Language Links

Posted by BettyC on July 1st, 2009 in Language and Technology

As Microsoft rolls out its new search engine, Bing, the site FastCompany reminds us that there are already plenty of other places to search on the Internet.

In a thought-provoking article entitled How to Kill Your Addiction to Google Search and Get More Productive, author Chris Dannen explains that the US has become a nation of  “Google junkies.” According to SearchInsider, Google’s search share was a bit over 72% in February 2009.

But, as Dannen points out, there are other places to search for information — sometimes more efficiently. Comparing search engines to cars, Dannen explains that sometimes we borrow or buy different cars for different purposes. “But no matter what specific search task most of us undertake online, we always stupidly head to Google, our all-purpose search sedan.”

He mentions many search engines that I won’t cite because I’m sure I’ll never go back to them, and neither will you, because chances are nearly 3 out of 4 that you — like me — are a victim of the “Google addiction.”  But Dannen particularly recommends Worio, which calls itself a “discovery engine” and supposedly helps you find the right information when you’re not even quite sure what you’re looking for.

I gave  Worio a whirl, but ended up slightly confused. I have to admit it — I’ve become used to Google’s streamlined search approach.

On Worio, I tried a query about medical insurance for travellers, and got basic Google-style searches on the left, plus a host of other information in two “discovery boxes” on the right — with links going as far afield as a blog (with only two posts) entitled “Cat Health Insurance.”

Too much information, anyone? I may stay with Google for now.

Betty Carlson

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Posted by BettyC on June 29th, 2009 in Interpreting

Language interpreting is more than just translating words. Interpreters have to take into account the profession’s ethics and protect themselves against lawsuits.

Language interpreters work in many different sectors, including health care, courts and public services. While the job provides exciting opportunities to travel and is relatively well-paid, it does present  challenges.

Many interpreters work as freelancers, so their workload and daily hours are often irregular. Like doctors, interpreters must take out liability insurance and subscribe to a strict code of ethics and confidentiality. And the job can be stressful, since interpreters work in “real time” and can’t fall back on dictionaries or electronic tools to find the right word.

Interpretation training programs are nonetheless increasing in the USA along with the demand for qualified interpreters. Interpreters must be fluent in at least two languages, of course, but also need to have excellent knowledge of a specialized field: often law, medicine or business. Awareness of cultural differences is also  a key to success.

Betty Carlson

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Posted by BettyC on June 25th, 2009 in Language Translation Development, Translation

Language service providers who want to plan ahead for conferences and other events can — and should –  use the “International Calendar of Events.

Launched in 2007 by ITI, the only independent professional association of practicing translators and interpreters in the United Kingdom, this free facility can be used by anyone who is organizing or planning to attend a language industry related event.

The International Calendar of Events, or ICE, is ideal for publicizing conferences, training courses and calls for papers. Event organizers can look up to 60 months ahead to check on availability of dates, thus avoiding setting a date only to find out that another event is taking place on the same day.

The ICE site also includes world holidays - an easy-to-use list of all public holidays by country. Those who want to attend an event can search by many criteria including date, city, country, and event.

Available in English, French, German and Spanish, ICE is a major tool for the language industry — because even in the digital era, meeting and networking with other professionals face to face remains crucial in developing durable relationships.

So what’s the next event on the calendar? The two-week Translation Research Summer School UK 2009 in Edinburgh, Scotland, starting on June 15th, 2009. It may be a little late to book a place — or tickets — but at least you know it’s out there.

Betty Carlson

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Posted by BettyC on June 22nd, 2009 in Language and Technology, Translation

The mistranslation of a sheriff’s last name provides another chuckle thanks to machine translation. Sheriff Bob White of Pasco, Florida, found himself in an “identity crisis” after a machine translation program translated his last name into Spanish.

Sheriff White almost became “Bob Blanco” when a machine translator for the Sheriff’s Office website got carried away. The initial translation came up with a few more gaffes concerning proper nouns, such as a town named “Holiday” which was referred to in Spanish as “dia de fiesta.”

According to the St. Petersburg Times article that reported on the problems, the errors were quickly rectified, and the Spanish version of the site is up and running.

These examples clearly show some of the foibles that can stem from machine translation. At least in this case, it was easy to catch the errors – but other such mistakes can be much more difficult to eliminate.

In business, it is important to remember that an incorrect machine-generated translation may be inaccurate and even offensive. That’s why it’s important to turn to a qualified language service provider such as Language Translation Inc. in San Diego, California for your company’s translation needs.

Betty Carlson

Is your company or organization thinking of undertaking a translation project? Download our free translation guides for clear information about how to choose a professional translation agency.

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Posted by BettyC on June 19th, 2009 in Language and Technology

The Web provides a seemingly never-ending — and fascinating –  source of language-related tools. One of the latest analyzes the vocabulary in Twitter posts, and uses it to develop a “psychological profile” of the user.

Just about everyone who tweets will surely hop over to TweetPsych, hoping to find new insights about their personality. The questions is: just how insightful can such a site be?

On the positive side, the new tool is based on solid linguistic research: “TweetPsych uses two linguistic analysis algorithms (RID and LIWC) to build a psychological profile of a person based on the content of their tweets,” explains the homepage.  In a June 15th blog post, creator Dan Zarrella explains how he has combined these two algorithms with his own “Twitter analysis infrastructure” to create TweetPsych.

Well, that’s about all I can understand of how his site works, but it definitely sounds serious and scholarly — certainly infinitelymore reliable than the 6-question Facebook quiz I took yesterday that told me I should be living in Alabama!

However, the profile it delivers may disappoint for the moment, although the site is in Beta phase and will certainly be improved and perfected. The “psychological profile” appears to be little more than a compilation of what the user tweets about; for example: “You tend to talk about the past.”

In other words, my tweets include more past tenses than the average Twitter user’s. But what does that really say about my psychological tendencies?

Zarrella has a fascinating idea going, but I predict it will be  some time before his language analysis leads to a tool that can truly be termed “psychological.”

Betty Carlson

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Posted by BettyC on June 18th, 2009 in Language In Use

French, German and Japanese are taught in secondary school classrooms all over the USA. And more and more American students are tackling Mandarin Chinese and Arabic. However, another language has more speakers worldwide than French, German, Japanese or even Italian – yet one would be hard-pressed to have a go at studying it in an American high school.

Brazil’s national tongue, Portuguese, holds a firm rank in the world’s top ten – and Portuguese-speakers worldwide would naturally like their language to be given more consideration.

Some of the world’s 230 million Portuguese speakers rightly feel miffed when their tongue is treated as something of a “minor” language. Portuguese in fact ranks from sixth to eighth (calculation methods differ) among the world’s most spoken languages.

Brazil – the world’s largest Portuguese-speaking nation– is making efforts to improve the language’s international status. To this end, a “Museum of the Portuguese Language” opened three years ago in São Paulo –the most populous Lusophone city in the world.

The museum is “dedicated to showing and sharing the value” of Portuguese, and features state-of-the-art technology and interactive exhibits.

Betty Carlson

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Posted by BettyC on June 16th, 2009 in Interpreting, Language Translation Development, Translation

Bilinguals may eventually become a worldwide majority, and their facility for learning languages means they’ll have an easier time learning foreign languages than those who speak only one language. Continue reading this post…

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Posted by BettyC on June 11th, 2009 in Language and Technology, Localization

When moving into a foreign market, every aspect of a product launch must be fine-tuned to fit the local culture. Packaging and graphics are no exception.

An article by Andy Robinson on the Games Radar site provides some intriguing visual examples of how video games are packaged differently depending on the target market. This “box art” varies from country to country, much as website design must also take into account the visual tastes of target consumers.

“Box Art: Lost in Translation” explains – and shows — how American video game box graphics are more straightforward, whereas Asian and European packaging leans to the artsy side. “And here’s the first rule they teach you in games packaging school: only Japanese and PAL box arts can be artistic/moody - American box art must be to the point and ALWAYS facing forwards,” writes Robinson.

In some of the examples shown, such as Sony’s “artistically brilliant” Ico, the American video game box design differs totally from the original Japanese version. Video game purists may cringe at such modifications, but international marketers no doubt have their reasons for the changes.

In the rapidly changing global marketplace, companies must be able to reach out to potential clients in a culturally appropriate manner. Language Translation Inc. in San Diego, California can help your firm choose appropriate language services for international product launches, website localization and language translation projects.

Betty Carlson

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Posted by BettyC on June 10th, 2009 in Language In Use, Language and Technology

Adults who once decried teenagers’ phonetic versions of words for text messaging purposes may find themselves coming up with their own shortcuts if they start using Twitter. But besides abbreviations, researchers have found that the very words used in tweets differ from “regular” English.

Lexicographers at Oxford University Press have analyzed over 1.5 million tweets since the beginning of the year, and have come up with a number of statistics and conclusions.

The most frequent word in English is “the” and it remains the most common word used on Twitter, which is a bit surprising since it is a word that could often be eliminated in order to come in at or under the famous 140-character limit.

However, the second most frequently used word on Twitter is “I” — which is only number ten in general English. This would tend to fuel the argument that Twitter is often “more about me” — or I, at least.

Basic gerund-form verbs are also much more present than in general English. ” The  list of top 100 words includes  “watching”, “reading” and “eating”, which indicates how much Twitter is used to report on daily activities — and also that it is apparently possible to read, eat and tweet at the same time.

Betty Carlson

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Posted by BettyC on June 9th, 2009 in Language Translation Development, Translation

When patients are ill, obviously they need the right medicine. But they also need to know how to take it.

Nobody expects pharmacies to be able to translate prescription instructions in every world language. However, given the increasing linguistic diversity in the USA, the inability to provide instructions in languages frequently spoken by local populations can, of course,  lead to medical problems.

Unfortunately, many US pharmacies are not yet up to the task of giving correctly translated prescription instructions, even in Spanish, the country’s most widely-used foreign language.

According to research from the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, over 50% of pharmacies in several states could not translate any labels, or only a very limited number.

“The study looked at pharmacies in states with a large existing Latino population (Texas and Colorado) and in states with a rapid growth in Latino population (Georgia and North Carolina),” reports EurekAlert. “These states — because of their large Latino populations — are likely to have the greatest demand and capability for translation.”

The study also suggests that pharmacies in other states may be even further behind in language translation capacities, and that the overall translation problem in pharmacy settings is worse than the researchers originally expected.

The press often focuses on language translation and interpreting needs in hospitals, but the issue of languages in pharmacies definitely deserves attention as well.

Betty Carlson

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