As restaurants closed, curfews and lockdowns began, and every sector was trying its best to remain stable and come out of a chain of crippling setbacks, the COVID-19 pandemic shook all of us in ways one could not imagine. Nobody could have guessed even in their wildest dreams what this pandemic would do to the world where “work from home” became the new normal.


The tourism industry got a grave setback, and so did the catering industry, as many hotel owners and restaurants had to close down their businesses forever.


Speaking of language service providers (LSPs), which include interpreters and translators, the industry came to the brink with many translators forced to think about quitting their jobs and start something new. Starting a new career is not easy, and in times when the world is dealing with calamity, the chance of success is heavily bleak.


How the pandemic jolted the translation industry?


A study conducted to understand the negative and positive effects of the pandemic on the translation industry in the Netherlands showed that the pandemic had an equal effect. Between 23 percent and 53 percent of translators - literary and non-literary translators - stated that they experience a change in the working criteria.


The negative and positive effects stood equal - negative impact being the lower levels of productivity leading to working for more hours to overcome it, while the positive side was feeling more comfortable and more time for revision of the content.


The same study also pointed out that 60 percent of translators could connect with their colleagues while working online. It shows that despite the pandemic, the work atmosphere was overall good and that people received support when needed.


That said, the pandemic highlighted the need to become technologically savvy. People who could not adjust to the digital world and take their business online suffered the backlash brutally during this time, and the translation industry was no different.



Translation industry gaining momentum once again amid the pandemic


As far as globalization of businesses is concerned, it has become necessary for companies to translate their documents to comply with regional laws that change as per the country. Not only this, but companies are also taking steps to localize their services, aiming to expand their customer base. These factors have led to the increase in the demand for language translation services, which will lead to the expansion of the translation market by over 19 percent, according to Industry Research, a leading player in the market research industry.


Today, machine translation technologies powered by artificial intelligence (AI) have made the work of professional translators a hundred times easier. That said, we cannot ignore the importance of an export eye. Machine translation only gives the first rough layer of the translation, as we explained earlier in our blog. To have a well-laid-out translation, whether for a TV series, a piece of documents, or any content, broadly speaking, getting professional help stands inevitable.


For business companies looking to expand themselves globally, understanding the regional needs is a must. Following business strategies such as glocalization and localization, the chance of being known in the market swiftly can increase, consequently growing customer base, trust, and credibility.


To conclude:


Undoubtedly, the pandemic has reshaped the translation industry. There has come a need for translators to take themselves up a notch and get used to the world of technology around them. As traditional methods are being replaced rapidly with modern ones, machine translation is blooming widely, and the demand for translation and interpretation services is rising globally, LSPs today have more to look after than before.


The changes the pandemic has brought will linger for a long time and definitely will affect the future. How positive or negative this effect will be of the pandemic on the industry that is for time to tell. But today, certainly new opportunities are evolving, and translators are getting the value they have been looking for due to the sudden positive change in demand.


As they say, every cloud has a silver lining!