The State of the Language Industry as Coronavirus Goes Global

新冠病毒全球传播下的语言产业现状

2020-05-28 15:00 slator

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The coronavirus situation is evolving at lightning speed. This article provides a snapshot of how the language industry has fared so far this week and what market participants think the next few weeks will bring. On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared Covid-19 a pandemic. Later that same day, US President Donald Trump announced a 30-day ban on travel from most of Europe to the US. Individual initiatives by national governments have varied based on the number of identified cases in a given location. But, generally speaking, the goal is to curtail the movement of people, thereby “flattening the curve” of infection. Language industry professionals across the globe have already started to experience fallout from the pandemic. In Mainland China, where the response to the coronavirus outbreak is regarded as being five to six weeks ahead that of other countries, a February 2020 report stated that many language service providers (LSPs) have been able to continue most of their operations remotely. The report also said that 76% of respondents expected to return to the office by early March; but those in hard-hit regions with strict epidemic control measures in place only plan to return once the disease is “over.” Meanwhile, Italy has expanded national quarantine measures until March 25, 2020. Italian member associations of FIT Europe, a regional branch of the International Federation of Translators, made a joint appeal to request support for 5,000 language professionals after they incurred losses of EUR 10m (USD 11.1m) in just one month. A snapshot of select players in the global language industry suggests the experiences of LSPs and language professionals depend on both location and the type of work handled. Naturally, interpreters who typically work face to face have been hit the hardest, so far, by containment measures as events and conferences across all industries are postponed or canceled. Alexander Gansmeier, a German conference interpreter and co-host of the Troublesome Terps podcast, told Slator that the timing of the outbreak has led to a bleak situation in Germany. “March, usually conference ‘high season,’ has been swept by a wave of cancellations. Furthermore, the worse the global situation gets (and country governments react accordingly), the more clients rely on the force majeure argument to try to avoid any cancellation fees, which only worsens the economic impact,” Gansmeier said. According to Gansmeier, professionals who work with Chinese as their language were hit first; but, at this point, interpreters working in all languages have been affected. He said the German government has yet to extend substantive support to interpreters, although it has already announced helpful measures for the manufacturing industry, such as short term labor and tax incentives. He explained that, in Germany, the BDÜ (German Translators Association) and the VKD (German Association of Conference Interpreters) are working to highlight the serious negative impact this current environment has had on self-employed and freelancing service providers. On an international level, FIT Europe has appealed to associations and institutions to include language professionals in different measures to alleviate the fallout from coronavirus. The organization has also asked member and non-member associations, via Twitter, for feedback on how coronavirus has affected language professionals, with the goal of gaining government attention and support. In contrast to on-site interpreters, companies that specialize in remote interpreting technology solutions stand to gain substantially as clients, who typically rely on on-site interpreting (outside of events and conferences), experiment with other setups. Boostlingo, a San Francisco-based remote interpreting technology solutions company, has already seen an increase in inbound inquiries regarding its platform. “In times of chaos like this, access to language support is critical,” said Dieter Runge, Boostlingo’s co-founder and and current VP of Marketing and Business Development. In the short term, Runge sees a tactical need to engage remote interpreting until the outbreak is effectively contained. In the long run, he believes it will show the importance of remote interpreting solutions and strategies that can be mobilized quickly. He noticed inconsistent messaging to interpreters, Runge said, which varies state by state, country by country, leading to a general sense of confusion and to some interpreters avoiding on-site assignments. “We are hearing that some hospitals and large healthcare organizations are beginning to advise their on-site interpreter staff, as well as their contract interpreters, to stay home or work remotely,” Runge told Slator. “Those who are already set up for telephonic or VRI (video remote interpreting) support are well-placed, and we would expect that they will see a sharp increase in their remote interpreting requests and workload in the ensuing months.” New York City LSP Geneva Worldwide has already seen an uptick in the demand for remote interpreting, and continues to recruit interpreters at this time. Multilingual conferencing platform KUDO, meanwhile, has advised potential clients to consider alternate solutions before deciding to cancel meetings. Another push toward remote interpreting may come from a US bill funding an emergency response to coronavirus. The bill expands telehealth solutions to patients on Medicare, leading some in the language industry to wonder whether those services would include remote interpreting. It might seem that translation, usually carried out by specialists working from their own homes, is lockdown-proof. But the impact of coronavirus is not limited to logistics. Demand from end-clients is highly industry-dependent, and not all sectors have been affected in the same way or to the same extent. It is currently difficult to make an industry-by-industry assessment of any impact on translation demand. The share price movement of listed LSPs, however, may provide some clues as to how the market sees this playing out, for now. Alan White, Business Development Director for UK-headquartered The Translation People, told Slator that they are seeing increased demand from certain clients due to the pandemic. This includes translating internal communications related to health information, travel advice, and hygiene guidelines into different languages for global businesses. “One of our biggest clients in the food logistics industry, which has reusable containers, needed client communication copy-translating, which explained that their cleaning processes are robust enough to mitigate the effects of the virus,” White said. Other clients, such as businesses specializing in personal protective equipment, have seen surges in sales and inquiries, leading to more translation work as clients engage new customers around the world. Containment measures have already changed day-to-day operations at Poland-based LSP Summa Linguae Technologies (SLT). Employees currently work from home instead of the office, which is helpful for those who need to be with their children since schools have also closed. A board meeting scheduled for mid-March 2020 will be held remotely. SLT CEO Krzysztof Zdanowski told Slator that the mid- and long-term impact of coronavirus is difficult to judge at the moment. And, so far, any changes in demand seem to be a mixed bag. “Most of our clients had their corona policies prepared and translated,” Zdanowski said, adding that they have seen a significant increase in demand from e-commerce and retail clients. Similarly, most large, ongoing data collection and annotation projects are actually getting larger, with clients asking for faster delivery. But SLT has seen localization for IT, multimedia, and e-learning postponed as product releases have been put on hold. It is, as yet, unclear whether coronavirus will increase demand for localization services for over-the-top (OTT) providers. Some news outlets have indeed turned to streaming services to provide more continuous coronavirus coverage. Additionally, Imperial Capital analyst David Miller predicts significant growth for Netflix in terms of subscribers in the US and Canada, thanks to the “cocooning effect” of coronavirus containment measures. However, it currently seems unlikely that major movie studios will replace theatrical releases with debuts via streaming services — unless the US follows China and Italy in shuttering theaters. ZOO Digital CEO Stuart Green told Slator that, thus far, he has not noticed a difference in demand for services; and is confident it will be business as usual regardless of containment measures. “For dubbing, our cloud platforms enable the recording of voices for each project to be performed at distributed locations, thereby obviating the need for voice actors, dubbing directors, and others to travel significant distances or to be co-located while working on a project,” Green said. Subtitling work, typically performed by professionals working from home, has continued per usual for both ZOO Digital and SDI Media; but the latter has had a very different experience with dubbing, according to CEO Mark Howorth. “In the impacted countries, we are taking the recommended steps, which include disinfecting equipment every time a new voice actor comes to the room, maintaining general cleanliness, and making hand sanitizer readily available,” Howorth told Slator. According to the SDI Media CEO, “In Hong Kong, some actors have been recording while wearing face masks without significantly compromising recording quality, and we are in communication with our specific customers about this. In Italy, dubbing work is impacted due to government restrictions.” Howorth said SDI Media is currently exploring remote recording solutions that would allow recording from home; but the practicality of these options will depend on cast size, security concerns, and acoustic quality. As with clients and end-users, LSPs are unsure about what news tomorrow may bring. “We are anticipating there may be other ‘Italy’ situations in the coming days in Europe,” Howorth said. “In those cases we are planning on how to expedite projects that are near-completion, and then focusing on how to prioritize and schedule the work when restrictions end.” Slator will provide additional coverage on the impact of coronavirus on the language industry in the coming weeks as the situation evolves.
冠状病毒的情况正在以闪电般的速度演变。本文是一篇简况快讯,主要说明语言行业本周到目前为止的现状如何,以及市场参与者眼中的未来几周的发展趋势。 2020年3月11日,世界卫生组织(WHO)宣布Covid-19为全球流行病。 同一天晚些时候,美国总统唐纳德·特朗普宣布封闭美国与欧洲大部分地区之间的航线,为期30天。 各国政府的个别举措根据特定地点的确诊病例数目而有所不同。 但是,一般来说,它们的目标都是减少人员流动,从而使感染人数的“曲线变平”。 全球的语言行业专业人士已经开始感受到这场疫情大流行的影响。 举世公认,中国大陆对冠状病毒爆发的反应比其他国家早五到六个星期,2020年2月的一份报告指出,许多语言服务提供商(LSP)已经开展远程服务模式,继续其大部分业务。 报告还说,76%的受访者预计在3月初之前重返办公室; 但身处控制措施严格的疫情重灾区的人们,只能计划在疫情“结束”后返回。 与此同时,意大利将全国隔离措施延长至2020年3月25日。 FIT European的意大利成员协会是国际翻译工作者联合会的一个地区分支机构,该协会联合呼吁关注支持5000名语言专业人员,因为他们在短短一个月内遭受了1000万欧元(1110万美元)的损失。 一篇有关全球语言行业部分从业者的快讯表明,LSP和语言专业人员在疫情期间的经历,要取决于其所处地点和所处理的工作类型。 自然,到目前为止,由于所有行业的活动和会议都被推迟或取消,往日从事现场工作的口译员受到的打击最大。 德国的会议口译员,Troublesome Terps播客的联合主持人亚历山大·甘斯迈尔告诉Slator工作人员,疫情爆发的时机导致德国现在形势黯淡。 “3月份通常是会议的‘旺季’,但现在却被一波会议取消浪潮所席卷。 此外,全球形势越糟糕(各国政府也做出了相应的反应),客户就越依赖不可抗力条款来企图逃过违约费用,这只会对经济产生更多负面影响,”甘斯迈尔说。 根据甘斯迈尔的说法,首先受到打击的是以中文为语言工作的专业人士; 但是,目前所有语种的口译员都受到了影响。 他说,尽管德国政府已经出台了对制造业有益的措施,如鼓励短期劳动力和税收优惠,但尚未向翻译行业人员提供实质性帮助。 他补充说,在德国,德国笔译协会(BDÜ)和德国会议口译员协会(VKD)正在努力凸显当前环境对自营职业者和自由职业服务提供者造成的严重负面影响。 在国际层面上,FIT Europe已经呼吁各协会和机构对语言专业人员实施不同的补助措施,以减轻冠状病毒的影响。 本组织还通过推特向成员和非成员协会征求关于冠状病毒如何影响语言专业人员的反馈意见,目的是获得政府的关注和支持。 与现场口译员不同的是,专门从事远程口译技术解决方案的公司在疫情期间获得了巨大收益,而与此同时,那些(活动和会议之外)通常依赖现场口译的客户却在试验摸索其他装备的设置。 Boostlingo是一家总部位于旧金山的远程口译技术解决方案公司,有关其平台的入站咨询已经明显有所增加。 Boostlingo的联合创始人,现任市场营销和业务开发副总裁迪特尔·伦格说:“在这种混乱时期,获得语言服务是至关重要的。” 伦格认为,短期来看,从事远程口译是战略需要,直到疫情得到有效控制之前都是如此。 从长远来看,他相信能迅速调用的远程口译解决方案和策略必将显示出其重要性。 伦格说,他注意到有些口译员收到的信息不一致,这种情况因州而异,因国而异,这造成了普遍的混乱感,并导致一些口译员回避现场口译任务。 伦格告诉Slator相关人员:“我们听说一些医院和大型医疗机构开始建议他们的现场翻译和合同翻译留在家里或远程工作。” “那些已经为电话会议或VRI(视频远程口译)做好工作准备的人得到了重用,我们预计在接下来的几个月里,他们的远程口译工作需求和工作量将急剧增加。” 纽约的LSP“日内瓦世界”表示,远程口译的需求已经增加,目前他们仍在继续招聘口译员。 与此同时,多语言会议平台KUDO建议潜在客户先考虑其他解决方案,再决定是否要取消会议。 另一个推动远程口译的因素可能来自美国一项资助冠状病毒紧急应对措施的法案。 该法案将持有医疗保险的患者也纳入远程医疗解决方案中,导致语言行业的一些人怀疑这些服务是否包括远程口译。 人们通常认为,翻译往往是语言专业人士在自己家里进行的,看起来似乎不受疫情防控措施的影响。 但冠状病毒的影响不仅限于物流。 终端客户的需求高度依赖于行业特点,并非所有产业都受到了同样或同等程度的影响。 目前人们很难逐个行业评估其对翻译的需求受到了哪些影响。 然而,就目前而言,上市本地股票的股价走势可能会提供一些线索,说明市场是如何见证这一趋势的。 The Translation People公司总部位于英国,其业务发展总监艾伦·怀特告诉Slator,由于疫情流行,他们发现有些客户的需求增加了。 这些增加的语言服务需求包括为全球商业提供与医疗健康信息、旅行建议和卫生指南有关的的内部通信翻译。 怀特说:“我们遇到的食品物流业最大的一个客户,他们使用的是可回收的包装材料,需要翻译来与客户沟通,说明他们的食品消毒过程足够严格,可以有效减轻病毒的影响。” 其他客户,如专门从事个人防护设备的企业,销售额和询问量激增,导致他们需要的翻译工作量也随之增加,因为其客户包含来自世界各地的新群体。 疫情防控措施已经改变了波兰LSP公司Summa Linguae Technologies(SLT)的日常运作。目前,员工不在办公室,而是在家工作,这对那些需要和孩子待在一起的员工来说是好消息,因为学校也已经停课了,孩子们只能待在家。 一场定于2020年3月中旬举行的董事会会议将以远程方式举行。 SLT首席执行官克兹托夫·兹达诺夫斯基对Slator工作人员称,冠状病毒的中长期影响一时难以判断。 而且,到目前为止,任何需求的变化似乎都是喜忧参半的。 兹达诺夫斯基表示:“我们大多数客户都制定好了他们公司疫情期间的政策,并做了翻译版本的,”他补充说,来自电子商务和零售行业客户的需求显著增加。 同样,大多数大型的、正在进行的数据收集和注释项目正在越做越大,客户要求交付时间缩短。 但是因为产品发布的搁置,SLT的IT、多媒体和电子教学的本地化也已推迟。 冠状病毒是否会增加各流媒体平台对本地化服务的需求,目前尚不清楚。 一些新闻媒体确实已经转向流媒体服务,以提供更多新冠病毒的连续报道。 此外,帝国资本分析师戴维·米勒预测,得益于冠状病毒遏制措施的“茧化效应”,Netflix在美国和加拿大订阅户数量将大幅增长。 然而,目前看来,各大电影制片厂不太可能用通过流媒体服务的首映来取代影院上映——除非美国效仿中国和意大利关闭影院。 ZOO Digital首席执行官斯图尔特·格林告诉Slator,到目前为止,他还没有注意到服务需求的变化; 并相信不管采取什么疫情措施,服务需求都会一切如常。 格林说:“在配音方面,我们的云平台使得每个项目的声音录制可以在不同的地点进行,从而免除了配音演员、配音导演和其他人在进行一个项目时长途跋涉或同处一地的需要。” 字幕工作通常由居家工作的专业人员进行,现在继续照常为ZOO Digital和SDI Media工作;但据首席执行官马克·霍沃斯介绍,后者在配音方面有着截然不同的经历。 霍沃斯在Slator采访中说:“在受疫情影响的国家,我们采取了专家建议的措施,包括每次新配音演员来房间时都要消毒设备,保持整体清洁,并随时提供消毒洗手液。” 据SDI Media的首席执行官说:“在香港,一些演员一直戴着口罩录音,但没有严重影响录音质量,我们正在与特定客户就这一问题进行沟通。 在意大利,由于政府的限制,配音工作受到冲击。“ 霍沃斯说,SDI Media目前正在探索远程录音解决方案,让在家录音成为可能; 但这些选择的实用性将取决于演员阵容的大小、安全考虑和音质问题。 与客户和终端用户一样,LSP对明天会发生什么一样不确定。 “我们预计未来几天欧洲可能会出现更多‘意大利’局面,”霍沃斯说,“在这种情况下,我们正在计划如何加快完成接近完工的项目,然后集中考虑如何在限制措施结束后确定工作的优先次序和时间安排。” 随着形势的发展,Slator网站将于未来几周内继续提供关于冠状病毒对语言行业影响的其他报道。

以上中文文本为机器翻译,存在不同程度偏差和错误,请理解并参考英文原文阅读。

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