The translation of language impacts nearly every aspect of society, politics and economics. But you may be surprised to learn that the translation market is highly diverse and complex – and much larger than you might imagine.

In this three-part post, we’ll outline the ten most widely held myths about language translation, according to Nataly Kelly, Co-Author of Found in Translation: How Language Shapes Our Lives and Transforms the World. Here are the first three examples. We’ll bring you the rest in our next two posts.

1. Language translation is a small, niche market.

The global market for outsourced language translation services is currently worth more than US$33 billion. The largest segment of the market is written translation, followed by on-site interpreting and software localization. The vast majority of these translation services are provided by small agencies and there are more than 26,000 of them throughout the world.

2. The need for language translation is fading away.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that there will be 83,000 jobs for interpreters and translators by 2020 in the United States alone. This job market is expected to grow by 42 percent from 2010 to 2020, significantly higher than the average of 14 percent for all professions.

3. Most translators translate books; most interpreters work at the United Nations.

Literary translation and conference interpreting are usually the first two specializations that many associate with language professionals, but these two categories actually represent a very small segment of the market as a whole. Military and defense agencies spend the most on translation, with the United States routinely spending billions on language services for defense and intelligence initiatives.

Manufacturing, software, health care, legal, and financial services are among the largest commercial segments of the translation market, employing freelancers as financial translators, medical interpreters, legal translators, and court interpreters.

Alex Dupont

See Also

• More about language translation
  Translation is the act of rewriting a document, changing it into another language. The original language is called the "source" language. The language into which the source text is translated is called the "target" language.
• More about interpretation
  Language Interpreting is the process of translating spoken words from one language into another.
• More about localization
  Localization of websites and software helps companies achieve a global presence.