| Các trang trong chủ đề: [1 2 3 4 5] > | Translation business in a deep slump? Người gửi thông tin lên tuyến đoạn: JAN SNAUWAERT
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JAN SNAUWAERT 
Bỉ
Local time: 15:25
Thành viên kể từ 2008
French to Dutch
+ ...
Hi all,
I have been in the translation business for several years now and have been quite successful, if I may say so myself.
However, this year, something changed and changed quite a lot. I attribute it to the steep rise of AI in the translation business.
Since several months now, my job volume has plumetted drastically. I am only a year and a half away from retirement, so it need not be a disaster financially, but it is far from a fun experience.
Do... See more Hi all,
I have been in the translation business for several years now and have been quite successful, if I may say so myself.
However, this year, something changed and changed quite a lot. I attribute it to the steep rise of AI in the translation business.
Since several months now, my job volume has plumetted drastically. I am only a year and a half away from retirement, so it need not be a disaster financially, but it is far from a fun experience.
Do you, colleague Proz members, experience something similar? ▲ Collapse
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But I know someone here who I’m very fond of is struggling.
I think the key is to move away from
the big agencies as much as possible.
| | | | Lieven Malaise
Bỉ
Local time: 15:25
Thành viên kể từ 2020
French to Dutch
+ ...
Hard to say because we are all in different situations. Do you work mainly for direct clients or for agencies? Are you highly specialized (meaning that you offer something that most competitors can't) or more of a general translator? Are your rates very high, just high, average or rather low? Do you offer MTPE at a reduced rate or not? These are all factors that might influence one's business nowadays.
Personally I'm still living excellent business times (working mainly for translat... See more Hard to say because we are all in different situations. Do you work mainly for direct clients or for agencies? Are you highly specialized (meaning that you offer something that most competitors can't) or more of a general translator? Are your rates very high, just high, average or rather low? Do you offer MTPE at a reduced rate or not? These are all factors that might influence one's business nowadays.
Personally I'm still living excellent business times (working mainly for translation agencies) since I decided in 2020 to take my business to a higher level (meaning achieving maximum efficiency + starting to integrate machine translation). ▲ Collapse
| | | | Mario Chávez
Hoa Kỳ
Local time: 09:25
Thành viên kể từ Jun 2024
English to Spanish
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| The current malaise is not so current | Jul 16 |
I've observed certain trends in the 30+ years of translation practice I've carried so far:
1) Back in the early 1990s, some established translators in my town, New York City, were complaining of lower rates.
2) In the mid 1990s, one of my translation mentors, a financial translator herself, was complaining against the unfair competition brought on by overseas translators (thanks to the much-vaunted globalization) who could afford to charge much less than us locals in the Unite... See more I've observed certain trends in the 30+ years of translation practice I've carried so far:
1) Back in the early 1990s, some established translators in my town, New York City, were complaining of lower rates.
2) In the mid 1990s, one of my translation mentors, a financial translator herself, was complaining against the unfair competition brought on by overseas translators (thanks to the much-vaunted globalization) who could afford to charge much less than us locals in the United States.
Overall, MT, NMT and gen AI-aided MT are what I call nuisance technologies; they don't make things better, just faster, by themselves. I worked in MTPE and enjoyed it as long as the client allowed me to have the final say, which meant rewriting translations often.
The problem with AI-aided MT is similar to MTPE: CEOs, project managers, business managers, technology peddlers and other interested parties stubbornly think that they can extract efficiencies (i.e. save money) by somehow standardizing the MTPE or AI-generated translation. Just because a text processed via MTPE or generative AI requires 20 minutes of review or editing doesn't mean all pieces of text translated in any foreign language will require the same 20 minutes. This may be the logical conclusion for us translators, but nontranslators are reticent obstinates who would not hear it. ▲ Collapse
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I have been translating for over 40 years and although over the years work has always been a roller coaster I’ve been noticing since Covid-19 that the ride is even bumpier: a good month is followed by a bad one. So, how were my first 6 months of this year?
January: quite good
February: bad
March: so, so
April: good
May: terrible
June: terrible
July: good, so far
If the work that's been announced for August and September turns out, these will be m... See more I have been translating for over 40 years and although over the years work has always been a roller coaster I’ve been noticing since Covid-19 that the ride is even bumpier: a good month is followed by a bad one. So, how were my first 6 months of this year?
January: quite good
February: bad
March: so, so
April: good
May: terrible
June: terrible
July: good, so far
If the work that's been announced for August and September turns out, these will be my best months of the year… Fingers crossed! ▲ Collapse
| | | | Angie Garbarino
Local time: 15:25
Thành viên kể từ 2003
French to Italian
+ ...
JAN SNAUWAERT wrote:
Hi all,
I have been in the translation business for several years now and have been quite successful, if I may say so myself.
However, this year, something changed and changed quite a lot. I attribute it to the steep rise of AI in the translation business.
Since several months now, my job volume has plumetted drastically. I am only a year and a half away from retirement, so it need not be a disaster financially, but it is far from a fun experience.
Do you, colleague Proz members, experience something similar?
My situation is identical, a part the pension (which is not enough as I have still 8 months to pay for a mortgage) and I also need to avoid a disaster.
[Edited at 2024-07-17 12:13 GMT]
| | | | Angie Garbarino
Local time: 15:25
Thành viên kể từ 2003
French to Italian
+ ...
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida wrote:
I have been translating for over 40 years and although over the years work has always been a roller coaster I’ve been noticing since Covid-19 that the ride is even bumpier: a good month is followed by a bad one. So, how were my first 6 months of this year?
January: quite good
February: bad
March: so, so
April: good
May: terrible
June: terrible
July: good, so far
If the work that's been announced for August and September turns out, these will be my best months of the year… Fingers crossed!
January: so, so
February: bad
March: so, so
April: bad
May: bad
June: good
July; terrible until now
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Angie Garbarino wrote:
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida wrote:
I have been translating for over 40 years and although over the years work has always been a roller coaster I’ve been noticing since Covid-19 that the ride is even bumpier: a good month is followed by a bad one. So, how were my first 6 months of this year?
January: quite good
February: bad
March: so, so
April: good
May: terrible
June: terrible
July: good, so far
If the work that's been announced for August and September turns out, these will be my best months of the year… Fingers crossed!
January: so, so
February: bad
March: so, so
April: bad
May: bad
June: good
July; terrible until now
I'm down 28 % so far this year (end of june).
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JAN SNAUWAERT
Bỉ
Local time: 15:25
Thành viên kể từ 2008
French to Dutch
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Thank you everyone for your reply.
Most replies confirm more or less what I thought. Yes, of course, the translation business has always been a kind of rollercoaster. However, I find it difficult - or impossible - to ignore that especially since the beginning of this year, we have been feeling the competition from AI particularly strongly. I don't know yet how to adapt to this new situation, but I hope that time will learn (soon, preferably).
| | | | Zea_Mays
Ý
Local time: 15:25
English to German
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| what's the real cause? | Jul 17 |
JAN SNAUWAERT wrote:
I find it difficult - or impossible - to ignore that especially since the beginning of this year, we have been feeling the competition from AI particularly strongly.
I still think the real cause is the economic slowdown, if you don't like to call it a recession.
Look at the slowly decelerating inflation rates. Take the German economy, it's been down since last year, if not before. The US economy is not doing any better, take out the big tech companies, and you'll see that almost all other sectors are suffering, especially those where you have to make big investments to buy their products (cars, real estate for example for individuals, expensive machines for companies). More and more people is getting into debt, in the US through credit cards. (Today there has been a considerable downturn in IT stocks because of fear of US restrictions on China exports, let's see how the money will be reallocated.)
What I have noticed in the last few weeks is an increase in enquiries through ProZ and my website from very interesting potential clients (mostly agencies), one of whom has already onboarded me to their system for a potential project (fingers crossed). Could this be a sign of a slowly starting recovery? I hope so.
As for my 2024 so far:
January: minimum goal met
February: minimum goal met
March: average goal met
April: below minimum goal
May: slightly below average goal
June: below minimum goal
July so far: weeks 1+2: below minimum goal, week 3: average goal almost met
[Bearbeitet am 2024-07-17 15:55 GMT]
| | | | David GAY
Local time: 15:25
English to French
+ ...
Mario Chávez wrote:
Long time no see. Are you still a translator or have you become a teacher, which as far as I can remember was your goal?
Anyway, 30 years ago, the French Translator association was located at one of the most prestigious addresses in Paris. Nowadays, it's located in very humble city. So I think it perfectly illustrates the current situation in this industry.
| | | | David GAY
Local time: 15:25
English to French
+ ...
Angie Garbarino wrote:
My situation is identical, a part the pension (which is not enough as I have still 8 months to pay for a mortgage) and I also need to avoid a disaster.
[Edited at 2024-07-17 12:13 GMT]
So as far as I understand you now earn less than you used to even though you receive a pension. So your pension doesn't even offset the decline of your translation business.
[Edited at 2024-07-17 21:00 GMT]
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JAN SNAUWAERT
Bỉ
Local time: 15:25
Thành viên kể từ 2008
French to Dutch
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER | Economic situation could play a role, but not main reason | Jul 18 |
Zea_Mays wrote:
JAN SNAUWAERT wrote:
I find it difficult - or impossible - to ignore that especially since the beginning of this year, we have been feeling the competition from AI particularly strongly.
I still think the real cause is the economic slowdown, if you don't like to call it a recession.
Look at the slowly decelerating inflation rates. Take the German economy, it's been down since last year, if not before. The US economy is not doing any better, take out the big tech companies, and you'll see that almost all other sectors are suffering, especially those where you have to make big investments to buy their products (cars, real estate for example for individuals, expensive machines for companies). More and more people is getting into debt, in the US through credit cards. (Today there has been a considerable downturn in IT stocks because of fear of US restrictions on China exports, let's see how the money will be reallocated.)
What I have noticed in the last few weeks is an increase in enquiries through ProZ and my website from very interesting potential clients (mostly agencies), one of whom has already onboarded me to their system for a potential project (fingers crossed). Could this be a sign of a slowly starting recovery? I hope so.
As for my 2024 so far:
January: minimum goal met
February: minimum goal met
March: average goal met
April: below minimum goal
May: slightly below average goal
June: below minimum goal
July so far: weeks 1+2: below minimum goal, week 3: average goal almost met
I am afraid the main reason for the big slowdown of the translation industry is not the economic situation. Remember the world recession, or even depression, during the financial crisis of 2008 - 2009? It didn't affect the translation industry, on the contrary, the translation industry was booming.
[Bearbeitet am 2024-07-17 15:55 GMT]
| | | | Kay Denney
Pháp
Local time: 15:25
French to English
The thing with this economic downturn is that, with money being tight, people are going to try to cut costs using AI, which they couldn't before.
I'm getting less work this year, but it's more because of losing a good client after they had to put out a call for tender (I was working for them as a stop gap while they sorted out how to organise the call for tender, which took them several years!).
I'm crossing my fingers that the new government in France will repeal the ... See more The thing with this economic downturn is that, with money being tight, people are going to try to cut costs using AI, which they couldn't before.
I'm getting less work this year, but it's more because of losing a good client after they had to put out a call for tender (I was working for them as a stop gap while they sorted out how to organise the call for tender, which took them several years!).
I'm crossing my fingers that the new government in France will repeal the vastly unpopular retirement reforms in which case I can retire next year, otherwise I'll have to eke things out for three more years. ▲ Collapse
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Can I just point out that the economy isn’t that bad at all, and it doesn’t have a direct or universal effect even when it is. Diversify.
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