Language professionals such as translators and interpreters have been significant to the growth of human society for thousands of years as agents between linguistic and cultural barriers. But with the growth of AI translation and Google Translate, are they still relevant now as they were before? They definitely are and in fact, the world needs them more than ever to the point that there’s not enough translators and interpreters to go around! They say that money makes the world go round. We say that it’s language professionals that make the world go round!
People talk about Google Translate and AI making language skills redundant. However, with this article, you’ll soon learn that being a language professional will lead you to lucrative careers! Some think that professional translation services or interpretation services is all that language professionals do. Sure, it’s a huge chunk of their job but you’ll soon learn that nearly, if not, all global industries need language professionals doing a variety of roles to stay competitive in the globalized economy we live in today!
Professional Foreign Language Skills Can Take You to Greener Pastures
Foreign language skills are often underappreciated by some people, but in the eyes of the global market, foreign language skills are probably one of the most coveted skills any employee can have! We’ve all made a resume and know the struggles of cherry-picking the right qualifications and skills to impress future employers.
If you happen to have language skills, you’re in luck because they’re highly coveted by many employers, businesses, and industries! Of course, this depends on whom you’re applying for and what position you’re eyeing after. Keep in mind that when we talk about language skills in this context, we’re not just talking about being able to hold a conversation in two or more languages. Although, some employers are already satisfied if you can decently hold a good conversation in another language.
But what we’re talking about here are mainly professional language skills; professional meaning you have devoted serious study and training in improving your language proficiency. So sadly, being bilingual or even multilingual doesn’t mean you have professional language skills. It’ll be that way unless you can prove it through training, certification, or the years spent being immersed in a foreign environment until you learn to speak like the locals.
But once you’re able to prove you have professional language skills, you’ll significantly improve your chances of being hired. You’ll learn very soon which industries, organizations, and sectors need language professionals. Language professionals are needed by every industry you can name. The way they employ them varies to a degree but some rely on language professionals as an integral component of their operations as well as their competitiveness.
#1. Being a Translator or Interpreter in the Language Industry
The most common career option for those with professional foreign language skills is a translator or interpreter. For you to be considered, let alone hired by them, you need to show professional fluency in your chosen language pair (ex. English to Spanish, English to Chinese, etc.).
If your plan is to be a translator or interpreter from the very beginning, then you should start your language pair specialization during your college years. As a foreign language speaker, you know very well how learning just one language takes a lot of time, passion, commitment, and resources. So it’s best to decide early on which languages you’re passionate about helping your path towards being a translator or interpreter become smoother.
But Wait. Isn’t Translation and Interpretation The Same Thing?
Translation and interpretation are often used interchangeably but there are considerable differences between them. Translation entirely involves paperwork and working mostly in a solitary environment, unless you’re part of a team that is for big projects. On the other hand, interpretation is live language translation that also requires the ability to handle pressure very well and also cross-cultural empathy and awareness. So not all translators can become interpreters.
Got it. So Where Can I A Translation or Interpretation Career Take Me?
As a translator or interpreter, you can work for a language service provider such as a professional translation agency or translation company, which term you prefer. Professional translation agencies/companies not only provide professional translation services but also professional interpretation services.
Depending on your expertise and experience, you might find yourself rendering professional technical document translation, financial translation, legal translation, medical translation, and even literary translation services. As a side note, if you ever plan to venture into literary translation, it’s a good idea to tell you now that it’s one of the forms of translation. It depends on the language pair but English to Chinese and Chinese to English for instance, translating Chinese literary works are notoriously difficult.
Nevertheless, the range of translation services is a result of responding to the global markets demands for language services. This means that within just the past two decades, the language industry has evolved to provide a wide range of niche language services to accommodate specific industries. For instance, professional translation companies now provide software translation and app translation services for the app and information technology (IT) industry.
To sum it all up, you’ll first start off providing general translation and interpretation work. But with more experience and with additional training, you have the options to specialize and cater to specific industries that match your growing career interests, skills, and passions.
#2. Multinational Corporations
In the global economy we live in today, more and more businesses and organizations need people that have the skills to communicate and connect with a global audience. Multinational corporations in particular need language professionals in their global operations.
Multinational corporations are some of the many clients of professional translation agencies and language service providers. But by being a translator or interpreter, you can also see yourself working with them. Many of these are finance and banking companies, automotive companies, electronics companies, software companies, media companies, retail brands, luxury brands, etc.
In fact, you don’t necessarily need to be a translator or interpreter to work for them. Being a multinational corporation, professional foreign language skills are a must if your job description is being regularly involved in their global operations. Not only do they need your language skills but also your international mindset to help the company safely navigate through cultural barriers.
#3. National Governments
One of a national government’s main objectives is to conduct international relations with other countries. We’re not only talking about diplomacy, but also international trade, finance, and tourism. So you can imagine how integral translators and interpreters are in the entire field of international relations.
But your professional language proficiency will qualify you for other government careers. Government officers and employees that routinely engage in international relations such as diplomats and foreign service personnel are required to learn and be professionally fluent in at least one foreign language.
But even if your goal is to not be a diplomat, translator, or interpreter, language skills are nonetheless a highly valued asset. It’ll help you secure positions and lucrative promotions reserved to a small bilingual or multilingual talent pool.
#4. Travel and Tourism Industry
Every year, the number of tourists traveling abroad just goes up and up without showing any signs of a slowdown. For airlines, cruise lines, hotels, resorts, restaurants etc. to maintain exceptional service to multilingual clientele, it’s a given that they need people with foreign language skills and cross-cultural communication skills.
They need to translate all of their marketing and customer information material from forms, brochures, advertisements, to menus, signages; essentially everything in print and digital. They also need interpreters or at the very least, multilingual staff to ensure effective communication between them and their clientele.
#5. Academic Institutions (Schools, Universities, Language Schools, etc.)
Another common career is teaching foreign languages at educational institutions. A lot of people’s passion for foreign languages was because of the environment and the people that they learned from. It’s a highly enriching and noble career as you have the opportunity to sow the seeds of inspiration onto your students the same way your past teachers did for you.
Keep in mind that since these academic institutions, they will look at your academic qualifications apart from your professional foreign language proficiency. This means getting a Masters or even a PhD concentrating in your chosen foreign language.
Language schools aren’t that privy to your academic qualifications though but a lot do require their teachers to show certification that they’re professional fluent. But if you decide to teach a foreign language in a college or university, then consider going beyond a Bachelor’s degree.
Why AI Translation Isn’t Taking Over and Why You Can Rest Easy: Final Takeaway
Yes and no. It entirely depends on how people use AI translation and how it suits their operations and objectives. In just a span of 2 to 3 decades, there has been significant leaps in improving the capabilities of machine translation and AI translation. You can see it for yourself in Google Translate. Google Translate runs on a neural machine translation framework and is constantly learning and improving itself everyday.
But, even with the latest advancements in machine translation, AI translation, and neural machine translation, the global market still values human translation. As advanced and being completely honest here, cool neural machine translation, it’s still light years away from human translation. We’re not only talking about accuracy but also the ability to comprehend linguistic nuances.
These include humor, slang, idioms, creative expressions; essentially everything that makes language human. The latest translation software can’t accurately detect this and tries to compensate for it through literal translations—often with hilarious and sometimes, highly inappropriate outputs.
But despite the shortcomings of automated translation, many industries kept on adopting them and still rely on them. As you know, humans need rest and sustenance to keep them going. Machines don’t. So they’re mainly useful for voluminous translation projects.
Another thing, even if the nature of the language service industry and AI translation seems to collide, they’re actually joining forces! Through computer assisted translation (CAT) tools, professional human translators can render more work by feeding the input text into a translation software, and proofreading the resulting output.
All in all, it’s gonna be a long time until language professionals as a whole are made redundant by machines. Until that time comes, you’ll see to it that your professional language skills are put to good use in the right industry that matches your career interests and passions.
