| Pages in topic: < [1 2] | Poll: Is there too much competition in your language pair? Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
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Thayenga 
Germany
Local time: 08:41
Member (2009)
English to German
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My vote "Yes, definitely" refers only to the number of people providing English to German translations. However, when "English" is split into its various origins, e. g. AE, BE, the number of providers decreases a little. The decrease increases even more when the provides are listed by their fields of expertise. Consequently, my vote should have been a "simple" yes.
Repeating: A bilingual person is someone capable of expressing their own ideas in two different languages, while a translator is a person skilled in expressing someone else's ideas faithfully and accurately in a language different from the one in which they were originally issued.
I couldn't agree more.
HAPPY EASTER!
| | | | Marc Cordes
Poland
Local time: 08:41
English to German
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In my point of view it all comes down to the way you are taking care of your relationships with your clients. Good agencies/end customers who are focused on quality rather than speed will always go for a vendor which can deliver quality in the long run. That is my experience at least translating into German.
Next to delivering quality it also comes down to attitude and being able to communicate in a sympathetic way. If you firmly believe that your possibilities in the market are hop... See more In my point of view it all comes down to the way you are taking care of your relationships with your clients. Good agencies/end customers who are focused on quality rather than speed will always go for a vendor which can deliver quality in the long run. That is my experience at least translating into German.
Next to delivering quality it also comes down to attitude and being able to communicate in a sympathetic way. If you firmly believe that your possibilities in the market are hopeless then you will most likely get a result like that. I don't care about statistics, the depression etc... If you are willing to succeed you will find a way. The world is full of examples like that.
Galaxy Quest (Movie quote): "Never give up, never surrender!" ▲ Collapse
| | | | Rebecca Garber
Local time: 02:41
Member (2005)
German to English
+ ...
Maybe it's my specialty, German > English, technical & patents.
And an odd side niche in older (pre-1900) handwritten documents and Fraktur.
| | | | Mario Chavez (X)
Local time: 02:41
English to Spanish
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| The boom and bane of translators... | Apr 6, 2012 |
...is the status of their language pair.
In my case, English to Spanish. There are not enough translators to yield all the content available for translation. Alas, businesses keep playing in the mud with misconceptions such as translators are the same as interpreters (and vice versa). In the U.S.A., we face two enemies: bilingual individuals who are either put in the untenable position to write translation or who venture incompetently in the activity; and Latin America-based Spanish... See more ...is the status of their language pair.
In my case, English to Spanish. There are not enough translators to yield all the content available for translation. Alas, businesses keep playing in the mud with misconceptions such as translators are the same as interpreters (and vice versa). In the U.S.A., we face two enemies: bilingual individuals who are either put in the untenable position to write translation or who venture incompetently in the activity; and Latin America-based Spanish translators who work for peanuts.
I suppose competition of this kind is a given in many professions (architects, lawyers, graphic designers, etc.). That's why we can learn a lot about making these seemingly adverse circumstances work in our favor by observing what other professions have done about it.
One thing I've learned from a graphic designer not long ago was to discuss pricing with a client. Another thing, how to position yourself so that your business model is not entirely based on price. ▲ Collapse
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Phil Hand
China
Local time: 14:41
Chinese to English
| Lots of people, few translators | Apr 6, 2012 |
The number of people around the world who I would count as true competitors is very very low. The problem in my pair is not enough competition: agencies literally cannot obtain good quality translation, so they make do with low-price rubbish, and that's become the industry standard. My pair could do with the injection of about a thousand highly-skilled cn to en translators right now, to change the way the clients think about the work.
| | | | Dave Bindon
Greece
Local time: 09:41
Greek to English
In memoriam | Good question, Ty! | Apr 6, 2012 |
You specifically referred to my language combination (Greek>English) in your explanatory message at the beginning of this discussion.
I don't feel that I have much genuine competition. Yes, I lose out on "for peanuts" jobs because they go to (cheap) non-native speakers of English who happen to have been awarded a diploma in English; but I get the juicy, well-paid work.
| | | | Ty Kendall
United Kingdom
Local time: 07:41
Hebrew to English
Dave Bindon wrote:
You specifically referred to my language combination (Greek>English) in your explanatory message at the beginning of this discussion.
I don't feel that I have much genuine competition. Yes, I lose out on "for peanuts" jobs because they go to (cheap) non-native speakers of English who happen to have been awarded a diploma in English; but I get the juicy, well-paid work.
I feel like I've banged on about my own language pair a lot recently and I was worried I was becoming a bit ME ME ME!
Nice to hear from someone from a more "exotic" language pair The answers so far have been very illuminating and unexpected.
| | | | John Fossey
Canada
Local time: 02:41
Member (2008)
French to English
+ ...
| Virtually no competition | Apr 6, 2012 |
Phil Hand wrote:
The number of people around the world who I would count as true competitors is very very low. The problem in my pair is not enough competition: agencies literally cannot obtain good quality translation, so they make do with low-price rubbish, and that's become the industry standard. My pair could do with the injection of about a thousand highly-skilled cn to en translators right now, to change the way the clients think about the work.
Same here for French > English in Quebec. There is practically no competition for English mother tongue translators. As a result, most translations into English are done by non-English mother tongue people, and the results are so universally laughable that practically no one notices any more.
[Edited at 2012-04-06 20:02 GMT]
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| It depends on the demand | Apr 7, 2012 |
One would think that there's too much competition from Spanish to English, but the demand for translation is huge, so the market evens out. It would take two and a half people to handle all the requests I get.
On the other hand, one would assume less competition for Portuguese to English, but the demand for translation is much smaller and the supply of translators is tainted by a crowd of people who work from Spanish and think they can handle it.
| | | | Onidia (X)
United States
Local time: 02:41
English to Spanish
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| English- Spanish | Jul 2, 2013 |
There is a lot of competition in this language pair, but I will never apply for a job that requires to translate something related to construction for example because I don't know anything about construction in English or Spanish. It also depends on your areas of expertise.
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José Henrique Lamensdorf wrote:
The problem stems from most clients being unable to judge what they are getting from translators, and that being directly caused by their need to hire translation services.
(Incidentally, that's the same problem lawyers face and legal service marketing has had to cope with for a long time now.)
Yes. For the same reason, good old Unique Selling Proposition doesn't really work (as it can't be recognised or assessed reliably), other than in terms of client service and additional services. What works is the Unique Advertising Proposition, i.e. the emotional appeal. Not even the the best marketing wins (although the best salesman probably does) but rather whatever bridges the connection between the translator and the client.
For the record, that connection may in some cases be easier to bridge when the respective levels of language competence and writing prowess in the translator and his client (or reviewer, especially) are closer to each other, disadvantaging the more proficient translators.
Mario Chavez wrote:
...is the status of their language pair.
PLEN in my case. The demand is huge, as is the supply. The quality of each tends to be disappointing. I almost never see a translation I like. It's hard to outcompete the crowds of almost-competent translators. Those clients I have are almost all enthusiastic about my work, but getting jobs and getting good rates is hard, sometimes to a demoralising result if you consider what kind of translation is returned by others, including people much more established than you are.
[Edited at 2013-07-04 00:06 GMT]
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