market has given rise to some interesting debates and reections (Pym 1998).The technology is relevant in the production, transmission, and distributionof information. Accordingly, translation teachers cannot ignore computertechnology in the training of their students and in their own professionaldevelopment. This is particularly obvious in today’s translation market, whichwe briey describe, and which can justly be called global, decentralised,specialised, dynamic, virtual, and demanding.
The global marketInternational
and
global
are the terms that best dene the markets and societieswithin which we live. Commercial initiatives have gone beyond geopolitical boundaries and nowadays any company bent on success in the marketplacemust cross borders, advertise its products abroad and participate in internationaltrade. This is not an option, but a means for survival. International trade isundergoing a constant increase with general economic growth (Ørsted 2001).As international communication has grown, translation by electronic and othermeans has become of vital importance to companies in industry, commerce, andso on. The volume of documents to be translated in order to reach target groups beyond national borders has multiplied manifold. We must also take intoaccount the speed of the ow and the dissemination of information as a result ofthe developments in technology. In this context, Europeans must not overlookthe fact that these days the European Union institutions play an important role.The constant expansion of the European Union – and the ensuing increase in thenumber of ocial languages (at present 20) – calls for consensus and adaptationof uniform guidelines, regulations, rules, etc. Globalisation and the so-called
Euro Area
are driving forces behind the increased demand for translations, asthey promote international trade and tourism (one of the major industries inmany countries, including Spain), and international relationships in general. Inorder to face this variety of demands and to handle the support tools availableto translators, such as new systems of terminology and documentationmanagement (Ørsted 2001), and resource use and maximisation, specialaention is required in the training of future translators.
A decentralised market
As a result of new technologies and the increasingly blurred economic borders, the translation services required by a company, an institution, or aclient are not conned by geographical boundaries. Physical distance is noobstacle to the successful conclusion of a translation assignment. The market isnow decentralised, as we are now dealing with both national and internationalmarkets (Pym 1998). This is advantageous as it expands the eld of the prof-ession, yet it also poses problems. Translators nd it ever more dicult to denetheir specialisation and, ultimately, their training. In professional environments,the subject maers of source texts are, in principle, innite; work o�eninvolves unusual language combinations; and the computer tools necessaryfor developing translation work can be quite varied. In the nal analysis, all
133 Aula.int. Translator Training and Market Demands
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