The role of interpreters and translators in the global crisis

Regardless of the cause, crisis times require urgent coordination and information flow in communities that speak different languages.

The article illuminates the responsibilities of translators, interpreters, and professional human transcribers and their impact on the situation improving.

Profession of interpreter and translator: responsibilities

The way of conversation plays a significant role in the scenarios of various situations. People often misunderstand each other when even speaking the same language.

Interpreters and translators have a heavyweight task: to transmit the message to improve the dangerous situation that became the cause of a crisis. This article illuminates the core principles of this profession.

The fundamental principles of work for translators and interpreters during a crisis

Translation network serves for improving the communication between suffering communities and humanitarian organizations during or after predicament.

It aims to eliminate the language barrier to bring relief to the injured party. The entire working process includes:

• various training programs for working in the stressful environment;
• translation of conflict-related messages preceding a critical situation;
• settling collaboration with colleagues who can provide immediate assistance;
• generating a multilingual glossary software for consistent translation of leading notions;
• promoting usage and development of Computer Assisted translations or so-called CAT tools for quicker response to the tasks;
• cooperation with people, who provide the data regarding the area of the conflict and the spoken languages over there;
• provision of information and suggestions on the most efficient languages, formats, and communication methods with victims.

Crisis time affects not only social life but all business branches as well. The world sustains the COVID-19 pandemic that has shaken the world economies and drastically changed the professional approach of many business organizations.

Transforming to the remote type of work has saved the large business, allowing it to give an adequate response and survive in the market. International collaboration and unity play an important role nowadays.

Translators and interpreters are one of the leading professions in crisis times. Since the conflict means representing opinions of different sides or discussing the situation that occurred, there is a lot of audio and video content to translate and transcribe.

The quality of the work can impact the entire case, decrease the degree of stress and bring the desired relief.

Business transcription and translation specialists help to stay on the board. Professional human transcription service and translation interrelate with various scientific fields, e.g., economics, medicine, industry, and marketing. It is crucial for the life of people worldwide.

Significance of translation services for business

During a crisis, efficient cooperation between customers, employees, and shareholders, represents crucial importance. The services of talented international transcriptionists and translators are more important than ever at this time.

Translating and transcribing video conferences, telephone conversations, email correspondence provided by sources from different countries contain meaningful information that impacts the entire crisis process. 

Translators and transcribers help in the cultural sector to cope with the crisis as well. When the governments prohibited attending all public establishments, museum administrations arranged multilingual virtual tours via official websites.

Many people joined the live streams during the lockdown with the translated and subtitled information included. Subtitling services keep people with hearing disabilities well-informed about the situation.

There are three primary ways of how professional linguists and transcribers can help companies to navigate global fall down:

1. Improve internal procedures. Organizations use translation companies for communication and collaboration with their colleagues. For instance, during coronavirus pandemic, they share their experience of preventive measurements. Spreading it in different languages along with transcription helps to warn all involved and stay safe.
2. Enhance communication. Crisis times are always stressful and cause the feeling of fear in all ordinary people. The remaining qualitative communication is a critical issue. Translators assist in informing the audience about current events and announce the recent news. They help society to orient during uncertain times.
3. Legal documents translation and transcription. When a crisis affects numerous countries, people may experience complications with understanding the decisions made by authorities.

Presented at the heart of the crisis, professional transcriptionists and translators put their efforts into overcoming it ASAP.

Facing a global challenge, they have been experiencing remote working extensively and working with the necessary technologies, and continuing their activity throughout the crisis without significant disruptions.

Prominence of interpreters in international conflict and natural disasters

There are cars when bridging the gap caused by the language barrier is especially urgent.

Accurateness and timeliness affect the community response. In risky situations, interpreters and translators collaborate in conduction with the witnesses, providing the pertinent translation at press conferences, official meetings, and other events (interpreters work in person, and translators — with written content).

Interpreters cooperate tightly with the governmental structures and spreading urgent messages to the community, translating the legal documentation, warnings, and other related papers.

Sometimes it appears problematic to find an interpreter that matches the specific field of work, possesses enough experience, especially for rare languages.

They can be residents of the affected location who had to evacuate along with others but stayed to improve the situation. Video online translation and telephone interpreting are frequent for these cases.

Military interpreters face the challenge of doing their work in the heart of a war. For instance, the Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) hires language assistants to establish contact between armed formations of both sides of the conflict.

Some interpreters travel from one world’s hot spot to another. Others work locally.

Due to the nature of the job, interpreters have many risks. Despite safety equipment, work in war conditions is always dangerous and unpredictable. Military interpreters often deal with the pain and tortures of other people, taking a dose of stress that may impact their mental health, along with the military conditions.

Interpreters, translators, and subscribers are the warriors who struggle with crisis time and make a significant input into life stabilization. The services they provide in impasses can be the line between life and death.