It happens more often, and it is very bad. The translation industry is headless, lost in an anachronistic and empirical limbo that does not allow it to shake off old practices that are deficient and contrary to its progress. I am not talking about the progress that focuses in to its immutable devaluation: The technology. Constant that is in the hands of programmers, engineers, neurolinguists, physicists and obviously businessperson, among others. Investors know, like many of us, that business is so important that it makes huge profits and is worth investing in.
Every day AI robots are constantly and quickly fed by glossaries, terms, grammatical forms and everything necessary to "almost" build the magic of a clear and understandable text. However, we all know that. For a professional translator, rather than doubt or fear of technology, there must be certain celebration since it facilitates our work, but as I said, I am not talking about that.
To clarify my objective, we must first portray what a professional translator is. If we look for information, we will find that there is no strict definition. Tacit. Distinctive. Complete. There is not. Perhaps we were born together with Mesopotamia and Egypt when writing was born, perhaps much earlier, with cave paintings. We will never know. Nevertheless, we do know that to define a translator in a certain way in our days, the least that he/she must possess is the following:
1) Be 100% bilingual, know two languages perfectly, the source and target.
2) Have a high degree of understanding in those two languages and the aspects of full culture.
3) Know how to use translation software, editing, subtitling, interpretation, audio and video programs, as well as knowing how to build and manage specific memories and data in the cloud.
4) Preferably have a bachelor's degree in translation, or deep translation training. Training in linguistics or similar fields as letters and/or communication. Know the formal aspects of writing.
5) Translate only into his/her native language.
6) Be a member of a society or be certified by a society of translators.
7) Don't be cheap.
8) Follow an ethical code, apparently that makes a translator more professional (Almost every country has a different one, with awful and bizarre sections, but essentially very similar when it comes to semantic rules, confidentiality, responsibilities, etc.)
Many will agree and others might not. Yet, here, at this point, we could separate thousands who feel like translators because they can, in some way, more or less, speak two languages and fairly comply with one of the clauses above. Although my point is, after all this presentation a very different one. One that I have been investigating for years and that I have not been able to find, unite the little information that I have or sometimes even understand...
True translators, those of us who live from this profession and study, update ourselves and every day soak up in information from the industry, lost essential points in the route that drives us. We leave our luck and our future in the hands of no one. Today it is very difficult to try to build a strong and complete base in order to lay the foundations for a highly professional and equitable vanguard industry.
To be continue…
Mexico