Hot deal welcomes 2010 - 10% Discount on any translation order.
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It is not another Oscar prediction. It is pure science. As I work for the leading translation service, I just love foreign languages and watch new foreign language movies regularly.
However, in order to know which foreign language film will win the Oscar in 2010 or in any other given year; you don’t have to actually watch the films.
Well, this year the nominees are “Ajami” from Israel, “El Secreto de Sus Ojos” from Argentina , “The Milk of Sorrow” from Peru, “Un Prophète” from France and “The White Ribbon” from Germany.
Without knowing anything about the films, I can say that the winner will be “Un Prophète” from France.
Here are the reasons:
1. 83% (46 out of 55) of the winners in this category in the history of the Academy awards were films from the European continent. Since last year a Japanese film won, it is not likely that there will be again a non European winner this year.
2. French films took 9 awards while Germany ones took only 3 since the first 1947 award.
3. French films have a higher winning /nomination rate - 26% compared to 20% of Germany ones
4. Germany had won the Oscar in 2006 while France had not won it since 1992.
Will my science work? We will see soon. Meanwhile, back to working on http://www.tomedes.com .
P.S. My personal favorite is “Ajami” – An outstanding film.
Hot deal welcomes 2010 - 10% Discount on any translation order.
Use the coupon code "Tomedes10" !
We have decided to show our love and affection towards our beloved new and returning customers by hading them a special gift for Valentines day.
This time we will not provide a discount of 5% or 10% for our professional translation services . This time it’s a crazy discount of 15% from now till February 15th.
All you have to do to get the special valentines day gift is to use the coupon code “cupid”. Just go to http://www.tomedes.com choose a language pair and text to be translated and submit the coupon code.
All of us in Tomedes send you our hugs and kisses and wish you all the best with our love coupon
Hot deal welcomes 2010 - 10% Discount on any translation order.
Use the coupon code "Tomedes10" !
A very interesting and admirable effort is taking place within the boundaries of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, for there lies the Academy of the Hebrew Language which is dedicated towards preserving Hebrew and promoting its use among the masses by updating it with the changing times. The academy develops nearly 2,000 new Hebrew words annually for modern terms and concepts like blog, sustainable development, hacker and jetlag. The academy tries to find original Hebrew words that would convey the meaning of modern terms rather than just translating a new English word into Hebrew. For example, it came up with the term “ayefat” for jetlag. This Hebrew word was created using the root word for “tired”, similarly the academy recommends “misron” for SMS.
Hebrew, which is among the oldest languages of the world had not been used as a spoken language for more than 1,700 years. During this period it was solely used in biblical and religious texts. It was only 150 years ago that efforts were made to revive it as a spoken language and the man who played an instrumental role in reintroducing Hebrew as a spoken language is Eliezer Ben-Yehuda. This year Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet marked Ben-Yehuda’s 152nd birthday on January 7th with a special session in which it was decided that the day would be henceforth celebrated as National Hebrew Day.
Hot deal welcomes 2010 - 10% Discount on any translation order.
Use the coupon code "Tomedes10" !
Diplomats and officials revealed early this week that the Arab members of World Trade Organization are making efforts to get Arabic recognized as the organization’s fourth official language. Keith Rockwell, the spokesman for WTO said that Kuwait had made a formal request and members of the body were discussing the matter. The WTO has 153 members at present among which there are around a dozen Arab countries, six more including Iraq, Libya and Algeria are in the process of joining. But all said and done there are significant hurdles that might thwart this effort.
WTO’s existing official languages include English, French and Spanish. Adding a new official language means that there will be requirement for interpretation, translation and printing. This would involve heavy expenditure. But that is not all, adding Arabic as an official language would lead other nations like China and Russia to step up efforts for including their languages among the official languages of WTO. Moscow has already been making on-and-off efforts in that direction for some years now and the addition of Arabic may just renew its zeal and increase pressure on WTO. According to official sources, the addition of 3 languages would lead to an annual cost of around $43 million or 45 million Swiss Francs. Consider this amount by comparing it with the total budget of WTO for 2009 – 189 million Swiss Francs.
Hot deal welcomes 2010 - 10% Discount on any translation order.
Use the coupon code "Tomedes10" !
The state of Oregon has added automatic language translation options to its website. This news was announced by The Oregon Department of Administrative Services last week. The state’s official website is now supported by Google Translate which provides visitors with the ability to translate the content of the site into 25 languages apart from English. The languages are Italian, French, German, Chinese (simplified and traditional), Japanese, Arabic, Spanish, Russian, Danish, Dutch, Filipino, Finnish, Greek, Hindi, Norwegian, Malay, Persian, Korean, Portuguese, Swahili, Swedish, Vietnamese, Thai and Ukrainian.
Those who visit Oregon.gov will find a “drop-down” box labeled “Select Language” at the upper right corner in all pages. A user who is unable to read the default language which is English can choose from the 25 languages provided in the drop down box. Selecting the desired language will instantly produce the translated version of the page.
Oregon’s e-government manager Wally Rogers said on the occasion of the announcement that this feature had been added taking into account the fact that the State had a substantial population of non-English speakers who could not use the online resources available on the website because of language differences. The automatic translation option would not only allow such residents to understand and take advantage of the information presented on the website but it would also allow the government to reach out to more people. Moreover, with the help of Google Translate the state government was able to translate more than 40,000 pages without spending any money.
Hot deal welcomes 2010 - 10% Discount on any translation order.
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Instant voice translation has long been the stuff of science fiction and a much desired ability in the real world. People who frequently travel to foreign countries where they do not understand the local language would be delighted by a gadget that could instantly translate what they say in their native language into the local language of the foreign country to which they are traveling.
Many individual inventors and companies have been working on developing such a software. We’ve already got a few which are available for desktop computers. Although these devices work on a simple level that is, for basic phrases, they do indicate that we are closer to developing a full-fledged instant voice translation software now than ever before. There are a few companies that have been working on developing voice translation software for mobile devices which makes sense, since such a device would provide maximum utility in its mobile form.
Toshiba for one has already developed such a software which in its present version can allow the user to translate between English, Japanese and Chinese, and has a database of 30,000 words for every one of these languages. The company will be introducing this software on their smartphone - TG01 and is aiming to sell to tourists who travel to foreign countries. The company claims that the software is extremely user-friendly and all it requires from its users is that they speak into phone in any of the aforementioned languages following which the handset would process it and translate it into the desired language. The company intends to release the software in the present year itself.
Hot deal welcomes 2010 - 10% Discount on any translation order.
Use the coupon code "Tomedes10" !
A survey conducted for the European Commission has concluded that the language translation industry has weathered the economic slowdown with much better results than other sectors. This study has been among the first of its kind analyzing the language translation industry across the European Union and extensively covering areas like language translation, localization and globalization, interpretation, language education, dubbing and subtitling, language technology tools and organization of multilingual conferences.
The survey found out that in 2008 the European Union language industry achieved a turnover worth 8.4 billion Euros. This has been projected to increase at a minimum annual rate of 10 per cent over the coming years, and reach the figure of 16.5 to 20 billion Euros by 2015, making it the highest projected growth rates across EU industries.
The language industry has undergone drastic transformation in recent times. Rapid worldwide globalization has created huge requirements for translation and other language related services which has led to the addition of services like localization, subtitling and editing. Professionals working in the industry have responded favorably by acquiring new competencies. According to the commissioner for multilingualism Leonard Orban, the language industry is important in both the economic, as well as strategic sense. Apart from its size which makes it economically significant, it’s strategic importance comes from the role it plays in helping preserve people’s identities and culture, and in coping with globalization.
Hot deal welcomes 2010 - 10% Discount on any translation order.
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A research conducted by the market research firm Common Sense Advisory investigating European countries that offered the biggest opportunities for multilingual services came to the conclusion that United Kingdom, Germany and France were among the top players in the area.
According to Common Sense Advisory’s CEO Tahar Bouhafs, business organizations in Europe were increasingly relying upon language translation services to ensure the success of their services and products across the world. He added that expanding into new markets was vital for the growth of any business, and services like language translation, localization and interpretation made such expansion possible.
According to Nataly Kelly the lead researcher of the aforementioned report, Europe was characterized by a commendably progressive attitude as far as multilingualism was concerned. The European Union has been at the forefront encouraging the development of technologies used for machine translation and translation memory. It is now standing at the brink of the next phase of this development which would involve community-based translation and the production of language translations in a variety of output formats all of which would be playing important roles in a Web 3.0 world.
Hot deal welcomes 2010 - 10% Discount on any translation order.
Use the coupon code "Tomedes10" !
London’s theatre shows are quite popular among foreign tourists which is reflected by the fact that nearly a third of the tickets sold are purchased by this group of people. Earlier tourists who did not understand the language being spoken on the stage had to check out the screens beside the stage for the required translation. Not anymore, thanks to AirScript, a new device that displays a rolling translation of the show’s script in the language selected by the viewer.
AirScript is a wireless handheld screen developed and manufactured by the Cambridge Consultants in UK. It can display several languages simultaneously. At present, it has been made available at the Shaftesbury Theatre which is playing Hairspray. The options of languages available at present include English, Italian, German, French, Russian, Spanish, Chinese and Japanese. There is a system of stage prompts to ensure that the translated version of the script is in sync with the on-stage action.
The man behind this device Alexander Vegh got the idea for such a device about 20 years back when he saw Cats on Broadway. Being a Spanish speaker he felt that what could have been a much better experience was limited by the fact that he could not understand the lyrics. In 2002, he moved to London from his native Argentina and established a translation services company which was a success. He then moved on to developing AirScript, the results of which can now be seen at the Shaftesbury Theatre.
Hot deal welcomes 2010 - 10% Discount on any translation order.
Use the coupon code "Tomedes10" !
Recently the global language translation community lost Yang Xianvi, one of its most respected and accomplished members. Yang had been suffering from lymphatic cancer since many years and was at an advanced stage of the disease when he succumbed last month at the age of 95. He was famous and admired in not only his native country China but throughout the world for translating many classical Chinese works into English. Some of his translations include A Dream of Red Mansions, Li Sao, The Travels of Lao Can, Selections from Records of the Historian and Lu Xun: Selected Works and The Song of Youth.
Lang usually partnered with his British wife Gladys who was also a brilliant translator. The husband and wife team provided the literary world with Chinese to English translations that were known for their accuracy and faithfulness to the original, as well as readability. A Dream of Red Mansions is one of their most famous and well-received translations which made this great Chinese work accessible to the western world. In fact many US colleges continue to use it in Chinese literature courses. The couple went beyond translating Chinese classics to English and bought many western classics to China, some of which include George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion and Homer’s Odyssey.
This year, the Translators Association of China awarded Yang with a Lifetime Achievement Award in translation, making him the second translator in China after the widely revered Ji Xianlin to have been honored with it. Yang had published his autobiography in 2002; it’s in English and titled White Tiger.
