In this article Nataly Kelly, Common Sense Advisory’s Chief Research Officer, states that despite the fact that China no longer seems so distant to many countries throughout the world and it’s become an extremely active participant in economies of all sizes, language still stands as one large barrier between China and the rest of the world. Here are some excerpts of the article:

“China no longer seems so distant to many countries throughout the world. Instead, it’s become an extremely active participant in economies of all sizes.

However, there’s one large barrier still standing between China and the rest of the world.

Language.

For economies to participate in global trade and for companies to sell their goods and services in other markets, translation is critical. Yet, when was the last time you met someone who interprets between Urdu and Mandarin, or converts written information from Simplified Chinese to Kiswahili? They are few and far between — but their services are needed to enable those billions of dollars mentioned above to change hands.

A study published yesterday by Common Sense Advisory shows that the demand for language services is booming, and the market will reach US $31.438 billion in 2011. However, the same study pointed out that while Asia is growing in importance, there’s a lack of human language talent to go around — especially in language pairs involving Chinese.

People are starting to get concerned. Two weeks ago, the International Permanent Conference of University Institutes of Translators and Interpreters (CIUTI) met in Beijing to discuss, among other things, the lack of China’s qualified linguistic resources. The conference highlighted the fact that translation and interpreting are critical to China’s future economic development. Yet, a survey from the Translators Association of China revealed that 67.7 percent of businesses surveyed believe that the Chinese translation industry is lacking in trained professionals.

That same week, during a keynote address on the other side of the world at the Association of Language Companies conference in Las Vegas, a similar question came up. One of the participants asked whether the translators and interpreters who work across the globe are prepared to handle the challenges it faces. The answer? “Absolutely not.”

What’s the fastest way for China to remove the linguistic roadblock to economic development?

First, find people who already speak two languages

Second, train them in the skills of translation and interpreting

Third, compensate them well.

China is not alone. Most countries — including the United States — are failing at each of these three steps. Only the European Union has taken any true initiative on making savvy investments in translation and interpreting education in recent years. Even so, universities need prodding to keep their programs alive, as Marco Benedetti, Director-General of Interpretation, recently made clear.

When will nations realize that building a language infrastructure enables economic growth? Until they do, desperate but commonplace measures — like translating Chinese documents into English only to re-translate them into Arabic or Korean — will continue to slow down growth and cost more money than necessary.

Language in general — and translation in particular — will determine the course of China’s economic future, and whether it’s truly “getting close” — as Tori Amos sang two decades ago — or “getting closed.”

See: Huffington Post