How Social Distancing Has Challenged Translation Services
Working Remotely from Home
During this unprecedented time, businesses across the world have seen huge changes to their everyday processes, with translation services no less effected, having to implement new strategies within many international businesses. The impact of social distancing on translation services has provided a unique obstacle, but despite this, it has now become the new normal for many translation service providers globally, including the team here at Talking Heads. But how has the challenge of social distancing impacted the translation industry as a whole?
One of the biggest challenges of social distancing at this time is working efficiently from home. With many companies relying on translators for a myriad of different tasks, the need for an effective work environment is crucial. However, with everyone working with different equipment and with internet connections that differ in strength and reliability, this is a challenge that has been faced by companies across the globe. Whether it is the translation of video content or an interpreting service for an international conference call, the need for the right equipment when working from home is one of the many challenges faced by a majority of industries at this time. Here at Talking Heads, our comprehensive service has been working fully through this difficult time with no let up on our quality processes and attention to detail.
Effective Communication Is Crucial
With many businesses relying on translators for content creation across multiple platforms, this has meant that efficient, clear communication is now more important than ever before. It is predicted that the global language services industry is estimated to grow to $55.2 billion by 2021. Whether this is by phone or email, the need for constant communication between translators and companies has increased dramatically. This has, therefore, meant that the demand for services such as video and telephone translation has been in high demand when compared to face to face translation services that are also offered.
Lack of Face to Face Interactions
The lack of face to face interaction is also a challenge for translation during this uncertain time, as a majority of languages rely heavily on facial expression and body language. When not on a video call, this can make some translation processes difficult as specific words or phrases could be missed by someone who lacks experience. This is a challenge for the industry at this time as tone of voice during a phone call then plays into accurate translation. In addition to this, the translation of health products as well as food items is now more important than ever as a majority of the population are advised against spending long amounts of time in supermarkets. This means that a majority of the target audience is spending less time browsing the shelves. As a result, it is crucial that packaging is accurately translated to avoid any risk to health as a result.
A Change of Direction For Content Creation
The final challenge that has been presented by social distancing is the creation of content. With more people relying on the internet for their key information, the need for short but informational content is higher than ever. This has therefore led to a huge shift in video content creation over images and traditional text. With it predicted that up to 82% of all consumer internet traffic will be videos by 2021, this can present significant challenges for translation services when it comes to video as information will need to be translated as accurately as possible. Therefore, this will increase the need for experienced translation services to prevent any mistakes during the content creation process.
At Talking Heads, we have been carrying on despite the challenges we’ve faced over the last few months. If you’d like to find out more about how we can assist you with award-winning translation services during unprecedented times, please do get in touch today.
