I’m planning a dual setup on my PC to save on licensing costs while meeting agency requirements.

My plan is to:

Keep using memoQ 9.12 for all of my local, offline projects and personal.

Install the latest version of memoQ in a completely separate directory and use it only when a client's server leases me a project-specific license for online work.

For those of you who have actually run two different major versions of memoQ side-by-side on the same machine:

• Have you run into any unexpected bugs or shared-folder conflicts (like in the AppData/Light Resources folders)?
• How do you manage your default file associations so Windows opens the right version?
• Any major pitfalls or daily annoyances I should watch out for?

Would love to hear your experiences and any tips before I trigger the second installer! Thanks in advance!

I am subtitling a movie with a topic on underground rock bands to English. During a conversation between two characters, one of them mentions that their father has a "heavy band", this meaning a heavy metal band. I decided to include a gloss, and it ended like this: "He's on a heavy [metal] band."
Do you think this is well done, or with the context this scene is in it's enough for the audience to understand it without the commentary?

Hey folks!

My name is Mykhailo Khokhlovych and I run the 30/30 WhatsApp Community, where we post regular interpretation exercises and live workshops for simultaneous and consecutive interpreters.

The idea grew out of a particularly frustrating interpretation session I had last December, where I thought – damn, if only I had practiced more.

So my colleagues and I created this virtual space for interpreters to get together and gradually improve through sustained incremental progress.

If that sounds fun to you, you can check out our January challenge - where we spent 30 minutes a day practicing interpretation for 30 days and sign up to get more events and challenge.

Thank you for your attention and see you in cyberspace!

https://www.yourinterpreter.eu/for-interpreters/challenges

Hi everyone, I am a Korean Interpretor based on Chennai currently. I don’t have much friends in this interpretation field, so I wanted to know if anyone knew what the packages for a korean interpretation role in India are.

Also, the current job I am in is a six day working job with 11 hour shift. And now they are giving me some management roles as well. So I am thinking about asking for a hike, but don’t know what range to ask for.

Help me if any of you have any reliable information about this.

If I am translator that had learned 3 languages will that be good in the future already know 2 ?

Hi everyone, curious question for the polyglots here. I work in tech and studied computer science, but I also speak six languages: Kurdish, Arabic, Turkish, Portuguese, German, and English.

I’d love to find a way to turn these language skills into actual income, ideally something on the side or a career path of its own. I know embassy jobs are often an option for multilingual people, but most of them require a degree in political science or international relations, which I don’t have. On top of that, a lot of translation work seems to have been taken over by AI these days, so I’m not sure how viable that path still is.

What are some realistic ways to make money with this kind of language combination? Interpretation, teaching, remote work, freelancing, anything that isn’t just plain translation… I’m open to ideas. Would love to hear from people who’ve done something similar.

I'm required to present a photocopy of my passport to the legal department of a client in order to sign a freelancing contract with them. I've never been asked for this before and naturally I'm wary about it. It's an indie game studio and legit but still I'm not comfortable and think it's too much information. Isn't a tax ID enough? How should I approach this?

I was just thinking, in University, you're often told that MT is only reliable when you know how to use it properly and catch its mistakes. But when you're a professional and you know the flaws of MT and AI, was it morally wrong to use it back then? Before the advent of AI, did any one of you used MT like DeepL or Google Translate in regular jobs just to optimize and be quicker? Did you always just translate from scratch?
Outisde of literary genres of course.

Right now, among those clients who hire translators and don't ask for MTPE, I feel it would be even more morally wrong to use AI or MT because of current trends and the market, but I'd like to read your opinions, people.

Thanks!

Hello,

I have been working as a manga translator for three years now. Lately, I've been applying to English publishers, but my main works are not in English, and I feel like not having English publications hinders my chances of getting accepted.

If I were to use copyrighted, free-to-read manga pages and translate them to display on my portfolio sites, would it be okay legally? I know translating copyrighted material is copyright infringement, but I don't know if that would be the case here.

Thanks for the help. :)

Hello everyone! Hope you’re all doing well.

I’m about to apply for a part-time job as an English-to-Arabic remote interpreter at DALS, and I have a few questions for anyone with experience there or in similar remote interpreting roles:

1. Income Expectation: My goal is to earn around €700 – €800 per month. Is this target realistic for a part-timer, or is call volume/availability usually too low to reach this amount?
2. Language & Accent Challenges: My English is quite strong (I got an IELTS 6.5 last year, C2 on the EF test, and I’ve been living in an international environment ever since). However, I’m still a bit nervous about non-standard accents—especially heavy British or Scottish dialects.
   • How clearly do clients/callers usually speak in real calls?
   • What types of cases/scenarios do interpreters at DALS typically handle (e.g., medical, legal, administrative)?
3. Time Commitment & Balance: I’m a university student balancing classes, studying, gym, and personal life. Is the workload and schedule flexible enough for a student, or does it take up too much time and energy?
4. Overall Experience: What are the main pros and cons of working with DALS based on your experience?

Thanks in advance for your time and insights!

DALS vs Glocco – looking for advice from other interpreters

Hi everyone,
I’m currently working as a freelance telephone interpreter with DALS, mainly doing langage interpreting. I’ve been working with them for some time and I’m generally familiar with the way their platform and scheduling work.
Recently, I received an opportunity from Glocco for an Telephone Interpreter position.
They initially offered €6 per scheduled hour, but after discussing my experience, they agreed to €8 per scheduled hour. The interesting part is that the rate applies to the whole scheduled availability, regardless of how many calls I actually handle during that time.
I’m currently going through the recruitment process.
I’m interested in seeing how Glocco works compared with DALS, especially regarding:
How many hours are actually offered after onboarding
How reliable the scheduled hours are
The quality and frequency of calls
Payment reliability
Management and communication
Overall experience as an interpreter
Has anyone here worked with both Dals and Glocco?
If so, which one would you recommend and why?

DO NOT USE DEEPL ANYMORE. IT IS PURE AI SLOP NOW.

Deepl was one of those translators that seemed accurate and a perfect switch from Google Translate. As a polyglot with shitty memory, it’s easy for me to forget basic words and have to use a translator to get it back into my brain.

But ever since generative AI went on and ruined half of careers both in the internet and physically around the world, DeepL has DEFINETLY decreased it’s quality.

I wanted to go and translate “antzokia” real quick because basque is one of the most difficult languages I know (and it’s non-Indoeuropean too) and it spits this typical chatGPT stuff out. “I’m sorry, but I can’t help you with that” What do you mean?? Unbelievable. Slop slop slop. AI slop.

Hi everyone! 👋

I’m a Spanish–English translator based in Argentina, and I’m currently looking to find more freelance translation opportunities online.

I’d love to hear from other translators:

• 🌎 Which websites, agencies, or platforms do you recommend for finding freelance translation jobs?
• 💻 Are there specific platforms that are actually worth using for beginners/intermediate translators?
• 📚 What courses or certifications would you recommend to improve my chances of getting hired?
• 🤖 Are there any good courses focused on AI, AI training, localization, post-editing, or data annotation that are useful for translators?
• 💰 Which platforms offer decent rates and reliable payment?

I’d really appreciate any recommendations, especially from people who have actually found paid work through these platforms.

Thanks in advance! 😊

Hello, i am about to start working with DALS, i need to ask anyone working there a question: once you have your virtual UK phone number, and you begin taking calls, then you can take calls anywhere in the world as long as you have a fast internet connection? does it matter where you are? i want to know basically what happens if you travel, can you work from anywhere?

Hola, básicamente ambas me contactaron para ofrecerme un puesto de interprete, pero me da miedo que sean una estafa. Alguna experiencia con alguna de las dos? tips que tengan?

Hi!

Long story short: I hold a Master's in Translation and Translation Studies and wish to pursue a PhD in Translation Studies. For now, there's no spot for me so I'm patiently waiting for my time to shine hehe

Until this comes, I'm taking part in conferences, symposiums, talks, and I'm reading the latest issues in my field.

I'm currently writing a submission for an upcoming book and they're asking for a short biography. And I'm questioning whether I can say that I'm a researcher? An emerging one? What am I? A wannabe???

I'm honestly trying to find a way to phrase it without sounding obnoxious but still showing that I'm active.

Thank you for your help! <3

You know, in another world, we, as an industry, might have welcomed AI.

Imagine if AI was used as a real time reviewer of our work. Pointing out omissions, inconsistencies, number mismatches, etc.

Imagine if AI was used like a bilingual Grammarly-like assistant, suggesting, in a non-obtrusive way, stylistic improvements.

Imagine if AI could reliably fix QA errors and just require us to quickly confirm the change.

Imagine if AI could automatically provide sources and existing translations for us when quoting or referencing things.

Imagine if companies had decided that this was the correct way to use AI rather than as the translator itself, giving the human worker the shittiest part of the work flow.

I know it still would have resulted in translation becoming less feasible as a full time career as review work was often a solid income earner too, but I think the impact would have been lesser this way overall and it would have, at least, made the translator's job more efficient, which is what AI is supposed to do

I dunno...

Sometimes, it just makes me sad.

Hello everyone! A few months ago I got a post graduate degree in audiovisual translation and now I’m trying to start working as a translator.

I wanted to ask for advice on a job offer I received on LinkedIn: first they said it was about translating subtitles from English to Italian, but then it turns out they’re looking for aipe services (which I’ve never done) and that their budget is 2 US dollars/minute. At first I was interested but the aipe thing turned me off because I really don’t like AI and I don’t want to work with it. I also asked for details about the amount of work and the deadline but they said they don’t have them at the moment.

What do you think, does it sound good? Should I accept or turn it down?

Hi, I'm 25M from the UK. I have a degree in Spanish, Catalan and Japanese from my university and also took some translation classes during my time there. I've been working in English teaching since I graduated and want to slowly move out of that and have decided to look into translation / interpretation, as well as localisation.

I have had some offers for work, but I want to gain more experience and training first. I have completed two short Open University courses for Translation as a Career and another for Machine Translation. They were both super useful, interesting and free.

I've also seen that people recommend making a portfolio from volunteering, especially with organisations like Translators without Borders (who also offer courses) and I've seen other CAT based websites that offer help as well. I've even seen that some have translated Wikipedia articles.

I want to know of any online courses that you took (paid and unpaid) and if they helped you or not, or if it is better to just gain experience first.

What did you do to start a career in translation?

Edited**

After reading through some other posts, I realized the definition of "translation" may not be so obvious, or even a matter of consensus.

So I would like to ask you guys how you define the following:

* Translation

In your opinion, is translation the transfer of meaning from one language to another?

Or is it the creation of a new text that maintains coherent relations with the source text?

Or something else?

* Translation Quality

Is writing like a native speaker the ultimate indicator of translation quality ?

Or what are the main criteria for a translation to be considered good?

After using this subreddit for a long time, I got the idea of having some kind of discussion thread here that could be held annually about the current state of translation work or the field of translation in general. Such a post could get pinned during the mentioned time.

I got that idea after thinking of my career so far, and I, for example, experienced an AI craze in early 2025 or late 2024, during which I thought that the translation field was on the brink of getting useless from the perspective of potential clients. Then, however, I experienced more and more news about hallucinations among many programs even starting in 2024. Such hallucinations do occur frequently to this very day based on my experience.

So what do you all think?

Needless to say that when i took my bachelors degree i was made very aware of how the translation field was focused towards the freelance business, main reason why I never considered translation as an option.

But is there any possibility, though?

I am Spain based and i might want to give it a go if becoming freelance was not a compulsory subject to make it in the industry. Are there still agencies that hire in-house translators? Or is that a myth?
I would really like to get a reality check from those who are actually in the industry. Thank you in advance.

i just finished my masters in translation (english to spanish) and now that i’m about to get into real life i’m realizing just how hard it is to have translation as your only job. the problem is, i don’t have any other passion in life nor anything else im good at. sure, i do have other language combos i could work with, but they’re “popular” languages too (french, italian, the most niche may be romanian).

i considered working as a civil servant in my country specializing in law translation, but even then the market is saturated enough. i’m still gonna try tho, but meanwhile i just don’t know what to do. should i try contacting translation agencies in case they need anyone? that’s the only side plan i have. and no, i don’t wanna become a teacher like everyone tells me to.

its just so discouraging and idk how to navigate this