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CAT 2.0
Curiosity, Adaptability and Tech Savviness, as key skills in the translation industry
Péter Lepahin
Péter Lepahin
General Director at Hunnect, Hungary
Having worked for the same translation company since 2006, I have seen and helped a small family-owned business become the third largest player in the Hungarian translation market.
A short history of translation technology
1) Translation on paper with dictionaries – for centuries
2) Translation on a computer in a word processor – for decades
3) Translation with CAT software – since the mid-90’s
major disruptions in terms of speed
Today: multiple CAT tools + lots of other technology:
- online and offline terminology databases, dictionaries
- MT (built in the CAT software or outside)
- predictive and adaptive typing solutions
- huge online bilingual or multilingual corpora
- QA tools for automatic detection of possible errors
advantages and challenges of the modern translation world
advantages and challenges of the modern translation world
Using all the available technology: a great help
BUT also mandatory (ignoring it would represent a serious disadvantage)
translation industry is getting quicker
challenging deadlines
necessity of super-productive translators.
This is the era of "CAT 2.0": Curiosity, Adaptability and Tech Savviness
Side Note
Excellent language skills in both the source and the target language are a must – let us assume that a graduate translator already has them.
Side Note
"A specialist is one who knows more and more about less and less, until he knows absolutely everything about nothing."
– Nicholas Murray Butler
Curiosity
- Translators are like journalists: become a bit of an expert in any subject when facing it
- It is hard for an LSP to find subject matter experts for every specialization – they look for an "expert enough"
- Graduates in translation are not finished translators – rather translators who have the skills to translate, and who must get familiar with their preferred subjects.
Curiosity
Example of subject matter expertise
IT translator
Example
In the past:
IT translation
Today:
"IT translation" – what is it?
Hardware, IT security, cloud technology, VOIP applications, smartphone apps or IT marketing?
No specialists for all of these areas.
Self-made expert
Adaptability
You have to adapt to:
- Changes of the industry itself (becoming a post-editor, etc.)
- Changes in the work environment (CAT tool, TMS, versions, etc.)
- Rapidly changing and very different client requirements
adaptability
Example of adapting to client requirements
Example
English: Hungarian for client1 / client2
Server: Szerver / Kiszolgáló
Router: Router / Útválasztó
Domain: Domain / Tartomány
Link: Link / Hivatkozás
Tech savviness
Tech
savviness
My parents' generation:
Afraid to touch any unknown button on the computer
My generation:
Forced to try new functions and learn them by ourselves. 100s of little apps, tricks, built-in functions and shortcuts – but nobody to teach them.
Tech savviness is not only necessary because of the tools we use!
This industry is impregnated with IT – basic requirement to handle heavy tagged texts, xml files, software strings etc., even without context.
Even in some more distant specializations (LS or law), translators need to learn advanced IT skills.
An interesting piece of information
According to a poll organized by Slator.com*, a translation industry news site, 26% of translators use 4 or more different translation productivity (CAT) tools.
An interesting piece of information
* https://slator.com/features/reader-polls-amazons-ambitions-tough-lsp-markets-translation-productivity-tools/
Conclusions
conclusions
In the current translation industry, we have less and less specialists, but more and more translators who use many tools, many little tricks that help them, and are not afraid to try themselves in new areas, provided that they receive the necessary references and support.
Curiosity helps them quickly learn new subjects; adaptability helps them finding and keeping their clients; tech savviness speeds up their work.