Technology can make remote interpretation as easy as 1-2-3, but at the same time, there can be any number of technical problems that can interfere with an interpretation assignment. Even though problems do happen, it’s our responsibility to minimize them. Having the prudency to keep an eye out for any problems and their solutions is a key skill for interpreters and everyone to have in modern days. In today’s blog, we will be highlighting some common connection issues and what to do in those circumstances.

Interpretation Links

Occasionally, the link you use to log into the meeting may be incorrect. The most common scenario is probably due to a separate meeting being created, causing you to wait in an empty room. If you as an interpreter find yourself in this case, it is best to get in contact with the language service provider you are working with as quickly as possible to ensure that you receive the correct link.

Interpretation Times

The appointment time may be mistakenly written by any party involved in the scheduling, causing the interpreter to be either early or late. To prevent this from happening, it is best to set a reminder that’s sent 24 hours before an interpretation event starts, so all parties including the client and interpreter can double-check on the proper start time and the right link.

Updates

Many of us have experienced this situation. As soon as logging into a conferencing application, you were notified that the application requires an update. This can cause you to be nervous about being late to the meeting. Testing your application at least 30 minutes before logging into the appointment to make sure everything is up to date is a good way to ensure that you aren’t affected by any sudden updates.

Sudden Change of Interpretation Methods

For various reasons, there may be a sudden change in the method for remote interpreting, such as resorting to the telephone or another type of video conferencing service. In such circumstances, make sure to keep your email and phone ready and handy to see if any notification of changes come to you.

Power or Internet Fluctuations

Fluctuations in power or internet can be unavoidable and unpredictable. You may be able to circumvent power outages or battery shortage by planning ahead as much as possible. Charge your phone, laptop, and computer fully. Always think of a backup plan. If occasionally, things just can’t be helped. In these cases, be apologetic and contact your language service provider or the meeting host for contingency.

According to the article, Professor Jeremy Siegel is claiming that the Federal Reserve doesn’t see that inflation rates are easing, therefore, the Federal Reserve plans to increase interest rates to combat what they see as high inflation rates, and Siegal believes that this will push the economy into the red.

In other words, Siegel is saying that by raising interest rates and making things more expensive, the Federal Reserve is trying to slow down consumer spending to prevent the economy from crashing if it grows too fast.

Think of it like putting more pressure on the brakes to slow down a car so you don’t hit the vehicle in front of you. Regular people tend to like being able to spend money freely, but in doing so, the economy—think of it again like the car—goes faster, causing inflation rates to go up as demand for products goes up. If consumer spending isn’t slowed by higher interest rates put forth by the Federal Reserve, the economy will crash—just like the car.

So now one of the major questions for us is: How can we combat a recession? In other words, how can we weather the storm, or even try to limit its effects, when we are just ordinary people?

1. Try to refrain from spending too much but at the same time not to be too afraid of spending. In a recession, customers and businesses may be too scared to spend money, but also remember, less spending contributes to a deeper recession, and how long it occurs for.
2. Spend money on right things and in right directions, such as paying off debt, or investing in improvements or good safety nets for yourself or your business.
3. Show your value at work. Without showing value, it would be hard for anyone to be safe at any workplace at a recession. During a recession, even Google or Facebook would lay off employees too. Therefore, it’s important to do your best and secure your current position.

Language Service Providers aren’t just responsible for their business, but also for their employees and their families. Weathering a recession is incredibly important for our business, so what can LSPs do?

1. Remember that language services as a need aren’t going to disappear, so don’t panic. With our increasingly globalized world, language service requests can come from virtually anywhere, even outside of the United States.
2. Cut costs where you can, but treat your employees—and your vendors—well. Employees are the backbone of every company, and one that is treated well will want to give back in every way that they can. Besides, letting go of good employees only to be looking to hire later and train someone new costs time and energy as well.
3. As a business, we often think a recession presents opportunities as well. We should all be more careful and thoughtful in planning and looking ahead to contribute to the health of our company.

Understanding Your Finances

No business can do anything without finances. Do budget properly, and do the math to understand your bottom line. How much do you need to make to turn a profit? How much is too much for customers to afford?

Knowing when and where to cut back on your finances and where to invest is critical to keeping your business afloat. With the huge impact of the pandemic, it’s no question that the loss of sales affected many businesses too much. To weather these hardships, downsizing on your output, office space, or perhaps even prices might help you keep the business going.

Making and Keeping Connections, even Remotely

Many language service providers rely on freelance translators and interpreters as vendors for their business; most times, getting in touch with them is often done through phone calls or emails. But, how do you get the vendor—especially interpreters—to their assignments, when in-person meetings are restricted?

Phone and video methods are hardly secrets. Even outside of the pandemic, these are common ways to get an interpreter to someone immediately regardless of where the client and interpreter are. Those LSPs and other small businesses that had already been getting ready to use remote or online options were in a good place to adapt their services to the pandemic.

Communicating with Your Team

To keep open communication with your team members is vital. Just as upper management relies on associates to get the on-hands work done, associates rely on upper management to answer their questions. The back-and-forth dynamics and momentum are crucial to move your business forward.

In times of hardship like the pandemic, transparent communication is very important. Employees may be nervous about job security or keeping certain accounts going. Positive reinforcement, support, and leadership can provide teams with the confidence they need to weather any circumstance.

Don’t be Afraid of Change…

New technologies come out constantly in today’s world, even during the pandemic and afterward. Learning how to use them can help your business stay up-to-date, and can even help with your output’s quality and/or quantity.

Other changes might include the coming and going of staff, a vendor changing their prices, the laws you have to keep in mind, etc. Keep abreast of these changes and remember to stay flexible; taking too long to adapt might leave you in the dust of your competitors.

Adapting to pandemic looked different for all sorts of companies, but what’s important is to stay creative. Some businesses turned remote, others decided to automate work flows, and some decided to host online events.

…But Try to Stay Consistent

Sudden, unexplained changes even outside the pandemic can upset a person’s balance and leave them scrambling for an answer. For example, having to reduce the price per word for a translation could result in a vendor refusing to work with you, or raising the prices too high for a customer could result in the customer backing out of a deal.

As important as it is to stay flexible, people like to stick to tried and true methods—things remain reliable that way. So, whenever possible, keep consistent in your work, and be as transparent as possible with your customers. Consistency and transparency will always be appreciated by those you work with.

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.

1. Aren’t translators and interpreters the same?

This is a very, very common misconception. Outside of the language service provider sphere, “translator” and “interpreter” can be used interchangeably in most discussions. Such as: “We’ll need a translator at the board meeting” versus “We’ll need an interpreter at the board meeting.”

But just what is the difference between those terms? Simply enough, both “translator” and “interpreter” refer to someone who conveys information from one language to another; more specifically, a “translator” works with written words, while an “interpreter” works with spoken words. Some people are only translators, some are only interpreters, and others are both.

2. Can’t any bilingual person be a translator/interpreter?

A very common misconception (in the workplace especially) is “Billy is bilingual, so he can handle this project and translate/interpret for us.” Just because a person is bilingual (or trilingual or more, even), does not mean that they have the training required to be a proper translator or interpreter.

Imagine that “Billy” speaks Spanish at home, but grew up going to school where the primary language of instruction was English. While there’s a chance he can talk about any subject at home with his family members, a likely scenario is that he will know more about biology in English terms rather than Spanish terms. Unless the conversation were very simple, such as general conversation for travel or something similar, it would be very difficult for Billy to translate or interpret something.

Translators and interpreters go through rigorous training for their respective crafts, and have expanded their vocabularies enough to compensate. Proper translators and interpreters have high-level certifications as well.

3. I know a translator/interpreter who did Assignment X, why can’t they do Assignment Y?

In the language services industry, some translators and interpreters can fall under the category of “subject matter experts.” These people have trained to not just be general translators or interpreters, but have polished their skills to cater to certain types of work.

Take “Billy” from above, for example. Imagine he’s become passionate for being an interpreter, and his other interest in biology spurs him to an interest in medical interpretation. After enough study, focus, and—of course—certification, he becomes a proper medical interpreter and specializes in speaking between doctors and patients about surgeries. He might be able to do general interpretation as well, but because of his deep specialty, he might have trouble if he suddenly needed to interpret for, say, a lawyer discussing a lawsuit.

Just like how doctors and lawyers require separate studies, medical interpreters and legal interpreters also require focused study in their area of expertise. They may have skills that overlap, but generally, it’s best to rely on separate translators/interpreters who are subject matter experts rather than the same one for every single job.

4. Wouldn’t machine translation work well enough?

Short answer: No.

Long answer: Machine translation can certainly help a translator do their work. Computer-assisted translation tools (called CAT tools in the industry) can keep a handy glossary of terms for the translator, and have the memory to provide reference for older, similar translations.

But if we rely only on machine translation, any number of problems can happen. Machines think very differently than humans and might misinterpret context, homonyms, word register, and so on. Computers may be able to perform complex mathematical calculations, but the human brain is hardwired for language. Put simply, a translation from a human is going to sound a lot more natural—and have fewer mistakes—than a simple machine translation.

5. Why does a translation need proofreading? Shouldn’t the translator be enough for that?

Speaking of “mistakes,” mistakes happen. To err is human, after all. Translators need proofreaders for the same reason that a journalist, book writer, or a lawyer needs one. Mistakes concerning facts, grammar, spelling, etc. can easily be made by any sort of writer, and the same goes for a translator.

Having a second pair of eyes does wonders for any written work. A proofreader for a translation can catch errors in spelling, word register, a forgotten period or comma—anything that might have slipped through the cracks. If you want a translation to be as polished as possible, having a proofreader is essential.

It’s an unfortunate fact that many people have false ideas about language. For example, hearing a non-standard dialect of English—such as African American Vernacular English or Appalachian English—might cause someone to think the speaker to be not well-educated, when in actuality, linguistic choices don’t necessarily reflect the intelligence of the speaker. A separate “dialect,” also called a “variety,” of a language can create cohesiveness in a smaller group among speakers and allow members to feel more at ease.

A so-called “language” tends to be the “ideal” way to talk by the most powerful group among a larger whole, whether in one country, several countries, etc. For example, when our colleague, Olivia, studied Japanese in college, she was taught the Tokyo dialect, because that’s where the current capital of Japan is, as well as its center of its business and trade. When she lived in a homestay in Nagoya, a major city to the west of Tokyo, she was surprised when some people would conjugate verbs differently or use sentence endings she’d never heard of.

An “accent” can sometimes be used interchangeably with “dialect/variety”; however, this isn’t quite the case. “Accent” refers to how a person pronounces words (think a New Yorker saying “I’m walkin’ here!”), while “dialect” or “variety” refers not just to pronunciation, but also grammar and vocabulary (like “I gone down to the meeting, but wasn’t nobody there” or “bald” for a treeless mountain in Appalachian English).

In the article mentioned above, the individual said he spoke “pidgin” English. A “pidgin” is a form of language that arises when two or more groups who do not have a language in common must speak together, and create simplified, rather limited vocabulary and grammar structures. Linguists tend to consider pidgins as incomplete languages, as they do not generally have a fully structured grammar. A pidgin may form into a “creole” when fully developed vocabulary and grammar develop from children who learn to use the pidgin as their native language. An example of a pidgin sentence is: “Dem neva cam?” for “They haven’t come yet?”

The world of linguistics goes even farther and deeper than just these examples, and are just some of the things we need to think about as language service providers. An interpreter might need to study up on a dialect before helping a client, or a separate person might need to be found altogether if the interpreter knows nothing of the specific language variety.

As a language service provider, we think of these different scenarios, cases, and variations all the time. It’s our responsibility to provide our clients with quality service, and getting to the heart of linguistic differences is just one aspect of that.

That article reminds us of a recent situation we encountered. We had a client seeking asylum in a somewhat remote location in the United States who requested Triqui interpretation. We were about to provide a Triqui interpreter over the phone for telephonic interpretation, given that in-person interpretation in such a remote location was not really possible for the client. However, at the last minute, the asylum office decided that they did not allow telephonic interpretation. There could be any number of reasons for the telephonic interpretation cancellation. Yet, these incidents have got us thinking. What rights do non-citizens have in the United States, especially in regards to translation and interpretation?

According to Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, any program that receives Federal funds or financial assistance cannot discriminate based on race, color, or national origin of a person; this also means that these programs must provide access to people with limited English proficiency. Read more about Title VI here and more about Title VI and LEP services here.

However, Title VI does not provide an all-encompassing solution. Service providers are only required to take “reasonable steps” to give access to their programs to LEP individuals. Whatever the case, non-citizens do have the right to request language assistance from Federally-funded institutions. Non-citizen’s rights to have access to translation and interpretation is a basic human need for communication. We at Monterey Language Services are all for supporting the human rights that non-citizens deserve to have in whatever format that interpretation would be conducted, be it in-person, by phone, or over video.

This blog post is our first attempt to look into non-citizen rights to translators and interpreters, so stay tuned for more to come!

This poem is a great reminder of why we should always, always proofread—and for language service providers, why we should do it even more than the average writer. In today’s blog post, we’ll go over the reasons why.

1. Proofread the source material

Oftentimes, language service providers are given source material documents that the parent company wants to distribute at the same time as their translations. Theoretically, these documents will have been proofread already. After all, the parent company will want their readers to focus on the message of the documents and keep up their reputation and good impressions.

However, before translation, it’s essential that the source material be proofread again to ensure that the translator understands the meaning of it. Grammatical or spelling errors can cause the translated document to lose lots of meaning, and potentially bring about lots of costs to fix these mistakes later down the pipeline.

Let’s look at a common English example of a grammar mistake: “Let’s eat, Grandma!” and “Let’s eat Grandma!” With just a forgotten comma, the entire meaning of the sentence changes into something out of a horror novel. An accurate translation of the second sentence’s meaning could spell disaster, if that sentence is a mistake.

2. Proofread the translation

People are only human—making mistakes is something everyone does, and there’s no shame in it. However, what’s important is how we monitor ourselves to make sure that we catch those mistakes and take responsibility for them.

Translators have the same ability to miss a comma or period, misspell a word, or accidentally misunderstand the meaning of a sentence in the source document. To be safe, it’s crucial to hire a separate translator to act as a proofreader for the translated documents.

3. Assure the quality of the final product before delivery

Even after a translation has been proofread, oftentimes, language service providers are tasked with putting the translation into a certain format—a pamphlet, a PowerPoint, a website, etc. Once the translation is in that format, it’s important to double-check the target document. You want to avoid crashing, missing or hidden text, text overflow, and a slew of other issues.

The need for proofreading all stems back to the need for a proper, professional, trustworthy identity between the parent company and the customer or reader. Glaring issues in the text, or visual problems in the final product, convey to the reader that the document was handled sloppily—and if the document was handled sloppily, why would the parent company treat the reader any differently?

Remember: we should always, always proofread.

First, understand that if you’re feeling the effects of inflation, so are your clients and companies that you’re working with. You should try looking at your rates compared with other translators and interpreters and know where you stand.  Everyone’s situation is different, however everyone is in the same inflation. This means the best way to cope with the uncertain times is to make sure that you stay in a good position without losing any of the business that you currently have. You should always be sure to do your best to honor your rates with your current clients. Even to lower your rate to attract more business may be also a good idea!

Next, the world has gone through a lot of changes over the years and we all have had to learn and adapt in order to stay afloat. Before the pandemic, the majority of work was done in-person, but now, there are more and more remote interpretation opportunities. Be sure to also widen your reach to other parts of the country. If you are working from home, that means you can work anywhere. Someone in a completely different area from you may be looking for someone with your experience. Don’t be afraid to put yourself out there.

If you’re going to be working more from home, it may be time to reassess your internet, phone plan, and current equipment. Investing in better internet, phone service, and equipment will make you a more attractive interpreter or translator because you will not have as many technical difficulties as others may have. For that matter, be sure to educate yourself on how to connect to the various video conferencing services. For example, try setting up Zoom, Google Meets, or Webex on your own and test having a call with yourself to make sure you know how to quickly connect and also that your audio equipment is good. Connection means work and livelihood in today’s work place!

Finally, we do hope the world will be back to normal where we can also provide both remote and in-person interpretation without worrying about the inflation nor the pandemic. After all, a balance of in-person and remote work would be the ideal model for clients, interpreters and language service providers!

Usually, language buyers will characterize their needs and the LSP will have to do their best to capture their attention and show that they can satisfy the needs to be considered as a potential partner. In this case, the needs could be anything from time constraints, to specific languages, to translations or interpretations in specific fields, or to convey the meaning clearly. The language buyers will then look into the LSP and see if they believe that LSPs can deliver the type of service that they are looking for. If everything seems ok, they may typically take them on as a language supplier, but they will observe them over time to see if they crack or show that they are suited for their needs. The LSP will in turn do their best to try and foster a trusting relationship with the language buyer and try to make sure to meet their expectations to become a trusted supplier for frequent use and a closer partnership.

For the buyers, it starts with the fact that they have to look at themselves and figure out what exactly they are looking for and then find a LSP that can meet the most amount of requirements. They then have to continue to monitor the LSP to make sure that they are keeping up with the set expectations while also assessing whether they are the best option for the price that they are paying. They might need to understand that quality work is valuable and priceless because quality work usually requires huge efforts from the providers.

For LSPs, the efforts could be quite a few different people need to spend the weekends to go through a document before it gets to the client. Another is find issues and address problems quickly. Another is to figure out what is important and what is critical for clients in a translation or interpretation project.

We will continue to talk about the recommendations for both language buyers and LSPs, but the main point here is that a good relationship between buyers and LSPs is precious. When that happens, it’s ideal to better meet the needs of each other, to be more efficient in taking care of requests and questions from both sides, and both sides can thrive and grow together positively and effectively.