Today Wednesday, September 30, 2020, we are celebrating International Translation Day.

It may sound to you like just one more celebration created by a group of people for their personal purposes. However, International Translation Day is in fact a great opportunity to think about our world, our human race. What have we done up to now to connect the more than 7 billion humans on earth? What is the purpose of that communication? Where are we going as a whole, and how do we want to shape that communication in the future?

Where we are now

We are in the middle of a pandemic, living during one of the most divisive eras in humanity, where political, sexual, religious, ideological, cultural, and racial differences have created big gaps, misunderstandings, strife, and separation between us.

Communication and education are two of the most important tools we possess to bridge those gaps and enhance our relations with each other, between neighbours, families, friends, colleagues, organizations, groups of people, businesses, and people we don’t know. On a broader scale, this can be between governments, cities, states, and countries.

People come in all shapes and colours, and our hearts, minds and words take on the shape of a country, a language, and an ideology. Clear, responsible and respectful communication is essential to ensure we do not clash with others with differing ideologies and ideas, feelings, emotions, goals, and needs. We can use language as tools to create bridges, strengthen ties, improve relationships, cooperation, foster development, and facilitate dialogue.

The role of translation in our current world

Communicating successfully with another person when both are using the same language is already a complicated enough task to accomplish, every day and every time.

Communicating with a person in another language not only involves the complication of creating this important message in a different language. It also brings the challenge of conveying that content to a different culture, perspective, and way of thinking without altering the message, and most importantly creating a meaningful and respectful communication link between people of different ethnicities, nationalities, and idiosyncrasies.

International translation day gives us the opportunity to celebrate people’s achievements in communications in other languages, the achievements of lawyers and doctors communicating with people in a variety of languages, those of professors, teachers, professionals, and all kind of workers that day by day must communicate with people who are tangibly different to them in so many ways. Translation and interpretation play a bigger role in our lives than simply converting one language into another. Sending a big hooray to translators and interpreters today for helping us link cultures, countries, and people.

Congratulations and thanks from World Communications to every single translator and interpreter in the world. Thanks for being part of our World and our Communications!