We’ve come across a requirement for Japanese translation volunteers. It’s an exciting opportunity in which Japanese language students can use their language skills in a live and fairly challenging environment – a valuable learning opportunity for language students. Last year the marathon had over 14,400 runners participating from Japan; this year the numbers are projected to increase to 15,000.
This requirement for Japanese translators is for the upcoming 37th Honolulu Marathon. Around 150 volunteer translators are needed. They would be assigned to work with doctors and nurses who will be looking after the Japanese runners while being posted at various medical stations built along the length of the course which is 26.2 miles long. The Japanese translators required should preferably be advanced Japanese language students from prep schools and colleges. The 37th Honolulu Marathon would take place on the 13th of Dec and translators would be required to work in shifts of 4 a.m. to 9:30 a.m and 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
Those interested in the work can check out http://www.honolulumarathon.org for specific details.
Wycliffe UK has been providing Bible translation services for over 70 years now and has been majorly involved in translation projects for people who have not had bibles in their native languages. The year 2010 will see the organization undergoing a revamp. It will have a fresh look which will not only include a new logo but also a change in name that would reflect the company’s mission more clearly.
Wycliffe UK will be known by the name Wycliffe Bible Translators; the name change reinforces the organization’s aim of initiating a Bible translation project that would turn out translated versions of the Bible for every language that requires a Bible, by the year 2025. Wycliffe UK has taken up this strategy with the belief that it will strengthen the company’s position in a competitive marketplace. The name change would contribute significantly towards informing people about the organization’s primary goals which among others things would help it in efficient and effective recruitment.
Eddie Arthur, the director of Wycliffe Bible Translators, UK, said that the organization had faced problems in the past due to its name which was common with a number of other organizations and led to frequent confusion among the public. The introduction of ‘Bible translators’ in the existing name would make it distinct, as well as attract the translators it requires for its projects. The present logo of the organization would not be replaced immediately. Wycliffe UK plans to phase it out as existing stocks of materials and resources that bear the present logo gets exhausted and is replenished with materials that carry the new logo.
Google had introduced captions for YouTube and Google Video quite some time back to help the deaf and hearing impaired in understanding the videos. The move was a success as according to the company it led to a substantial increase in captioned videos, and also fueled awareness about the usefulness of captioned videos among users. This capability was later upgraded with multiple caption tracks, automatic translation and better search functionality. Google recently announced in its official blog that it would be introducing public machine-generated automatic captions, which would make it useful for users from different parts of the world.
This latest ability for machine translation enables users to watch video content with captions in any of the 51 languages currently supported by Google Translate. Captions might also serve another very helpful purpose, which is enabling users to go directly to specific parts of videos. The automatic captioning system has been built around the strengths of both YouTube and Google. The company has also created supporting features like automatic caption timing that lets users generate captions manually with little effort. This would be very helpful to video owners who cannot invest much time or resources in creating caption tracks.
Initially apart from Google and YouTube channels, auto-captions will only be available on a few partner channels like National Geographic, Stanford, UC Berkeley, Yale, MIT, UCLA, UCTV, Duke, Columbia, PBS UNSW and Demand Media. Auto-timing on the other hand will be available for English videos on YouTube all across the world.
