Translators themselves often have to develop their own glossaries and terminology lists. Someone should tap into this vast pool of language resources and create the materials which we all require. Convince the federal government and state governments that while regulation and accreditation of translators might not be a bad idea in theory, the likely result in practice of creating regulations without proper understanding of the professions and input from professionals in all aspects of the industry will be mere chaos and confusion, coupled with a lack of capable and competent translators. Translators should police themselves, avoiding the problems of government-imposed regulation. Perform the academic research necessary to provide a strong theoretical base for the translation profession.
Few translators have any idea of what they are doing in terms of linguistics or language.
Such fundamental definitions would help translators get the professional respect they desire, help agencies and clients understand the process of translation and its value, and help government regulators create reasonable guidelines and standards. Stop confusing translators and interpreters. Translators deal with the written language. Interpreters deal with the spoken language. A translators cannot necessarily interpret and an interpreter cannot necessarily translate.