Language industries still have bright future 广外校长仲伟合：语言行业依然前景光明
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Zhong Weihe
WHEN robots and translation software become more widely used, will we still need human translators and interpreters in that era of artificial intelligence (AI)? For Zhong Weihe, president of Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, the answer is yes.
Zhong is a leading scholar in interpretation and translation studies in China. At a panel discussion on the future of language services held in Futian District, Zhong talked about the future trend of language industries in the era of AI.
The panel was one of the key sessions of LocWorld, a global conference. The conference invited experts in the fields of international business, translation, localization and global website management to discuss developments and trends in language and translation services.
To make the human translators and interpreters remain relevant in the coming decades, Zhong said that the answer was to change, and that education plays a vital role preparing talents with qualifications and skills for the future.
“The purpose of education is to prepare students with knowledge and skills to meet the demands of the ever-changing society. Any change will bring both opportunities and challenges,” said Zhong. “Whenever there’s a change, there’s a need for education to follow up. So teachers, faculties and universities should be prepared for development in the next few decades.”
Zhong said: “It was not until 1979 that the Beijing Foreign Studies University set up the very first translation and interpretation program in China.”
“There are currently 230 universities offering bachelor’s degree and 215 institutes that have master’s programs in translation and interpretation in China,” said Zhong.
The key driving force of the discipline to grow so fast was mainly China’s opening-up policy over the past few decades. There are more Chinese companies now in need of translation services from Chinese language to other languages, including some minor languages, said Zhong.
Another panelist with experience in dealing with cross-border communication, David Zeng, also agreed with Zhong’s notion of a rapid transition from inbound translation work to an outbound language service.
Zeng is the vice president for China of Halliburton Co., a Dubai-based oil and gas corporation. He said that one possible future trend of language services could be to provide more human-to-human communication services.
“What I found interesting was that I never found that Chinese engineers, although their English is poor, had problems communicating with their American counterparts in terms of technology. What I found challenging was the people-to-people communication, which might be a future trend in language services,” said Zeng.
The other trend discussed at the panel was how China’s role was changing from following service standards set by the West to setting new standards in the language industries as well as in the unshakable role of humans in translating and interpreting multiple languages with human wisdom and emotion.
(Editor: Lily)