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Popular Google Translator made ​​an error in Translation of the word “Lower” from the Belarusian into the Russian language. Only one variant of translation was offered when requested, which, by strange coincidence, affected Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.

According to statements of Google press service, it’s just a common mistake, while the service developers were informed about the system malfunction to eliminate the error. Also, Google press service pointed out that it could have been nothing but a system failure, as it’s just “a machine” and “automatic translation, where can be malfunctioning from time to time.”

According to independent experts, such bugs could be triggered by system crack.

Prior to this, according to Telegraf, Yandex algorithm had failed on the president of Belarus as well. Search algorithm of “Yandex news” used to give the portrait of Alexander Lukashenko though “Lukashevich” was requested. This failure was corrected.

See: Telegraf

Lionbridge Technologies, a provider of translation, development and testing solutions, announced the launch of GeoFluent Chat 2.0, a powerful, cloud-based multilingual chat translation application designed to boost call center productivity.

GeoFluent is an on-demand call center solution that integrates Lionbridge’s cloud-based language customization solutions with a statistical machine translation engine developed in IBM’s Watson Research Center.

The latest chat translator application provides contact centers and enterprises with an on-demand, quality translation within their existing online chat applications.

GeoFluent Chat 2.0 allows English-speaking agents to engage customers and prospects online in multiple languages from one location.

See: TMC Net

Warner Bros.  has developed a Parseltongue Translator.  The online application allows you enter a message and have it translated into Parseltongue!  You can take this message that you have translated into Parseltongue and send the message to your friends.  You will just have to hope they are fluent in Parseltongue or know where to find a good translator.  You should check out the translator as it is loads of fun to play with.

See: BSCKids

After talking with top headhunters, directors, and investors, Fortune Magazine developed the profile for the star business leader of tomorrow. This dream CEO will have four characteristics: 1) “Understand global business in their bones”; 2) “change strategies and business models more than before”; 3) “skillfully manage relationships with governments”; and 4) “identify and manage risks before they become disasters.”

Under the global business attribute, Fortune wrote that, “Everybody talks a good global game. Only a few (A-B InBev’s (BUD) Carlos Brito, for one) are true citizens of the world.” We would also nominate Carlos Ghosn of Renault (and Nissan), and Sergio Marchionne of Fiat (and Chrysler) to that list of CEO citizens of the world as they each manage corporations headquartered on two continents with worldwide workforces and distribution networks.

It isn’t just the CEO who needs that global DNA. We’ve long written that any company would benefit from having a chief globalization officer to oversee the many horizontal functions affected by worldwide operations, but few organizations have taken that step (see “Chief Globalization Officer,” Jan07). In fact, Fortune’s follow-up article to the Dream CEO lists the need for seven new corporate chiefs – innovation, cloud, risk, privacy, social media, talent, and perception. Chief Perception Officer? Really?  Unfortunately, a chief globalization officer isn’t among that new cadre of people with keys to the executive washroom.

If you’re like most people, you’re not in line for the CEO slot at your company. What can you do to help your chief executive get smarter about meeting the needs of your global customers? The Common Sense Advisory Colloquium at the recent Localization World in Barcelona sent delegates home with five killer arguments on how to convince your executive team of the value of localization and translation. And our upcoming report on “selling” your globalization strategy to those who matter most in the corner office will become required reading for everyone on your localization team. As we recommended in Business without Borders, “globalization needs a champion” who will be the global internet strategist, the producer, and the expectation setter. Until more CEOs wise up to the world, the burden will fall on localization managers and directors to carry out this critical role.

See: Common Sense Advisory

Here’s a new ProZ.com podcast. These podcasts are designed to provide an opportunity to hear the week’s news, highlights of site features, interviews with translators and others in the industry, and to have some fun (see announcement).

I figured many freelance translators would like to receive some tips on how to succeed in their professional careers, so this week I interviewed ProZ.com member and ATA-certified French to English translator Corinne McKay to talk about the new edition of her book “How to Succeed as a Freelance Translator“. In this interview she explains what inspired her to write this book, why freelance translation is not for everyone, which questions freelance translators should ask themselves before accepting a job, which aspects of running her own translation business she finds more difficult and the possible reasons for the success of her book.

You can listen to the interview here: ProZ.com podcast, 2011-07-01

I hope you enjoy this interview as much as I did. Corinne’s clarity of thought and sense of humor are really inspiring. You can read more about Corinne’s thoughts on the translation industry and becoming a translator in her blog Thoughts on Translation.

See: Translator T.O.

This post in the Translation Times blog reminds translators of the importance of using their time efficiently.

“As entrepreneurs, the only resource we have is our time. We know this is not the first time you’ve heard this, but it’s important that we use our time efficiently. One of our favorite — yet very simple — strategies is to write short business e-mails. Whenever we can, we try to keep them to no more than three paragraphs, and we use pre-written templates whenever we can. Think about it: with the amount of e-mail that gets sent these days, we could spend all day just answering e-mail, and that wouldn’t be very good for our business.

(…) In addition, as translators, we are also writers, so we might as well demonstrate our abilities by writing concise and to-the-point messages. Looking for another way to get the most out of your time when writing e-mail? Become a faster typist. There are a lot of great online programs that will help you do just that. To find out your current speed, try TypingTest.”

See: Translation Times

Clinical research studies continue to shift south and east.

The advantages of outsourcing to emerging countries are clear: reduced costs, easier patient recruitment, and access to larger numbers of qualified patients in a growing spectrum of diseases.

Even so, sponsors remain challenged to address regulatory differences and overcome linguistic and cultural barriers. Foreign sponsors also have the additional burden of ensuring that international ethical standards are maintained.

The current issue of Applied Clinical Trials has a good article on this topic. Language & Culture in Global Clinical Trials shows that by taking language, culture, and socioeconomic factors into account, sponsors are protecting the public image of clinical research. In addition, the authors recommend that to overcome barriers to global clinical trials, sponsors

must establish a local presence; work with reputable investigators and sites; and partner with language service providers and CROs that have experience in a particular area.The article contains many good references and is available on ACT’s web site.

For more on the globalization of clinical research, take a look at the following articles:

• Overseas clinical trials – appalling or good business?
• The challenges of global clinical trials
• Insurance for international clinical trials

See: ForeignExchange Translations, Inc. Blog

Rapper Snoop Dogg says he wants to release his own dictionary titled “Doggtionary”, which would provide explanations for the unusual words and phrases he uses.

“Oh that’s dope. I like that. A Doggtionary, where I break down my words, give you a definition and put it in a sentence with a noun, an adverb and an adjective. You might have one there,” contactmusic.com quoted him as saying.

He explained one of the phrases that he often uses “fo-shizzle”, which he says means “definite”.

“To me, it just means ‘for sure’ or ‘a definite’. Is everything cool? Fo-shizzle. You feeling good today? Fo-shizzle.”

The computer application MediBabble provides medical staff with a way to ask key medical history questions in 5 languages.

MediBabble is a free medical translation application. Developed by UCSF medical students Brad Cohn and Alex Blau, it provides spoken translations of a large number of medical questions that help establish a patient’s medical history.

MediBabble is the result of three years of serious work by the two students and a small team of friends and supporters. And it has received true praise from the medical community and medical organizations.

MediBabble can be considered a successful real-time translation aid because it works only within a limited context: the questions necessary to establish a patient’s medical history and to get basic information about symptoms.

Using a scroll-down touch menu, health professionals can find a variety of questions in English that can be played out in audio in 5 different languages. The voices are not computer-generated, but recordings by native speakers from the medical interpreting profession. Read more.

See: Language Translation. Inc Blog

The thirty candidates for the German indie book prize have been announced. Lots and lots and lots of outstanding indie books, encompassing poetry, novels and short stories, and diaries by dead anarchists. About a third of the titles are translations.

You can vote on your favourite online, and there are samples from all the books on the site too.

Here is the full list:

Belleville Naomi Schenk/Ulrich Rüdenauer (Hrsg.): Archiv verworfener Möglichkeiten

Corso Georg Stefan Troller (Hrsg.): corsofolio Paris

Diaphanes Joseph Mitchell: McSorley’s Wonderful Saloon

Dittrich Roland E. Koch: Dinge, die ich von ihm weiß

Droschl Monique Schwitter: Goldfischgedächtnis

Edition Rugerup Les Murray: Größer im Liegen

Eichborn DBC Pierre: Das Buch Gabriel

Frankfurter Verlagsanstalt Nino Haratischwili: Mein sanfter Zwilling

Haymon Andrej Kurkow: Der wahrhaftige Volkskontrolleur

Jung und Jung Katharina Geiser: Diese Gezeiten

Klöpfer & Meyer Nina Jäckle: Zielinski

Kookbooks Daniela Seel: Ich kann diese Stelle nicht wiederfinden

Kunstmann Paul Murray: Skippy stirbt

Libelle Christoph Meckel: Russische Zone

Luftschacht Martin Mandler: 23 Tage

Luxbooks John Ashbery: Ein weltgewandtes Land

Mairisch Lee Rourke: Der Kanal

Merlin Tahar Ben Jelloun: Jean Genet

Milena Carl Weissner: Die Abenteuer von Trashman

Rotbuch Akos Doma: Die allgemeine Tauglichkeit

Schöffling Simon Urban: Plan D

Secession Steven Uhly: Adams Fuge

Stroemfeld Peter Kurzeck: Vorabend

Taberna Kritika Franz Dodel: Von Tieren

Transit Indri Thorsteinsson: Taxi 79 ab Station

Verbrecher Erich Mühsam: Tagebücher, Bd. 1 1910-1911

Wagenbach Ascanio Celestrini: Schwarzes Schaf

Walde+Graf Christian Saehrendt: Die radikale Absenz des Ronny Läpplinger

Weidle Heinz Hilpert: So wird alles Schwere entweder Leicht oder Leben

weissbooks.w Breece D’J Pancake: Stories

See: Love German Books

Vietnamese and Lao people will have their first bilingual dictionaries which are expected to help them better use each other’s language.

The project to compile the Vietnamese-Lao and Lao-Vietnamese dictionaries was part of the cooperation programme between the two countries’ Inter-Governmental Committees.

The Ministry of Education and Training told an appraisal ceremony for the project which was held in Hanoi on June 28 that the project began in 2007, aiming to compile the first Vietnamese-Lao and Lao-Vietnamese bilingual dictionaries based on the principle of lexicography.

The dictionaries include tens of thousands of phrases, fundamental words, common science and technology vocabulary, idioms, proverbs.
They are also expected to help Lao scientists to compile a set of Lao-language explanatory dictionaries in the principle of lexicography.

The two dictionaries will be officially published soon, thus creating conditions for the efficiency of comprehensive cooperation between Vietnam and Laos.

See: VOV News

For over half a decade Croatia has been in talks in its bid to become a member of the European Union. Its progress has been marred by its failure to meet entry requirements including cooperation in punishing war criminals, but the country with a population of 4.4 million has now made the necessary changes in order to be accepted. The statement by the EC that Croatia had met the requirements in the relevant policy areas means that the Eastern European country is set to become the 28th member state in 2013.

Croatia will continue to be monitored until 2013 but the decision is, according to the EC President Jose Manuel Barroso, “a signal to the rest of south-eastern Europe. It shows that enlargement works, that the EU is serious about its commitment, and that structural European reforms in the countries pay off.” Croatia’s deputy prime minister Domagoj Milosevic also commented that “just the fact we have concluded the talks will signify a new era in our relations with foreign investors.”

The almost certain inclusion of Croatia into the EU is an encouraging sign in terms of Croatian translation services. EU documentation will need to be translated as well as qualified interpreters employed for EU meetings. It will also mean an increase in trade and interest from foreign capital.  Read more.

See: PR Web

George Mason University in Northern Virginia (and its website) keep the world’s largest online database of English accents.

Steven Weinberger, director of George Mason’s linguistics program, started the Speech Accent Archive back in 1999. Since then, he and his graduate students have collected nearly 1,500 samples of spoken English from people of roughly 300 different language backgrounds.

English speakers worldwide visit the free online database and send recordings of themselves reading a certain 69-word paragraph that had virtually every sound in English.

The Archive does more than just provide audio recordings. Each sample is accompanied by all sorts of information: a phonetic transcription of where the person speaking was born, when he started speaking English, and a list of the specific ways that the speaker tends to change the standard spoken English.

See: WAMU

In his GTS blog, Dave Grunwald shares some interesting information he received about US federal government spending on language services. Here are some excerpts:

It is estimated that over 10% of the total spending in the US is done by the various branches of government: State, Local and Federal. That’s a lot of money! Language services is no exception, and the USA Federal government is a heavy-duty buyer. Should translation companies try and get a piece of the pie? Many of them are already working with the government, and many more are trying. It is good business sense. Here are some interesting facts and figures for you to consider:

• According to a CommonSenseAdvisory firm study on US federal spending, the US government spent over US$4.5 Billion on outsourced translation and interpreting services in the last two decades.
• The US Federal government spent about $150 Million in the Federal Fiscal Year Oct 2009 – Sep 2010. Click here to see how this money was spent in the same fiscal year and the names of the companies that were awarded the contracts. Click here to see the names of the GSA-approved suppliers which received contracts in the same fiscal year.
• The GSA (US General Services Administration) website publishes its Language Services – Schedule 738 II, the framework for most of the budget on language services procurement.
• This is most interesting! Would you like to know how much your competition is charging? One of the nice things about doing business with the federal government is that they require complete transparency from their suppliers. Any company that has a contract with the GSA must publish their prices. Just go to the GSA website to check prices. Read more.

See: GTS Blog

It seems it takes a while for Americans to understand the lingo of Irish emigrants. Irish Central, a website for Irish Americans, has translated some of our common slang for the benefit of the natives.

Irish Central staff writer April Drew thought it “high time to explain some euphemisms often used by new Irish immigrants”. We probably take a lot of these words and sayings for granted, but think about it for a minute: they mustn’t have a clue what we’re blabbering on about most of the time.

Here’s Ms Drew’s list of translations:

Jacks – Bathroom/toilet

Mot – Girlfriend

Coddin – fooling

Chancer – a person trying his/her luck

Gombeen – fool

A right head da ball – A bit of a fool

A few sandwiches short of a picnic – not all there in the brain department

There’ll be skin and bones flying – describing a fight or threat to someone

Bold – naughty (mostly used for children)

Crator – used as empathy for someone (you poor thing)

No more interested in NAME than the man on the moon – I don’t like NAME

Losing the run of himself – trying to undertake something that may be impossible

The cut of him/her – someone is disheveled looking

Hurler on the ditch – Someone giving advice that they know nothing about

I’m grand – I’m fine

Craic – Great fun

Kerry for Sam – County Kerry to win the All-Ireland Football Finals and bring home the Sam Maguire cup.

As for the main picture, that’s a screengrab from an App called the ‘Irish Slang Dictionary‘. It’s less than a euro on iTunes and bit of craic to play around with.

See: JOE IE

The U.S. Justice Department has reached an agreement with the Colorado Judicial Branch to make sure litigants who are not proficient English speakers are provided interpreters in all court proceedings.

Justice launched an investigation into Colorado court policies for providing interpreters and language assistance after a complaint was filed in 2004 alleging Colorado was not in compliance with federal law.

The person who complained did not have a case before any court but examined the state’s practices and filed the complaint with the Justice Department, said Rob McCallum, a spokesman for the Colorado Judicial Branch.

The Judicial Branch always has provided interpreters in all criminal cases — and civil cases in which the litigant was indigent.

However, people who could afford their own interpreters in civil cases were not provided interpreters or language assistance as a cost-saving measure, McCallum said.

Starting Friday, the Judicial Branch will provide those services at no cost to all litigants and will use its existing staff to cover those cases.

There is no information available about how many civil litigants who are not indigent are going to need those language- interpreting services, McCallum said.

Justice will monitor the new policy for three years.

A Court Interpreter Oversight Committee composed of a prosecutor, a public defender, an advocate representing the interest of minority populations and others with court-language access expertise will provide the oversight

See: Denver Post

Also see: Department of Justice orders protection of “Language Minority Populations” (U.S.)

China is constantly in the news as a growing economy. A programme this week also looked at the growing middle classes there and which goods from abroad they are buying. The Economist this week has a special section on it. It has the largest amount of internet users in the world. In February it was announced that it overtook Japan as the world’s second largest economy.

But an interesting article is out today looking at the unequal distribution of the wealth. And this could impact the strategies companies have in terms of where their products or services fit in terms of selling into China but also where their target audience is based geographically and what information they need to buy and service products. Have a read of this article that looks at some stats on the fact the main growth in China has been in the cities, but how much of rural China – and most of its economy is based on rural activity – is not feeling that benefit.

If China is in 10 years the leading economy, we all ought to keep savvy on trends and how this impacts buying behaviour and our strategies for marketing to those countries.

See: SDL Blog

The University of Oxford styleguide has decided that as ‘a general rule’ use of the serial comma should be avoided.

Here’s the official entry:

As a general rule, do not use the serial/Oxford comma: so write ‘a, b and c’ not ‘a, b, and c’. But when a comma would assist in the meaning of the sentence or helps to resolve ambiguity, it can be used – especially where one of the items in the list is already joined by ‘and’:The serial comma, dubbed the Oxford comma because of its use by writers and editors based at the University of Oxford, had been waning in popularity. For example, most journalists in Canada and the U.S. who follow the AP or CP stylebooks do not use it.

The Canadian Press Stylebook has this to say: “Put commas between elements of a series but not before the final and, or or nor unless that avoids confusion. But reactions among the grammar police on Twitterseem to be divided, with strong opinions on both sides. All this over a punctuation mark.

The serial comma has had other brushes with fame, of course, even inspiring a song by hipster band Vampire Weekend. No semicolon, em dash or tilde can say that.

See: Huffington Post

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Global Warfare and Kingdoms of Camelot developer Kabam has opened a new European office, which will focus on localization and customer support for its international market.

The new Luxembourg ofice will be led by managing director Boris Pfeiffer, formerly of Monster Worldwide. It currently houses around 25 employees, but that number is expected to double by year’s end.

See: Gamasutra

Unprecedented Growth: Which 2007 hit generated the most sales revenue at its launch out of Spiderman 3, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, and Halo 3? It may seem like a surprise, but the actual answer is Halo 3, Bungie’s epic conclusion to the Master Chief’s story.

So while video games were initially targeting the ‘boy gamer’, it seems that a new, broader audience now confronts the industry, and hold different expectations for their games. For instance, video games now have to market themselves to a wider age range, both genders, families, and commuters, as well as their traditional user base. Current research by Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) shows that 40% of current gamers in the US are female, with 80% of this group opting to play more casual titles on the Nintendo Wii.

So, as the movie, music, and publishing industries seem to be stagnating, the rise of the casual gamer has ensured that the video game industry is gathering momentum. Statistical data proves this; in 2008, the gaming sector was worth $48.3 billion, which to put in perspective meant that, on average, 9 games were sold every second of every day.

The Problem

So why have video game developers been so apathetic towards the localization of their titles in this global market? Poor translations have often plagued the gaming industry, with some farcical examples including:

• ‘Congraturation!!! You have completed a great game. And proved the justice of our culture. Now go rest our heroes!’ from Nintendo’s Ghostbusters game of the 1980s.

While current games no longer see such aberrations, the gaming industry often fails to take the required time to adequately localize each release for the international audience. According to Justin Potts, the Localization Manager at Active Gaming Media, publishers occasionally demand a localization turnaround time of 48 hours. This seems to be a huge shame, as games can take years to develop, yet are undermined by a nonchalant approach to localization.

A Changing Paradigm?

For a major release, over half of sales can come from outside of North America. With this information, publishers need to become more accommodating when localizing their titles.

Video game localization can be a very interesting prospect for translators, as the text needs to remain accurate and functional, but it is also fundamental that it continues to entertain. Creative translators are assigned projects as opposed to a direct translation, and are able to make any changes deemed necessary. Some language experts even demand alterations to the story, design, and graphics to help a game localize.

Moving Forward

‘How do you truly globalize?’ asked Yoichi Wada, President of SqaureEnix at the 2010 Tokyo Game Show. ‘I think you have to work with people that grew up overseas, who grew up breathing the culture. It’s impossible otherwise’. To advance, it is essential for the video game industry to work with local translation experts, either in-house or through a translation agency. These experts need to employ creative translation, or transcreation, services to produce accurately translated content that will not only remain loyal to the original script, but also provide a relevant and entertaining experience for the gamer.

Yet, the localization process requires more than an accurate translation of text, as localizers are required to often amend the story, design, and graphics of a game. We have observed how the box art can change between the continents, and even how character names have been altered to suit the needs of a region.But with the gaming industry continuing to grow, it is essential for translators to receive training in this emerging field. With new games and new platforms constantly being developed for the expanding community of gamers, there are opportunities for translators and translation companies to work in this exciting industry. Now it is time for the video game industry to react to the global gaming market by spending the time and resources to localize new releases.

See: Game Kudos