Every year an increasing number of non-English speaking people move through South Dakota’s judicial system. These people require the services of language translation providers and are assigned translators by the counties that decide who translates for them. This leads to problems especially when the defendant is conversant in a language whose vocabulary does not have exact translation for certain judicial terms. Being experienced in a language does not automatically provide a language translator with expertise in translating judicial vocabulary.
Such problems have led a Supreme Court in South Dakota to form a committee that would be working towards creating a set of standards to serve as reference for courtroom interpreters across the state. However if such a system of statewide certification is adopted, it might create problems for smaller counties that do not have the resources to recruit and pay certified translators.
Translators need to be certified in order to work in federal courts. The process of certification can be difficult; for example Spanish interpreters require taking written and oral tests to get federal certification. These tests are organized regionally on an annual basis and can be taken one at a time, for example, this summer interpreters sat for the oral test and have the written test coming up next year.
Although the committee that is working on creating the standards for judicial translators is not responsible for providing suggestions on how law enforcement agencies might use translators; a committee member who is also a state attorney at Minnehaha County said that it might serve as a useful guide.
Ireland has been spending a considerable amount of money on translating official government documents from English to Irish - the country’s first official language. Michael Ring, an opposition politician from Fine Gael has criticized this expenditure stating that the translations are actually not required as no one uses the translated documents. According to Ring, about 1.8 million Euros were spent in translating English documents to Irish which the state could not afford. A minister from the government responded that they were only fulfilling constitutional requirements by getting the translations, referring to The Official Languages Act, signed into Irish Law in 2003, which prescribes a statutory framework to ensure the delivery of services in Irish language.
The economy of the Republic of Ireland is suffering from deep recession and the government which is poised on the brink of an important budget has said that they require about 4 billion Euros in savings. According to Mr. Ring, the state and local authorities had already spent around 6 million Euros over six years following the introduction of the Official Languages Act. The trouble was that no one was purchasing or using these documents, and keeping the current state of economy in mind the Act needed to be reviewed.
On the other side Eamon O Cuiv, the Minister for Community, Rural & Gaeltacht Affairs, has said that these documents should be delivered through the Internet or on CDs rather than as hard copies. He said that it was not that people were not buying the translated Irish documents, few people bought official documents at all and hence it made sense to preserve them as soft copies and make them downloadable from the Internet.
Recently Microsoft launched a new suite of software products in Tanzania. These included Windows 7 which is the latest version of its desktop operating system, Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 and Windows Server 2008 R2. These products would allow users to work with their native languages.
Mark Matunga, Microsoft’s Education and Citizenship Programme Manager said that Microsoft had built language interface packs to help translate English language used in the software into local languages of the area where the software was used, and the ability to use local languages will be implemented in the coming 18 to 24 months. This time frame would allow the company to complete the required translation and localization work. The translations are being done in cooperation with the University of Dar es Salaam, National Swahili Council (Bakita), and Swahili linguists from Uganda and Kenya.
According to Louis Otieno who is Microsoft’s East and Southern Africa General Manager, Windows 7 is the culmination of many years of feedback provided by Microsoft customers and partners around the world which made it the most deeply researched and well-planned version of windows. He added that the toughest challenge faced by businesses based in Tanzania was the ability to exploit technological investments to the fullest potential, so that they could get maximum performance without spending a lot of money.
Bishop Donald Trautman of Erie who had urged American Catholic Bishops to reject the latest translation of the Mass as it was ungrammatical and awkward to read lost his battle as the bishops voted 166-46 against his motion - Trautman had wanted the antiphons to be returned to bishops for approval. The new liturgical texts were approved by the prelates and would be implemented in 2010 in the U.S.
Bishop Trautman tried to prevent the vote on the new liturgical texts on the ground that handing them to the Congregation for Divine Worship at the Vatican violated Church laws. He had argued that even the good intentions of Vatican dicastery did not give it the right to override the magisterial authority of an ecumenical council’s constitution. This was based on the “Sacrosanctum Concilium” – the Second Vatican Council’s Constitution on the Liturgy which says that translations have to be approved by bishops of the territories in which they are intended to be used.
The President of USCCB, Cardinal Francis George of Chicago said that permission had been given to Vatican officials after complaints from other English-speaking nations that U.S. bishops were taking too much time in approving the translation. Eventually Bishop Trautman’s proposal was submitted to vote and most of the bishops voted in favor of Cardinal George’s decision. Bishop Arthur Serratelli accepted that the text was not perfect but he hoped that perfection would come as the liturgy on Earth gave way to heaven and all saints started praising God in a united voice.
Twitter has grown into a very useful tool which if used in a well-planned manner can bring great returns. Its users include individuals, as well as big and small organizations across the globe. It has also bought satisfying returns to entrepreneurs and freelancers. Although Twitter alone is a great tool there are many applications being developed around it which enhance its utility and bring exponential returns. There are many such useful applications and you just have to Google “Twitter applications” to find them. Today I am going to look in to Breezly which works for both Twitter and Facebook. It has been making a buzz over the past recent months but remained in an invite-only mode till recently when it was opened up for everyone.
So what’s there to recommend about Breezly? It is a web-based client for both Twitter and Facebook with quite a few slick features up its sleeve. It offers threaded direct messages, enables users to view videos and photos in their Twitter stream as well as upload photos. Recently support for Twitter Lists was also added to its offerings along with the ability to translate tweets into your default language. Admittedly Breezly is operating in a space crowded with competitors, but apart from its features it has some very talented people working on it backstage, they include Jason Shellen from Blogger, Chris Wetherell who is credited as a creator of Google Reader and Ben Darnell who has worked for both Google and Facebook.
Google Translate is a very handy language translation tool that already supports cross-translation between 51 languages, covering nearly 98% of Internet users. In its constant bid for improvement Google keeps adding new features to Google Translate, the latest one being a feature that allows users to translate text in real-time. This means that translation will happen as the user types in the source words. One doesn’t even need to click the translate button.
Yet another new feature is ability to input transliteration for Persian, Arabic or Hindi languages. Although the transliteration feature had been previously available as a separate service for a few languages, with this development Google has integrated it with Google Translate. So, if you require translating text from one of the aforementioned languages and cannot type in their native script from your keyboard then the transliteration feature would allow you to type the required words based on their sound and then automatically convert them into the native script of the languages. So if your source language is English and target language is Hindi, and you type in the hindi word “jeet” (victory) using English letters, you’ll see real-time transliteration of the word into the Devanagari script which is used for writing Hindi.
More new features include one that allows English speakers to read/pronounce non-Roman languages like Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Hindi, etc. When you input a piece of text in non-Roman language and click “Show romanization” it will turn up the phonetic form of the translation enabling you to read the text, as well as pronounce it in the native language. Furthermore there’s a speaker icon clicking on which lets you hear translated text in English.
People calling up 911 during an emergency have a tough time explaining clearly what has transpired with them and the kind of help they require. For dispatchers, it’s often difficult to clearly understand critical details of an emergency like street names even when the person who requires help is speaking a language which the dispatcher understands. Matters become extremely difficult to handle when the caller speaks a foreign language.
In many cases, such callers may speak in broken English or communicate through their children or other relatives. They might also avail the option of telephone translation services which is paid for by the law enforcement agency. These methods may get the job done but they can be time consuming (taking at least twice as long) which can exacerbate an already critical situation.
According of Sioux City authorities, language barriers are increasingly creating additional hurdles in providing emergency services to the residents. The city has a sizable Spanish speaking population but only half a dozen police officers who can speak or understand the language. Furthermore, the city does not have any dispatcher who can speak Spanish fluently. The Woodbury County Communications Center which is responsible for dispatching police officers, sheriff’s deputies, paramedics and firefighters has been trying its best to get employees with fluency in a second language but it has not had much success.
Yet another gadget right from the pages of science fiction! NEC, the Japanese electronics giant has developed a prototype for a new gadget that will help people overcome communication barriers posed by difference in languages. The optical device which is shaped like a pair of glasses will provide instant real-time language translation. Users are supposed to wear the gadget and then when they speak with someone whose language they don’t understand, the device would project translations directly onto their retina.
The gadget is called Tele Scouter, its prototype contains a microphone and retinal display mounted on an eyeglass frame. It will be using voice recognition and translation programs along with an imaging device to create real time translation which its users can read just like the subtitles of a movie. In a situation where both speakers are not able to understand each other’s languages they would both need to wear Tele Scouter to facilitate easy conversation.
Takayuki Omino a market development official with NEC said that Tele Scouter could prove handy in conversations that involve confidential information as it would eliminate the requirement of a human translator. The company intends to make the device available in the market by 2011 and has projected that a set of 30 Tele Scouters could cost a company up to 7.5 million yen or $83,300. The cost of customized software would be extra.
Automated translation solutions company Language Weaver recently announced that it would be making a presentation on global communication strategies at The Travel Innovation Summit @ The PhoCusWright Conference which will be held on Nov. 17, in Orlando, FL. The summit will have 34 innovators from across the world demonstrating a variety of innovative applications, mobile technology and other solutions that have the potential to make a significant impact on travel planning, buying decisions and memorializing. The innovators would be judged by influential travel professionals and four finalists would be rewarded with Five Minutes of Fame in Center Stage @ The PhoCusWright Conference which would take place later during the week.
Language Weaver is one of the innovators that have been selected to make a presentation. The company will discuss methods it uses to translate travel information automatically into its customers’ native languages. The presentation is timely as it takes into account the evolving requirements of travel industry. Travel customers are now going online more than ever before searching for contributed content that would help them plan out their travels. Mark Tapling, the CEO of Language Weaver will be discussing how automated translation can be used by travel companies to understand customers’ needs, enhance their experience and increase traffic. According to Tapling, consumers are now increasingly relying upon digital communication over traditional marketing materials. Hence making high quality content in various languages available to everybody who might find them useful would serve the customers well, thus ensuring their loyalty and better revenues.
U.S. Bishop Donald W. Trautman has criticized the latest English translation of the Latin Roman Missal calling it slavishly literal. According to Trautman, the vocabulary used by the translators is frequently elitist and far removed from day-to-day language, thus making the translation incomprehensible. He quoted ‘oblation,’ ‘ineffable,’ inviolate,’ ‘consubstantial,’ ‘precursor,’ ‘unvanquished’ and ’suffused’ among others as examples of some words frequently used in these translations which the average catholic was not aware of. He also spoke about sentences in the new missal that ran into 66, 70 and 83 words which he said were unproclaimable by the speaker, as well as perplexing to the listener.
Bishop Donald W. Trautman who was speaking at The Catholic University of America, Washington supported his arguments by asking his audience whether Jesus himself would have used a language which his followers had difficulty understanding. He mentioned that the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy had stipulated that vernacular language be used rather than the sacred one. He said that American Catholics have every right to expect the missal to be translated following English grammar rules, but the preface to the translation in question violated the English syntax in the worst possible ways.
He was also critical about what he termed a lack of “pastoral style” which turned the translated version into cold and insipid text. These and many other issues on similar lines led Trautman to ask his fellow bishops to reject this translation so that modern American Catholic adults, teens and children, as well as those who had learnt English as a second language, could look forward to a missal that they could readily understand and relate to.
