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!

A total of 63 people responded to our question, and these 63 responses amount to a total of 4,708 words. Of these 4,708 words, 192 relate to machine/technology/automation/social media/internet, while only 133 relate to humans/people/individuals^[1]. Two thirds (42) were in favor of technology. No one was against technology or had a completely negative outlook on the effects of technological automation^[2].

Some concerns or reservations with technology and automation had to do with humans losing jobs to machines and losing face-to-face interaction. However, 48 respondents (76%) mentioned humans having a role in the automated workplace. Of these 48 respondents, 7 elaborated that automation may replace jobs involving repetitive tasks, but will free up humans to do more important work: customer follow-ups, creative and critical thinking, and research and innovation. On the other hand, nine respondents did not mention humans/people/individuals in their responses, whereas all respondents mentioned technology or automation in one form or another. Moreover, only 19 respondents (30%) mentioned a need for human-to-human interaction.

Five respondents expressed their concerns with automating translation and interpretation services. Four of these five respondents believed that humans should still have a role in providing these services. For example, people will still need to correct the mistakes made by machine translation. Specialized translations and reviews of culturally-related work will require human intervention due to the complexity of human language, thought, and emotion. The overall sentiment was that translators and interpreters will not be replaced by technology, but by translators and interpreters who utilize technology to the best of its capabilities. One of the five respondents expressed concern that pay rates for human translators may decrease, since speed and ease of review may increase significantly through the use of technology.

Overall, more than three fourths of respondents mentioned humans having a role in automated workplaces, including in the translation and interpretation industry. In general, respondents had a positive outlook on the effects of technological automation^[3].

Monterey Language Services is committed to bridging the world’s languages by providing quality, professional and efficient translation & interpretation services in over 175 languages. Please feel free to request a quote from us.

^[1] These statistics were determined through word searches for human*/people/person/individual, and for machine/technolog*/automat*/social media/internet and related words.

^[2] These statistics were determined by categorizing whether a response was generally in favor of technology, and whether it had a positive or negative outlook on the effects of technological automation.

^[3] All other statistics were derived from statements made in the responses.