The making of our Thanksgiving video was a journey that reminded us of the unique value human creativity brings to our work.

In a world where AI tools are rapidly evolving, we see AI not as competition but as an opportunity to reflect on the qualities that set us apart.

Our process—rooted in collaboration, thoughtfulness, and emotional nuance—is a testament to the irreplaceable role of the human touch in crafting meaningful connections.

With Thanksgiving just around the corner, we decided to create a heartfelt greeting video to thank everyone—our clients, coworkers, and friends. Through our combined team efforts, we were able to make a video that sets us apart from AI. Here’s our process on how we made this year’s video special.

We gathered photos of our team members in action—focused, collaborating, and working wisely. These images were the perfect way to showcase the dedication and effort we put into every project. Each picture highlighted a different aspect of our work, whether in the office, in meetings, or working remotely.

We also gathered photos of our team celebrating Thanksgiving together. Whether we were sharing a toast, giving thanks, or simply enjoying each other’s company. These images added a joyful, festival touch to the video. It was important for us to show not only our professional side but also the warmth we share as a team.

To step it up a notch, we reached out to Layla and asked her to write a poem that would capture the team, dedication, and the spirit of Thanksgiving. Layla’s words were both thoughtful and inspiring. The poem beautifully expressed our gratitude and teamwork.

In praise of work partners

Integrity, merit, jubilation
Honorably, you display

Collaborative endeavors and dynamic talents
Significant affiliation creates

Vigorous diligence and wise resolutions
Remarkable admiration cultivates

Our heartfelt gratitude we proclaim to you
A bountiful Thanksgiving we wish for you

We carefully selected the best visuals to match each part of the poem, ensuring the transitions felt seamless and natural. We also added more Thanksgiving elements to make the video warmer and more festive.  We show Layla’s poem in its entirety at the end, but have stanzas of her poem alternate with our wishes and pictures of our staff. The result is a very interesting video that will make the viewer feel the warm greetings from Monterey Language Services while making sure that our thanks are conveyed.

One important thing we did in this video was feature our clients. It’s important to show that we’re all more than just a faceless company, but a team of people who are all working toward a common goal. It helps to show harmony, joy, and peace. This is something that we did last year as well, and something that we will continue to do each year.

We made sure that the transitions were consistent across the entire video and had a method where we would have the text fly in, and then when the next slide had pictures, we’d do a door opening effect. The door opening effect was used for all the pictures, but for text-to-text transitions, we had a slide effect. This was all very intentionally engineered to make a very smooth and comforting feel for the viewer as they watched the video.

From start to finish, we made sure every element of the video reflected the gratitude we feel for our clients, coworkers, and friends. It’s not just about the work we do; it’s about the connections we build and the community we’re part of.

Once completed, we were proud to share the final product—a video that not only conveyed our thanks but also celebrated teamwork, dedication, and joy. It was a reminder that the work we do is about more than just business; it’s about the people we collaborate with, and the relationships we build along the way. It has truly been a joy to work with all our clients and we look forward to our continued collaboration!

When people ask us if Chat GPT or AI is a threat to us, we will proudly answer no. We take a higher road that involves beauty, nuances, and uniqueness that only humans work together as a team can create!  AI produced work is plain and predictable. In our opinion, AI in fact has a long way to go in the language industry!

So what is 1557?

Section 1557 of the ACA “prohibits discrimination on the grounds of race, color, national origin, sex, age, or disability in certain health programs and activities.” The term “national origin” is understood to include providing language services for those with limited English proficiency (LEP).

Section 1557 was first put into place in 2010, and had a few issues with it. For example, the then-legal standard was for “competent” interpreters to assist LEP individuals; this could allow a loophole for family members or even non-adult family members, or bilingual/multilingual staff at the agency to provide interpretation. Without proper, certified medical interpreters, there may have been many miscommunications, to say the least.

Major Revisions

The Obama administration’s revisions took effect in 2016. Under this revision, some changes were that “competent” interpreters were changed to “qualified” interpreters; minors and family members were only allowed to interpret under special circumstances such as emergencies; and bilingual/multilingual staff were held back from interpreting unless they were able to sufficiently demonstrate proper interpretation abilities. Translation of written materials was also required.

Many things changed in 2020 due to the Trump administration, however. For example, the wording was changed to have a more general requirement of language services to LEP people, rather than each and every LEP person. Federally funded organizations had to undergo a test to determine how to provide language services; the Trump administration changed this again to be more based on the “likelihood” of servicing an LEP individual rather than each specific instance of servicing an LEP individual. Standards of remote video interpretation were also removed, focusing instead on telephonic interpretation only.

Finally, citing too many expenses (presumably for translation fees, extra paper space, and ink), there was also a change to not require that each state have the top fifteen languages represented in a tagline on a non-discrimination notice. Taglines are short statements written in non-English languages that notify the reader that they can access language services free of charge.

Proposed Revision

As mentioned previously, the US Department of Health and Human Services has released a proposed rule to reverse the changes implemented by the Trump administration and to strengthen language access in general compared to the rulings from the Obama administration. Some proposed changes include the following:

Previously removed definitions will be added back for the following terms: language assistance services, limited English proficient individual, qualified interpreter, qualified translator, and qualified bilingual/multilingual staff. Care will also be taken to provide each LEP individual with language access, as well as those who need assistance such as sign language; this will be aided by the requirement of taglines on a large number of documents.

Other changes include the restoration of standards for remote video interpreting, the requirement to take reasonable steps to provide meaningful access to each LEP individual, the requirement to inform individuals of their rights, and the requirement to have a specific employee be responsible to coordinate compliance with 1557. Another change would be applying Section 1557 to Medicare Part B, which notably has not had requirements for Section 1557 despite being federally funded through trust funds.

Our Conclusion

These proposed new rules seem to be taking a huge step toward fair access to language services. Especially exciting is the requirement returning to provide each LEP individual with language access, rather than a general estimate of people. We at Monterey Language Services believe that everyone deserves the right to access to information and services in the language of their choosing, and we’re all for the proposed rules and hope they come to pass sooner than later.

In today’s blog, we’ll be highlighting a few tips about how to track trends by collecting/analyzing data and using it to the LSP’s advantage.

Try out surveys.

Surveys are a very easy way to get qualitative data, which can help LSPs understand the quality of the service provided. Usually, surveys are sent out to clients after they’ve received their service. Clients can rate their satisfaction with the service they received on a scale such as from 1-10 or Poor to Excellent, and can leave more detailed information about what they liked and did not like about their service.

Challenges may occur if a client forgets to fill out some of the questions, misunderstands a question, or doesn’t fill out the survey at all. This is why translating the survey and providing the client’s preferred language is very important, so they can understand everything and can answer all the questions properly!

For example, Monterey Language Services has often been requested to provide translation for surveys, whether to support research projects or international companies whose employees span all over the world. Most recently, we translated a survey into 11 languages: Arabic, Armenian, Cambodian, Chinese Traditional, Chinese Simplified, Japanese, Korean, Laotian, Mien, Spanish, and Tagalog. We also have done survey interviews to make sure employees understand their company’s core value.

Use transactional data.

You can collect data from your own company’s transactional data to collect quantitative data, which can help LSPs identify how many times they provided service for different languages and for which clients. Transactional data refers to your sales, receipts, POs, invoices, etc. that tell you when, where, how, and for what language you’re providing services for.

By looking at your transactional data, you can identify trends. For example, if there are more requests from a nearby hospital, you can deduce if you need to hire more medical interpreters. Similarly, you can look at trends in language requests, such as if there’s a sudden surge in Korean requests; perhaps there has been an influx of people moving to the area, or there’s some sort of event going on that you should investigate.

Keep up-to-date and do research.

Other important topics to keep an eye on in the language services industry are things like technology and common issues. Technology is essential in today’s world, especially for large translation projects or simultaneous interpretation assignments.

Technology and common issues or topics of conversation constantly change and evolve. Make sure to keep up-to-date, and research through news articles and even social media such as LinkedIn to see what people are talking about. Joining professional organizations is also helpful so be on the lookout for those as well.

First, it’s good to have a presence on major professional websites or social media. When hiring someone, it is common for managers or recruiters to look at the potential candidate online. It’s a way to get a preliminary look at a candidate and really get to know them better before deciding on whether or not to proceed with the hiring process.

Next, it is good to keep yourself familiar with a variety of different skills. If you have many different skills and are adept at all of them, then you can market yourself as someone who can work in a lot of different fields. However, it’s important if you could commit everything to one field and then promote yourself that way, as someone who is highly experienced in the specific field. Sometimes, recruiters look for people who have the most experience in the field, so if you show that you have more experience than other people in the field, you will be more attractive as a prospective translator or interpreter.

Also, it is important to maintain good connections with the people you work with. Make sure to be as courteous as possible and project yourself as a professional translator or interpreter. Also be sure to make friends in the industry. If you have a network of colleagues, then you can help each other find work. There are a lot of times when translators or interpreters might be too busy with an assignment they are currently working on to take any new client requests. In this situation, they try to refer a colleague, and you might be able to be that colleague that they refer. If that happens, you will establish a connection with a new client, and maybe be able to connect with even more clients afterwards.

Growing your presence as an interpreter or translator is not something that you can just do overnight, it takes time and effort. But if you are able to grow your presence, then it will benefit you in ways that you might not expect. You will reach many new clients, and build your own network of clients that know who you are and would love to work with you on future assignments.

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.