Translation Services – Need for Colloquial Vernacular Languages over Hindi and English

March 16, 2022

Translation Services – Need for Colloquial Vernacular Languages over Hindi and English

The world is becoming more and more globalised while at the same time witnessing a resurgence of localization. Local languages and cultures are witnessing a resurgence and greater relevance. There is a cultural and linguistic revival that has been observed in the last couple of decades in India and in many countries of the world.

Take for example an airport or a railway station or a metro-rail network. These infrastructural projects coincide with the economic advancement of our country. In each region, instructions and messages on automated systems and public address systems are very necessarily to be provided in local languages. Where English and Hindi reigned supreme, the local languages such as Kannada, Tamil, Malayalam, Marathi, Oriya, Gujarati, Punjabi etc. are also considered important. The accessibility of the non-English speaking populace of the interiors of our country is a major contributing factor to this phenomenon, and rightfully so. As wealth and economic power is being more evenly distributed penetrating the social structure, and as more and more people join the burgeoning middle class of the country, service providers are forced to speak a language that is well understood and accepted by the masses.

Smart phones reaching the hands of the village resident is only useful when the telephone networks send them updates and notifications in their local language, in a manner and style that is simple and colloquial. Gone are the days of chaste Hindi and English which only the upper middle class had a grasp of. Internet service providers, websites and apps need to be in local languages if they want greater outreach and want to tap a larger market. The days of linguistic puritanism are gone. Websites and apps need to be in simple and easy-to-understand Oriya and Telugu for the customer in the interiors of the respective states. The Gujarati small town merchant who wants to sell his products online or make a reservation on an airline must be able to read in the language best known to him.

The market for translation is consequently large and is only now beginning to be tapped and explored. Service providers have to understand the economic power of the average masses and shed the colonial linguistic hegemony of English and subsequently and artificial form of Hindi that was long thrust of our country. The average middle and lower middle class of our country reads and writes Bengali, Assamese, Punjabi, Marathi, Kannada, Telugu, Oriya, Malayalam and Tamil. Companies who need to interact with customers using digital communication need to reach out in order to benefit themselves more than they can benefit the consumer.

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