How technology has affected you as a translator - Essay Example

How technology has affected you as a translator? The work of the translators has shifted into several new dimensions in the recent decades mainly due to the process of globalization and technological advances. The rapid increase in the data to be translated with the accessibility to translation-memory tool has led towards changing the work process of the translator and its relation with its clients. In today’s digital age, the electronic formats have changed not only our texts but also the communication of the translator with the clients and other translators.

It is due to the internet that the professional from all over the global can communicate with each other through mail and instant messages. The work can easily be sent and received across the cultural and natural borders. The translator may work for its clients from anywhere in the world. The market for the translator is not just limited to their own city or country. However translation is still considered to be a service whose dependence is based on high degree of trust between the translators and their clients.

The translator may receive his high pay work mostly from the unseen clients living across the borders, as fees paid to the translators in different countries may vary, however the translators still believe that the best clients are made face to face. Technology has made the distribution of the large translation jobs quite easy between the intermediaries. Suppose if the client wants to market its product in 15 other languages, they would simply hire a marketing company. It is the job of the marketing firm to hire different brokers who then assign this job to a number of translation companies that further allocate the task to the translators that are often are freelancers.

In such a case the company is usually paying at least three times more of what the freelance translator receives. However if the company directly assign the task to any freelancer then it be an advantage for the company as well as the freelance translator, as the company will be paying less for the same job and the translator will be receiving more. Technology has played a significant role in increasing the benefits for the translators; however the various consequences of the electronic communication have also increased the security risk.

Translators are usually working on the material that is out of the public domain. This is what makes trust such an important factor in this business. Therefore while sending and receiving a file the translator must be aware of secure FTP, various forms of zipping and of encoding. There is no doubt about the fact that a translator can effectively overcome these barriers. The translators in order to advance in their career must possess some conceptual control over the changing technology. Translators may then shift to some high tech sector, become marketing experts, project managers or even the owner of their own firm.

However the translators can only progress in their field if they are aware of all the available tools they will need to complete their job successfully(Quah, 2006). BibliographyQuah, C. K., 2006. Translation and Technology. s.l.:Palgrave Macmillan.