In honour of the United Nations’ International Year of Cooperatives, we’ve been spotlighting a number of Québec cooperatives throughout the year. For this mini-interview, we spoke with L’Alouette, coopérative langagière, a linguistic cooperative based in Sherbrooke. We spoke with the team and are happy to share their reflections on the transition to working in a collaborative model, the influence of AI on the translation world, and more.
Why did you choose the cooperative model (and the specific type of cooperative you chose, e.g., solidarity, worker, producer, user, etc.)?
The cooperative model is a perfect fit with our vision of work. It allows us to create a working environment designed around cooperation, knowledge transfer, personal growth, and mutual support. A worker coop was the obvious choice for us, just like our vision. From the start, we have considered our business as a way to train future translators in a rapidly evolving field. We strive to offer steady and gratifying working conditions to foster professionalism, engagement, and drive in our worker members.
What has been the biggest challenge in the process of starting and/or running the cooperative?
To this day, our biggest challenge remains to breathe collaboration into everything we do. Before founding the co-op, the three of us were self-employed in translation and editing, in different areas of specialty. We were used to working on our own and making decisions without consulting anyone.
We wanted to move to a more collaborative way of working, but it didn’t fully mesh with our individual practices. We had to put a lot of energy in going from working on our own to being a team, and the issue still pops up from time to time. Old habits die hard. When you go from working solo to a cooperative, it’s easy to fall back on old reflexes and not consult anybody. We’ve had to go back to the basics and adopt healthy joint management practices for the team and for common projects.
Moreover, the whole governance aspect of the cooperative was completely new to us, and we’ve had to make several changes since we started off.
What is the best advice you received or the advice you would give someone else who is considering starting a cooperative?
Surround yourselves with resourceful people. Luckily, we received support from Réseau COOP through their Parcours Coop program. Sure, we already had a general idea of what we needed to do to start the co-op, and we knew what we wanted our values, operations, and services to be, but the Parcours Coop program had us follow a set schedule and provided mentorship before the official launch. This support has been critical to our success. It really allowed us to go the distance.
What are you most proud about your cooperative?
We are proud to put people at the heart of everything we do. The translation industry, at least with regard to its major players, is increasingly pushing aside quality for quantity. This is largely due to the massive integration of artificial intelligence and machine translation tools that make people believe they can translate texts without the help of a professional.
When used correctly, these tools can lead to impressive increases in productivity. But what we see now is that machine, or neural, translation is used to drive speed and volume, with little regard for linguistic quality, idiomaticity, and customization, which are among the factors essential to efficient communications. efficient communications.
The cooperative is dedicated to adapting its linguistic services to the needs of each client. We aim to build on new technologies, taking on an advisory role and focusing on the added value we, as professionals, can deliver our clientele. At the heart of the relationship between clients and translation teams are various exchanges, the sharing of linguistic advice or desires, and mutual trust. We strive to prove that in 2025, translation agencies can still combine quality and human touch and be successful.
The theme of this year is Cooperatives Build a Better World, and we believe this change starts in our communities. How does your cooperative make your community a better place to be?
By offering outstanding work conditions to its members, our cooperative contributes not only to their financial stability but also to their mental and physical health. Aside from their competitive salary, our members can choose their own schedules and work from wherever they want. This greatly improves their independence and promotes their well-being.
Curious to learn more?
To learn more about L’Alouette, subscribe to their monthly newsletter, visit their website, and follow them on LinkedIn and Facebook.
