Some notes stay with us forever—they are real, heartfelt, and mean a lot to us. One such note from Central Coast Community Energy inspired us to create a short piano piece, celebrating the genuine connection we share with our clients.

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Major Testimonials

★ Government

California Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) — Corinne Chavez, Health Program Manager II

“Monterey Language Services’ collaboration and insights improved care for Medi-Cal members with Limited English Proficiency. Thank you for participating in the Medical Interpreter Pilot Project (MIPP)!”

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★ Healthcare

Natividad Medical Center — Victor Sosa, M.Ed., CMI

“Monterey Language Services provides interpreters with subject expertise for all our language needs. They’ve done an excellent job for us!”

★ Education

Monterey Peninsula College — Jeannie Kim-McPherson, Dean of Instruction

“Thank you for the quick turnaround. Working with your team has been seamless and positive.”

★ Community

Central Coast Community Energy — Peter Berridge, Manager of Communications

“We’ve truly enjoyed working with Monterey Language Services. Their professionalism and warmth make our collaboration meaningful.”

Client Voices — Moments That Stay with Us

• “I love it when good people come together to do great things!”
• “We are thankful for your help in untangling the mess—it made a difference.”
• “Your team is the most professional interpreter staff we’ve ever worked with.”
• “Some notes stay with us forever—they mean a lot to us.”
• “We are grateful for the expertise and care your team provides every day.”
• “Your service and team are outstanding.”
• “Thank you for your quick turnaround and thoughtful attention to detail.”

First, this might seem very obvious, but make sure to use good headphones. You don’t have to splurge on headphones that people in the music industry might use, but a good pair of headphones can make all the difference even if you are not an audiophile. The types of audio files you will receive from your client will differ in quality. Sometimes they will be pristine quality, but sometimes you will have trouble hearing what some people are saying. This is where having a good pair of headphones will come in handy. The extra money you pay for headphones can be the difference between you trying to listen to a part over and over again and make out what is being said.

Next, make sure that you are in a comfortable environment where you will not be easily distracted or hear any kind of extra sounds. If you buy a pair of noise cancelling headphones, you might not have to worry about extra sounds bothering you, but it is still advisable to work in a place where you will not be disturbed.

You can also try to automate the job. While in the past, this might have not been a viable option, in the present day, there are a variety of tools out there that you can use to automatically catch the words for you and write them down. Of course, these kinds of programs are not without their flaws. There are tools like Zoom that can automatically transcribe meetings as long as you tell it to while the meeting is happening and other tools like Express Scribe that help you to ensure that the job gets done with integrated controls that help you control the recording while still typing.

Also be sure to sample the audio before you begin. This will help you figure out what you are dealing with as well as let you gauge how easy or difficult it will be to get through the audio. If you have to tweak the audio on your side so that you can make out what people are saying, then be sure to let the client know that it will take you about 1 hour to transcribe fifteen minutes. Both you and your client will be grateful if you take the time to go through the audio and make sure that you have an accurate assessment of how long it will take.

Overall, transcription can be a lengthy job that takes specific skills to do well. But this doesn’t mean that you will not be able to do the job well. As long as you have the right equipment and the enthusiasm, you will be able to get transcription done to a level that will be satisfactory to both you and your client.

First, how does one become a project manager? There is no specific major or degree that clearly would put you on a path to become a project manager. What is necessary is mostly experience. But what kind of experience, you might ask. Project managers come from a variety of different backgrounds, but the majority of them have some kind of management experience or knowledge of the different moving parts in the translation process. To become a skilled project manager however, takes plenty of time and honing of skills such as attention to detail, organization, great communication, and assertiveness (willingness to take control of situations).

To become a good project manager, it is important to have many different kinds of skills, but one of the most important ones are communication and a passion for the job. With good communication, it will be easier to effectively coordinate with your team so that there are no misunderstandings during work. In addition, with good communication, you are able to effectively converse with the client so that they feel valued and heard. Then, with a passion for the project manager job, it will be much easier to be careful with details, organized, and move things forward. If the project manager is passionate about their job, they will no doubt treat it with a good amount of care and effort.

So what does a project manager do specifically? Project managers are a jack-of-all-trades and help to manage projects from start to end with highest quality and as little issue as possible. Project managers work with clients to clarify project scope and details, so there would be no surprise to any part of the project as it is progressing. By doing this, the project manager promotes transparency and a level of trust that could not be gained without them. The project manager also helps create a single talking point for the client so that communication is simplified.

Project managers also help to oversee all moving parts in projects and make sure that they are operating with the best team within the allotted budget while staying on schedule. This means that the project manager has to have a clear picture of what is happening with each part of the team as well as their capabilities. Without a clear picture of the entire project, it is not realistic to expect that the project will be handled well. To have a quality plan is a key to project success.

Being a project manager can be a very busy and demanding job, but it is rewarding in the sense that you get to work with every part of the process and have control of the final product. With successful planning, the potential downside to a project can usually be avoided. But even if issues or problems did happen, an experienced project manager knows how to solve problems and makes everyone happy or understand. Being a project manager is an exciting experience that is rife with new challenges and people. If you stick to this career path, you will become confident with yourself, your work, and life ahead of you.

Energy from Colleagues

In a language services company, every day is quite busy, and we must balance between different translation and interpretations projects and our constant development work. No matter what the day looks like, we collaborate and communicate with our colleagues to figure out the work to be done. Our colleagues are clear minded, organized in their thinking and their actions, and handle things efficiently and effectively. This pace and rhythm gives us more energy.

Energy from Projects

When it comes to translation and interpretation projects, we have strategies to help us keep our energy up. If there is any confusion, we clear it up right away. By not letting things sit and wait, we keep our momentum and our energy going. This also frees up more time and energy to focus on important new requests that come in every day.

We also take our time to capture important details of new projects. This helps us decide how to proceed, and let us create a comprehensive plan, and foresee any potential issues before they occur.

Thinking energetically gives us a clear outline, which in turn gives us the energy we need to move things forward. This energy helps us deliver high quality translations and interpretations.

Energy from Clients

Our clients also energize us. We respond to all of our client requests with enthusiasm, whether we receive the request a several weeks or a single day in advance. We often receive last-minute requests from clients. When we do, we work quickly to figure out what needs to be done and who can do it. For example, when we received a request for an interpreter at 11am for an event happing that same afternoon, we immediately began reaching out to a very large pool of interpreters and selected one who is most suitable for the job. It makes us happy to be able to help our clients who are in a bit of a pinch, and the desire to help people in turn helps us stay energized and excited about completing rush projects. When a client is understanding and a pleasure to work with, that gives us even more energy.

Ultimately, passion is the driving factor behind our energy. All of our team members have a deep personal interest and passion for languages and communication; we all speak at least one additional language and understand the power that language can transmit. We love to help people communicate with others in all situations, so we feel a great sense of satisfaction every time we complete a project. When you work with your passion like we do, it is refreshing and easy to stay energized!

Through accurate and clear translation of corporate communication materials, customers and employees can gain a better understanding of the corporate message and guidelines and can thus better contribute to the greater success of the corporation.

Global companies working with Monterey Language Services are growing stronger because they have chosen a translation and interpretation company that gives individualized attention to each translation project entrusted to them.

Our company stands firmly by what we believe in and provides the following to our global corporate customers.

Specialty: Translation and interpretation that require high level of expertise

Domains: Medical, legal, technical, and business subjects

Approach: Clear, accurate, and complete translation and interpretation

Value: Professional, efficient, and high quality services

Languages provided: Over 175 languages (including Arabic, Japanese, Hebrew, Malay, German, French, Indonesian, Danish, Finnish, Hungarian, Korean, Simplified and Traditional Chinese, Tagalog, Vietnamese, Italian, Swedish, Spanish, Portuguese, Turkish, Hindi Norwegian, Polish, Russian and more)

Monterey Language Services strives to provide the highest quality of translation and interpretation services. Please feel free to contact us for a quote.

A friend once asked me if I believed that my career was in danger of being outsourced to translation technology. In other words, he wondered if I felt that my profession was threatened by advances in machine translation, whereby potential clients can simply enter their text in a computer and  – voila! – an instant translation appears before them.

I told him that while technology certainly has its merits, true quality in translations can only be achieved through human attention to detail, human patience, and human passion. After all, how can a computer possibly convey the subtleties and feeling contained in a text produced by a human being, whose very essence is manifested in the words that he or she has written?

So no, I am not worried that my profession – and moreover my passion – is in danger of being made obsolete. On the contrary, I believe that every time a client of mine receives one of my translations, he or she will understand that my work, like that of an artisan whose livelihood could never be replicated in a factory, exudes the quality that can only come from the hands of a human being.

These thoughts on quality brought to you by our translator Mac Layne.

What the word “quality” means to one person can mean something else to another. Why do people have vastly different measurements for quality? 

Some people strive to attain and maintain high quality; meanwhile, others only give medium or low quality. I, myself, shoot for high quality. I once had a history professor who told me, “your writing doesn’t always have the quantity I expect, but it always has the quality I want.” Therefore, I always got an A.

Today, we must perform at high standards and do high quality work to compete in our global society. Unfortunately, people often tend to turn in work with low or medium quality.

How can we bring the focus back to high quality? First, people need to slow down, put time and effort into their project or assignment, give their best, and be proud of their work. Also, I believe another aspect to this issue is that many bosses or professors don’t give enough praise for a job well done. Not only does praise make an employee feel good about their performance, but it also gives them a better indicator of what the boss really wants. Without praise, people tend to just put in the least amount of effort to get the job done.

Quality can be achieved through practice, pride in your work, and reward for your work. Each person has the ability to give a 100%, yet some try to slide through life giving 50% or less. In today’s global business world, we need to set our standards high. We need to compete and achieve high quality work by giving 100% on each and every project or assignment. The competition is high; therefore, we need to set ourselves apart from the rest. Next time your project is due, give it a second or third revision. This way you can raise your quality level and succeed. Good luck.

This think quality story brought to you by our friend Melissa P. Coyne.

Why is it important that a translation service is located in Monterey Bay? Well, some of the finest language institutes are located in Monterey. The Monterey Institute of International Studies (MIIS) and the Defense Language Institute (DLI) are specialized institutions. The DLI also does research in the Language field and provides linguistic and cultural instruction for the Department of Defense. MIIS provides 15 different fields of study within the umbrella of Language studies. Some of these include Social Change, Terrorism Studies, Environment, Business Studies, and Translation.

Along with these schools, California State University at Monterey Bay (CSUMB) has many students graduating with a degree in Japanese or Spanish. CSUMB also provides classes in American Sign Language (ASL) and introduces students to the deaf culture. Many of the students who graduate with these majors have also studied abroad and have been immersed in the culture with which they study. The same kind of culture can be found at MIIS and the DLI.

Monterey Peninsula College (MPC) also provides language classes that include ASL, Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, and Spanish. This concentration of high quality language instruction in the area calls for the inclusion of a high quality translation service.  ~ By Sam Pereira

Monterey Language Services is happy to call this place “home”.

All the colleagues working at Monterey Language Services are linguistically gifted with world travel experience. Our intern Matthew Stone went to Germany and finished his high school degree and is now a business major at CSUMB. He was interned in Austria and volunteered to help build amphitheaters in Mexico. He has unique experiences in a dozen different countries.

~Monterey Language Services, providing high quality translation and interpretation services in over 175 languages.

A Story by Matthew Stone

When you are a teenager, the world is a big place, especially when you go out to explore it.

I left home when I was 16, heading out to Germany, while knowing no German. Sometimes the hardest thing was simply staying awake, listening to words 24 hours a day when I had no idea. But I stayed because I wanted to be a professional soccer player.

I had spent so many years of my life trying to play in Europe and finally the opportunity had arrived. Nothing could tamper my motivation, not even the language barrier. The frozen fields and gummi platz (German playing surface) that engulfed me for countless hours only added to my passion with its new aura.

So writing to you years later as a college student, do I look back and say I did not achieve my dream? Or did my pursuit of one open up new doors? Because of my desire to play soccer, I now am fluent in German and have been awakened to the world. This has resulted in me traveling around the world as well as picking up an internship in Austria. It was not easy but you never find anything new if you trample the path that has already been worn.

I was representing Monterey Language Services, making a company presentation at a client site.  The name “Monterey Language Services” pleasantly and surprisingly initiated a big discussion.    ~By Mei-Ling Chen

Why are we called “Monterey Language Services”?  The answers from the audience included:

• We are located in Monterey County.
• John Steinbeck wrote a lot about Cannery Row in Monterey.
• Everybody knows Monterey.
• When asked where you live and you say Monterey, everyone knows which city you are referring to.

The answers began to branch out further:

• The Monterey area is famous for languages because of several renowned higher education language institutions, such as Monterey Institute of International Studies (MIIS) and Defense Language Institute (DLI).
•  Monterey showcases the language history of the area.  Immigrants of almost every ethnicity worked in Cannery Row.
• ·Monterey has the unofficial title of the language capital of the world.

The name “Monterey Language Services” does have its significance to us, just like names such as Oxford, Napa and The Hague have international significance as authorities on academics, wine, and law.

Because of the name, and the fact that many of us are trained and educated here, we are driven to provide high-quality translation and interpretation services. We are committed to keeping high quality as the leading force in the translation and interpretation services industry.

The name “Monterey Language Services” inspires us to serve the community, as well as every other part of the nation and world.  With this commitment in mind, it is no wonder that the name Monterey Language Services attracted so much interest among the audience whom I met locally yesterday.

What a wonderful time to start a new year!  We wish everyone a successful year to come!