Translation as a Profession (Benjamins Translation Library)

Chapter 12. Recognition 2533.1 AgainstThose who oppose any kind of regulated access to the translating professionsusually base their position on the fact that most translators are deeply convincedthat they are special cases and have a basically individualistic outlook on theirprofession. They draw on any number of the following arguments.1. Translation is one of the very few remaining fields where people are free to betheir own boss. If anyone can ‘set up shop’, then so be it and let the best man(or woman) win!2. Regulating access to the profession would distort free competition.3. The most important thing for the translator is the very special relationship andtrust that he must establish with his clients. And this kind of relationship hasnothing whatsoever to do with professional statuses. The translator shouldtherefore be completely free to run his business without interference of anykind (and the red tape is bad enough as it is!).4. Defining conditions of access to the profession and a professional status wouldrapidly lead on to a standard definition of services and translation tariffs, as inregulated health service professions, whereas in fact translators and doctors,for instance, have little in common as regards their role in society and it wouldtherefore be stupid to treat them alike.5. Any freelance translator’s ambition is to make a living. The going is oftentough at first and it is only fair that freelancers should be free to reap the fullbenefits once they have built up a reputation and a client portfolio. Regulationsmight prevent them from catching up.6. Translators are not interested in regulatory frameworks: all that matters,irrespective of background and personal motives, is doing a good job withgenuine respect for professional ethics7. Regulating access would mean reducing the current diversity of origin whichis the hallmark of a dynamic profession.8. A regulatory framework would be designed to protect a bunch of cosseteduniversity graduates, ‘trained’ by academics in their ivory towers, as opposedto self-taught translators whose skills and competences are founded on theirexpertise and experience in a technical field (in the broad sense of the word).Far better to leave the doors wide open and to let the free market take care of(natural) selection.9. Translators cannot be ‘trained’: they emerge by a natural process. This is whatthey have done in the past and this is what they should keep doing. Besides, itshould take only a few weeks to master translation techniques. Long universitycourses are only needed if you get it into your head to ‘train’ translatorsfrom scratch, especially those with a ‘languages-and-literature’ background.Anyway, the average standard of the work done by a ‘trained’ translator is poor