Translation – commodity or craft ?
I have been recently thinking about the implications of treating translation as either a commodity, or as a craft. Because it seems to me that this is the “fork in the road” where the industry is headed: either as treating translation work as a raw commodity, or as a finished craft product.
According to Wikipedia, the following are the definitions of commodity, and craft:
COMMODITY:
“A commodity is some good for which there is demand, but which is supplied without qualitative differentiation across a market. It is fungible, i.e. the same no matter who produces it. Examples are petroleum, notebook paper, milk or copper.[1] The price of copper is universal, and fluctuates daily based on global supply and demand. Stereo systems, on the other hand, have many aspects of product differentiation, such as the brand, the user interface, the perceived quality etc. And, the more valuable a stereo is perceived to be, the more it will cost.
In contrast, one of the characteristics of a commodity good is that its price is determined as a function of its market as a whole.”
CRAFT:
A craft is a skill, especially involving practical arts. It may refer to a trade or particular art.
The term is often used as part of a longer word (and also in the plural). For example, a craft-brother is a fellow worker in a particular trade and a craft-guild is, historically, a guild of workers in the same trade. “Ringcraft” is part of a boxer’s skill. See some further examples below.
Crafts practiced by independent artists working alone or in small groups are often referred to as studio craft. Studio craft includes studio pottery, metal work, weaving, wood turning and other forms of wood working, glass blowing, and glass art.”
It seems to me that if one assumes that there is no qualitative differentiation across the market, that indeed, it would be logical to then conclude that there should be only one “market price”, and that translation should be treated as a commodity.
But we all know that that is not the case. The individual translator brings with her or him individual skills, individual experience, tools, specialization, and knowledge. Despite Google Translate and various CAT tools like TRADOS, Wordfast, and OmegaT, there is of course lots of room for individual differentiation in quality across the market, therefore demanding differing prices based on differing end results. One thus, I think, cannot claim that translations are “fungible” – i.e., the same no matter who produces them.
Also, unlike a commodity, the price does not “fluctuate on a daily basis”. So it seems to me that the way to demand a higher price for one’s translations is of course to differentiate oneself from “the market” as much as possible.
And what is “the market” ? It seems to grow every day. Back in the 1980s, no doubt “the market” for German to English translation was to a very high degree made up of people in West Germany and western Europe, the UK, US, Canada, and Australia. Today, it is all that and: India, eastern Europe and Russia, the Russian Republics, and even China and Africa.
So that “market” has grown vastly as have the number of translators offering their services. One way I differentiate myself from “the market” is that I spent 8 years in Germany, have a degree in German translation, and now live back in the United States, my native country. I have thus “de-coupled” myself from ”the market”, I think. I also have 15 years of translation experience. I thus have vertically differentiated myself (years of experience) and also horizontally differentiated myself (I lived in Germany and now the U.S.).
The Internet has of course made this “market” truly global. The unknown and just opened “translation shoppe” in India is – due to the Internet – just as “close” as that translator down the road in Stuttgart, who you have known and been sending translations for the past 20 years, and who you often see on your way to buy your morning paper and bread. But are they truly the same “market” ? I think not.
It seems to me that the term “studio craft” is truly apt for translation. We work alone or at most in small groups. We are not “on the clock” in the factory sense. We work intensely when necessary and we mostly set our own work tempo, which to me is the true sign of a craft. We also are in many ways “guild-like” and one might even say “a brotherhood” (and sisterhood). I once even heard translators who had gone to school together semi-jokingly referred to as “the mafia”, because of the way that they protected and promoted one another. I still am in contact with translators that I have known for years, and who I went to university with.
Whether “the market” recognizes this or not, we can only wait to see. My guess is that many market participants will continue to view translation as a commodity, and the better and wiser ones will realize it is a craft, and treat it as such. I do not think that the recession has helped in this regard, by the way. We can only hope so, and actively seek out those that treat it as a craft, and not a commodity.
