What’s in store for the language service sector in 2011? Research group Common Sense Advisory has some ideas.

Since 2005, the major research group Common Sense Advisory has been publishing predictions about the language service industry. The group’s industry forecast for 2011 has just been published on the organization’s blog, Global Watchtower.

As I see it the predictions, all based on extensive research, can be roughly divided into two categories: threats to and opportunities for LSPs (language service providers.)

What could be considered “the bad news” is nothing we haven’t heard about: economic constraints are squeezing budgets for language projects, and crowd-sourcing is still on the upswing. In addition, CSA predicts that, faced with overwhelming demand for information in foreign languages: “Nervous tolerance of machine translation (MT) turns into enthusiastic acceptance.”

However, in the context of increasing demand for languages, opportunities abound for language service providers. “Common Sense Advisory’s predictions reveal a thriving, exciting climate for the language services industry in 2011,” explain the writers.

According to the CSA research, areas for growth include:

            - language support for all types of products, especially multimedia devices

            - language quality audits for large companies

- language applications for social media use

In addition, there is a gradual decline in “in-house” language translation departments, and LSPs can definitely fill in the gap.

At Language Translation, Inc. we are excited to see what 2011 will bring, and to continue to lead in our specialties: translation, medical language services, and telephonic interpreting.

Betty Carlson

See Also

• Language Translation, Inc.
  A leading language translation and interpretation service provider for more than 20 years.