Translators Without Borders (TWB) is initiating a free mentoring program for translators in emerging African languages such as Swahili, Kikuyu and Kikamba. As Africans go online in greater numbers than ever before, there will be a huge need for translation, both for providing a bridge to knowledge that already exists and also for the increasing economic opportunities that come in the wake of Internet connectivity.
The translation industry in Africa, lacking a strong economic need for its services, is just in its infancy in most of the 100 languages identified by Google as being essential to reach the largest numbers of people.
That’s why TWB’s mission to build a world where knowledge has no borders needs to start by capacity building in Africa. Along with ProZ.com, TWB is building a program to train these translators. Beyond the usual training that any new translator would receive, many terms may not have equivalents in African languages – cloud computing, crowdsourcing and so on. So part of the Emerging Language Mentoring program has to involve creating work groups where translators in the same language pairs can discuss how to handle new terminology.
See: MultiLingual digital
If you would like to be part of these initiatives contact TWB at [email protected]
Comments about this article