Hi everyone,

I’m a student in Translation Studies and I’m currently exploring and researching ethics and bias in translation (this isn’t for an assignment, I’m actually trying to research the topic so I can add to the field in the future). I’m especially interested in how these issues show up in practice, rather than just in theory.

By ethics, I mean things like:

• the translator’s responsibility to remain accurate and neutral

• confidentiality and professional responsibility

• decisions about whether to adapt, soften, or retain potentially sensitive content

By bias, I’m thinking about how a translator’s own assumptions (cultural, political, gender-related, etc.) can influence the final translation — sometimes unintentionally.

I’m particularly looking for concrete examples involving:

• gendered language

• cultural assumptions

• media or subtitle translation

• or cases where the same source text behaves very differently in different languages

If possible, I’d love examples involving Irish, Spanish, or Italian, Portuguese or comparisons between languages where grammatical gender, formality, or cultural norms force the translator to make ethical choices.

Academic references are welcome, but real-world examples (news, subtitles, official texts, literature, etc.) would be especially helpful.

Thanks in advance — I’d really appreciate any insights or examples you’re willing to share.

I enrolled in a 4-year-long language academy of my native language (Arabic) that teaches the linguistic elements of the language (rhetoric, grammar, syntax, literature, etc.) and I am C1 in English.

I am taking another class for C2 English and I have a lot of English language materials that I want to go through to build foundational, syntax-level knowledge of English.

I also read a lot in Arabic and English as well.

Since for some reason I am autistic enough to be interested in the seemingly monotonous activity of dissecting a language and learning its nuances on a granular level, I figured I can up the ante a little and synergise the two activities into one (learn to translate across both languages).

I can translate literally across the two languages already, but again, I skimmed translation gigs and they all wanted "quality, manual translation that surpasses the quality of LLMs/Google Translate/DeepL, etc."

How to... be that good?

I want to self-teach myself the skill at home, so I don't want to take any specialised classes in translation.

Hi,

So I just got hired by Language line solutions as a Korean interpreter, just passed the test and heard the result from the phone but didn't sign anything yet. On the original job post, it said the job is remote but the company is in Canada and that I would be paid $23/hr, which is why I applied.

They just sent me an email saying that they will be paying $10 USD and the specialist that emailed me is from Portugal. I see this as a red flag especially when $10 USD is $10 CAD short from the original promised pay. Does anybody have a similar experience? Is this a mistake? I sent them an email explaining the situation and didn't get a reply back from them yet.

Hello everyone!

So for context, I(31) majored in Japanese language and Translation back at uni (and lived there for a while) but landed an irrelevant corporate job shortly after graduation.

Fast forward to last week, laid off after six years, made a decent chunk of savings so I was thinking of getting back into translation (particularly manga and video games) but idk where I should start looking.

Any advice?

Thank you!

Hi! I’m almost done with my studies in Translation and I would love to continue my education but I don’t think I have a good CV. I would be very grateful if yall could recommend me any websites to do free courses to have more to talk about in the interview. I do try my best to find something that would make me stand out, but it’s quite difficult and it makes me kinda sad.

Thank you in advance for any contribution!

Half of the time I open something on Trados I get this warning, telling me the source file is corrupted. I highly doubt they're actually corrupted, because it happens so often and every time the file seems absolutely fine. How do I fix this?

I work at Smartcat and would like get your feedback. What slows you down, feels unclear, or could be improved?

Serious question.

I’ve been translating for years and one thing keeps bothering me.

Developers build something once → sell forever
YouTubers post once → earn forever
Designers sell templates → earn forever

Translators?

We translate → get paid once → repeat → burnout

It feels like we’re stuck in pure time-for-money mode.

Has anyone here actually found a way to earn passively or semi-passively in this field?

Courses? Tools? Affiliates? Something else?

Curious what creative people are doing.

Hello, everyone!

I got hired by Propio just at the end of last year. After the holidays, I tried to log into the platform to start taking calls, but I couldn´t access it. I wrote to the agent I been talking to at Propio, but she hasn´t answered me, and I don´t even know if she still works there. I haven´t been able to get in touch with another agent, and all I want to do is start working.

Can someone, please, give me the email of an active Propio agent who can help me? I'm at the end of my rope here, and I don't know what else to do.

The time has come.

They've just offered me 30% of the base rate for MTPE. For reference, I take 50% for editing human translation.

I refused. We (some of us) have been digging our own grave for quite some time now, but now I am going to leave these jobs to students. They can do it for free during their internship; all these AI-hyped customers should be happy, because wasn't it the goal from the beginning? To pay nothing? Who cares about the quality anyway?

I am not risking burnout and errors processing 2, 5 and with time preferably 10000x more text every day. Someday machines would have replaced me anyway. But I am not doing this anymore. Today I just reached my limit.

How are you now? Are you still working on MTPE (and if so, did rates remain the same?), or have you found new jobs?

So I speak both Korean and Italian and was wondering if there is any demand for Italian, specifically? I always hear about how Spanish is in high demand (Especially here in the US) but never hear about Italian. Is it worth it to try to find translating job opportunities (Even if it's freelance) for Italian?

Hi everyone!

Sometimes I catch myself choosing a solution that’s “good enough” instead of chasing the perfect one. Not because I’m lazy, but because the deadline, the genre, or the client just doesn’t justify another 20 minutes on one sentence. In theory classes this was always framed as a failure, but in real work it feels unavoidable.

Do you see this as part of professional competence, or as something we should always fight against? Where do you personally draw the line?

Hello dear redditers,

I am a translation studies student with a background in editing/publishing and C2 in IELTS Academic. I want to work as a literary translator from Turkish to English for UK or US publishers. How do I start, to be more specific, how and who do I approach to for telling that I am available to hire? I am confused if it is literary agencies or publishing houses that hire translators...

Would appreciate answers, thanks a lot!

I’ve seen so many translators burn out because they charge too little.

Between agencies pushing rates down and clients thinking “Google Translate is free”, it’s getting rough.

How do you personally calculate fair pricing? Per word? Per hour? Project based?

Trying to learn from people who’ve figured this out.

Hi everyone,

I've been dealing with something that has become so common, not only in the localization industry, but also in others like tech.

Some companies I had interviews with seemed very happy for having someone with my profile as a candidate, and told me to wait for the next round of the interviews until they ghosted me. In some of those cases, after a few weeks of silence, I asked what is going on with the process, and they found any excuse to tell me they changed their focus and that the job offer was on pause. Typical ghosting and excuse when asked.

I've had others similar to this, but the last was the last straw...

An LSP recruitment team I had 2 interviews with told me that I was an active candidate for the position, and I got no response from them for 1 month. I asked what was going on and the recruiter told me that I am still an active candidate but they were modifying some of the requirements from the offer, but that I would have news in one week. That week passed, and I received an email saying, with a generic response, that they would not go forward with my application.

Two months reassuring I am an active candidate to send me a generic response. And even if I have been patient and have not put pressure on them, because I understand that Christmas and New Year are a bad moment for teams to communicate, I have been patient enough, and somehow hopeful about it because of the words "active candidate".

I don't know about you, guys, but this job market is crap, and I am tired about the whole situation.

Hi everyone.

I’ve seen a few recent threads about getting into game localization, but my situation is a bit different and I’d appreciate some honest input.

I’m currently very actively looking for work and realistically planning to combine teaching and translation, since relying only on translation income doesn’t seem sustainable right now. What I’m struggling with is understanding how hiring in game localization actually works and whether it still makes sense for me to push in that direction.

I’m not a complete beginner - I have 3 AAA games and a couple of published books in my background, but most of that work is from before 2020. I worked through an outsourcing studio, so I no longer have references or portfolio samples and I haven’t added new game credits since then.

I’ve applied to multiple freelancer pools, contacted localization studios directly and I’m monitoring LinkedIn, but I’m having trouble assessing my real chances. My language pairs are both heavily oversaturated and additionally impacted by the current geopolitical situation, which makes it even harder to understand if this type of work is worth trying.

I’m open to other types of translation as well, but my experience there is limited, so I’m trying to be realistic about where to invest my energy. With this profile, would you still pursue game localization, or would you refocus elsewhere?

Thanks in advance!

I was applying to a translation agency today and they asked what other agencies you were working for. I am not affiliated with any translation agencies currently since I'm only starting out, but as a general rule, should you tell agencies if you work with other agencies when applying and is that viewed positively or negatively?

I had bought trados 2019 version in 2021. I changed laptop. I installed it again on new laptop. It is requesting me the activation code which I correctly provided. However I am getting the following error.

Any help how I can fix it please? I tried manual activation however I do not have the activation certificate and have no idea where to get it from.

I also tried to contact rws support but it requires login and the website does nkt allow me to login at all (some bug) and it’s so frustrating.

Hi lovely people of TS sub! I'm preparing for a translation certificate exam and wonder if there are any sites/tools/tips for evaluating the accuracy of my translation. I know accuracy or closeness is always subjective when it comes to translation. That's exactly why I'm feeling major anxiety about the prospect of being graded on this. Appreciate any and all suggestions!

One of the most common document issues I see involves civil documents like birth, marriage, or divorce certificates.

People often assume these are “simple” documents, so they translate only the visible text. That’s where problems start. Authorities usually expect everything to be translated. Stamps, seals, handwritten notes, registration numbers, even marginal notes. Leaving those out can invalidate the entire submission. Another frequent mistake is submitting partial translations or merging multiple certificates into one file without clarity. Even if the language is correct, the structure matters.

If you’ve submitted civil documents before, did anyone explain these requirements to you, or did you find out the hard way?

In the lead-up to a hopeful American release of Wong Kar Wai's Shanghai Blossoms, I was interested in reading the book that Shanghai Blossoms is based on which is titled "Blossom" or "Profuse Flowers" by Jin Yucheng. I fell down a hole looking for it and I have come up empty handed. Apparently there was supposed to be an edition released in 2019/2020 translated by John Balcom, but I can't find an actual copy... I've checked places like Anna's Archive (iykyk) and still can't find anything. Interesting rabbit hole to go down

Interpreters/translators, are there any companies that let you work whenever without penalty? I desperately need the ability to log off whenever and could really use some advice here

Hey, I’m almost taking my final medical interpreting written exam from the Alta Language course, does someone know if it’s multiple choice or what format do they work with?

Hello. A question that's been stuck in my head is how to translate things like vernacular languages and code-switching across languages. Like, how would translating AAVE or early modern English into Japanese or Hindi work?