Demanding Translation Services for Educational Institutions during the COVID-19 Pandemic
Demanding Translation Services for Educational Institutions during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Summary/Abstract: For years now, intercultural communication has mostly taken place in English. More recently, English has also been the language of preference in intracultural communication. In the age of the new media, and particularly in the online environment mediating the transmission of data, messages, and documents which was prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic, inter- and intracultural communication overlap with the concerns that impact the global setting being neuralgic issues locally as well. During the partial or total lockdowns enforced worldwide between 2019 and 2022, unlike any other moment in time, more people, more frequently, accessed websites to stay informed, request assistance, purchase goods, order food, pay for utilities, find work, apply for training programmes, etc. Under the circumstances, translation services (especially from and into English) were in high demand. The challenges for the translator, however, were numerous, beginning with linguistic proficiency and cultural awareness and ending with time constraints, computer literacy, text editing skills, and design know-how. A brief survey of the websites commonly used in Romania during the pandemic (created in English and translated into Romanian, and/or those generated domestically and addressing an international public in English) indicates either mediocre renderings in the target language or inadmissible delays in improving, updating, and disseminating the information sought. To illustrate the above, this article focuses on two websites of educational institutions (e.g., the Ministry of Education and a local university).

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