Is the translation industry suffering fast food syndrome?

Translation quality has been greatly compromised in the attempt to meet budgets and tight timelines. How good is "good enough"? Is it perhaps time to establish quality standards to protect our profession?

Text by Miguel Sevener Burckhardt Rueffer

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Is the translation industry suffering fast food syndrome?

Is the translation industry suffering fast food syndrome?

Just like businesses in any other sector, language service providers compete for clients from a finite pool. The figures can be quite misguiding: According to market research firm Common Sense Advisory, annual enterprise spending on translation services is expected to reach US$56 billion by 2021. These numbers can give the false impression of a blooming industry with a promising future for all players, big or small, and all approaches, human and machine-based. What the number doesn’t reveal is the reality of an increasingly consolidated market that "cannot meet anticipated volumes" through human translation.

What does this mean? It means that Quality has been brought to the negotiation table that seats LSPs and clients who want to localize their content. Although quality was once a given, it has now joined Speed and Cost as part of the negotiation.

Language is typically defined as a ...