The ATA Chronicle - May/June 2018 - 16

IS THERE A FUTURE IN FREELANCE TRANSLATION? LET'S TALK ABOUT IT! continued
or want to save money on language
services, there's no denying that
everyone always seems to be looking for
a bargain these days. Those of us who
have outsourced translation on behalf of
clients know that, more often than not,
what drives a client's decision to choose
a service provider over another is price,
especially when many LSPs make the
same claims about their qualifications,
quality assurance processes, and
industry expertise.

Many experienced freelance translators report having to lower their rates
and work more hours to maintain their inflation-adjusted earnings.
5. Unaware, Unsuspecting, and
Unconcerned Clients: Those of
you who've read my article about
"uneducated" clients9 may think that I'm
obsessed with the subject, but to me it
seems that most of the aforementioned
factors have one common denominator:
clients who are either unaware that
all translations (and translators)
are not created equal, or are simply
unconcerned about the quality of the
service they receive. These clients
will not be willing to pay a premium
price for a service they don't consider
to be premium.
One look at major translation
bloopers and their financial
consequences for companies such as
HSBC, KFC, Ford, Pampers, Coca Cola,
and many more is enough to postulate
that many clients know little about
translation (or the languages they're
having their texts translated into).10
They may be unaware that results (in
terms of quality) are commensurate
to a translator's skills, experience, and
expertise, the technique/technology
used for translating, and the time spent
on a project. And who's to blame them?
Anyone with two eyes is capable of
16

The ATA Chronicle | May/June 2018

looking at a bad paint job and seeing it
for what it is, but it requires a trained
eye to spot a poor translation and
knowledge of the translation process
itself (and language in general) to value
translation for what it is.
Then there's the (thankfully marginal)
number of clients who simply don't
care about the quality of the service
they receive, or whether the translation
makes sense or not. This has the
unfortunate effect of devaluing our work
and the profession in the eyes of the
general public. Regrettably,
when something is perceived as being
of little value, it doesn't tend to fetch
premium prices. As ATA Treasurer John
Milan writes:
"When consumers perceive value,
they [clients] are more willing to
pay for it, which raises a series of
questions for our market. Do buyers
of language services understand the
services being offered? What value
do they put on them? [...] All these
variables will have an impact on final
market rates."11
6. The Economy/The Economical
State of Mind: Whether clients need

7. Other Factors: From online
platforms and auction sites that
encourage price-based bidding and
undifferentiated global competition,
to LSPs making the post-editing of
machine translation the cornerstone
of their business, to professional
translators willing to drop their rates
to extreme lows, there are many other
factors that may be responsible for the
state of things. However, they're more
byproducts of the situation than
factors themselves.

A VERY REAL CONCERN
Rising global competition and rate
stagnation are hardly a unique situation.
Today, freelance web designers, search
engine optimization specialists, graphic
designers, and many other professionals
in the U.S., Canada, Australia, and
Western Europe must compete against
counterparts in India, China, and
other parts of the world where the
cost of living is much cheaper-with
the difference that product/service
quality isn't necessarily sacrificed in
the process. And that may be the major
distinction between what's happening in
our industry and others: the risk posed
to translation itself, both as an art form
and as a product/service.
While some talk about the
"uberization" or "uberification" of
the translation industry or blame
technology (namely, machine
translation) for declining rates, others
point a finger at a business model (i.e.,
the business/competition model) that
marginalizes the best translators and
creates a system where "bad translators
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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The ATA Chronicle - May/June 2018
