Localization Today: Recent Episodes
MultiLingual Media
Global business leaders turn to MultiLingual for the latest coverage of language, technology, business, and culture. Read our published articles at multilingual.com, or listen on the go as a podcast
Laszlo Varga, senior research consultant at Nimdzi Insights, discusses trends in language technology and the shift from the Language Technology Atlas to the Language Technology Radar.
Varga explores the impact of AI and large language models (LLMs) on the industry, highlighting reduced human effort and new growth opportunities. He also goes on the integration of LLMs into workflows, the need for specialized models, and the ethical implications of AI, including language preservation and its future impact on the industry.
A conversation with Alexandra Jarvis, Chief Strategy Officer of Toppan Digital Language, and Christophe Djaouani, President, about TDL's recent acquisition and its impact on the global language services industry.
They discuss the challenges of navigating a multinational organization through the COVID-19 pandemic, the evolution of the language services market, and the critical role of resilience and innovation in driving growth.
By Ewandro Magalhães
When it comes to adopting AI, Ewandro Magalhães advises a balanced approach: taking it slow to avoid overpromising, but also keeping an open mind to possibilities. He argues that, ultimately, speaking openly about our fears and hopes will help us determine ethical ways to move forward with AI.
By John Yunker
Lessons from 20 years of website dos and don’tsBy John Yunker
For 20 years, John Yunker has benchmarked the websites of the leading global brands in the annual Web Globalization Report Card. In this article, he highlights the best practices that resonate as strongly today as they did two decades ago.
By Domenico LombardiniHow can a language service provider (LSP) create real value for customers, beyond just tailoring workflow tools or utilizing AI? Domenico Lombardini argues that offering synergistic services in specialized sectors can position an LSP as a go-to resource in the eyes of the customer.
The Globe-Trotting Journey of Translated 9Interview by Cameron Rasmusson
For eight months, an 18-member crew from Italian language service provider Translated competed in a sailing race around the world using only a sextant and stargazing as guides. Co-skipper Marco Trombetti describes the ups and downs of the voyage, the invaluable lessons learned, and the magnificent experiences the crew had along the way.
Language Services at the OlympicsBy Nathalie Greff-Santamaria
Translation and interpreting are central to the Olympic and Paralympic Games to facilitate communication among athletes, coaches, spectators, and journalists from around the world. Nathalie Greff-Santamaria, head of Paris 2024 Language Services, delves into the tools and techniques her team employs to provide these much-needed services in a complex, high-stakes environment.
By Shirley Yeng
In the months after ChatGPT’s release in late 2022, Shirley Yeng often woke up at night worrying about the relevance of her localization business. Here, she tells the story of how she overcame her fear of a changing industry and learned to embrace the promises of AI.
We talk about his career path and RWS linguistic AI solution Evolve, which recently won the Machine Translation Innovation Award at the 2024 AI Breakthrough Awards.
We chatted with Veronica Hylák, co-founder and co-CEO of Metalinguist, curator of the popular AI vlog, The AI Almanac.
Veronica shares her secrets for staying informed in the fast-paced world of artificial intelligence, and her thoughts on the recent Apple Intelligence launch. You'll also learn about her favorite AI tools and how the future of the translation industry is being shaped by AI advancements.
In this interview, João discusses his career path and the guiding principles behind Unbabel's innovative technology, including their recent launch of Tower LLM. We talked about the future of AI-powered language solutions, the unique collaboration between humans and AI at Unbabel, and the secret sauce that makes Tower LLM a multilingual translation powerhouse.
By Kate Edwards
“Allegorical distance” is the amount of effort required for a player to perceive the real-world inspiration behind an allegory in a game. Kate Edwards gives examples of short, medium, and large allegorical distances and urges game developers to intentionally determine the distance that best serves their narrative and players.
By Diego Perez
Video game translators were never meant to be ghostwriters. Diego Perez argues that the significant amount of uncredited work not only hinders translators’ bargaining power, but also undermines their moral rights as creators of derivative work. This article analyzes the current state of translator credits in gaming and suggests ways to achieve better crediting practices.
By Cameron Rasmusson
Three decades ago, the work of translating popular Japanese video games for Western audiences often fell to just a few people using rudimentary technology. In this article, Rasmusson explores the ups and downs of game localization in the ‘90s and how this chaotic period influenced the industry moving forward.
By Mimi Moore
The integration of AI into video and computer game localization is transforming how developers approach their work and how players experience gaming. Mimi Moore explains AI’s impact on inclusivity, indie developers, real-time localization, and game quality across languages and cultures.
Michelle Rabie considers the concept of “African time” and delves into the real reasons behind missed deadlines — from the challenges of working with low-resource languages to the lack of support from language service providers.
Tim Brookes poses the question, “How can a script that serves a language spoken by millions be endangered?” At issue is the traditional Kulitan script, employed by the Kapampangan people of the Philippines. Brookes discusses its decline, efforts at revival, and what’s at stake.
Compiled by Eddie Arrieta and Cathy Martin
With GenAI in its nascent stage, language companies that use this emerging technology are in uncharted territory. In this article, ten of the most influential companies in the industry explain how they are leveraging GenAI to improve outcomes for their teams and customers.
From Oxford University Press: Alister Butcher, Strategic Account Manager, and Isaac Pattis, Language Information Architect, talked about how the work they are doing is impacting the language industry.
Amy Grace O'Brien, Sr. Linguistic Quality Manager at Adobe, and Roberto Silva, Terminology Program Manager at Amazon Web Services talk about the crucial role of terminology in the language industry.
We talked about their approach to innovation at Bureau Works and participation in the product innovation challenge at LocWorld51.
A conversation about innovation in the language industry and how specialized translators will play a pivotal role in the future of the industry.
André Köhler, CEO of Lingo Systems, talked about how software development has transformed the industry in the past few years and their approach to innovation and constant software development in the language industry.
Trados, Trados Studio, and the history that's taken the company to where they are right now.
At LockWorld51 we got to talk to Richard Sikes, Senior consultant, we talked about business services, the business services team, and many other stories from memoQ.
Gráinne Maycock, Chief Revenue Officer at Acolad, and Adam Blair, VP of Sales at DeepL talked about their most recent partnership.
By Adriel Maroni
How can language professionals help improve healthcare for LGBTQ+ individuals? Adriel Maroni argues that using gender-neutral terminology, allowing for self-identification, and exercising open-mindedness goes a long way towards fostering inclusive and culturally competent care.
By Bridget Hylak
Bridget Hylak reflects on the reasons for the deep divisions in the language industry — providing context, perspectives, and examples from both sides — and encourages linguists and technology experts to reconcile.
Interview by Cameron Rasmusson
Through her work advancing the Saudi translation and publishing industries, Dr. Hailah Alkhalaf aims to share the country’s diverse cultural heritage with the world and help foster understanding between nations.
By Jourik Ciesielski
Prior to the introduction of LLMs, NMT defined the computer-assisted translator’s toolset. And to some degree, it still does. But many in the industry have recently taken steps to promote LLMs to the new default. In this article, leaders from six of the world’s most influential language companies share their perspectives on the best approach to automated translation.
By Ewandro Magalhães
In the annals of interpretation, few names shine as brightly as Andre Kaminker. Savant, trailblazer, and linchpin in the world of international communication, Kaminker’s life was a testament to the art and science of language — a craft he mastered with a blend of genius and unmatched techniques.
By Kajetan Malinowski
Content marketers are asking themselves: should they continue to create content in one language and then localize it for many markets, or should they leverage generative AI to produce customized content for each market in the local language? Kajetan Malinowski weighs in.
In this conversation with the Co-CEO of memoQ we go into the experience and learnings that took him to be in the frontline of the MT conversation in 2024
By Cameron Rasmusson
By analyzing the frequency of letters in an Arabic text, ninth-century scholar Abu Yusuf al-Kindi established a framework for identifying patterns that laid the groundwork for both cryptography and machine translation.
By Rodrigo Corradi.
This year marks 70 years since the first public demonstration of MT, which arguably sparked the language AI revolution that we see today. On January 7, 1954, a team from Georgetown University and IBM automatically translated 60 Russian sentences into English.
Ana Sofia Correia discusses the challenges and expectations of both sides of the language services coin — agencies and freelancers — suggesting ways to ease tension and calling for increased understanding of the roles each party plays in the industry.
Luciana Ramos argues that the symbiotic relationship between AI-driven solutions and human expertise is crucial in navigating the complexities of medical and scientific content and in improving the output of localization in these fields.
By Karen Combe and Mimi Hills.
After reading the Globalization Strategy Playbook, Inés Rubio San Martín and Satoko Yuda were inspired to utilize data analytics to refine their company’s globalization strategy. Now a year into the project, they share their progress and the successes and challenges they’ve faced along the way.
Inclusive leadership takes hard work. There are no simple formulas in The Boldly Inclusive Leader: Transform Your Workplace (and the World) by Valuing the Differences Within by Minette Norman.
By Pascale Tremblay
How can localization teams demonstrate the vital role of languages in a company’s success? Pascale Tremblay argues that language professionals can leverage the increasing importance of emerging technologies to their advantage.
By Tim Brookes
A linguist studying a newly developed script in Africa noticed that people’s willingness to learn it depended on whether they grew up monoscriptal — using only one writing system — or polyscriptal. Tim Brookes ponders the reasons for this difference and asks for perspectives from readers.
By Jamiul Islam Akash
In the diverse region of South Asia, the interaction between languages, multilingual identities, and linguistic nationalism creates a fascinating tapestry.
Dr. Bill Rivers and Mila Golovine talk about the main pillars of SAFE AI and the ideals and processes behind it.
Allison Ferch, executive director of GALA talks about the GALA Valencia 2024, an event that provides many channels for brand recognition, thought leadership, and face-to-face networking, making our conferences a smart investment.
In this interview with John Yunker, the author of the Web Globalization Report Card, we go into the discussions about the evolving landscape of web globalization, emerging trends, and best practices for reaching global audiences.
We talked to Shashi Shekhar Vempati, the Co-Founder of DeepTech for the Bharat Foundation, and former CEO of Prasar Bharati.
We had the pleasure of speaking with Giovanna Carriero-Contreras, who conceptualized and launched Cesco Linguistic Services as a foreign language agency.
We got to interview Marco Trombetti, and talked about the Translated9 journey through the Ocean Globe Race - Official, Translated € 100.000 investment in research, and his perspectives on new technologies.
Sultan Ghaznawi posits that — in light of the escalating urgency surrounding climate change — the language industry can play a crucial role in raising awareness, disseminating knowledge, and facilitating targeted adaptation efforts.
Manuel Herranz predicts that generative AI will make language a commodity and communication prone to automation. He argues that we must strike a balance between harnessing AI’s potential and safeguarding human dignity by avoiding job displacement and promoting responsible innovation.
Using three examples of poor translations that changed the course of history, Ewandro Magalhães illustrates the tough job of interpreters in the arena of international diplomacy and how they can also serve as catalysts for understanding and reconciliation.
Nothing gives a language service buyer peace of mind quite like knowing their language partners are among the most qualified in their field. That’s where professional standards come in. Dr. Christopher Kurz and Ilona Wallberg discuss the forthcoming set of standards for translation quality: ISO 5060.
The idea of a completely centralized global content hub sounds appealing on the surface, but what happens when the TMS itself becomes a liability? With organizations generating more content than ever thanks to AI, Didzis Grauss argues that we need to transform how we manage and deliver content to audiences around the world.
Ngnaoussi Elongué Cédric Christian recounts his efforts to bolster the African language industry and preserve linguistic diversity on the continent, including establishing professional communities and creating educational resources. As a leader in the space, he details plans for future initiatives and calls for increased collaboration.
Are you looking to integrate business success with positive social and environmental impact? Laura Gori urges language service providers to consider the Benefit Corporation model, a framework that helped her business, Way2Global, reach its sustainability goals without sacrificing growth.
A group of language industry organizations surveyed localization professionals about sustainability. Allison Ferch uses the preliminary results to argue that efforts to mitigate the effects of climate change should extend to work, where we spend vast amounts of our time.
Everyone knows about pi, the world’s most famous irrational number. And just as recognizable is the pi symbol: . But how did that symbol come to be?
Will globalization go the way of the dinosaurs? Edith Bendermacher and Mimi Moore argue that by exploring new directions, learning from others, and leading change, globalization teams can leverage AI to not just survive, but thrive.
Language access is a long-term investment that is more affordable and attainable than we might think. Deema Jaradat presents timely, cost-effective solutions for extending language access to ensure that every individual — regardless of their English proficiency — can navigate essential aspects of their American journey.
Dwindling numbers of people in the Western world write in cursive. Using his own signature as an example, Tim Brookes makes the case for this flowing, letter-to-letter writing to enable speed, comfort, and even grace.
We all know them: those tireless, selfless, “word nerd” warriors whose fingerprints are all over the subtitles on the films we watch, the brochures at our doctors’ offices, and the commercials advertising in-demand products — the profits of which they will never properly share in. Bridget Hylak calls for greater appreciation of these hard-working professionals, many of them women.
No one knows history like the people who experienced it. Industry veterans Inger Larsen, Silvia Benassi, and Nancy Pollini witnessed the massive expansion of language work alongside globalization and advancements in computer technology, and they experienced similar challenges and triumphs along the way — many directly tied to their gender. These are their stories, told in their own words.
Fresh off a year in Acolad’s CEO seat, Bertrand Gstalder sees a chance for the language industry to distinguish itself with its already-engrained values of sustainability, human creativity, and productive communication.
Supported By Acolad
Brookes introduces the first World Endangered Writing Day: a celebration of writing not just as a useful set of symbols but as an expressive range of cultural artifacts and practices.
Fuentes Corradi urges LSPs to adapt their services to the AI era or risk obsolescence: “Without a new alignment, future LSP offerings will not meet enterprise goals and potentially drive companies to search for new collaborations and holistic offerings.”
These days, software is essential to how we get things done, with certain apps used ubiquitously throughout the world. Having led localization and internationalization teams at two global software companies — first Microsoft and now Uber — Hameed Afssari believes that software products should be easy to use for everyone, no matter what language they speak or where they live.
Rughetti and Millet share their advice for effective language service planning in light of new EU regulations on clinical studies. With a streamlined submission process and tightened timescales, high-quality translation is essential to ensure patient engagement and safety.
Women in Localization prioritizes recognizing and honoring the volunteers who offer their time and expertise to host workshops, organize gatherings, facilitate communication, and much more. To that end, the nonprofit has implemented not just one, but two award programs to highlight individuals who truly went above and beyond the call of duty.
The notion that a person can feel guilt, like someone can feel joy or sadness, is foreign to the Tibetan psyche. Also foreign to the Tibetan worldview is the concept of victimhood as a fixed identity status. Kubota considers what we can learn from these perspectives in dealing with Western criminal justice systems.
Here’s what you need to know about legal rights afforded to consumers and the factors you should consider in putting together a language access plan.
Read the full article at: https://multilingual.com/how-to-create-a-realistic-language-access-plan/
In the language services space, practitioners and clients alike note that many companies sound the same. They use the same tone of voice, describe their similar services in the same way, and list the same differentiators. Yet, when everyone has such similar differentiators, they lose all their meaning.
Read the full article at: https://multilingual.com/?p=211285
Google’s AI research lab, DeepMind, introduced a new group of models called Gemini that outperforms the best OpenAI models when evaluated on standard benchmark datasets — including those for automatic speech recognition and translation.
Read the full article at: https://multilingual.com/with-gemini-launch-google-takes-lead-over-openai-in-multimodal-ai-race/
Built on version 2 of SeamlessM4T, the new open-source models boast state-of-the-art speech recognition and translation capabilities in up to 100 languages.
Read the full article at: https://multilingual.com/meta-expands-seamless-translation-tech-with-new-ai-models/
That’s the thing about community — it can spring up just about anywhere when guided by people of goodwill.
If there’s one point LocLunch has proven, it’s that resiliency. A once-informal gathering for localization professionals to enjoy a meal and share their thoughts about life, work, and everything in between, LocLunch now spans the globe.
Read the full article at: https://multilingual.com/?p=211229
As the world watched the escalating tension in Ukraine, Nataliya Horbachevska, CEO of Task Force linguistic services company, found herself facing an uncertain future. With a family to protect and a business to safeguard, she embarked on a journey that would redefine her company's mission and direction.
Read the full article at: https://multilingual.com/adapting-to-change-task-forces-response-to-the-war-in-ukraine/
The closest substitute for a professional interpreter in many language-barrier situations is the use of child interpreters.
Read the full article at: https://multilingual.com/child-interpreters-a-true-story/
Why aren’t we hiring those who are new to localization? I haven’t always been of the mind that I should hire people with localization experience because they understand the industry, they already know what they’re doing, and ramp up time will be minimal. Sure, I’m guilty of pilfering two people from LSPs — I figured they knew the inside secrets and give me an advantage running a better localization department. But is that really the case?
Read the full article at: https://multilingual.com/?p=211133
What surprised me the most when I first started my career in localization is just how much I was learning about things that seemingly had nothing to do with localization itself. I had earned a degree from one of the top localization programs in the world, so I had learned all about project management, quality programs, internationalization, and more.
A trend has emerged where executives contemplate bypassing traditional translation processes and cutting budgets, swayed by the potential of Generative AI (GenAI).
Read the full article at: https://multilingual.com/handling-executive-pressure-a-practical-guide-for-localization-professionals/
Competing generative AI model Samsung Gauss suggests the conversation around large language models shows no sign of slowing.
Read the full article: https://multilingual.com/samsung-gauss-introduced-as-chatgpt-rival/
OpenAI today announced its Data Partnerships program, which seeks to partner with businesses and organizations around the world.
Read the full article at: https://multilingual.com/openai-seeking-partners-for-ai-training-models/
New York City Mayor Eric Adams made headlines when he used AI to make calls to constituents in Spanish, Yiddish, and Mandarin — despite not speaking any of those languages.
Read the full article: https://multilingual.com/debating-the-ethics-of-ai-voice-translation-in-politics/
Limited English proficiency (LEP) is a condition that can impact lives as profoundly as disabilities or other challenges. Yet around the world and especially in America, governments and nonprofits alike have extended little effort to ensure LEP individuals have the resources they need. It’s a void that language service providers are in good standing to fill — both as a business investment and a humanitarian service.
Read the full article at: https://multilingual.com/?p=210227
A love of language has been a part of Caroline Crushell’s life since infancy. Now, in her role managing localization projects for Warner Bros. Discovery, she applies that love to every element of her work. For Crushell, language is a treasure, and one worth protecting — that’s why she lends her voice to the growing language preservation community.
Read the full article at: https://multilingual.com/?p=210161
The ALC marked a momentous occasion in September 2023 as it celebrated its 21st Summit, returning to its roots in Portland, Oregon.
Read the full article at: https://multilingual.com/alc-members-explore-portland-oregon-at-21st-summit/
Everyone knows Google’s search engine can help them find just about anything. But did you know it can also help people improve their English-speaking abilities?
Read the full article at: https://multilingual.com/need-practice-speaking-english-meet-your-new-tutor-google-search/
AI is shaping up to be a transformative technology for businesses of all kinds, the language industry included. And with new technology comes new skill sets to properly harness that technology. By refining prompt design practices, anyone folding AI into their routine workflows will achieve better, more accurate results quicker, and that means gains where it counts: efficiency and productivity.
Read the full article at: https://multilingual.com/?p=210110
TIME Magazine recognized three language-industry products in its “Best Inventions of 2023” list, underscoring the importance of multilingual communication, accessibility, and inclusion in today’s globalized world.
Read the full article at: https://multilingual.com/time-applauds-language-related-innovations-from-meta-duolingo-and-lego/
Machine translation (MT) is evolving rapidly, with new iterations providing emerging use cases for all manner of companies and individuals. But what combinations of technology are best for whom? From generic MT, to MT plus translation memory, to MT plus machine learning, the gap between automated translation and human quality gets smaller and smaller.
Read the full article at: https://multilingual.com/?p=210096
Viviana Bernabe and Aki Hayashi decode the future of global events, emphasizing the vital role of comprehensive language strategies. Dive into innovations, from AI in live translations to the essence of human interpreting. Discover how to not just host, but truly globalize your event for a worldwide resonance.
Read the full article at: https://multilingual.com/?p=209575
A bug in Instagram’s auto-translate feature is highlighting the problem of bias in multilingual language models (MLMs) and the need for more transparency from companies that employ them.
Read the full article at: https://multilingual.com/instagram-egregiously-mistranslates-palestinian-user-bios-inserting-word-terrorist/
In the dynamic terrain of global business, where mergers and acquisitions are frequent, establishing a seamless localization function in a spin-off can be a challenge. This exploration unravels the often-underestimated complexities of anchoring localization during the inception of a new company. Discover how proactive involvement, coupled with relentless cross-functional collaboration, can ensure the success of the localization endeavor amidst the spin-off chaos.
ElevenLabs, a voice cloning and synthesis company, unveiled its AI Dubbing online tool, which can automatically translate spoken audio and video.
Read the full article at: https://multilingual.com/video-dubbing-is-easy-with-two-new-ai-tools/
It is crucial to abandon a falsely optimistic narrative often used for marketing purposes. While the linguistic sector might have a bright future, the benefits will not be evenly distributed.
Read the full article at: https://multilingual.com/the-linguistic-service-sector-between-rhetoric-and-reality/
The digital landscape is constantly changing, but the need for insightful content remains ever-present. As social media platforms have overshadowed the once-thriving world of translation blogs, Renato Beninatto explores the evolution of the blogging realm and spotlights 10 stand-out blogs that continue to offer invaluable insights for language professionals today. Discover the gems that continue to enlighten language professionals in a digital age.
Aimee shares her personal insights, touching stories from various projects, and the ongoing efforts of CLEAR Global to ensure people across the globe, especially those speaking low-resource languages, are informed and heard in vital global conversations.
This episode is not just about translation; it's about the power of language in connecting humanity, providing crucial information during crises, and the significant role of the language industry in these humanitarian efforts.
Welcome to another episode of Localization Today! In this special LocWorld50 edition, Eddie Arrieta from MultiLingual Media sits down with Nataliya Horbachevska, the CEO at Task Force. They delve into a critical discussion surrounding the cautious integration of AI in the language industry.
Nataliya, steering Task Force with offices in Ukraine and Poland, shares her contrarian, yet profoundly insightful views on the adoption of artificial intelligence. She highlights not just the technological and financial aspects, but also the ethical, legal, and environmental implications that companies must consider before fully embracing AI.
Maddie shares her passion for the Hispanic culture and Spanish language, reflecting on her experiences from learning Spanish from scratch. She reveals how the diversity within the language sparked her content creation, focusing on making language learning more accessible and engaging through social media.
In this special episode, host Marjolein Groot Nibbelink is joined by none other than the founders of LocWorld, Donna Parrish, and Ulrich Henes, as they celebrate the 50th iteration of this seminal event in the language industry.
Dive deep into the origins of LocWorld, starting from its inception in 2003, the exponential growth, and the unexpected boom of attendees right from their first event. The discussion delves into the evolution of the industry, especially highlighting the transformative role of technology, like machine translation, over the years.
But it's not all about business! Donna and Ulrich share heartfelt insights on how organizing LocWorld has impacted them personally, their philosophy of authenticity over marketing hype, and the enriching global perspectives they've gained along the way.
Ian Evans of XTM International discusses the evolving landscape of the localization industry. With just under a year in the sector, Ian shares his journey, the challenges he's faced, and his profound insights into effective go-to-market strategies that resonate on a local level.
In this episode of Localization Today, Eddie Arrieta of MultiLingual Media sits down with Charles Campbell, the charismatic CEO and founder of TBO. They delve into the heart of TBO's rebranding from Translation Back Office, unveiling the story behind the change and the spirited team effort that made it happen. Charles shares the significance of the new brand identity, reflecting their expanded services, and the delightful tale behind their logo.
Eddie Arrieta from MultiLingual Media sits down with Martyna Pakula of Lionbridge to explore the intricacies of competitive collaboration in the localization industry.
Throughout the interview, Martyna sheds light on how this model fosters innovation, strengthens relationships between buyers and vendors, and encourages companies to continually strive for excellence. The conversation also pivots to the role of AI in localization, emphasizing the need for a balance with the human element, which remains crucial in this domain.
In this thought-provoking episode, Renato Beninatto sits down with Paul Carr, the CEO of WeLocalize, for an insightful discussion on the intricacies of the localization industry. Despite being a newcomer, Paul shares his profound observations, the love he's developed for the industry, and his strategic vision for WeLocalize's future.
In this captivating interview from LocWorld, join Spence Green, the founder of Lilt, as he delves into the company’s trailblazing journey in the world of localization and artificial intelligence (AI). From their early days — making waves with a unique stance on AI's role in localization — to their recent accolade in the Forbes AI 50, Lilt’s story is nothing short of inspirational. But what does the future hold? Tune in to find out!
Join Eddie Arrieta from Multilingual Media as he engages in an enlightening discussion with Giselle Tran, Content Operations and Localization Manager at Sage, during LocWorld50. In this interview, Giselle delves into the integrative role of localization in business strategy, the profound impact of content across all languages, and her unique journey within the industry. Tune in for inspiring insights and to understand why content isn't just about translation — it's about connection, strategy, and growth. #LocWorld50 #Localization #ContentStrategy #BusinessInsights
Generative AI is making monumental waves in the business world, and Daniela (Dana) D'Amato, Operations Manager at Creative Words, believes it's time for everyone to learn how to surf! In this engaging interview at LocWorld, D'Amato uses the vivid metaphor of surfing to illustrate the importance of harnessing the power of AI.
In this captivating interview at LocWorld, Bryan Murphy, CEO at Smartling, explores the groundbreaking potential of LanguageAI in scaling businesses on a global level. Murphy sheds light on how Smartling leverages AI to transcend linguistic hurdles, enabling businesses to establish a global footprint more seamlessly than ever before.
Amidst the shadows of Canada's troubling past with residential schools, Pope Francis embarked on a "penitential pilgrimage" in 2022, offering apologies on behalf of the Catholic Church. Interpreter Maggie Putulik, amidst a team of diverse linguistic experts, played a pivotal role in ensuring the Pope's profound message reached hearts across Canada. Andrew Warner delves deep into the behind-the-scenes preparations, the emotions, and the resonance of this historic visit in this month's issue for MultiLingual.
Dive into an enlightening conversation with Petr Antropov, co-CEO of Lokalise, at LocWorld50.
Host Eddie Arrieta explores topics of co-leadership, the emerging narrative of AI in localization, and the crucial role of trust in fast decision-making.
This interview offers a unique glimpse into the future of localization, encouraging companies to embrace technology while highlighting the continued importance of human expertise.
In this compelling conversation, Renato Beninatto interviews Jason Mars at LocWorld, unraveling complex topics like AI's impact on productivity, the impending need to revise economic structures, and the potential of technology as a societal equalizer.
Mars emphasizes the transformative power of AI, not just in the 'thinking' tasks but in 'doing' tasks, highlighting the disruptions and opportunities on the horizon.
Join us in a special interview with Jill Goldsberry as we uncover the passion and dedication driving Women in Localization's 15th-anniversary event.
From early planning stages to the bustling celebration, get up close with the spirited community rallying behind this monumental occasion.
Step into the world of 'Global Ambitions' as we chat with Stephanie Harris-Yee of Argos Multilingual about their latest outsert, 'Global Ambitions,' and how AI is shaping content creation.
In this interview, we reveal how Multilingual's expertise was pivotal in guiding the journey, from concept to print.
Join us in this exclusive segment from LocWorld50 as we engage with Dave Ruane, the force behind the Process Innovation Challenge.
This in-depth interview unveils the journey of PIC, the surge of generative AI, and the future trends shaping the localization sphere.
Welcome to the heart of innovation at LocWorld's 50th event!
In this special coverage, Multilingual Media brings you face-to-face with the thought leaders driving change in the localization industry. Stay tuned for a series of in-depth interviews, and join us in celebrating the vibrant community that makes our world smaller, one word at a time.
In the world of translation, NMT (Neural Machine Translation) is the buzzword. But with buzz comes myths. John Paul (JP) Barraza tackles the common misconceptions surrounding this transformative technology. From its swift evolution over the past eight years, to its ability to specialize for niche markets, Barraza sheds light on what's true, what's not, and the potential it holds for both large and small Language Service Providers (LSPs). Dive into the intricacies of NMT in this comprehensive exploration, exclusively in this month's MultiLingual.
In the ever-evolving world of the localization industry, Paz Valente underscores the pivotal role of adaptability and innovation. Tackling misconceptions, she highlights the importance of continuous learning and technological embrace. Learn why translation excellence demands more than just language mastery and how commitment to technological advancements is indispensable. Explore this fresh perspective in MultiLingual's insightful issue.
This week has been riveting, witnessing transformation and innovation across various fields.
Explore more about these compelling stories in our latest post.
https://multilingual.com/the-week-in-review-september-25-2023/
Join us as we delve into the remarkable life and impact of Edith Grossman, the towering figure in the realm of literary translation. In this article, we trace her journey from academia to becoming the definitive voice for Latin American and Spanish literature in translation. Discover her profound insights on the art and ethics of translation, her advocacy for translator recognition, and the invaluable mark she's left on the global literary community.
Read the full article: https://multilingual.com/edith-grossman-a-beacon-in-the-translation-community-an-artist-across-cultures/
For the first time in Joshua Pennise’s membership with the Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf and the National Association of the Deaf, the organization has announced new rules for how the Ethical Practices System will handle violations of the NAD-RID Code of Professional Conduct. Here, Pennise breaks down and analyzes the new rules.
Read the full article: https://multilingual.com/?p=208596
In this week's #WeekInReview, we dive deep into the mysterious world of the 'foreign language effect' and the unexpected ways it can influence decision-making. Plus, a concerning look at AI's struggle to distinguish reality from nonsense and a spotlight on the union of languages in India.
Dive in now to keep up with the latest!
https://multilingual.com/the-week-in-review-september-18-2023/
Join us for the "Week in Review" on September 11, 2023. In this edition:
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Morocco's bold move to expand English language education.
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Reliance & Nvidia's collaboration for AI language innovation in India.
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Humza Yousaf's robust legislative plans for Scotland.
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King Charles's upcoming diplomatic journey to France.
Tap into a world of diverse stories spanning education, tech, governance, and more. Subscribe for weekly updates and delve into the nuanced tapestry of global events and innovations.
https://multilingual.com/the-week-in-review-september-11-2023/
Delve into the challenges faced by Germany and its allies in training the Ukrainian military. With a significant shortage of qualified interpreters, the process of equipping Ukrainian soldiers with Western weapons and tactics has hit a snag.
Join us as we explore how this interpreter gap emerged as the top challenge and what it means for military cooperation between Ukraine and the West.
Full article here: https://multilingual.com/lack-of-interpreters-hampers-western-efforts-to-train-ukrainian-military/
From Meta's breakthrough in seamless multimodal translation to the startling proposal to cut entire world language programs at West Virginia University, this week has been a testament to the dynamic landscape of global languages and technology.
Read the full article: https://multilingual.com/the-week-in-review-august-25-2023/
Explore how this innovative game uses unique mechanics and elements from the Mongolian heritage, engaging players in an immersive journey through Mongolian history and mythology.
We discuss the role of games as a means to preserve language and culture, as well as the educational opportunities offered by ULUS. Finally, we reflect on the importance of honoring traditions and language in creating a rich and memorable gameplay experience.
Venture into the intricate nexus of AI and its ever-evolving role in the media and entertainment world. With generative AI making waves in content translation, subtitling, and even in challenging our traditional definitions of “content”, this episode aims to unpack the complexities, potentials, and challenges of these cutting-edge technologies in localization.
Dive in for insights, debates, and forward-thinking perspectives.
Find the full article here:
https://multilingual.com/localizing-the-issue-of-generative-ai/
In this episode, journey with us from the distant realms of "Guardians of the Galaxy" to the iconic landscapes of "Star Wars," exploring the hidden linguistics that drive storylines and connect civilizations. Whether it's Groot's unique dialect or C-3PO's masterful translations, discover the unsung heroes of the silver screen and how they shape our favorite tales.
Ready to embark on a linguistic adventure?
Read the full article at: https://multilingual.com/language-and-translation-in-science-fiction-movies-and-beyond/
We delve into the growth drivers, the shift towards real-time localization, the impact of technology, and the implications of using synthetic voices for dubbing.
We also explore the changing role of localization companies, the impact of price pressures, and how subtitling and dubbing are adapting to new opportunities.
Explore the untapped potential of Africa in "Dark Continent or the Last Frontier?".
Learn about Africa's unique cultural and linguistic diversity, the rapid digital adoption, and the expansive opportunities in the media and entertainment sector from Louise Callcott-Stevens, CEO at EarCandy.
"Languages are disappearing at an alarming pace."
Dive into the significance of Indigenous languages and how the world is celebrating them today.
https://multilingual.com/world-indigenous-peoples-day-2023/
Dive into this week's most riveting language industry updates! From OpenAI's ChatGPT raising eyebrows due to uncovered vulnerabilities to South Africa's monumental decision to recognize South African Sign Language as an official language. Plus, discover the upcoming tech enhancement from Firefox that could redefine web browsing. Stay informed with these pivotal stories and more from the world of languages.
Don't miss out!
https://multilingual.com/the-week-in-review-august-4-2023/
From the increasing demand for high-quality translation and localization services, to the impressive growth of Brazil's gaming market, learn how game developers and publishers are adapting to cater to this vibrant sector.
Hear about the industry's evolution, the transformative role of direct client relationships, and the profound impact of local language in enhancing gamers' experiences.
Discover the magic and mystery of language with Vijetha Djois in our latest episode, "On the Psychology of Languages."
Explore how language is imprinted in our brains from birth and why our first language holds such emotional significance. Tune in to uncover the captivating world of psycholinguistics.
Originally an article from our July 2023 issue.
This captivating narrative by Joan Dans, takes listeners on an unexpected journey into the heart of the voiceover industry, unraveling its dramatic transformation over the past three decades.
Experience firsthand the seismic shifts caused by technology, from reel-to-reel tapes to AI voices, and venture into uncharted territory as Joan ponders the destiny of this dynamic field.
Learn about the pivotal role of publishers in preserving culture and language, and the need for boosting regional languages in African publishing. Tune in to understand the challenges, strategic solutions, and initiatives for enhancing the visibility and vitality of African languages.
Is the promise of AI detectors a false one?
We dive into a Stanford University study revealing surprising biases in generative AI detectors. Join us as we unpack the controversial implications for education, hiring and more.
Read the full article:
https://multilingual.com/gender-inclusive-writing-a-unifying-force/
In this episode, we explore the emotional toll of LangOps amidst rapid technological advancements in the localization industry. We look into the rising stress levels and burnout among workers due to increasing reliance on AI and machine translation, and highlight the importance of maintaining a human-centric approach in this tech-heavy landscape. Companies are taking steps to provide tools that manage workflows and minimize stress, as we ponder the future of jobs in the language industry.
Delve into Alfred Mtawali's inspiring journey from humble beginnings to becoming a successful translator and business owner in Kenya. His lifelong commitment to education, mentorship, community service, and music forms the backbone of his colorful narrative, illuminating the powerful role of determination and passion in shaping an impactful career.
Unravel the journey towards gender-inclusive writing, as we explore Canada's committed efforts in establishing comprehensive guidelines and resources.
Tune in and discover the complexities and solutions involved in this critical evolution of language.
Read the full article: https://multilingual.com/gender-inclusive-writing-a-unifying-force/
Join Andrew Rufener, MD of Intelium Consulting and CEO of Loquell, as we unpack the untapped potential of business intelligence within content operations. From navigating common pitfalls to unlocking growth in SMBs and emerging markets, this article is a deep dive into utilizing data for a competitive edge.
In this fascinating article, we delve into the recent archaeological find in Córdoba, Spain where a Virgil poem is carved into an ancient amphora.
We explore the significance of this discovery, how the Latin alphabet has evolved, and the intriguing intersection of language and history. Tune in for a journey back in time.
Read the full article here: https://multilingual.com/virgil-quotation-amphora/
Join us today as we dive into a story of copyright and plagiarism involving the British Museum and a translator who found her work displayed without permission.
We'll explore the intriguing intersection of copyright law and translation, and how even the world's renowned institutions can stumble in this complex terrain.
Don't miss out on this riveting discussion that uncovers an unexpected clash in the art world.
Despite living in a hybrid events world in 2023, the lack of accessibility remains an overlooked issue.
In this article, we explore the shortcomings in the current scenario, the reasons behind it, and how we can make a tangible change to make events more inclusive.
Read the full article here:
https://multilingual.com/the-cost-of-inaccessibility-for-event-organizers/
In this article, we delve into the highlights of the fourth ANETI Congress, a crucial event for translation and interpreting companies and professionals.
Hear about the thought-provoking discussions on embracing technology, formulating growth strategies, and envisioning the future of our industry.
From Alicia Varela's keynote address to Richard Vaughan's inspiring talk, you won't want to miss these insights.
Read the full article:
https://multilingual.com/event-recap-chronicle-of-the-fourth-aneti-congress-for-translation-companies-and-professionals/
Discover the intriguing world of AI vs. human interpretation in this special article.
Alongside experts Barry Slaughter Olsen and Walter L. Krochmal, and in partnership with WIRED, we delve into the potential and limitations of AI in this vital field. Tune in for a unique blend of tech insight and human expertise.
Read the full article:
https://multilingual.com/new-wired-video-breaks-down-ai-versus-human-interpretation/
Delve into the transformative journey of 'smart companies' in Italy, exploring the shift in workplace dynamics and values over generations.
Delve into the exciting transition of Sandberg Translation Partners to employee ownership. Uncover the potential benefits of employee ownership, from heightened innovation to increased commitment, in this unique case study.
In this episode, we explore the intriguing crossroads of AI and localization. Delve into the complexities of AI-generated voices, copyright implications, and the synergy between AI and human input. Uncover how this rapidly evolving technology is transforming localization, yet still leaves room for human creativity.
Translation is integral to a religion built on the very idea of spreading that faith worldwide.
It's not surprising, then, that the Christian Bible has been translated into more (way more) languages than any other single piece of writing. There are approximately 3,500 languages into which at least a part of the Bible has been translated, and — maybe more shockingly — there are an estimated 900 different translations into English alone.
Explore the importance of multilingualism and cultural diversity in businesses and society in this episode. We discuss their benefits for corporate culture, innovation, and productivity, with compelling research insights. Listen in to understand how fostering these aspects not only drives business success, but also contributes to a prosperous, inclusive society.
We celebrate the newly minted graduates from the renowned Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey (MIIS) Class of 2023. Listen to the stories of graduates like Leanne Ong and Isela Mosqueira, who are ready to conquer the world of translation, interpreting, and localization. Join us as we honor the next generation of language professionals, shaping the future of our industry.
To watch Maroshek-Klarman’s address and the 2023 commencement ceremony in its entirety, click here.
In this episode, we navigate through an enriching two-day conference that assembled remote work champions, seasoned professionals, and industry pioneers from across the world. With over 900 in-person and virtual attendees, the event became a hub for intensive discussions on remote and hybrid work, company culture, and the management of diverse workforces.
For more information about Running Remote, including details about the event, speakers, and upcoming conferences, click here.
Unravel the world of User Experience (UX) with us! We explore why UX matters, its impact on business growth, and its distinction from User Interface (UI). Learn about the intimate link between UX and localization, and discover how cultural nuances influence design decisions. Learn the best practices for creating engaging, effective, and culturally-sensitive UX designs.
Lee Densmer discusses how to tailor content marketing strategies for global audiences, emphasizing cultural understanding, localization, and the need for specific roles in a global content team.
Join us as we unravel the journey of chatbots from mere automated helpers to Digital Assistants, shaping the future of work. Discover how advancements in AI and Natural Language Processing are transforming chatbots into sophisticated tools that don't just communicate, but perform tasks, revolutionizing industries like localization. Will our job roles be usurped by these new age DAs or can we evolve and adapt to co-exist? Tune in to find out!
Tune in as we delve into the transformative relationship between Localization and Marketing. Discover why bridging these two can unlock unprecedented success in our globalized world. Will these disciplines finally become best friends?
Discover the latest AI tools unveiled at Google I/O, including the powerful PaLM 2. Get ready to dive into the exciting future of AI and Google's competition with OpenAI's ChatGPT. Don't miss this insightful episode!
AI is predicted to power 95% of global customer interactions by 2025. Our knowledge is encoded in language, Marciano says. For a machine to be intelligent, it must understand languages. Natural language processing (NLP) has been a huge part of AI since the beginning, he points out. MT is a subset of NLP.
Camila Amici reviews Carmen Cisneros’ Take the Plunge — How to Dive into Vendor Management and Enjoy It, and had more than a few flashbacks to the year 2016.
With the emergence of new AI tools and solutions practically every week, the concept of singularity in artificial intelligence (AI) comes once more to the spotlight. This hypothetical future in which AI will have advanced to the point of gaining self-awareness, becoming sentient, and surpassing human intelligence potentially leading to unforeseen changes to human civilization is a matter of understandable concern for many.
Advancements in communication technology are helping bring the world closer together without ever having to leave the house. Oddmund Braaten from Inerprefy analyses the benefits an limitations of AI in remote interpreting.
Translators have long debated over what advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) could mean for their jobs. Interpreters too. It’s no surprise, then, that improvements in AI-powered dubbing tools have been causing a stir among those who work in audiovisual localization.
The European Language Industry Association (ELIA) hosted its seventh edition of Together 2023 from Feb. 22 to 24, 2023 in Rome, Italy. More than 250 attendees joined them at the Barceló Aran Mantegna hotel.
Ever since its launch this past November, ChatGPT’s become something of a household name. Although it may not produce the most impressive content just yet, educators, copywriters, and translators — just to name a few — have all brought into question its ability to affect the landscape of their respective career paths.
That question was at the forefront of Custom.MT’s “ChatGPT in Localization” webinar on Wednesday.
While AI may be able to perform some tasks traditionally carried out by translators, it is unlikely to fully replace the role of human interpreters in the near future.
It doesn’t seem like ChatGPT will be leaving the news cycle anytime soon now — this week, OpenAI announced that it’s releasing an API that’ll allow businesses to build the technology into their own applications.
Scholastic and SoapBox Labs have recently come together to make speech recognition technology accessible to elementary schools across America.
At the most recent LocWorld conference in San Jose, Jack Welde won the Process Innovation Challenge prize for a new program feature that supplies translators with invaluable context. Better context means better, more accurate translations. How does it work? Well, perhaps it’s better if the man himself explains it directly.
The translation industry will still be home to many jobs after singularity is achieved, but Adam Wooten thinks those jobs are likely to look different. In this piece for MultiLingual, he proposes a few thoughts of his own on how the singularity will affect the language services industry and change the role of human translators.
At GlobalSaké’s Q3 Interactive Virtual Event this past September, innovative localization teams from companies like BLEND and Subway — yes, the sandwich company — shared how they incorporate artificial intelligence into their localization workflows. Here, Stefan Huyghe recaps some of the technology and
perspectives that folks shared at the event.
The debate around human parity in machine translation — whether or not we’ll achieve it in our lifetimes and its potential impact on the language services industry — is hotly contested. Here, MultiLingual’s Andrew Warner dives into the history of this topic and gains insight from language industry experts to see how close we are to reaching human parity in MT and what it could mean for human translators.
After two decades in operation, GALA’s become an undoubtedly prominent organization in our field. Here, Cameron Rasmusson takes a few steps back with GALA leadership to trace back the organization’s history and learn a bit more about what’s in store for GALA’s future.
After reading the features on LangOps in MultiLingual’s 2022 issue, Kirti Vashee’s still not quite sold on the concept, noting that it overcomplicates things a bit. Here, Vashee presents his thoughts on LangOps and attempts to develop a better, more simplistic approach to talking about it.
When we reach the singularity in machine translation, there’s a good chance it will change the way we teach our future language professionals — MultiLingual sought out expert insights from language educators all across the world to learn a bit more about how they anticipate technological innovation will impact higher education.
Although machine translation already has a big role to play in other areas of the field, literary translators haven’t quite adopted it so readily — and perhaps it’s for good reason. In this article, Angela Gabrielle Fabunan looks into the role of machine translation when it comes to translating literary works.
Are you a code talker? If you’re not, that might change after reading Ewandro Magalhães’ most recent piece for MultiLingual. Here, KUDO’s chief language officer takes a look at how ciphers work and the fascinating history of cryptography.
In his latest column for MultiLingual, Tim Brookes of the Endangered Alphabets Project decides to take a look at how ChatGPT fares when it comes to chatting about endangered alphabets. Testing it out with his friend Olgierd Uziemblo, he’s less than impressed with the results — learn why in this column.
The latest wave of industrial automation with technologies like hyperautomation, workflow orchestration, and generative AI has the potential to widen the range of tasks and jobs software can perform, raising concerns about the impact on jobs and transformations of roles. As we face these questions, Bruno Bitter takes a look into the past to gain some insight on where the the language industry is headed.
With the democratization of AI, an engineer can build an MT model in one day. However, beating Google or DeepL in quality, performance, and market presence is another story. So, who are the teams that are able to compete, stand tall, and beat the odds in the market of MT? Here are some of our top picks.
If you’ve been trying to wrap your head around the concepts of blockchain, Web3.0, or the metaverse, look no further. Nimdzi’s Nadežda Jakubková has you covered with this in-depth report in the Innovator’s Journal on these pressing topics and how they could impact the language industry in the near future.
Did you know that the amount of content produced by humanity each day is estimated to be 2.5 quintillion bytes? That's more bytes of text than there are stars in the observable universe. In this piece for MultiLingual, Bart Mączyński takes a look at how the translation industry is coping with the explosion of content and the challenges it faces in meeting demand.
The year 2022 was filled with impressive human-quality claims in the machine-learning field with large language models and general pre-trained transformers, but experts have raised their voices about some serious issues.
If you’ve been following MultiLingualfor a while now, you may remember our “Weekly Shorts” series from a while back, where we rounded up a week’s worth of language and language industry news every Friday. Though we ended the series in the summer of 2021, we’re pleased to bring back a revamped version today: “The Week in Review.”
It’s a big week for LSP Phrase, with the company announcing the most massive product release in its history, and company CEO Georg Ell is excited to talk about it.
On Tuesday, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) celebrated International Mother Language Day with a series of panels on multilingual education.
This same technology that enabled neural machine translation to improve machine translation is now finding its way into seemingly unrelated products (think ChatGPT or Dall·E). The translation “problem” has not been solved with the latest advancements in NMT, but there are lessons to be learned in other professions from how the professional translation community has been affected by and adapted to the widespread use of NMT both by translators and by end users.
While Nimdzi is still working hard to compile this year’s edition of the Nimdzi 100 — the ranking of the largest language service providers (LSPs) in the world — they can already confirm the top six positions on our ranking.
How many language service providers (LSPs) are there in the world? In some ways, this question is similar to asking how many grains of sand there are (though maybe not quite as speculative as that).
A recently introduced senate bill in Oregon is drumming up a bit of controversy among healthcare interpreters and language service providers (LSPs) that work in the state.
Rihanna wasn’t the only star at the Super Bowl halftime show last night. Justina Miles interpreted Rihanna’s performance in American Sign Language (ASL), allowing audience members who were deaf or hard of hearing to enjoy the lyrics and essence of Rihanna’s performance in their language.
‘Ōlelo Hawai’i (that is, the Hawaiian language) just might be getting a boost in the state of Hawaii’s public schools soon. Last month, state representative Diamond Garcia introduced House Bill 157, which would drastically increase the number of students in Hawaiian schools studying the language by making it a mandatory subject.
ProZ.com, the world’s biggest translation network and networking marketplace, is mobilizing volunteers to offer free (or “pro bono”) translation and interpreting services to nonprofits across the globe in a wide range of sectors. Just a few months old, this new project is already hitting some key milestones.
Fifteen literary translators and their work received high accolades earlier this week, with the announcement of the PEN Translates awards.
MultiLingual caught up with blockchain expert and former director of Lionbridge AI Jane Nemcova to learn a bit more about what blockchain is and whether or not language industry professionals should indeed be keeping their eye on developments in blockchain technology.
Most people understand the value of a foreign exchange student program. But what if the concept of an exchange program wasn’t the exclusive domain of students? For LSPs Kobalt Languages, based out of Spain, and Creative Words, based out of Italy, that simple idea sparked into a fully formed project.
Having such committed partners is the first step in being able to provide clients with high-quality translations in low-resource languages. The Akorbi team is delighted to be at least a small part of the ongoing effort to keep Hawaiian growing and evolving, as they also do with languages like Ilocano and Samoan. In the story of this collaboration, one can find a real-life example of how language services providers can have an impact on the status of endangered languages.
Galateo Per Traduttori: Regole e segreti per un rapporto di successo con le agenzie di traduzione (Italian for A Translator’s Etiquette: Rules and Secrets for a Successful Rapport with Translation Agencies) is the latest joint publication by Marco Cevoli and Sergio Alasia, managing director and owner, respectively of Qabiria, a language consulting company based in Barcelona, Spain. Giada Gerotto of Creative Words gives her review of the book.
Multimedia post-production offers various ways to reach your audience. The most popular of these include dubbing, voiceovers, and subtitling. Each method has its own benefits and drawbacks, so it’s important for a company to evaluate all pros and cons in order to choose the right one for its goal.
For as long as Denis Ivanov could remember, his localization team worked with Google Sheets. Everyone was comfortable and familiar with it. But at some point, the thought popped into their heads that there must be something better. When they went searching, they discovered Gridly, a localization platform.
As the pandemic from which we are painstakingly emerging has taught us, making correct scientific information available to the public is not only a question of professional ethics for those who work in communication, but also a question of public safety.
One can easily imagine a small LSP where there is no separate vendor management function — likely project managers perform this role. Ultimately, it is the PM who is responsible for all key aspects of a project — budget, time, and resources. But mature providers have a dedicated team of vendor managers, who take over much of the PM responsibilities.
This month in The Lab, Mark Shriner looks at trends in the delivery of interpretation services in healthcare. Specifically, drivers of the growth in this space and a few of the key attributes of the technology that supports the delivery of interpretation services.
When COVID arrived, or more exactly when Zoom arrived shortly afterwards and we all invited the world on a video tour of selected parts of our homes, we all faced interesting design/disclosure questions. What did we want the world to see, and not to see?
A company as massive as Dell Technologies has no shortage of need for translation and localization services. And Wayne Bourland, director of translation, is the man heading up that operation. Though he didn’t originally envision a career in language service, his career took him in an unexpected direction, and now he oversees the translation of words by the millions or even billions.
What happens when the translation of a book comes out before the original text? That’s what happened earlier this month with Prince Harry’s memoir — albeit, inadvertently so. The Spanish translation of his book Spare went on sale nearly a week before its official release date on Jan. 10, prompting some premature media coverage of the book’s contents in the Anglosphere.
On Jan. 24, KUDO held a launch event announcing its forthcoming artificial intelligence (AI)-powered speech-to-speech translation tool, KUDO AI.
Generative AI tools have arrived, quite loudly, onto center stage, and in my opinion, this is not just part of another tech hype cycle. Rather, they deserve our eager applause.
A California-based language service provider (LSP) is in hot water this week, after reports came out that the company provided the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) with nonsensical translations into Indigenous languages.
Cologne-based DeepL has announced the beta launch of DeepL Write, an AI-powered authoring tool intended to improve texts by fixing errors and making suggestions for word replacements while keeping an eye on style, grammar and formatting.
BLEND, a Tel Aviv-based language service provider (LSP) specializing in localization and translation, recently unveiled its 2022 Hall of Fame initiative to highlight some of the year’s most successful and creative localization projects.
Mobeus, a London-based investment firm, supported The Translation People’s MBO as a platform investment, making its first investment in the language services industry.
In its most recent call for submissions (which opens Monday, Jan. 9), the ICML included a note in its “Ethics” section prohibiting the use of text generated by ChatGPT and other LLMs, unless “presented as part of the paper’s experiential analysis.”
Knowing when to make a change in strategy is possible only when clients or prospects trust their provider enough to give honest feedback. And sometimes providers just try something new because they believe in it, and measure success as they do so. These are the trailblazers, but they do this at a huge risk — reputationally and financially. Marketing and experienced media agencies can help analyze markets, provide special opportunities, and recommend ways to stand out with your marketing.
A recent study published by the Washington, D.C.-based Urban Institute found that Asian Americans with limited English proficiency (LEP) face unique language barriers compared to other groups with high levels of LEP.
Software is often the external face of the company. Many people interact with the company exclusively through the software. But what if your software biases some employees to be more successful than others?
Catalan has often been excluded from some social media platforms on the assumption that Catalan-speaking users would feel comfortable using the Spanish version. Recently, Plataforma per la Llengua (“Platform for the Language”) published the results of a market study conducted in Catalonia that sheds light on the possibility of companies such as LinkedIn and Instagram increasing their market penetration by incorporating Catalan into their platforms.
Organizations are adopting a data-driven culture in order to avoid falling behind their competitors and to see results. According to a Forrester report, data-driven companies “grow at a rate of more than 30% per year.”
In this piece, Nimdzi Insights co-founder Renato Beninatto dissects the concept of LangOps, identifying a handful of challenges he foresees for the term as it begins to catch on both within and without the language industry.
While many business people might see a multilingual team as a challenge to overcome, Sophie Jackson thinks it’s the opposite — to her (and many others in our industry) it’s an asset. Here’s why.
In her latest piece for MultiLingual magazine, Nataly Kelly talks to colleague Karolina Bujalska-Exner, senior marketing manager of international SEO at HubSpot, to gain some insights into how companies can develop an SEO strategy as they expand into new markets abroad.
After attending GALA 2022 this past April, Riteba McCallum was inspired to conduct a survey to determine just how useful professional translators think machine translation is in conducting their day-to-day tasks. Here, she shares the findings of her survey and what she thinks they might mean for the industry.
In this piece, Dr. Miguel Cerna of Verve Translations does a point-by-point analysis of a previous MultiLingual article on LangOps, providing critiques and commentaries on whether or not it’s actually “here to stay” as many others in the magazine have argued.
In the latest installment of his column “The Red List,” Tim Brookes has a candid and fascinating conversation with Gerry Leonidas, a professor in the Department of Typography at the University of Reading. The two discuss font creation and the challenges of localizing a font for a specific locale.
In the last installment of The Lab for the year, columnist Mark Shriner takes a look at the past year and predicts some trends in the field of life sciences for the coming year. Spoiler alert: Things are looking good for localization folks working in life sciences.
The phrase “LangOps” has received quite a bit of buzz lately, but where did it really come from? In this piece, MultiLingual staff writer Andrew Warner takes a look at the phrases’s origins and how it fits into the evolution of the localization industry.
In this column, KUDO co-founder and chief language officer Ewandro Magalhães tells the tale of Enrique — an enslaved person who served as Ferdinand Magellan’s interpreter in his quest to circumnavigate the world.
Sometimes things become reality if you only put the right label on it — in this piece, LT-Innovate board member Arthur Wetzel sets out to determine just what exactly LangOps means, and whether or not “LangOps” is the right label for it.
Each December, the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) hosts its NORAD Tracks Santa program, allowing kids to track Santa’s exact location in real time. To spread the holiday cheer even further, NORAD and Interpreters Unlimited have partnered up to offer NORAD Tracks Santa in eight languages, making it more accessible to kids from different linguistic backgrounds.
Across the world, these last couple of weeks in the calendar year are jam-packed with holiday celebrations. As language enthusiasts, it’s fascinating to look at the etymology of the names for these celebrations — here are the origins of names for some common holiday celebrations throughout the world.
Recently, advocates in the US state of New Jersey raised concerns about the state not providing adequate language access services at community meetings on the environment, leading to low engagement levels among individuals with limited English proficiency (LEP).
At the eighth Google for India event earlier this week, Google announced a handful of new language technology developments that it’s rolling out in India.
A recent survey from CNN showed that 90% of adults in the United States believe the country is in the middle of a mental health crisis. This predicament seems particularly pronounced among children and adolescents — and even worse for children and adolescents who are immigrants or have limited English proficiency.
Nigeria is home to more languages than all but two countries on Earth. Still, primary school students in the West African nation have been educated mainly in English for decades, even after the country gained independence from the British Empire in 1960. That may be changing in the near future, though.
In the United States, the number of people who speak a language other than English at home is rising faster than those who mainly speak English.
If you’ve been watching the FIFA World Cup in Qatar, no doubt you can by now quote parts of the Frito Lays commercial featuring Peyton Manning and David Beckham.
The quality of machine translation (MT) is quickly approaching that of human translators, according to research published today by Translated.
As 2022 comes to a close, English-language dictionary publishers are selecting the words that best encapsulate the character and ambiance of the last 365 days.
Researchers at the international tech company NVIDIA recently developed an award-winning automatic speech recognition (ASR) model for Telugu.
Duolingo now gives users insights into their language learning habits for the past year, all in the form of a neatly packed Instagram story-like widget. And following up on that personalized data, the company also released information on language learning trends among all of its users earlier this week in its 2022 Duolingo Language Report.
OpenAI, the San Francisco-based artificial intelligence laboratory behind the large language model (LLM) GPT-3 and the image generator DALL-E, launched a new tool on Wednesday: ChatGPT.
A five-day workshop at the University of Kashmir culminated in the completion of a nearly 4,000-word glossary of political science terminology translated into the Kashmiri language.
Almost four months after announcing it acquired the studio behind German-language dubs of Stranger Thingsand The Crown, Deluxe has announced another acquisition: Post Haste Digital, an audiovisual studio that specializes in English-language dubbing.
Often referred to as the biggest sporting event in the entire world, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that broadcasters and organizers of the FIFA World Cup also have to take into account certain linguistic considerations when airing the games on television.
It can be easy to take our writing systems for granted — we don’t often have to think all that critically about the letters we use on a day-to-day basis, in part because they’ve been around for thousands of years.
Though some might describe machine translation as magic, academic translator and entrepreneur Christopher Reid pushes back on this notion.
If you’re a marketer who is tasked with building international marketing programs in many languages and finding it difficult, you’re definitely not alone.
Since returning home from this season's conferences, I have had time to reflect, and this article contains several common themes I noticed of how language entrepreneurs are solving the challenges presenting themselves in sales today.
Bruno Hermann prefers to refer to localization as “global language operations,” a tendency that he says raises some eyebrows when he discusses it with other folks in the language service industry.
In conversation with MultiLingualeditor-in-chief Cameron Rasmusson, CEO of Acolad Olivier Marcheteau talks a bit about what’s been keeping him and the company busy over the last few years.
Every day, we listen to music, enjoy our favorite shows, watch the news, listen to audiobooks and podcasts while driving or going to work — but these forms of media are not accessible for everyone.
The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis is usually reserved for introductory college linguistics courses — but the debate surrounding it is an undeniably fascinating conversation for language professionals as well.
Have you ever wondered how humans would communicate with extraterrestrial beings in an encounter between the two?
While widely used speech recognition tools like Siri or Otter generally analyze audio alone, researchers have also made progress in developing visual speech recognition (VSR) models, which rely on visual input to identify what a speaker is saying.
On Nov. 22, the US Department of Health and Human Services announced a $350 million initiative to boost COVID-19 vaccination rates in underserved communities. That includes efforts to expand on translation and interpretation services to make the vaccines more accessible to individuals with limited English proficiency.
Refugee crises across the globe this year — from the European Union to Martha’s Vineyard — have highlighted the importance of maintaining a large, diverse workforce of human translators and interpreters.
When officers arrived at the scene of a violent confrontation and questioned a bystander, they relied on a free machine translation tool to communicate with him. MultiLingual spoke with Utrilla last week to learn more about the case and how his testimony on speech technology and MT factored into the bystander’s eventual acquittal.
Evans Chebet, a long-distance runner who hails from Kenya, received a lot of attention not just for his impressive finish time at the NYC Marathon, but also because he spoke to the media in Kiswahili with the aid of a volunteer interpreter and his coach, rather than using English.
The government of Canada is currently investigating the conditions that led to a particularly bad case of acoustic shock in an interpreter working on Parliament Hill last month.
Zoom announced earlier this month that it’s added a new feature to make its video communication platform more accessible to deaf and hard-of-hearing users: a specialized view for sign language interpreting.
To promote language revitalization efforts among Native American communities and better understand the role children can play in such projects, the University of New Mexico (UNM) announced Tuesday that it’s launched the Indigenous Child Language Research Center.
You wouldn’t use Google Translate to churn out an English-language (or any language, for that matter) version of a novel like Gabriel García Márquez’s Cien años de soledad— or would you?
Have you ever considered the value of localizing for the Listenbourg market? According to Twitter, it’s a beautiful, upwardly mobile region of western Europe that should be attractive for any brand seeking aggressive expansion.
Boeing announced Thursday that it has formed a partnership with Tarjimly — an app that allows refugees to access free language services — to help the app expand its reach.
Demand for dual-language immersion programs has been steadily increasing in the United States. The state of California just made a $10 million investment toward meeting that demand.
Straker Translations reported on Friday that it has earned $33 million NZD (19.37 million USD) in revenue during the first half of Fiscal Year 2023 (FY23) — a 42% increase from the same period just one year before.
This post, originally posted by Claudio Fantinuoli of KUDO, was written entirely by the GPT-3 AI without any editing.
Key principles, best practices, and real-world examples of how artificial intelligence and machine translation are being used to reduce costs and turn-around times, while improving both quality and security of life sciences-related translations.
Bolingo is back with three more installments in its African Country Guide series, in an effort to help localization professionals learn a bit more about how to best adapt content for Senegal, Tanzania, and Togo. While the guides won’t leave you an expert on these countries, MultiLingual Magazine staff writer Andrew Warner argues that they may still serve as a useful launching point to kickstart research for localization projects in these markets.
While 1-StopAsia’s book Asian Language Translation is a friendly and approachable work that provides an interesting and straightforward introduction to Asian languages for localization projects, MultiLingual Magazine reviewer William Dan worries that it veers into the territory of Orientalism and oversimplification. Still, he argues that it does have some merit for localizers who don’t have any previous familiarity with Asian languages.
In their book The Language Game, linguists Morten H. Christiansen and Nick Chater propose a series of novel concepts about the nature of language and how it’s developed. In his review of the book for MultiLingual Magazine, Stefan Huyghe wholeheartedly recommends the book to language lovers looking to learn a bit more about how we acquire our first languages.
Although we typically associate learning disorders like dyslexia with school kids, they can have a profound impact on adults as well. In this article, translator and interpreter Pauline Surgo takes a look at some of the creative strategies she’s developed to overcome dyslexia, dysgraphia, and dyscalculia in her career and shows how you can incorporate them into your practice as well.
How about switching between scripts? Endangered Alphabets Project founder Tim Brookes examines a series of seemingly disparate structures — Stonehenge, the Congolese Mandombé script, and trees — to propose an interesting argument about the role of patterns and chaos in scripts (and beauty!).
When the business, and marketing's much broader scope, begins to creep beyond just one country or language, the complexity can begin to seem overwhelming.
For Tolkien, language was life, not some lesser academic interest but a cornerstone of human civilization brimming with power and depth.
We are now living in a data-centric era, in which data is crucial to corporations, governmental agencies, research groups, and even language service providers when making decisions.
Brave Software, the San Francisco-based company behind the privacy-focused browser Brave, announced earlier this week that it has added more than 90 languages to its Brave Translate tool, bringing the total number of languages offered on the platform up to 108.
The state of Colorado recently announced that it is working with CyraCom, a Tucson-based language service provider, to launch a new service to improve language access for individuals with limited English proficiency who are voting in the upcoming election.
The number of Arabic-to-English literary translations published in the United Kingdom and Ireland between 2010 and 2020 rose by about 92% from the two decades prior, according to research recently presented at the Frankfurt Book Fair.
In an effort to create artificial intelligence (AI)-powered translation programs for unwritten, predominantly oral languages, Meta claims it has developed the first such program for Hokkien, a southern Chinese language that does not have a standardized writing system.
Musixmatch, a company that allows users to view time-synced lyrics on music streaming platforms, announced that it has begun producing automatic transcriptions of popular podcasts as well.
Summa Linguae Technologies, a Krakow, Poland-based language service provider (LSP), announced its acquisition of Warsaw-based GET IT on Tuesday.
With Hiventy under its wing, TransPerfect — which is already the largest LSP in the industry, according to this year’s Nimdzi 100 — is poised to expand its audiovisual services, thanks to Hiventy’s suite of international offices and a team of roughly 300.
In an Oct. 10 blog post, the company announced that clients can now use Wordly’s platform to create a translated transcript of recorded audio content.
The DOE’s Office of English Language Acquisition has spearheaded the National Professional Development (NPD) program to build, strengthen, and support a nationwide network of educators suited to working with students who are learning English as a second or other language.
While these emotive little symbols can add a bit of character to an otherwise dull text message to friends or family, brands must be careful not to confuse or offend their audience when using emojis in their marketing content.
The WBEC Metro NY awarded Eriksen Translations with the awards, honoring the LSP’s work to help city and state agencies in the New York City metropolitan area provide quality language access services.
Over the last decade, we have seen localization for video games continuously expand into new regions, and most recently there has been a significant increase in demand for localization and testing for Southeast Asia (SEA) regions.
On Oct. 3, New York launched its new Office of Language Access, which will oversee the state’s recently adopted language access policy and facilitate the translation of government communications into 12 of the most widely spoken languages across the state.
Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, and Apple may have competing interests, but they’ve recently found one thing to work together on: All five of these big tech companies have joined forces to support the Speech Accessibility Project at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
We have heard much in language services about technology shifts and about M&A. Let’s talk about the individuals involved — the freelance linguists, the new hires with poor remote onboarding, and the leaders struggling to prevent the Great Resignation from getting too close to home.
Finding and reading news articles from another country could be getting a whole lot easier, thanks to a new feature Google has in the works for its Search function.
Zingword has just released ZingChat, designed as a team chat program specifically geared for translators. Robert Rogge, CEO of Zingword, took the time to answer a few questions about the work that went into the new tool.
NeuralSpace, a natural language processing startup based in London, announced earlier this month that it's completed its seed round of finding with $2.8 million.
The Association of Translation Companies (ATC) announced the winners of its annual Language Industry Awards on Thursday, celebrating high-achieving language service providers (LSPs) and their workers.
First applied to the platform’s messaging feature, Translation Engine will eventually be used for all user-generated content, according to Airbnb officials. We caught up with the Airbnb team to learn just how work has progressed and what comes next.
Aktuel Translations, a United Kingdom-based company specializing in translation and localization services, was sold to an employee-owned trust earlier this month.
Regardless of the language they are primarily immersed in at home, newborn infants have a well-documented penchant for identifying the slightest differences in the sounds of the world’s languages.
The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) announced Friday that it has revised and published its requirements and recommendations for simultaneous interpreting delivery platforms (SIDPs).
Since the onset of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Ukrainians’ attitudes on language policy appear to be shifting, according to a recent survey of people residing in the country.
If one of the works win, it would be the first time a novel in translation won the award in the prize’s 25-year history.
Just in time to close out this year’s Māori Language Week, Fujitsu and Straker Translations announced today that they’ve teamed up to offer Māori translation on ServiceNow.
When a group of Advanced Placement (AP) Spanish students in Martha’s Vineyard stepped in to act as impromptu interpreters for non-English-speaking migrants last week, mainstream media outlets presented it as a touching, good Samaritan-esque detail in part of a larger, more unsettling story. However, professional interpreters and others working in language services raised a couple of eyebrows at the detail.
Monday was another big night for international entertainment with an Emmy win for Lee Jung-jae and Hwang Dong-hyuk of Squid Game.
An interpreter working for the Dubai-based news channel Al Arabiya likely learned that lesson this past week after accidentally leading an audience to believe that King Charles III was pleased to announce the death of his mother.
This month's issue highlights Faiza Sultan, who arrived as a refugee in the US and used her skills as a linguist to open her own business, and work for some of the biggest companies in the world. The September issue also includes how-to guides covering the use of reviews for quality assurance in game localization and a deep dive into the nature and origins of place names, just to name a few.
Fact is, in the 20th century, the most influential linguists decided that writing was so secondary to spoken language that the two were barely related. What is missing, dear readers, is the richness, range, and multi-angled consideration of writing that we see at work in even relatively small linguistics programs.
Asking the entire world to start calling Turkey “Türkiye” without a really convincing justification is sort of akin to asking a group of 40 undergraduate linguistics students to call a pen a “skopliotron.”
Arriving in America as a refugee with almost nothing to her name, Faiza Sultan quickly established herself as a hardworking and reliable linguist, which set the foundation for a career of impressive achievements.
We joke about the preponderance of jargon in the financial services industry, yet each term, description, and acronym carries meaning that may be codified in law or in accepted local usage. In financial services, as in any other highly regulated sector, language really matters.
The Nimdzi Language Technology Atlas 2022 comprehensively assesses the language-technology landscape, as it does every year. For most people in the industry, this Atlas is essential.
It’s common to see game reviews like this: "The game needs to add support for Turkish. It’s not fun play-
ing without it." Does this mean that the game needs to be translated into Turkish or any other language that can be mentioned in the review? Not necessarily.
From naked mole rats to whales, all sorts of MT-like programs have been developed to help humans better understand their animal counterparts, but there’s still quite a long way to go before we’re able to accurately pinpoint the nuanced meanings underlying meows and purrs.
Despite the prevalence of automatic speech recognition software, it’s obvious that these tools could use some improvement, especially when speaking with a non-standard accent or in a slightly noisy environment. According to the team of researchers behind the paper, this can be particularly difficult to get right in Mandarin Chinese.
The Globalization and Localization Association (GALA) has released the results of a survey on support to Ukraine, conducted with 40 respondents of its community.
A business professional with over 20 years of experience in marketing roles, Jolls announced his hiring by Lilt yesterday on LinkedIn, sharing a video where he detailed his reasons for joining the team.
The NAD’s Policy Institute recently conducted a study assessing the ASL access practices at each state’s press briefings, ranking them according to the visibility of interpreters and the frequency of their presence — just last month, the institute published its findings.
Easy access to the internet and smart devices have democratized learning. Knowledge is now just a click away because eLearning has harnessed the full power of the latest technologies. And language services have paved the way for exchange of information at a global level.
“Children easily acquire language from quantities of data that are modest by the standards of modern artificial intelligence (AI),” reads a paper published in Nature Communications earlier this week.
A popular application allowing users to access Google Translate directly from their desktop (as opposed to their browser) has turned out to be a “crypto miner malware campaign” that’s affected thousands of users across at least 11 countries.
To help ease the linguistic challenges for refugees from Central America and Mexico seeking asylum in the United States, a team of researchers at the University of Southern California is working on a project to develop machine translation for speakers of K’iche’, an Indigenous languages that’s in high demand within the US immigration courts.
In an analysis of the 50 most widely frequented gaming websites, BLEND found that nearly half offer a multilingual experience, with 48% supporting four or more languages.
Many of the words derived from Spanish entered North American English first, due to the complicated relationship between the United States and the former Spanish territories in Latin America, particularly Mexico.
With a history in sound production, Andrea Ballista has been developing a groundbreaking voice technology that's attracted funding from the European Commission and subsequent attention from the localization and language technology communities, gaining a first place at the LocWorld Process Innovation Challenge (PIC).
Airgram, a Singapore-based company specializing in voice transcription, announced recently that it has closed its Series A funding round, having raised $10 million, as it prepares to launch in the North American market.
As we attempted to reach out to Lionbridge regarding their cyber security breach, we got an out-of-office message from Jaime Punishill, Lionbridge’s CMO.
Meta received some harsh words from frustrated Spanish speakers after a shaky international rollout of its game Horizon Worlds.
If you were to visit localization folks around Europe, what would be some of the undeniable recurring themes? With this question in mind, I set out to meet with a half a dozen industry leaders in the flesh this summer. For the past three weeks, I traveled around Europe, talking with leaders to get a better pulse on EU localization industry trends.
TransPerfect, a New York City-based language service provider (LSP), announced this week that it is opening an office in Noida, India, a satellite city on the outskirts of Delhi in the National Capital Region.
The optimal process for translating and localizing mountains of copy has yet to be discovered. It’s a process of trial and error that Derick Fajardo, head of machine translation at Harvard Business Publishing knows all too well. In this episode, he shares his experience and insights in an interview hosted by MultiLingual's Editor-in-Chief, Cameron Rasmusson.
The 2022 version of Trados Studio comes with a revamp of the whole product portfolio around the cloud. Not just Trados Studio, mostly addressed at freelancers, but also Trados Team and Trados Enterprise.
Amazon’s Alexa AI team was recently ranked in first place on a shared task at the International Conference on Spoken Language Translation (IWSLT), which focused on developing a machine translation (MT) system that could produce output with different levels of formality in the target language.
Elden Ring is a massive game. For a game of this magnitude to succeed, localization, culturalization, and transcreation are a must.
We use technology not just to communicate on projects but also to assist in the work, and it's become our competition.
The localization supply chain is very crowded at the moment, and AI is constantly knocking at the door. We should not be scared, but at the same time, we should act for better conditions for everyone.
Two years ago, the Trump administration stripped the Affordable Care Act (ACA) of numerous language access provisions, citing their cost as a burden on the economy. Just a few weeks ago, those provisions were reintroduced along with a handful of other measures that would strengthen language access in the United States’ healthcare system.
Translit, an Ireland-based language service provider (LSP), has helped nearly 40 Ukrainian refugees in County Clare learn the ins and outs of community interpreting.
Deluxe, a Burbank-based media production company, recently announced that it has acquired the German dubbing company Creative Sound Conception Studio (CSC Studio).
In his first-time interview, we ask Freelanly founder Fedor Khatlamadzhiev about his entrepreneurship, work-life balance, and the service he's offering to translators and interpreters around the world.
Over the course of the next eight months, the government of Canada’s Northwest Territories (NWT) will be accepting applications for grants toward the education and career development of Canadian translators and interpreters working in Indigenous languages.
The gaming industry is forecasted to grow at an explosive rate of over 9% in the next three years. One of the fastest-growing industries worldwide, the global games market is set to reach almost $257 billion by 2025, according to Statista. More than 2.5 billion people worldwide now play games regularly.
Not all literary translators are paid equally — recently released survey results show that the income of literary translators varies significantly across different countries. One thing they mostly have in common, however, is that they largely struggle to earn a substantial income through literary translation alone.
A new study from Weglot and Nimdzi Insights suggests that machine translation (MT) is more accurate than some people might expect.
When a warning is added on a product — either voluntarily or due to legal requirements — the “Buy me! Consume me!” message is contradicted by a “Keep away!” message. How do manufacturers resolve that contradiction? In at least one case, the answer seems to be “through inattention.”
As the scientific community largely publishes in high-resource languages, languages like Navajo have been left behind, making it hard to translate scientific work adequately.
The Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras) announced earlier this week that it's launched an institute specifically dedicated to the development of language technology for Indian languages.
The largest healthcare provider in the state of Washington is currently facing a lawsuit over its use of faulty video remote interpreting (VRI) technology.
While brushing up on some Arabic vocabulary, one user pointed out that Google Translate's entry for the Arabic word meaning "plan" was accompanied by an example phrase that means "planning to blow up the car."
This non-conventional way of creating innovative products passes through five phases — empathize, define, ideate, prototype, and test — and is most useful to tackle ill-defined or unknown challenges. So how can we best translate these phases with localization in mind?
Interpreters Unlimited (IU) has developed and released IU Customer App, a proprietary program that allows professionals and businesses to book foreign language interpreters and American Sign Language interpreters in-person, over the phone, or via remote video.
TikTok, a popular video-based social media platform, just became the latest big tech company to launch its own translation feature.
Spotify recently addressed user concerns regarding the automatic translation of song names into English, making titles in languages such as Chinese particularly difficult to find on the platform.
BigScience, an artificial intelligence (AI) research initiative, recently launched BLOOM, an open-source large language model (LLM) that aims to make such technology more accessible.
In 2018, Airbnb began a major transformation in its localization strategy and operations, developing and executing countless decisions, projects, products, processes and improvements — which have not only collectively produced strong business results, but also garnered external validation.
In a statement to MultiLingual, Iris Permuy, president of ATRAE, elaborated on the open letter, which claimed that subtitlers and audiovisual translators face low rates and “appalling” work conditions that naturally lead to a decline in quality.
Translating a well-documented, widely spoken language is hard enough. Translating one that doesn’t even have a standardized writing system is even harder. That’s the dilemma Nye County, Nevada is currently facing.
User feedback — direct information from those who use your product — is both the most important aspect of any good methodology and also key to any localization effort.
A month after Disney+ launched in Turkey, local media reported that the company’s Turkish subtitle translators received an email with directions on certain content and sensitive themes that they should flag when working on translation assignments.
The announcement comes just a few months after the company announced that it would begin a project to develop a machine translation (MT) tool that can translate the majority of the world’s 7,000 or so languages.
Verbit is undergoing an organizational change involving about 50 layoffs in the U.S. and 30 in Israel. It will employ a total of 520 employees following the cutback, 50 more than it had when it announced its latest funding round.
Squid Game, the subject of everyone’s favorite subtitling debate, has become the first non-English series to receive a nomination for outstanding drama at the Emmy Awards.
A new translation and transliteration tool with a particular emphasis on Southeast Asian languages allows users to easily write in non-Latin scripts without the use of a different keyboard or settings.
So what are the elements that a company must have in place to conquer global growth in an agile way?
ENCO, a Michigan-based company specializing in technology for radio and television broadcasting, announced July 6 that it has acquired TranslateTV (TTV) and Sentinel Solutions.
Reports of service outages across several Lionbridge platforms have kept the language service provider’s (LSP) engineers busy over the past week.
Speechmatics, a startup developing speech recognition technology, announced June 27 that it raised $62 million in Series B funding.
On Friday June 23, the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) and the Board of Education of the City of Chicago agreed to a settlement with a group of parents who filed a federal lawsuit after being denied interpreting and translation services.
Dozens of independent contractors, including translators and interpreters, turned out today for a U.S. Department of Labor Zoom forum over proposed rule changes to employment regulations.
Zoom announced earlier this month that it will be rolling out a machine translation (MT) feature along with a suite of additional offerings in its new Zoom One package.
Illinois’s House Bill 5214 (HB 5214) — which expands access to interpreters in the state’s public schools — was approved earlier this month, going into effect immediately as of June 10.
As businesses become more globally aware, the world of transcreation continues to blossom. So, what should go in an ideal transcreation brief? Here are a few tips to improve turn-around, save you money, and set you up for success.
Sanas, a Palo Alto, CA-based technology startup, received $32 million in Series A funding, according to an announcement earlier this week.
The Scots Language Resource Network recently announced that it is funding the translation and publication of nine literary works in the Scots language.
House Bill 2359 (HB 2359) addresses a major loophole in the state’s Health Care Interpreter Program, which sets language access regulations for healthcare providers that receive reimbursements from public funding. Going into effect on July 1, the bill will require healthcare providers to work with healthcare interpreters certified by the Oregon Health Authority (OHA) in their interactions with individuals who have limited English proficiency or primarily use sign language.
Inspired by databases that store genetic information, an interdisciplinary team of researchers has developed Lexibank — a database that aims to help shed light on the world’s linguistic diversity and language evolution.
Two researchers at the University of Texas Austin working on the DALL·E 2 program have come to a stunning conclusion: The artificial intelligence (AI) program is now inventing its own language.
Earlier this week, 45 Native American tribes and tribal organizations received $7 million in funding for Indigenous language preservation efforts.
A Rhode Island judge ruled in favor of English-language learners earlier this month in a case that questioned whether or not the state’s education system was providing them with adequate support.
A botched translation of promotional material could have cost the election for supporters of San Francisco’s Proposition A.
A study recently published in JAMA Pediatrics showed that parents who have limited English proficiency (LEP) are less likely to feel comfortable asking doctors and other hospital personnel follow-up questions about their child’s care or treatment.
Earlier this month, Sonoma County’s Registrar of Voters Office noted that a Spanish translation of the county’s voter information guide included three factual errors.
Ryanair, Europe’s largest airline by number of passengers, has come under a wave of criticism after forcing UK-bound travelers flying with a South African passport to prove their nationality by taking a test in Afrikaans.
Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the University of California at San Diego (UCSD), and IBM have developed a machine learning model that just might shake things up in the field of machine translation (MT): VALHALLA.
Unlike other instances of interpreter shortages that have been reported in recent months, this one has not yet been linked to low pay rates.
Indian cinema is taking the world by storm this year with the success of RRR, a big-budget Tollywood action epic set in the Britain-controlled India of the early 20th century.
Lionbridge announced earlier this week its partnership with Le Monde, a widely read newspaper based in Paris, to launch the newspaper’s English-language version.
Kingdom of Characters, a fascinating new book by Yale University professor and historical scholar Jing Tsu, argues that China’s most daunting challenge after its meteoric economic rise over the last century was a linguistic one: making the Chinese language more accessible in a world increasingly designed for the Roman alphabet.
The Turkish government recently announced plans to change its official name in the United Nations’ registry of country names to “Türkiye,” which reflects the country’s name in the Turkish language.
A group of courtroom interpreters has proposed a class action suit against the New York State Unified Court System for discriminatory pay practices targeting immigrant groups.
Translated, a Rome-based language service provider (LSP), has released the 2022 Imminent Research Report, providing information on future trends in the field of localization.
On Saturday, May 21, thousands of activists marched through the streets of Belfast to show their support for legislation that would support and protect the use of the Irish language within Northern Ireland.
Earlier this month, Google gave the public a sneak peek at its latest piece of translation technology: a pair of augmented reality (AR) glasses that translates spoken language in real time.
The Los Angeles Chargers not only came up with relevant content, but they also showed us that localization can be used in delightfully unexpected ways with the release of their 17-game football schedule.
Today marks the 59th year of Africa Day, a worldwide celebration commemorating the founding of the Organization of African Unity (OUA, from the French “Organisation de l’unité africaine”).
MultiLingual's Editor-in-Chief Cameron Rasmusson discusses the launch of HelloTranslate with Xillio owner Rikkert Engels to get an inside look at what this new translation solution brings to the industry.
Educators in dual-language immersion programs across the United States are calling on the Educational Testing Service (ETS) to improve language access on the company’s Praxis teacher-certification exam.
Translated, a Rome, Italy-based language service provider (LSP), announced May 19 that it has finalized plans to merge with the machine translation (MT) provider ModernMT.
A recent study published in the journal IEEE Access is shining light on ways in which artificial intelligence (AI) tools can be used to assess the quality of a human-created translation.
Netflix is making it easier for everyone to enjoy its content — on Global Accessibility Awareness Day, no less.
RWS shares declined sharply this morning as Baring Private Equity Asia Fund VIII (BPEA) announced that it would not be making an offer for the language services provider (LSP).
Since the 1960s Manhattan’s Chinatown has featured bilingual street signs, but recently these signs have begun to disappear.
It looks like the next group of professionals to hone their understanding of corpus linguistics could be lawyers.
Earlier this week, Google announced that its machine translation (MT) platform, Google Translate, will now offer 24 more languages.
Earlier this month, Meta announced the development of its large language model Open Pretrained Transformer (OPT-175B), which has been trained on 175 billion parameters from public datasets.
A bill in the Louisiana State Senate could allow schools to offer programming languages in place of a foreign language.
Earlier this month, Microsoft announced that its Reading Progress tool — a free platform that allows teachers to assess students’ reading progress — will include Ukrainian in its list of available languages.
There is an increasing call for interpreters and bilingual speakers, but why is the word "certified" left out so often? Marjolein talks to Bill and Gabe — the founders of language testing company ParrotUSA about the meaning and importance of verified language skills today.
There’s a new player in the content translation space. And thanks to an innovative new business model, HelloTranslate aims to make content translation more affordable for smaller players.
A February article in Business Insider Africa listed the 10 largest African economies to invest in as of 2022. Those economies come with their own array of important African languages.
A Canadian Federal Court has ordered two airports in Alberta and Newfoundland and Labrador to pay thousands in damages for official language rights violations, stemming from complaints by language activist Michel Thibodeau.
A 134-page report from the University of Michigan’s Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy warns researchers and policymakers alike against the potential dangers of large language models (LLMs), which have been on the rise in recent years.
A team of researchers at the University of Toronto has introduced a new framework for interpreting slang in natural language processing (NLP).
Beyond the theoretical definitions, the distinction between what we call a language and what we call a dialect gets a lot murkier very quickly. Quite often, politics play an important role in whether something gets labeled a language or a dialect.
A team of anonymous Chinese speakers is attempting to shine light on misinformation and propaganda on Chinese-language social media. The group launched The Great Translation Movement in March 2022, gaining more than 145,000 followers in just a matter of weeks, in the hopes of “raising awareness about the state of public opinion in China.”
The supply of courtroom interpreters in Colorado isn’t the only thing that remains low — wages are too. According to the Denver Post, the state’s courtroom interpreters are “among the lowest-paid in the nation.”
While the need for professional interpreters in settings like courtrooms, healthcare institutions, and conferences has long been established, interpreters have been somewhat absent in the U.S. education system.
Recently, social media saw the birth of a whole new language coined Algospeak, employing code words and phrases to prevent posts from being removed, demoted in rank, or demonetized by automated content moderation systems.
The New India Foundation (NIF) has launched a new fellowship promoting the translation from ten different Indian languages into English.
Recently, we highlighted five mistakes to avoid when planning and envisioning a localization project. But what about the pitfalls that arise when you get into the work of localizing content?
Confirmation that private equity firm Baring Private Equity Asia Fund VIII (BPEA) is eyeing a takeover of translation and localization juggernaut RWS sent the stock market into a tizzy Thursday.
Stefan Huyghe and Marjolein Groot Nibbelink unpack the influence of Dutch on English, language evolution, and the shift in writing education in the US.
The US Department of State is currently accepting applications for grants to translate American English-language literature and other writing into the Kyrgyz language.
In March, the UK-based Association of Translation Companies (ATC) and the Indian Confederation of Interpreting, Translation, and Localisation Businesses (CITLoB) announced a new partnership between the two groups.