Translation is indeed a world apart. Different people with different background, focused to bring from one language to another diverse and disparate content, surpassing cultural and regional barriers, “landing” the contents in a “land” that can have distinct landscapes, fauna and flora. The result, depending on the original content, can be a recreation of the text as a new work, but with the preserved context and content. A real puzzle for those who like challenges. The “tribe” of translators is also something peculiar. And within the characteristic humor of which is afflicting finding the exact word in the target language for caipirinha or miss, and who speak their CAT tools like they were talking about a pet’s (tamed, but temperamental) mood, I like a lot this strip below (from Mox’s blog):
The translators are self-employed professionals, freelancers called, and the search for jobs / projects move us around the world, at least virtually. Something that worries me is how the translation industry will evolve in the coming years, and how can I plan to not be caught by surprise. That is, markets that address now, how to approach, what to offer, not to run out customers here at one time. My search for these articles, reports, experiences of other translators, I found this article, which I found quite interesting (in the Pangeanic website): What is The Size of the Translation Industry?
One of the things that worries me is that, despite the Portuguese being the 5th most spoken language in the world, the vast majority of speakers are in one country (Brazil), still under development, which restricts the size of the potential market. This concern is the engine for making decisions on behalf of expertise in most booming sectors in translation (location, for example), or even the study of new languages. The first decision, is to study, to specialize in most areas, beyond what I already know (engineering, marketing, statistics, mathematics, for example), and, the second, ever give my first steps in Spanish (but still has a long way to front). I say goodbye of you with a hug, until the next newsletter.