press Releases
    • Sponsored Content
  • Data & Research
    • Research Reports & Pro Guides
    • Language Industry Investor Map
    • Real-Time Charts of Listed LSPs
    • Language Service Provider Index
  • Podcasts & Videos
  • Events
    • SlatorCon Remote May 2021
    • Localizing at Scale for International Growth
    • Design Thinking May 2021
    • — Divider —
    • SlatorCon Coverage
    • Other Events
  • Directory
  • RFP Center
  • Jobs
MENU
  • News
    • People Moves
    • Deal Wins
    • Demand Drivers
    • M&A and Funding
    • Financial Results
    • Technology
    • Academia
    • Industry News
    • Features
    • Machine Translation
    • — Divider —
    • Slator Pro
    • — Divider —
    • Press Releases
    • Sponsored Content
  • Data & Research
    • Research Reports & Pro Guides
    • Language Industry Investor Map
    • Real-Time Charts of Listed LSPs
    • Language Service Provider Index
  • Podcasts & Videos
  • Events
    • SlatorCon Remote May 2021
    • Localizing at Scale for International Growth
    • Design Thinking May 2021
    • — Divider —
    • SlatorCon Coverage
    • Other Events
  • Directory
  • RFP Center
  • Jobs

Register Now for SlatorCon Remote on May 13th!

  • Slator Market Intelligence
  • Slator Advertising Services
  • Slator Advisory
  • Login
Search
Generic filters
Exact matches only
Advertisement
The Future of Human Translation: A Rosy View

3 years ago

October 27, 2017

The Future of Human Translation: A Rosy View

Features ·

by Silvio Picinini

On October 27, 2017

3 years ago
Features ·

by Silvio Picinini

On October 27, 2017

The Future of Human Translation: A Rosy View

There is no shortage of concern about the future of translators and of the language industry with the prospect of high-quality machine translation (MT). I have some ideas, but they are far out there in rosy land, so please bear with me.

Imagine a planet with no pharmacies and no medication to buy. A person has a headache and does not know what it is, so she goes to the doctor. Another has a cough, and he goes to the doctor. The doctor prescribes some concoction and the doctor’s business is good. Then, millions of people land on the planet, and suddenly there are not nearly enough doctors.

One doctor realizes that every time someone comes with a headache, he prescribes the same combination of drugs. He thinks that maybe he could produce a massive amount of it and tell everyone that “if you have a headache, take this.”

Advertisement

And the pharmaceutical industry is born. The other doctors try to stop him saying, “People will stop coming to us.” He calmly replies that “people will stop coming to us with headaches, and coughs, and we will treat more important things.”

Not only that, he continues, “millions of people don’t even know that doctors exist, so they are not our customers. However, once they find out that a headache can be treated with some medication, they will realize that doctors can treat things that are more important. And they will become our customers!”

Back to our planet, do you think that any doctor thinks that over-the-counter medicine will take away their jobs? I don’t think so.

How Millions of Companies Discover Translation

My rosy view is that translators are the doctors, and MT is the over-the-counter medicine. MT will make millions of companies discover that translation exists and translated content is read by customers in other languages. People will read it. And understand it. And then act on it: buying things, talking about your company and your product in social media, bringing other people to read your pages.

Traffic. Sales. Mind share. From translation.

Then, what happens next?

The next realization by these companies is that many people in other languages are reading the top 10 pages on their websites or their latest brochure. They will realize that these are precious pieces of content that are getting attention, and they will want to make sure that the translation is great.

Therefore, there will be a human professional working on those pages. Now, where there was zero work for human translators, there will be highly important work to do, well paid and recognized. Will the price of human translation drop? No, it will go up. Translators will work on the most important stuff and leave the headaches and coughs to MT.

Proudly Walking the Orange Carpet

There won’t be red carpets, but I see some shade of orange carpet being rolled out, and translators proudly walking on it, recognized as the great creators of content in another language that they are.

So does a translator in rosy land look different? Yes. Instead of translating a brochure for a coffee maker, a travel site, or a financial report on the same day, translators will specialize even more on a subject and have long-term relationships with LSPs and end clients. We are not treating headaches and coughs anymore. We will be attending demos of new equipment and discussing terminology with in-country specialists. That is what rosy land looks like.

Translators will be attending demos of new equipment and discussing terminology with in-country specialists

And LSPs may have to change from companies that “find translators for your files” to partners that guide the client through translation strategy, discussing which content should go human and which content should go through MT, using which engines and which data, and measuring the quality of that data. That is an LSP in rosy land.

All of this may be way too optimistic, but I like rose colored glasses, what can I do?

TAGS

machine translationSilvio Picininitranslationtranslators
SHARE
Silvio Picinini

By Silvio Picinini

Silvio Picinini is a Machine Translation Language Specialist at eBay, and has been a translator for more than 20 years. Silvio likes puns and dogs.

Advertisement

SUBSCRIBE TO THE SLATOR WEEKLY

Language Industry Intelligence
In Your Inbox. Every Friday

SUBSCRIBE

SlatorSweepSlatorPro
ResearchRFP CENTER

PUBLISH

PRESS RELEASEDIRECTORY LISTING
JOB ADEVENT LISTING

Bespoke advisory including speaking, briefings and M&A

SLATOR ADVISORY
Advertisement

Featured Reports

See all
Pro Guide: Translation Pricing and Procurement

Pro Guide: Translation Pricing and Procurement

by Slator

Slator 2020 Language Industry M&A and Funding Report

Slator 2020 Language Industry M&A and Funding Report

by Slator

Slator 2021 Data-for-AI Market Report

Slator 2021 Data-for-AI Market Report

by Slator

Slator 2020 Medtech Translation and Localization Report

Slator 2020 Medtech Translation and Localization Report

by Slator

Press Releases

See all
Venga Reshapes Language Review with InQA Cloud Application

Venga Reshapes Language Review with InQA Cloud Application

by Venga Global

Smartling Announces Smartling+

Smartling Announces Smartling+

by Smartling

XTM Cloud 12.7 “Intelligent Connectivity” is Here

XTM Cloud 12.7 “Intelligent Connectivity” is Here

by XTM International

Upcoming Events

See All
  1. SlatorCon Remote May 2021

    by Slator

    · May 13 @ 3:00 pm - 8:00 pm

    A rich online conference which brings together our research and network of industry leaders.

    More info $110

Featured Companies

See all
Sunyu Transphere

Sunyu Transphere

Text United

Text United

Memsource

Memsource

Wordbank

Wordbank

Protranslating

Protranslating

SeproTec

SeproTec

Versacom

Versacom

Smartling

Smartling

XTM International

XTM International

Translators without Borders

Translators without Borders

STAR Group

STAR Group

memoQ Translation Technologies

memoQ Translation Technologies

Advertisement

SlatorPod: The Weekly Language Industry Podcast

connect with us

footer logo

Slator makes business sense of the language services and technology market.

Our Company

  • Support
  • About us
  • Terms & Conditions
  • Privacy Policy

Subscribe to the Slator Weekly

Language Industry Intelligence
In Your Inbox. Every Friday

© 2021 Slator. All rights reserved.

Sign up to the Slator Weekly

Join over 13,800 subscribers and get the latest language industry intelligence every Friday

Your information will never be shared with third parties. No Spam.