TRANSLATION INDUSTRY UPDATES June 2024

Challenges and opportunities of working in different language pairs

In this month’s translation industry updates, we’ll be looking at the intriguing question of why certain languages are more widely translated than others and thinking about some of the potential benefits and drawbacks of translating in widely and less widely translated language pairs.

Languages that are less frequently prioritised for translation are often referred to in the translation industry as ‘long-tail languages’. It’s important to note that in many cases ‘long-tail languages’ actually have an extremely substantial population of speakers, but for one reason or another are not always frequently translated. According to Britannica, Bengali numbers well over 200 million native speakers, making it one of the top ten most spoken languages globally, yet it is still not one of the world’s most translated languages. Italian, on the other hand, has ‘only’ 66 million native speakers but is still a much more widely translated language.

Whether or not a language is widely translated depends on a range of factors such as the economic and cultural activities in the source-language country, the extent to which these activities are targeted at an external or international audience, the number of trained translators working with that source language, and to some extent the range of digital and other resources available. In the rest of our article, we’ll be thinking about some of the challenges and opportunities of working in both mainstream and under-represented language pairs, starting with the latter category.

One of the biggest challenges for translators working in under-resourced language pairs is likely to be the smaller pool of work available. Translation and global communication tends to be focused on a few ‘major’ languages, including the so-called EFIGS group (English, French, Italian, German, and Spanish). While this might change in the future, it means that the practical reality now is that there are likely to be fewer opportunities for people working outside the big European and Asian languages.

Less heavily resourced or studied languages also tend to be more difficult to acquire due to a lack of reference materials. Depending on your cultural starting point, learning a source language that comes from a vastly different community might also create certain challenges, while practical hurdles might include cost-of-living issues (depending on where you live and where your source language is most commonly spoken), plus competition from other translators living in your source-language country.

At the same time, if you work with a less commonly translated source language then you might find that benefits include the fact that it may be easier to stand out in a field in which few other translators are working, particularly if you have an area of expertise as well as a strong knowledge of the source language. Working with a language that’s less often studied can also mean that you might encounter different types of content from the mainstream and there could be more scope for developing an area of specialisation that’s specific to the culture or niche industries of that country. If you speak multiple languages then having knowledge of a less widely translated language might create an opportunity for you to make a name for yourself in that source language, which in turn may help you to find work in another more commonly translated source language too.

Lastly, there is the question of representation. When half the world’s population speaks just twenty languages, it’s important to give voice to some of the less widely used languages too. If you’re familiar with a language that is less widely translated or even spoken then it’s likely that you’re able to see the world from a unique point of view and have an inside window into that culture. You might also encounter alternative perspectives to those expressed in other languages, and therefore share more diverse points of view with the world.

But what if you’re only familiar with more widely-spoken languages? This can also have its advantages and drawbacks.

The situation of the world at the moment is that a relatively small number of languages tend to dominate translation and communication. This can come about for a range of historical and cultural factors, but the end result is that the languages that are most frequently studied also tend to be the most translated, and vice versa. If you studied or otherwise acquired a good knowledge of one of the more widely spoken European or Asian languages then there is likely to be more work available in your particular language pair(s), but also a much greater degree of competition given the substantial number of people who also speak these languages.

There’s also the fact that for historical reasons, many of the big European languages tend to be spoken across a far wider geographical area than their country of origin, with French alone being spoken in 29 countries and 11 overseas territories. This means that French, Spanish and Portuguese all have hundreds of millions of native or fluent speakers, which is also true of many of the more widely-translated and spoken Asian languages such as Chinese and Arabic. This means competition not only from other people, but from other parts of the world.

At the same time, working in an over-represented language pair can also have its advantages, not least that there tend to be many more resources available for study, making such languages easier to acquire. The international scope of many of the world’s widely spoken languages also makes it easier to spend time in a place where that language is spoken.

It may also be more likely that your language skills will pay off in other professional settings apart from translation, and that’s important because translation teaches a lot of transferable skills that will come in handy in other places, meaning that if we take the broader view and think about opportunities outside of translation, the widely spoken languages might still be helpful.

Of course, the language landscape can change over time, which means that some of the languages thought of as ‘long-tail’ now may become much more widely used in communication in the future, meaning that it’s difficult to tell which languages, if any in particular, will lead to the most opportunities. The pace of social and technological change also makes it hard to make any predictions as to how we’ll communicate in the near and distant future, which means that for the time being it’s probably best for any aspiring linguist to focus on studying a language that they love and identify with – but if you love languages then you probably do this already.

Most important of all is having a flexible attitude and being ready to adapt to change, which is something that translators and freelancers are used to already. What do you think the major languages for translation in the future will be? If you work with a widely (or less-widely) translated language, what have your experiences been?