The Importance of Language Services in A Post-Pandemic World

The Covid-19 pandemic brought the entire world to an abrupt pause, without any certainty of whether you will be back on your feet. Not a single aspect of life as you know it was left untouched by this deadly virus. Translation services were also not an exception. But unlike many other services that came to a complete stop altogether, professional translation services suddenly saw a surge in demand. 

This was mainly because there was an urgent need to translate and interpret information to communicate with the rest of the world. So, suddenly providers of language services were needed to interpret data and translate information, not for entertainment purposes or travel but to save lives!

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It is clear that without language translation, prevention and cure may have been a huge challenge during the pandemic. For example, you would have received important information from your government or the Center for Disease Control in some regional language. And that is where translation services acted as a bridge, and to a great extent, as a life-saver. 

Everything was disseminated worldwide in local languages, from patient updates to virus-related information to vaccines. This was only possible because language experts and professionals worked relentlessly to provide professional translation services.

Importance of Language Translation Services During the Covid-19 Pandemic

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The demand for language services is rising today. But what led to this increase? Here are the top reasons language translation emerged as the need of the hour during Covid-19.

1. New terms needed interpretation

Medical terms are challenging and hard to understand if you are not associated with the field. Imagine that a deadly virus is affecting the whole world, and you have no idea what to do. To add to your woes, health professionals try to guide you in a language you don’t understand. 

Thankfully, with the help of professional translation services, it was possible to translate new terminologies related to the disease into multiple regional languages and break down the problem into simpler steps. The table below will give you an idea of just how easy it was made by the French government, with the help of language services, to navigate these terms.

2. Language Translation for Prevention

If you reflect and look back in hindsight, you will realize that the main weapon against Covid-19 was mass education on preventive measures. But without professional translation services, this would have been an impossible feat to achieve. Educating the masses in preventive measures like social distancing or wearing masks requires that they be communicated in a language that people understand. And that too at a global scale. 

This implied that the same information had to be translated into several different languages to maintain the accuracy of information. This was made possible by professional language service providers. Everything from public announcements to information brochures to broadcast messages was translated.

3. Language Translation in Patient Care

Patients had to be able to speak to doctors and caregivers to explain the symptoms and difficulties they were experiencing during Covid-19. This again necessitated the need for translation services that could interpret patient-related information from the patient to the doctor and patient care information from doctor to patient.

Paradigm Shift in the Context of Language Translation

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Covid-19 changed the face of professional translation services for the better. 

The result of the role played by language service providers during the pandemic was a huge paradigm shift in how one approached language translation as an industry. Most importantly, new categories of translation services were recognized that became integral to industries’ success. Some of these are:

1. Medical Translation: This was a direct result of the pandemic and the scale and type of translations that happened over the last two years.
2. Marketing and E-Commerce: Because of a global lockdown, the e-commerce industry flourished. This necessitated communication in multiple languages and increased the demand for professional translation services. Brands, too, realized the need to communicate with their audiences in multiple languages giving rise to multi-lingual websites and marketing material. 
3. Documentation: Translating documents, in general, has always been a practice across sectors. But it increased in the wake of Covid-19 as more and more government announcements, reports, diktats, etc., needed to be translated.
4. Online Education: Yet another byproduct of the global lockdown, the online education industry boomed in the middle of the pandemic. This meant that e-learning materials had to be made available in multiple languages to ensure equal access.

The future of language services looks bright and booming. Yes, some anticipated changes will alter the industry, but they will only strengthen the role of language translation in the success of businesses and the functioning of social life.

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