Want a good racket to get into? Consider this.
In the last decade, translation and interpreting for domestic health care alone have reached $900 million, says the American Translators Association. And that’s just one large piece of a larger pie.
Not only are they big, but translation and interpreting services are getting bigger. “Despite the recession, language services have grown by 15 percent over the last two years,” says ATA spokesman Kevin Hendzel. “It’s one of the very few industries to do so, making it a top 10 growing market.”
It wasn’t always that way.
Seventy years ago, language services were tiny. With exception to high immigrant areas such as New York, Chicago, and San Francisco, there wasn’t really a need for it. Most everyone spoke English. And we were pretty insular as a country, which made for “a pretty small market,” says Hendzel.
After World War II, things started to change. “Once we became a global super power, we became interested in what other nations were doing,” explains Hendzel. “So we started translating newspapers and such into English. That continued through the ‘60s and ‘70s.”
Modest growth, says Hendzel. But no where near what it is today, since everything was still being translated into English, i.e. imported.
In the ’80s, things really started to pick up. Suddenly, we started exporting our stuff all over the world, says Hendzel. And once that happened, there was a great need to translate and interpret goods and services into other languages.
A customer won’t buy what they don’t understand. And if you want to do business with someone, you have to speak there language, both literally and figuratively.
Which brings us a step closer to where we are today. Specifically, 70 percent of all commercial translation is from English into other languages now, says Hendzel, which means were exporting more (i.e. selling our goods to emerging markets). “It’s opposite what it was 70 years ago,” says Hendzel. “It happened because of globalization.”
What really pushed it over the edge, however, was a considerable policy change. By executive order during his last days in office, President Clinton made it a civil crime to deny someone medical care for not speaking English. “That’s when things really started to boom,” says Hendzel, “especially in health care.” Which is why there is such a great need for English to Spanish translation nowadays.
Another boost in the size of the market came from terrorism, of all things. “Investment in translation services by the government since 9/11 has been staggering,” says Hendzel. “A billion a year not counting classified stuff, which is five to 10 times more the public record.” Kurdish, Farsi, Korean and other middle-eastern and Asian languages are in big demand, says Hendzel. African and Somali, too.
Today, interpreting makes up 80 percent of the total language services market, says the ATA, compared to 20 percent for translation work. Said one recent physician on the importance of medical interpreting, “When we can’t speak to the patient, we’re reduced to veterinarian medicine.”
Says Hendzel on the impact of translation: “Translators are like garbage men, when we do a good job, no one knows we’re there. When we do a bad job, it stinks.”
But medical professionals and ATA spokesman aren’t the only ones aware of the need to reach foreign speaking individuals to grow business. According to Hendzel, attendance to the annual American Translation Association conference increased from 1500 to 2200 attendees this year. “The biggest increase we’ve ever had in our 50 year history.”
“Big business knows now,” he concludes. “Demand is rising. It will continue to rise.”
Related: america, American Translators Association, history, interpreting, Kevin Hendzel, Translation, u.s., usa