It was quite interesting and enlightening to hear students’ stories. They come from all over the world and have incredibly diverse backgrounds, both personally and professionally. Many students have come to MIIS to begin their careers in the language industry, and show clear excitement for their current course of study and potential career paths. Other students already have years of experience in translation or interpretation, and have come to MIIS to hone their skills in a certain specialty or even to change their career trajectory entirely, for example by moving from a linguist to a project manager. Whatever the case may be, we were happy to connect with these talented people.

Students at MIIS, whether they are studying Conference Interpretation, Translation and Interpretation, or Translation and Localization Management all share a passion for languages and a keen desire to put what they are learning at school to work. We are glad to see that so many of these young professionals share our goal of bridging the world’s languages and cultures.

We are always looking for talented freelance translators and interpreters. We are also looking for Office and Project Assistants. During the rapid spread of the COVID-19 virus, Monterey Language Services is poised for action – we have years of experience working remotely. For us, every challenge, downturn, or recession is an opportunity to reflect on what we can do to improve and move up to the next level. While most people and companies are focusing on the tasks at hand or cost cutting, we are thinking about what our contributions to the future would be and if we will be ready when our clients need us. Now is indeed a good time to think about all of this, and try to figure out how we can make better contributions to the environment we are in and to the people who we care about. We don’t lose faith in a crisis, and we believe those who survive the crisis will stand out when the crisis is over. To us, our career is a long journey. What’s most important is that we are ready to help when our help is needed, and staying connected to help each other out in a time like now.

Since the importance of language service providers’ work cannot be stressed enough, we would like to shed some light on the positives that come from working with language service providers (LSPs).

You might think, “I have a family member who speaks another language, why can’t I ask them to do it?” In some cases, if the situation is low-stakes and simple, that may be helpful. But most requests for translation and interpretation have high stakes and require training that your friend or family member probably doesn’t have: simply being bilingual isn’t enough.

Translators are excellent writers in their native language, and they are trained to research and use technology effectively to help the translation process. They know how to take into account the register, purpose, discourse, and audience of a text in order to translate completely, accurately, and fluently.

Interpreters have another refined skill set, including differentiating key information, using appropriate terminology, and using various memory and note-taking techniques. Language professionals know how to do jobs accurately and efficiently, whereas untrained people are more likely to make mistakes or lack experience in bridging the gap between two languages, which can make a huge difference down the road.

Now you’re convinced that you need a professional, but you don’t know any – where can you find such a person?

This is where LSPs come into play. LSPs have strong networks of vetted translators and interpreters whose performances are evaluated regularly. LSPs know which translators specialize in legal translation, which interpreters specialize in medical and health care interpreting, etc. They also work hard to understand the client’s request and related needs, so that they can find the perfect match for the job.

Finding the right translator/interpreter is one major function of LSPs, but they do much more. LSPs can handle large volumes of work, and they can complete projects ranging from translation of a simple Word document to video subtitling to providing interpretation for conferences. Of course, every LSP is different; some choose to focus on certain domains (such as legal, technical, or medical) and some specialize in only one or two types of projects (audiovisual localization, for example). No matter what they specialize in, the best LSPs have plenty of experience working with language-related projects and can deliver high-quality projects to client’s satisfaction!

The multilingual experience that LSPs have allows them to provide consultations and advice to clients about linguistic and cultural differences that could affect their projects. Different languages have different challenges, and LSPs have experience tackling these. Most importantly, LSPs are typically familiar with different cultures and they can spot any potential faux pas and correct them before the project is finalized.

Our final thought: Most people who find their way to working in the translation and interpretation industry are incredibly talented and passionate about languages! Whether they are translators, interpreters, LSP employees, or other language professionals, they have spent their time training and refining their skills. LSPs like Monterey Language Services are able to harness the talents and passion of these people and channel it into high quality language services for our clients!

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!

According to an article posted in The Australian, this has become the case. However, they further go on to explain that the movement to reclaim dying languages has grown in larger numbers. However, any attempt to save languages will have to grow in larger numbers in order to have a chance of success. The problem is the vast majority of people feel it is too difficult to learn another language, thus simply choose not to.

Despite this, there are still millions of people that share a passion for languages. On the Monterey Peninsula alone there are hundreds of students fully devoted to learning new languages. With this undeniable passion, the culture of languages will still be here to stay for a good while.

The full article from The Australian can be seen here: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/higher-education/opinion/stop-revive-and-survive/story-e6frgcko-1226385194433