A Translation Ace Audio Blog Recap

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Hello.

I’m Professor Winn – a certified English instructor, and certified translator from Spanish, Portuguese, and French to English for more than 10 years.

Get your competitive advantage with my translations.

Send me details of your translation project and upload your files at:

Atranslationace.com/contact

I will respond with a free quote upon evaluation of your files.

Before getting started, let’s do a couple of programming notes.

First, every week, you can learn a new Spanish-English Legal Term.

Each term will be highlighted on the podcasts.

The latest Legal Spanish-English Word is: ab initio.

You learn the legal term in English and its equivalent in Spanish – both with sample sentences so you know how to use it correctly.

Learn about ab initio at: atranslationace.com/lj001

Second, every week, you can learn a new Spanish-English Business Term.

Each term will be highlighted on the podcasts.

You learn the English business term and its equivalent in Spanish – both with sample sentence so you know how to use it properly.

The latest Spanish-English Business Word is: line of credit.

Learn more about the term line of credit at: atranslationace.com/be001

Now, for today’s episode – 9 Translation Industry Trends in 2019 – and to read the blog article, please visit:
https://atranslationace.com/ep003

Prepare for a disruptive year ahead as we discuss the 9 trends affecting the translation industry.  

[Read the Show Notes for ATA Radio Episode 003].

The translation industry is huge and expanding dynamically.

According to the report on “The Language Services Market: 2018” by Common Sense Advisory (CSA), the global market for outsourced language services and technology reached US $46.52 billion in 2018.[1]

Changes inside and outside the industry will amplify the growth of translation services in 2019.

Before reviewing these nine (9) trends to expect, four “macro shifts” are disrupting the translation industry this year:

        1. Regional

        2. Voice

        3. Artificial Intelligence

        4. Mobile

Get ready for your translation industry briefing for the year ahead.

[Also read Episode 2: 7 Elements of a Good Translation.]

 Regional Disruption

 First, a regional shift is underway where Asia draws dramatically more translation activity.

According to Market Research Future ‘s “Translation Service Market Research Report – Forecast 2022,” Asia Pacific is expected to be the fastest growing region due to increasing government initiatives.[2]

North America still represents 60% of translation activity in the long term.[3]

Voice Disruption

Second, the combination of voice and Internet is reshaping our world.

The GlobalWebIndex found that 27 percent of the global online population is using voice search on mobile.[4]

Companies and their marketers will have to develop content, ad campaigns, and strategies with voice search in mind.

Voice-optimized websites, especially for e-commerce, will need additional content (translated content).

Companies will need to anticipate voice-specific questions and serve up answers. 

For example, a company website might feature a detailed FAQ page with authority content created around longtail keywords and conversational but specific questions.[5] 

The key will be in the schema that allows webmasters and site owners to provide search engines with additional information about the information on their site – think of it as data about data.[6] That additional description of data will require skillful translation.

Furthermore, more users are downloading the dulcet tones of content providers [7] – making podcast translation a booming avenue for native-like fluent translators who can listen and translate each episode.

Artificial Intelligence Disruption

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is here to stay no doubt.

Some may see AI as a looming threat to replace human translators.

The question remains though – Can a machine beat human translation?[8]

Further, can a machine display situational knowledge, soft skills, and cultural knowledge (especially for businesses entering international markets).[9]

Like the “Internet of Things” (IoT) much ballyhooed by the World Economic Forum (WEF)[10], the progressive pace of AI adoption in the translation world will edge closer in replacing the culturally-appreciative human translator in 2019.[11]

For example, IBM’s Watson neural machine translator[12] boasts of “helping you deal with dialects and grasp nuances that traditional translation tools can’t handle.”[13]

A human translator can already do that, and much more.

In the rush for faster deliveries of projects to clients, expect the machine translation-post-human-edit paradigm to expand in 2019 because of AI disruption.

Mobile Disruption

Finally, perhaps one of the most important “macro shifts” in the global economy is the dominance of mobile Internet traffic.

Indeed, Salesforce expected mobile e-shopping in 2018 to outstrip any other device.[14]

The mobile browser passed the desktop in usage in 2016.[15]

CNBC reports that about 7 in 10 people will be using a smartphone across the globe by 2020, according to the latest edition of Ericson’s Mobility Report.[16]

Again, specific content for mobile e-commerce sites (beginning with product descriptions) and attendant marketing campaigns will ramp up translation demands, especially culturally-sensitive localization.

Thus, a mobile-enabled website or e-commerce site is indispensable to serve the customer in the modern world.

 In other words…

Disruption offers opportunities for translators as these “macro shifts” continue apace.

These dynamic shifts (as you’ll see below) bear directly on the nine (9) trends affecting the translation industry in 2019.

 

9 Translation Industry Trends in 2019

These tendencies are drawn from extensive research, and observations after over 10 years of translating Spanish, Portuguese, and French into English in the legal and business fields, in light of these “macro shifts” detailed above.

1. Surging B2B Commerce

Forrester consultancy estimates that Business to Business (B2B) e-commerce will reach $1.2 trillion and account for 13.1% of all sales in the US by 2021.[17]

Forward-thinking companies in the broader global market can act now to attract business clients from around the world.

A greater push for entry into international markets fuels website translation, culturally-appropriate localization, and conversion of marketing and ad campaigns.

2. Increase in Cultural Consultations

Translators act as culturally-sensitive arbiters on a daily basis while converting the meaning of texts from one language into another.

The pressure of global competition means that all firms regardless of size must adopt an international mindset.

Companies, especially small and medium enterprises (SME), often seek to scale their businesses for the global market.

Emerging markets like the Latin American Tigers – Peru, and Colombia – have become more attractive.[18]

An experienced certified translator can assist with more than conversion of documents into the target language.

Before crafting marketing materials or blog articles about a particular product or service, a company may want to consult a translator for an appropriate strategy.

A translator with extensive time living or traveling in Peru or Colombia, for example, therefore would certainly be an asset to SMEs contemplating international expansion in these emerging economies.

3. Expanded e-Learning

Education, a universal commodity pursued in all four corners of the world, has also been impacted by the four (4) “macro changes” described above.

The time shift of lessons on-the-go when the student wants (and has time to learn!) has allowed both the learning institution and student to reach a tidy compromise – e-Learning.

Forbes magazine expects a $325 billion industry by 2025, tripling since 2015, a veritable boom in e-Courses around the world.[19]

Not only traditional universities, but global companies seek both linguistic and cultural diversity in order to reach a globally and culturally dispersed audience.

Since not all wisdom exists in English, international universities, especially for their business programs, need translation of their e-Learning courses.

e-Learning is a growth industry and the vast number of international universities offer opportunities for translators to bring their courses to a wider market of students.

4. Transcreation Transformation

In 2019, translators will increasingly transform into transcreators as global business continues to expand into new markets.

More than cultural arbiters, translators will be called on to help localize content for increased sales in target markets.

An ad or marketing campaign in the host country may not work in a target market and thus transcreation – adaptation of the message – is necessary.

For example, no company wants to repeat HSBC failed “Do Nothing” multi-million dollar campaign.[20]

Thus, translators will increasingly become “transcreators” to bridge the cultural digital divide to adapt client materials for their target audience.

Translators are writers at heart and thus the move toward transcreation transformation will only be a subtle but significant shift in the task of translators.

5. Greater Adoption of Neural Machine Translation

Is better machine translation inevitable?

Neural machine translation is mainstream in attempts to build and train a single, large neural network that reads a sentence and outputs a correct translation. [21]

Greater adoption of neural machine translation seems to be on an unstoppable trajectory fueled by the Internet of Things and scaling of Artificial Intelligence.

Neural machine translation is yet another factor disrupting the translation industry in 2019.

Plus, commercial pressure where both accuracy and speed are essential will continue to make neural machine translation like DeepL more attractive.

However, the one aspect machine translation enthusiasts cannot resolve is the cultural aspect.

Since language is culture and not just a sterile exchange of words for other words, doubts remain if Artificial Intelligence can create a neural network that can produce a better translation than humans.

The deficiencies of machine translation still call on skilled translators to review and revise texts.

Machines are unable to completely channel background knowledge in order to resolve ambiguity and establish the content of a sentence.

Despite advances, neural machine translation is not able to render a culturally-appropriate rendition of a document and replace the human translator – yet.

6. Increased Volume of Video Translation

Video is disrupting Internet communications – another significant translation industry trend.

According to Cisco, a global leader who powers the Internet by selling and maintaining networking hardware, and telecommunications equipment, forecasts IP video traffic to make up 82 percent of all IP traffic (both business and consumer) by 2022, up from 75 percent in 2017.[22]

Cisco expects more than 28 billion devices and connections will be online [the Internet of Things mentioned above] by 2022, and nearly half of those will be video capable.[23]

The e-Learning boom spurs greater demand for video as a means to effortlessly deliver content to students.

Video marketing to engage and attract clients, especially in Social Media, also drives the need for either voice-overs or at least translated text.

For example, a video on a landing page to offer a free download to capture a lead can reportedly increase conversions by up to 80%.[24]

On Facebook, for example, some 85% videos are set to play without sound so subtitles in the language of the target audience are indispensable to engage the audience.[25]

Besides, subtitles offer those who are hearing-impaired to watch and get all of the information in a video.

The scant space of time to attract the attention of a potential customer (reportedly 10-second videos for Millennials) requires videos to be optimized for immediate impact.[26]

Thus, audio translators skilled in creating a transcript for a video in their target language can expect more business.

In sum, the explosion of online video communication promises more work for translators in the years ahead.

7. More Dependence on Terminology Management Tools

Translators are pressed to produce product on deadline and often do not invest more time and effort in building their own terminology resources.

The inefficiency of researching terms already translated in previous projects is increasingly unacceptable in the rapid-fire interdependent global economy.

Better terminology management produces more consistent and higher quality translations in less time.

The trends discussed in this article are not only just disrupting the translation market, but applying a premium to efficiency and productivity.

Against the grain, in 2019, translators will need to devote more planning to terminology management.

Instead of the dreary drudgery of compiling spreadsheets from dusk to dawn, three alternatives exist.

First, many CAT tools today provide term management tools and should be exploited more.

Second, camaraderie by working with other translators to exchange glossaries and dictionaries will contribute to the understanding of specific terms in a document.

[Download the Translators and Interpreters Toolkit]

Finally, translators can suggest clients provide their own glossary of specialized terms to speed up delivery of the project.

The market shifts underway today will well reward those translators who embrace better terminology management in order to avoid duplication of tasks – and leave more time for the next project.

8. Translation as a Proactive Tool

Until recently, translation was considered by many as a reactive transaction.

When a client had a document to render into another language, a translator (or team) would be sought. That project ended there – until the next time.

However, the interdependent global economy presents numerous threats to an international company’s viability.

The speed of innovation, the rise of ambitious start-ups, and fluid advance (or decline) of the international economy require constant vigilance for companies that operate in international markets.

Thus, a prudent business practice is to monitor the political, economic, and social trends in the language of local markets.[27, 28]

For example, a software company operating in the Colombian market would need to be aware of government regulatory moves, consumer tastes, and economic development – all drawn from open source reports in Spanish.

Mid-level and senior management back at headquarters would need weekly, monthly, or quarterly reports in English about any developments.

More business intelligence [29] in the hands of decision-makers could answer questions, say, about the timing of a product launch and more importantly the type of product to launch.

The Research and Development department would probably like that type of information shared with appropriate staff, too.

Proactive translation could be on a project by project basis, but for consistency and prudence, a long-term commitment to translation enterprise-wide would be advisable.

Not unlike the intelligence functions in governments to protect state interests, business intelligence would guard a company’s interests in a mercurial global economy fraught with challenges.

This vigilant translation of business intelligence can also reveal market opportunities through study of open source material in the local language.

Thus, companies operating now or in the future in the international economy may soon be required to partner with a translator (or team) on an on-going basis, in-house or contracted, in order to not only guard but boost profitability.

9. More Specialization

Greater specialization, especially Legal Translation, remains a dominant translation industry trend.

Translators are professionals who have acquired the education and specialized knowledge and skills to perform a specific job.

Specialization can be based on one or all of the following: language, subject area, market, and service (audio, video, text, transcreation, etc.).

They command a higher pay, are recognized as an expert in their field, and have hard-to-replace knowledge locking in long-term job security.

Moreover, another factor will continue to influence the growth of translation specialization – the Internet of Things (IoT) mentioned previously.

The disruptive force of IoT will continue to reshape the global economy while rewarding innovation and driving growth among knowledge professionals.[30]

Finally, the demand for legal translation continues to increase given the global economy and the proliferation of law firms.

In the United States alone, the 250 largest law firms by headcount added more than 1,000 U.S. offices between 2001 and 2017.[31 ]

As long as cybersecurity and data protection across the globe remain an expanding source of legal action[32], legal translators will be a necessary partner to help attorneys resolve international disputes.

Thus, while borders shrink in our interconnected international economy, problems multiply which require a legal resolution.

Your Turn

That’s it for the crystal ball.

I’m interested in your comments.

Please visit my Atranslationace.com Facebook page and let me know your own thoughts!

I’m Professor Winn – your translation ace.

Do you have a Spanish, Portuguese, or French document that you need in English?

Visit Atranslationace.com/contact to send me the details of your translation project and upload your files for review.

I will reply with a free translation quote upon evaluation of your files.

I look forward to providing you the translation solution you need.