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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.
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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.
Hot deal welcomes 2010 - 10% Discount on any translation order.
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Language professionals especially those who are in the job for the love of it, are generally eager to know not only about those languages in which they are experts but also others. They are interested in knowing about the entire life-cycles of various languages including their birth, evolution and death. Most languages develop naturally as they are used by their speakers over a period of years and centuries. But there are also those languages that are developed artificially by linguists.
There can be many reasons behind that some linguists want to develop a universal language which is easy to learn and master and thus adopt. Esperanto is an example of such a language. A very interesting reason for developing languages is for literature and art. Take a book like The Lord of the Rings which had its author J.R.R. Tolkien develop an entirely new language called Elvish complete with a couple of dialects, for its characters. In more recent times, new languages have also been developed for movies/television series like Star Trek (Klingon). The latest among such initiatives is Na’vi a language developed for Avatar, one of the most widely anticipated movies in recent times.
While Klingon was taken up by fans of Star Trek and popularized to such an extent that there are now many Star Trek fans worldwide who are fluent in it. Na’vi, on the other hand has been developed by a linguistics expert, Professor Paul Frommer of the University of Southern California. The language was developed to be spoken by characters inhabiting a fictional moon called Pandora. It has got a vocabulary of around 1,000 words and only time will tell how Avatar is received by its fans and till what extent they go on to use and promote Na’vi. Rest assured the folks at Tomedes will be monitoring it closely and just in case it becomes popular and important enough to require language translation services, we’ll surely be there to provide it.
Hot deal welcomes 2010 - 10% Discount on any translation order.
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It seems that somebody within the inner circle of President Obama’s administration is taking a good amount of interest in machine translation. This probably explains the contents of a paper titled “Strategy for American Innovation” recently released by the White House. Included among the recommendations contained in the paper was the challenge for providing automatic, real time and highly accurate language translation across all major global languages.
Although the above recommendation was tucked in towards the end of a 22-page paper, the very fact that language translation technology is being viewed as one of the elements that could improve the quality of life, as well as lay out the way for businesses, industries and future jobs, goes on to show that the present US administration understands the importance of language translation and the critical role it plays in facilitating international business.
This places the spotlight on the current state of machine translation. The technology used for automatic translation of languages has come a long way, and apart from significantly reducing translation time it is also cost effective. However there are certain areas which need further improvement. This includes significant improvements in natural language processing. Initiatives like the one taken by the Obama White House would help provide more funding to scientists and linguists who are working on machine translation technology and hopefully accelerate the progress.
Hot deal welcomes 2010 - 10% Discount on any translation order.
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IBM has a team of almost 100 employees working on the development of an automatic language translation tool that would be quick, as well as highly accurate to the extent that it would facilitate instant messages between the speakers of two distinct languages. The project is nFluent and at present it is being developed with the intention of teaching computer terminology related to the businesses of IBM. The programmers working on the nFluent project are trying to get a computer to look for and identify statistical patterns that exist between sets of translated content, as well as those which exist among the words.
The company has encouraged its 400,000 work force across over 170 countries to contribute to nFluent. It began by presenting its employees with a worldwide translation challenge in which each employee’s contribution would be measured with the help of a points-based system and the points earned would later be converted to charitable donations. The process involves employees correcting translations produced by nFluent. The challenge mobilized around 6,000 employees to suggest improvements in over 2 million words worth of data for 11 languages that was translated by nFluent. According to an IBM researcher, the parallel data produced by the employees is used to update the models. Until now nFluent has only been used by the employees of IBM, but looking into the future, the company intends to create a finished product that can be sold to other organizations.
Hot deal welcomes 2010 - 10% Discount on any translation order.
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As a name “Suri” sounds unconventional and quite nice. Perhaps that’s why Hollywood’s star couple Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes named their daughter so. But how would they feel when they came to know that the word Suri means pickpocket in Japanese, “horse mackerels” in Italian, “red” or “fire” in Farsi and “turned sour” in French. David and Victoria Beckham have also muddled up somewhat with their son’s name Cruz, which in Spanish means ‘withers’ - the ridges between a horse’s shoulder-bones.
Generally most parents go the conventional way when it comes to naming their children, and many do check out the meanings of names at least in their own language. But with people increasingly getting interested in christening their babies with exotic sounding names, (probably inspired by the celebrities) it was just a matter of time before a service came into being to check out the various meanings that an unconventional name could have in different languages and contexts. Today Translation, a British company has began offering such a service. It will investigate the various meanings of unconventional names chosen by couples so that their children don’t end up with a name that might mean something negative or embarrassing in another language.
The company is charging about $1,700 for the service which it calls ‘Name Translation Audit’. It will involve the company’s linguists checking the meaning of the given name in 100 languages. The appeal of this service may not be restricted to people who would like to name their children unconventionally but also interest those who want the names to have substantial and positive meanings.
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The demand for language translation services is increasing with every passing day is old knowledge; recent developments in the field of language translation shows that translation buyers are increasingly looking for professional translators who can provide translation services for highly specialized areas. Niche translation, as it is commonly known is the way to go for professional translators who are feeling the heat of increasing competition.
The president of American Translators Association, Nicholas Hartmann reinforced this during the 50th convention of the association, when he said that language skills were not the sole requirement from translators today; they needed to have expertise in subject matter as well. The convention itself saw an attendance of 2,300, which was a thousand more compared to last year.
According to Hartmann, the demand for translation and interpretation services providers was expected to grow by 15% next year, spurred by the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the global green movement and of course, globalization. All of these developments are taking place in various parts of the world and hence a lot of original information is getting generated in languages that are spoken by relatively smaller groups of people. Moreover, language translations in these areas frequently demand a great deal of specialized knowledge and awareness of the background. It does not only require understanding the context of words and phrases, but also the applicable legal and technical issues. Any error can not only cause great embarrassment but also create serious trouble for the people involved.
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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.
Hot deal welcomes 2010 - 10% Discount on any translation order.
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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.
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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.
