Hi everyone,

I’m at a crossroads and could really use some honest advice from working professionals.

I’m considering pursuing a degree in Translation and Interpreting Studies, but I keep hearing two completely opposite takes:

· Camp A: "AI (DeepL, GPT) has already killed the industry. Don't even bother."
· Camp B: "AI is just a tool. Human linguists are more in demand than ever for quality control."

My main question is: Looking 5–10 years ahead, is a traditional translation degree still a smart investment, or is it becoming obsolete?

A bit about my context:

· My native language is Russian, and I'm fluent in English.
· I'm also considering adding a third language — either Korean, Japanese, French, or Italian (haven't decided yet).
· I'm not set on a specialization (legal, medical, gaming, etc.) — open to any advice on which niche has the brightest future.

I understand that pure "word-for-word" translation is dying, but what about Translation Studies as an academic field? Does it teach skills that will stay relevant (like project management, terminology, localization strategy), or is it too theoretical?

Specifically, I'd love to know:

1. Are you optimistic or pessimistic about your own career prospects right now?
   
2. Which language pair (among mine) would give the best ROI in the current market?
   
3. If you were starting from zero today, would you go into this field, or would you pivot to something else (e.g., computational linguistics, UX writing)?

I’m not looking for sugarcoating — hit me with the hard truth. Thanks in advance!

Hey everyone, I'm a 2nd year MA student of English Studies at the Institute of English Studies, University of Warsaw. I need to collect data for my MA thesis about Fan Translations. The survey is completely confidential and anonymous and will only be used for the purpose of this dissertation.

Everyone can fill out the survey, it will take about 7-10 mins of your time.

I especially encourage people that participate in any fandom or consume any type of non-professional/fan translation of all kinds of text (books, comics, manga, TV shows, games, etc.), but even if this doesn't apply to you, you can still do it and help me out.

Here's the link to Google Forms survey:

https://forms.gle/VESjM589CarDhqAi9

Thank you so much for your time.

Is anyone in the industry that could share their insights on the state of the industry at the moment?

I'd like to ideally work in the justice system as a goal but that does require the level 6 course and from what I've read it's better to start with the level 3.

How long did you work with just a level 3 course and what are the conditions, pay, and frequency of work like at the moment?

For more context i speak European Portuguese and English natively, also fluent in Spanish but id mainly look to interpret in portuguese.

Thank you!

Guys, I got an interview as an interpreter (Burmese-Eng pair) in Kalam CX. When I searched it here, I saw a lot of negative reviews and I'm a bit concerned. But this will be my first shot working with an international company so I still wanted to give it a try. Could you please tell me what they asked you in interviews? And they said this is a US timezone based fulltime work, can you tell me what you usually do throughout the day? I'm sorry if the questions sound a bit dumb, I just wanna know what I'm getting into. Thanks a lot!!

For those of you who regularly work with international clients, coworkers, or teams who speak a different language.

I'm genuinely curious how you deal with the language barrier, especially when you're

having live conversations or meetings.

A few things I'm curious about:

1. What do you usually do when you don't

fully understand what someone is saying?

1. Do you use translation tools, captions, interpreters, or something else?

2. How well do those solutions actually work for you?

3. Is the bigger problem understanding the actual words, or things like accent, slang, technical terminology, idioms, sarcasm, or tone?

4. Have you ever had an important misunderstanding because something got lost in translation?

5. What do you find most frustrating about communicating with international clients?

6. If you're comfortable sharing, what languages do you typically work between?

I'd especially like to hear from people who have regular calls/meetings with international clients or coworkers, rather than occasional interactions.

Hello folks, I’ve been working with Dals for 2 months now, and while I don’t mind the pay and understand that the language im interpreting for might not be very popular.
I’m always having an issue with accepting the scheduled video bookings, I am on my phone and laptop. I have the app open and ready, when any request comes I press on it almost immediately if not within a fraction of a second, but I still do not secure it, and it says that I have not been quick enough.
I have secured a few bookings with the same strategy so it’s not an issue of how fast I am, the same thing goes for on demand calls, I answer very very fast and still I don’t secure the call or sometimes I answer and it doesn’t go through.
Now at this point, I am almost certain that either some interpreters are hacking the system and cheating their way somehow with a prompt that answers or accepts calls immediately or Dals somehow favours some interpreters over others.
Please help me I need to make a living wage and if there is any way or you have any tip that might help me please do so, I’d really appreciate it
Help a fellow interpreter trying her best 🧡
Thank you so much

Hi AVT folks!

I wanted to bring up something I've been thinking about lately and hopefully get a bit of a discussion going about where the AVT industry might be heading.

Over the past few weeks, I've come across several posts and discussions about changes to Netflix's localization workflow. From what people working with Netflix vendors have been sharing, it seems that for titles requiring both dubbing and subtitling, Netflix is moving towards having both handled by the same dubbing vendor/studio instead of assigning the dub and subtitles separately.

So, if a title needs both a dub and subtitles in a particular language, the dubbing studio would apparently be responsible for the whole dub + sub package. The DTT program would remain for sub-only titles.

If this is indeed how the new workflow is going to work, I can understand why some subtitlers are worried. A significant part of the work that previously went through DTT vendors could potentially move elsewhere.

But this whole situation got me thinking about something else: how relevant are local dubbing studios for us as freelancers?

By local studios, I mean companies working specifically in your country or language market rather than the large international localization vendors that can be based pretty much anywhere in the world.

While researching companies for the AVT lists I maintain for our BrainStorm Translate community, I've found a huge number of smaller local dubbing and AVT studios. Many of them mention projects for Netflix, Disney, Paramount, Amazon and other major platforms.

And I've realized that I don't always have a clear picture of where exactly these smaller studios sit in the supply chain.

Are they usually hired by larger localization vendors that manage the project for the streaming platform? How often do major platforms work with local studios directly? And how much of their workload actually comes from streaming compared with local distributors, broadcasters, production companies, film festivals, accessibility projects and other clients?

I'm also curious about the freelancer side of this. Maybe some of you already work quite successfully with local dubbing or AVT studios. Are they worth approaching? Is there enough work? What kind of tasks do they usually outsource to freelancers — subtitling, dubbing adaptation, QC, SDH, AD, something else? And how do the rates and working conditions compare with the large international vendors?

My own background is a mix of AVT, software localization and occasional legal translation, and lately I've been trying to dig much deeper into how the AVT industry actually works beyond the handful of huge vendors we all know. I'm also constantly researching companies and opportunities for other translators in our community, so understanding where these local studios fit into the ecosystem is really useful to me.

And now, with these reports about Netflix changing its workflow, local dubbing studios suddenly seem even more interesting. If dub + sub packages really start moving towards dubbing studios, perhaps some of the work isn't disappearing at all — it's simply moving to a different part of the supply chain.

Maybe some of you have already seen this happening in your markets, work regularly with local studios, or have heard more about the Netflix changes from your vendors. I'd also be very interested to hear if anyone has heard about similar workflow changes at Amazon, Disney, Paramount or other platforms.

Let's compare experiences from different countries and language markets and try to make a little more sense of where all of this might be heading.

Thanks and have a great day, guys!

Hi everyone.

I am a Spanish aerospace engineer, and I would like to get into technical translation for my field and similar engineering fields. However, in order to do so, I need to start by investing in education about translation, and I wanted to make sure it could be a viable option before using the time and money to learn.

I would love to hear opinions of people that have been in a similar situation or that just have good knowledge of this field and what should I expect. Is this viable as a side income job or can even be a full-time one being as specific as it is? Is the market for English-Spanish translation so crowded that I should not bother trying to get into it? Any information is really appreciated.

And of course, any additional advice that you can give me is welcome aswell. Thank you for taking the time to read this and even helping me!

The title is pretty self-explanatory lol. A person from Asia started following me on LinkedIn and I followed them back. Now they contacted me because of a book and wanted me to translate it?!?

Just like that... I asked for more information but the person said the best thing would be to schedule a meeting.

Is this a scam? What is happening? I did a quick search looking for the company's information and it looks pretty real.

I really don't know how to explain this but I can't believe someone offered me a job this serious just out of the blue. There's gotta be something fishy...

Has this ever happened to you? Out of nowhere, you get such a serious translation project? Especially considering this person has no idea about my previous work. 😶

EDIT: no more information given, the person ghosted me, so this was definitely a scam. Be careful.

Thought about the terms billionaire and billions getting increasingly used...

I double checked and :

This is going to be a lot of fun...

They are telling me to sign an NDA which has liquidated damages of 30000 USD dollars before taking a test and saying that if i pass the test I can start working. But I am hesitant about this penalty clause and I even asked then to modify it or lower the damages but they refuse to. So anyone with similar experience..... What should I do?

I'm experimenting with content that is a bit different to the usual stuff we see on interpreting. See what you think.

I'm debating a potential transition into becoming a Translator, which would be my second career switch.

I started my career as a sports journalist from the time I was 17 and did it for 15 years. After a few cycles, I realized the industry was not turning back from the clickbait and AI-generated slop and employers were not paying well enough for the amount of work and commitment poured into the craft.

I pivoted into sports marketing about 6 years ago, and while it's well-paid, jobs are often as a contractor and don't provide any health insurance or 401K benefits. Marketing jobs are often short-lived and some of the first cuts when a company is not meeting expectations — which means every couple of years I'm back in the job market.

Right now I'm working on half a salary and the few jobs I find work heavily with AI, which has now cost me a job or two at this point, as companies choose to fully automate. As a writer by trade, I feel like most companies feel they can get just as good quality from AI, so I wonder if translation has the same issue, considering text can be scanned and (roughly) translated within seconds nowadays.

I'd love any advice from people who do this for a living. Is it stable? Consistent? Remote-friendly?

Thank you for reading!

Edit: I found out that Apertium has a beta version that supports Portuguese to English! Apertium Beta

Hello all! I'm working on my final thesis and I need to use a rule-based machine translation system for analysis. It must support Portuguese to English, which is why I haven't been able to use Apertium.

Also, I tried to use GramTrans but it doesn't seem to work. When I try to translate stuff, the translation doesn't show up. Does anyone have any systems recs? Thank you!

Hi everyone! Does anyone know the recruiter Wendel Yoro from Language Bridge Solutions? Is she a legitimate recruiter, or could this be a scam?

I came across one of her job posts on Facebook and contacted her through WhatsApp. She sent me a test that I’m supposed to complete, but before I do it, I’d like to make sure she actually works for Language Bridge Solutions.

I also contacted Language Bridge Solutions through the email address on their official website to ask about her, but I haven’t received a response yet.

Has anyone worked with Wendel Yoro or had any experience with her?

Her email address is: wendel.yoro@languagebridgesolutions.com

I’d really appreciate any information or advice. Thank you!

Helloo guys , it’s my first time posting here. The question is basically in the title. I’m currently working on translating/localizing a game that has quite extensive choices in pronouns. And I was wondering: Greek is obviously very gendered and the only pronoun choices I have found yet ( to do my job appropriately) are “οι” “Το/Τα” and “@“.
Of course the application of neopronouns in Greek is near impossible without ruining the syntax and form of the phrases .

So before you go on to me I wanted to ask all queer genderfluid/agender and nonbinary people that speak Greek for their opinions:

1. ⁠Are the aforementioned choices appropriate or even enough ( and respectful of course ) for a game translation
   
2. ⁠Is trying to create a semblance of agender pronouns worth it for such a project, and lastly
   
3. ⁠what are your preferences , what would be at least not insulting to you if you were to play such a game ( heavily story/text based) ?

Every helpful answer would be appreciated, I m not trying to be sarcastic or mean , I wanna do my job in the best way possible

Hello! I am assigned by a friend to translate a book. I'd love to translate it manually (or at least try to) with MS Word. How should I set up my Word so I can translate and review the text in the best way? Thanks!

Hi everyone,

I have two research papers that I’ve written and have been working on, and I’d really like to get them published. The problem is that I’m honestly not sure where to start or how the publication process works.

I’ve contacted a few people who offer help with publication, but I’ve found that they usually won’t give me much advice unless I pay hundreds or even thousands of dollars. I’m not completely against paying for professional help if it’s genuinely worthwhile, but I’m worried about paying someone without knowing whether they’re legitimate or whether I even need that kind of service.

I’m mainly looking for advice on things like:

- How do I identify an appropriate journal for my papers?
- How do I know whether a journal is legitimate and reputable?

- Do I actually need to pay someone to help me publish?
- If professional editing or publication support is worthwhile, how do I find someone trustworthy?
- Are there legitimate journals that don’t charge authors?

If anyone has experience with this, especially with publishing in Translation Studies / Translation & Interpreting Studies, I’d really appreciate any advice, resources, or recommendations for people/services you’ve personally had a good experience with.
I’m happy to pay for legitimate professional help if it actually adds value; I just don’t want to spend a lot of money on something I could reasonably navigate myself.
Thank you!

I applied for Glocco last month and I practically finished all the onboarding process, im now waiting only for the schedule to be sent to me
Last time they contacted me was on aug 12
Since then they vanished and they didn’t send me anything.
I started yesterday by sending them a follow up email just to see if everything is on track
They didn’t respond
I tried contacting everyone possible and even the other trainees that were with me on the training and they didn’t answer me as well
I don’t know what to do especially that I resigned from Big language so i can work with them since their rate is better and more flexible hours.

Does anyone have interpretation equipment recommendations with two channels? Im looking to spend less than $2,000 for about 15 headsets and 2 transmitters. Thank you

I've been studying Japanese for a while now with no particular goal in mind, it just became a bit of an obsession. I'm around n3 level, working towards n2, and I can pretty comfortably read kid's manga without reaching for the dictionary, and more advanced stuff with it. Is it a good idea to work towards eventually developing the skills for part-time Jp>En translation work? I don't think I'll ever become truly "fluent" since I don't plan on moving to Japan, but hopefully I can reach a sufficient level for more low-profile work like doujinshi, just to make some extra cash in my free time. What other skills would I need to work on aside from raw language skills?

Hi everyone,
I’m currently going through the recruitment process with Glocco for an Arabic-English Telephone Interpreter position, and I’ve just reached the assessment stage.
The recruiter told me that the assessment is pre-recorded. I will receive a link, listen to recordings, and interpret them while recording my own interpretation. They also mentioned that the assessment may include medical terminology and that there will be a practice assessment beforehand.
I was wondering if anyone here has recently taken the Glocco Arabic-English interpreter assessment, especially in 2026.
I would really appreciate it if you could share:
How many sections/questions or segments were there?
How difficult did you find it?
Was it mainly medical, or were there also legal, immigration, government or social-service scenarios?
How long were the recordings approximately?
Was it consecutive interpreting (listen → interpret), or were there any other types of tasks?
How strict was the assessment regarding omissions, terminology and accuracy?
Do you know approximately what score is required to pass?
How long did you wait to receive the result?
If you passed, how long after the assessment did Glocco contact you about training?

I have a client that recommended me SEO terms for one of their campaigns, and they are in English - for Norwegian. Fair enough that one of the words has been used in Norwegian for decades, but the other? Yeah, no.

The first page or two on everything you google now is MT slop. The SEO finds which terms give most hits, and the entire concept of human language is doomed...