When it comes to translation and interpretation, one of the many unsaid expectations for people is that whatever they say or write will be perfectly converted into a different language. Many people expect a one to one conversion of language because they assume that all languages are fundamentally the same. However, that is a major misconception that is hardly corrected.

For example, even within English, there are regional differences that can sometimes prevent fellow English speakers from having the same understanding of even simple conversations. Winter can get cold, and when that happens, people in the United States (US) might want to buy a sweater. However, in the United Kingdom (UK), if you asked for a sweater, you might be met with some confusion. Sweater is not the common word that people in the UK would use. Instead, they would use the word “jumper.” Conversely, if you asked for a “jumper” in the US, you would be met with a lot of confusion because the word “jumper” is typically reserved for people who do such activities as jumping.

Moreover, word for word conversion is the number one killer in rendering translation and interpretation. Often times, target audiences have no idea of what a translation is trying to say is because of that. For example, we often have to adjust English to Chinese translations done by other people, and to make the focus of each point clear and to be sure it’s easy to read and understand. The issue is that the original translation was literally written in a way that followed English words and grammar too closely. Unfortunately, Chinese grammar is not the same as English grammar. Therefore, ideas/points were not communicated easily and clearly for Chinese readers.

Another tough aspect to deal with is related to cultures. Many translators or interpreters struggle to find a perfect fit to certain idioms or phrases that might be frequently used in one country, but not in another. For example, in Japan, every time they eat, they have a small ritual of expressing gratitude for the food both before and after eating the food. In most other cultures, there is no such ritual, so it is hard to perfectly translate it. In general, there are many phrases in Japanese to show respect that would not translate easily into other languages without the same kind of rituals. Instead, translators and interpreters will have to skirt around and find similar phrases or words that will be “good enough” to convey the meaning.

Culture is a big part of what makes languages end up having such a big gap in phrases and words, and because of that, a one to one translation is virtually impossible for languages. There will almost always be at least some tiny nuance that is lost in translation. Even so, translators and interpreters do their best to minimize these bumps in the road. Translators and interpreters ensure that even if nuances are lost, an understanding is still able to be passed on, which in our opinion is the essence of translation and interpretation.

One of the most common things that both translators and interpreters hear is that their jobs are going to become obsolete because of machine translation. Because engines like Google Translate exist, there are many who are unfamiliar with the interpretation/translation field that are confident that though machine translation might not be perfect, it is on track to replace human translators and interpreters in the near future.

This opinion has only been further enforced in the light of the current pandemic. With social distancing being encouraged, many businesses and individuals are moving away from face-to-face business and moving to the safety of digital solutions. With many people preferring in-person interpretation, and less interpreters willing to ignore safety conventions to fulfill these requests, there are some who would prefer to try machine translation.

In this day and age, there are sophisticated machine translation engines that can even almost do simultaneous interpretation. If the subject is within a specific, technical subject, the accuracy of the outputted translation goes up as well. Many would point to this as being the time for machine translation to rise in popularity and use.

Even so, businesses still tend to prefer using interpreters when they can. There is, and will most likely never be a true replacement to a human interpreter. In fact, interpreters were already still able to work remotely even before the pandemic. With Zoom and over-the-phone interpretation, interpreters are still able to work without too much of a change to the experience.

Of course, there are still some difficulties and annoyances with remote interpretation, but it is still the most reliable and preferred method for interpretation. The same applies for translation. Most translation has been done remotely, and is still preferred over machine translation for the same reason businesses prefer human interpreters. Though machine translation is a powerful tool, it is still not reliable or trusted enough to fully replace the human touch. During this pandemic, the work of translators and interpreters may be affected, but it is not because of a rise in machine translation.

It is no secret at this point that the COVID-19 situation is still just as much of a threat as it was when the entire pandemic began. With the situation still not being contained whatsoever, what started as a pandemic that some though would optimistically end in months, has stretched out much longer, and is expected to not see any real improvement until maybe even the end of 2021. In the midst of this pandemic, everyone is finding themselves affected in different ways. Many are seeing a drop in livelihood and changes to their lifestyles. Though humanity as a whole are in an understatedly difficult position, many are finding ways to make this pandemic not completely kill their businesses.

When the pandemic first began, it was uncertain whether or not it would even be possible to procure toilet paper, or if you could even get into a line for a supermarket without having to wait multiple hours. But over time, health experts have been able to recommend safe practices that ensure the safety and prevent the spread of COVID-19. In the present, while there are still many things that we are not able to do, there are many more things that we can do now that make it possible to feel as if we are living as we used to.

Of course, people in general aren’t the only ones who had to find a way to adapt in order to have a taste of normalcy. Businesses had to find a way to continue their work without any detriment to their employees’ health or their profits. For restaurants, their answer was delivery. For schools, remote teaching has become a very viable option. And for business giants such as Google and Apple, they are allowing their employees to work at home until at least July 2021.

With the realization that the COVID-19 situation is not getting any better, companies now have to face with the unfortunate reality that there will not be an answer to this pandemic until next year. With that in mind, businesses are trying to get ahead of the curve, and allow for remote work for their employees to ensure that they are safe, and do not have to choose between their job and their safety. It is highly likely that more businesses will begin to adapt the same measures as the year goes on as long as they are equipped to.

Overall, with the end of COVID-19 nowhere in sight, businesses have to make the call that will bring their employees the most safety while also ensuring that they can function without there being too much impact to their day-to-day operations. Nobody knows when the pandemic will end, but it is certain that proper precautions need to be taken sooner than later if businesses want to survive this pandemic.

The coronavirus pandemic is changing many aspects of our lives: how we work, how we socialize, how we shop. It is even affecting the language that we use and how we communicate. We have all had to learn new terminology to discuss the virus, and this terminology has become commonplace. We have also created new words to express coronavirus-related ideas, or repurposed old words to make them relevant to the current situation. It is quite interesting to see the progression of language in this way.

Five or six months ago, the phrase “social distancing” was barely known, and was just starting to be introduced. Every time a news anchor mentioned it, they had to explain its meaning, maybe even show a little diagram to illustrate the concept. Now, unless you’ve been living under a rock, you hear anyone and everyone talking about “social distancing” several times a day. The same is true for other COVID-19 related terminology, including phrases like “flatten the curve.”

People are endlessly creative, even during pandemics. This is seen in the fact that people across the world are coming up with new words to express new concepts that have emerged due to coronavirus. One of the most popular examples of this in English is the word “covidiot” (“covid” + “idiot”) which describes people who willingly don’t follow the guidelines around COVID-19 to protect themselves and others. This is a fun list that gives some more examples of new and repurposed words in many different languages.

The COVID-19 guidelines that we are following might also change how we actually speak. We are wearing masks when we go outside and staying at least six feet away from people we encounter. Both of these practices protect our health, but also make it much more difficult to talk and hear each other. Sometimes we end up almost yelling just to have a brief conversation. For some of us, the difficulties of having an in-person communication make us weigh our words more carefully and focus on communicating as efficiently as possible- we don’t want to spend energy yelling about things that don’t matter!

As always, it is important to consider people who communicate differently than us, and do what we can to help them. One group of people facing particularly difficult communication challenges now is the deaf and hard-of-hearing community. Many of them rely on lip reading and seeing facial expressions to understand others, and with masks, this is now impossible. People have designed and started creating masks with clear plastic windows in them to allow for lip reading; there are several places now to purchase such masks online, or you can make your own by following a guide like this.

As professionals in the language industry, we at Monterey Language Services are fascinated by how this pandemic is changing our language and communication styles. We like to stay on top of these changes so that we can continue communicating as effectively as possible!

COVID-19 and the resulting measures taken to prevent its spread have significantly affected the global economy. No industry has been spared, although a select few have actually seen business increase due to the virus. Many people expect that our economies will not go back to the way they were before the virus, not entirely. We think this could be true for the language industry as well. We would like to explore a few ways that we might see the translation and interpretation industry change because of COVID-19.

For language service providers, working from home was already relatively common before the pandemic. There were even some companies whose entire workforce worked remotely. With the coronavirus pandemic, most if not all LSPs have now moved to remote work. Some people are concerned that working from home leads to lower productivity. Many LSPs have seen a reduction in how much work they have, so comparing the company’s efficiency or productivity between “then” and “now” might not give a fully accurate picture of the effects of working from home. But since the future of COVID-19 is uncertain, we think it is likely that LSPs will continue to let their employees work from home for a while yet. And, if companies remain productive once business starts picking back up, perhaps more companies will consider going remote permanently.

Since almost everything has to be conducted remotely these days, usage of technology that allows us to communicate remotely has skyrocketed. This trend includes the use of remote interpretation technology, such as phone and video interpretation. These services allow critical information to be shared safely. While this type of interpretation is usually not a client’s first choice (many people naturally prefer in-person interpretation), people will get accustomed to using it. And once people are used to it, it is less likely that they will stop. This is why we think that even when in-person interpretation is safe again, remote interpretation will remain more popular than it was before the pandemic.

This pandemic has revealed the importance of medical interpretation and translation, and also the limitations that many health care providers have in providing these services, especially interpretation. Many hospitals were not set up to allow for crucial remote interpretation services. Once the pandemic hit, this became even less of a priority for many hospitals, which has potentially had drastic effects on the lives of non-English speakers who contract the virus (US News). Now that this issue has come to light, we hope that health care providers will take it seriously and take action to make language access possible, especially during a time like this when many lives are at stake. We think that this awareness could spark reforms that improve health care language access across the country in the long term.

Finally, we believe we might see a difference in what translators and interpreters choose to specialize in. As discussed before, many industries have been hard hit by this pandemic, and as a result companies are choosing to forego translation and interpretation services for the time being. However, some translators and interpreters are in extra high demand, like those who specialize in medical and legal work. Since many people are currently worried about job security, and will likely remain worried about it in the future, we can expect that many linguists will take steps to ensure their job security, including specializing in a domain that will always be needed even during global emergencies.

In times of uncertainty, speculating about the future can help us feel more prepared for whatever is to come. We are not sure whether our predictions will occur, of course. But what we are sure of is that most people who contribute to the language services industry are passionate and hard working, and will always do their best to make communication possible.

Technology was already an important tool for communication, work, entertainment, etc. before the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Now that many of us are isolated at home and unable to work or visit other people in person, technology has taken on even more critical and unforeseen roles. Who knew that videoconferencing services such as Zoom would be used to host virtual “happy hours” and family gatherings?

The same is true for technology usage in the translation and interpretation industry. Technology was already quite a buzzword for language professionals. Many people have been singing praises of tech such as neural machine translation, remote interpretation tools, etc. Now it is time to optimize this technology to help us share information as accurately and quickly as possible.

Providing translation and interpretation is absolutely vital during the coronavirus pandemic. In normal circumstances, it has been shown that people who don’t speak English well or at all tend to have worse health outcomes after many types of routine procedures. This effect can be even worse when the situation is critical, like when patients potentially have COVID-19. Since interpreters can’t be in the room to interpret for patients, doctors must rely on phones as an interpretation platform. This still poses some difficulties, like connectivity issues, and trouble hearing due to doctors keeping physically distant from patient. This is better than nothing, but certainly can be improved. Just as doctors have a duty to their patients to provide the best care possible, language professionals and technology developers have a duty to optimize their services to support health care workers in these times.

However, any technology that is used for health care purposes must have legally a certain level of security. This is one reason that certain platforms like Zoom can’t be used for remote medical interpretation: they need end-to-end encryption, among other requirements, to ensure patients’ privacy.  According to this Time article, many hospitals are doing their best to transition to providing remote interpretation, but they don’t have the infrastructure. We hope to see more platforms implement stricter security measures, so that health care workers can have more tools available to them.

Machine translation is another tool that, when used properly, can greatly speed up the sharing of important information and significant news about the coronavirus. It can also help researchers and doctors understand medical studies and reports on the coronavirus that have come out of other countries. This is why SDL, a major provider of language services and technology, is offering health science researchers free access to their proprietary machine translation tool. This tool offers translation of over 120 languages, so researchers will have a wealth of information from different sources available to them. Please see this article for more information!

We have outlined a few ways in which translation and interpretation technology is important, but we have just touched the tip of the iceberg. There are many ways that this technology is being used to prevent the spread of COVID-19, and to help those people who are working on the front lines of this pandemic and those who have gotten sick. We are proud to offer remote interpretation services ourselves. We believe that this technology plays a significant role in keeping people healthy and saving people’s lives, and we are grateful to everyone who develops and uses this technology.

Translation and interpretation are incredibly important services that must be made available to everyone during the COVID-19 pandemic. We would like to take a moment to highlight the people who make this possible, and the services and initiatives they are working on.

In normal circumstances, it has been shown that people who speak little to no English tend to have worse health outcomes from routine procedures than English speakers do. One major reason for this is non-English speakers might not fully understand the directions given by the doctor and therefore don’t manage their recovery appropriately. This disparity can be even larger in a medical crisis, like we are experiencing now during the COVID-19 pandemic. Fortunately, many people are working hard to close this gap by providing as much information about the coronavirus in as many languages as possible. Pooja Chandrashekar, a first year Harvard medical student, started a movement to translate critical information about COVID-19 “in an effort to help patients from vulnerable communities know when and how to seek care.” Called the COVID-19 Health Literacy Project, this initiative now includes over 35 institutions, and has translated into 34 languages. This is an incredible volunteer program that will certainly help many people manage this health crisis. If you are interested in contributing to this project, click here for more information!

This pandemic is especially hard for children, whose lives have been completely disrupted for something that they can’t fully understand. It is important to support them and give them information they can relate to, which is why the Inter-Agency Standing Committee Reference Group on Mental Health and Psychosocial Support in Emergency Settings (a collaboration of various United Nations organizations) created a children’s book that would show children how to protect themselves from the virus and how to “manage difficult emotions when confronted with a new and rapidly changing reality.” The group surveyed over 1700 children, parents, caregivers and teachers from 104 countries to find out what children’s mental health needs are during the pandemic, and to examine how different people cope with COVID-19. The survey was available in Arabic, English, Italian, French, and Spanish, to make sure that a diverse range of people were able to share their experiences. These responses formed the framework for the book, whose writers wanted to make sure that the story would resonate with children across the globe. The story, called “My Hero is You,” was initially released in six languages, and with the help of volunteer translators, has now been translated in 32 languages and counting. The book is available for free online; if you would like to read it, or if you want more information on how to volunteer to translate, please click here.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many public officials have been having regular press briefings, sometimes even daily. American Sign Language (ASL) interpreters are a key part of these briefings, as they allow deaf and hard-of-hearing people to understand the same information in real time. Because there are so many briefings, these interpreters have been gaining a lot of attention and admiration for their work, as seen in such headlines as “‘One of the world’s best’: Idaho interpreter wins fans during COVID-19 news conferences” and “American Sign Language interpreters shine during COVID-19 press conferences.” Jonathan Lamberton, an ASL interpreter for Bill de Blasio, gave an interview where he described the rewards and challenges of interpreting during times as difficult as now. He told the reporter that “Sometimes when I’m interpreting it’s a challenge to not cry myself, it is on my mind but I’m able to put it on the mental backburner while I’m focusing on my job,” which highlights the emotional strength that our interpreters must have in addition to their linguistic skills. It’s no wonder that ASL interpreters are gaining fans!

We are incredibly thankful for all of the translators, interpreters, and other language professionals who are continuing to work or volunteer to make sure everyone has access to the information they need. They inspire us to keep doing our best to share information in as many ways as we can. We are proud to be part of the language services community!

It has been over a month since California issued a stay-at-home order in order to flatten the curve and slow the spread of the coronavirus. The governors of California, Oregon, and Washington recently met to discuss a joint plan for reopening their states. The timeline for this plan isn’t set in stone, but some people are encouraged by the fact that a plan is being discussed at all. However, experts warn against reopening businesses and public spaces too soon, as this could cause another spike in infections.

On Tuesday April 14, California Governor Gavin Newsom laid out all of the conditions that would have to be met before the stay-at-home orders could be lifted altogether. California would have to have:

• “The ability to monitor and protect our communities through testing, contact tracing, isolating, and supporting those who are positive or exposed;
• The ability to prevent infection in people who are at risk for more severe COVID-19;
• The ability of the hospital and health systems to handle surges;
• The ability to develop therapeutics to meet the demand;
• The ability for businesses, schools, and child care facilities to support physical distancing; and
• The ability to determine when to reinstitute certain measures, such as the stay-at-home orders, if necessary.” (cnbc.com)

It’s unclear when all of these conditions are expected to be met. Some people hope that this could happen as soon as the first week of May, but others are prepared to stay at home for much longer. The current stay-at-home order is set to expire on May 3 in the Bay Area and on May 15 in Los Angeles. We will see then whether the orders will be renewed or lifted.

Some states, however, are already beginning to reopen public places. Over the weekend, some areas in Florida opened access (still with some restrictions) to beaches, and many Floridians took advantage of this to spend time on the beach. Unfortunately, it appeared that social distancing recommendations were often not being followed. Of course people are eager to get out of the house and get “back to normal,” but it is important to remember that we are not out of the woods yet. Even when the shelter-at-home orders are lifted, experts recommend that social distancing measures should continue to be taken for a while longer. We want to continue to “flatten the curve”; the worst outcome would be to lift these measures all at once and cause a large outbreak of the virus, essentially negating all of the positive effects of the strict stay-at-home measures we have been living by.

On Friday April 10, small business owners were able to apply for loans from the Small Business Administration to help them continue operating while their income is impacted by COVID-19. The Paycheck Protection Program is one program to help provide loans to small business owners, and it has already run out of money. According to Forbes, “In less than two weeks, $349 billion has been claimed by around 1.6 million small business owners. While that may seem like a lot, 1.6 million is a mere 6% of America’s small businesses.” The program needs more funding to help the people who were unable to receive a loan this time around; fortunately, this is already being discussed in Congress.

These are difficult times for everyone. People are understandably stressed out and eager to return to life as normal. However, we must remember the ultimate goal of the social distancing and stay-at-home measures put in place: to protect our own health, and to protect the health of the people around us, especially the vulnerable. At Monterey Language Services we are doing our part by working from home, and only going out for essentials. We are proud to help how we can, and we encourage everyone else to do what they can to help us get through this together!

During the COVID-19 pandemic, it can be hard to stay positive. Many of us are feeling overwhelmed, scared, and uncertain. But we think it is important to look at the good things that are happening. More people are helping each other and communicating in a way that wasn’t as common before this pandemic occurred. We want to shine a spotlight on some of the inspiring things that people and companies are doing, and give our readers a sense of hope and positivity.

People have come up with all sorts of ways to show appreciation and help each other during these hard times. In cities across the world, when 8 PM rolls around people head to their balconies and yards to cheer, clap, bang pots, and make as much noise as they can to show their support for health care workers. There are countless examples of individuals taking action to make the best of the situation, like this neighborhood in Oakland that threw a “social distance block party” and these people performing music and leading exercises for their apartment buildings.

Social media is a great tool for helping people and spreading positivity. People are using social media to connect people who need help with people who can provide that help. For example, the app Nextdoor (a social media app for your neighborhood) has developed a “help map” feature, where participants can sign up to be “helpers” in their neighborhood. Anyone in the area who needs extra assistance knows that they can contact these people to run errands, do check-ins, etc. Cultural institutions, like museums, are using social media to connect with their fans in new and fun ways. For example, the Getty Museum has posted a challenge online for people to recreate works of art with everyday objects. The results are creative and hilarious, and bring some lightness to the difficult situation of being stuck at home.

Companies and corporations are also taking huge steps to help people during this pandemic. General Motors has partnered with Ventec, a ventilator supply company, to drastically increase the number of ventilators that are being manufactured. This has the added benefit of keeping many GM workers employed that might otherwise have lost their jobs. Some distilleries, such as the Shine Distillery in Portland, have started making hand sanitizer, a critical resource that is currently quite difficult to obtain. These are just a few examples; please check out this Forbes list for more.

At Monterey Language Services, we love seeing all the ways that individuals, organizations and companies are coming together to provide help in this difficult situation. We are doing our best to provide help how we can: we are continuing to provide translation and interpretation services for any client that needs it. We also want to spread the message that we are here for each other, and we can get through this together!

In difficult times, it can be hard to stay positive and focused. And that’s completely natural; it’s important to pay attention to reality and allow ourselves to feel negative emotions. However, we must find a balance and try to appreciate the positive aspects of our lives. During times of crisis, positivity can help us maintain stability and give us hope for the future.

At Monterey Language Services, focusing on our mission – bridging people and cultures through language – gives us positivity. This positivity helps motivate us to continue working hard. Now, at a time when people are physically isolating themselves, it can feel more difficult to make human connections. Our work of connecting people is more important than ever, and we are proud to contribute to this mission in any way we can.

Staying connected with other people is another great way to cultivate positivity. Since we are all required (except for essential workers) to stay at home, most of us are interacting with very few people face-to-face. That makes it all the more important to keep connected to friends and family, which can bring a great injection of positivity. At Monterey Language Services, we apply this at work as well: making sure to continue working together and communicating normally, but also checking in on each other and making sure that everyone on our team is doing okay.

It’s also important to find the positivity in the simple things: take stock of your situation and actively look for the things that bring you happiness, no matter how small. Most of us don’t enjoy being quarantined at home, but we can appreciate that we have a home. We can find the positivity in the fact that by staying home, we are limiting the spread of the virus.

Finally, let’s not forget to bring positivity to those who need it. Many people are hurting or in need, and  this Washington Post article has a great list of charities that are providing critical services during this pandemic that anyone can donate to or volunteer for if they are able.

It can feel difficult to stay positive during an experience like the one we are going through, but it may be easier than you think. At Monterey Language Services, we stay positive thinking about our mission, our work, colleagues, friends, and clients. We’re working to stay positive and helpful during this difficult time, and we hope everyone else is able to find some positivity as well!