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Do you speak more than one language?

If you do the advantages are obvious. Or are they?

There’s an increasing amount of scientific research that suggests the extra work bilingual brains do when translating has additional benefits – especially in old age. More.

See: BBC

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Copies of a new Chinese translation of Indian Nobel Prize laureate Rabindranath Tagore’s Stray Birds by Chinese writer Feng Tang have been pulled off the shelves after readers complained about the “vulgar” language used in the book.

In a rare response to readers – especially parents of school-going children on whose reading list the book is on – Zheng Zhong, publisher of Zhejiang Literature and Art Publishing House, said on his verified Weibo account on Monday that the publishing firm had pulled Feng’s translation from bookstores and online shops over the controversy.

The firm would decide whether to resume sales of the book after experts review the material, Zheng said. More.

See: South China Morning Post

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As the New Year beckons, the British Council is calling on people in the UK to make learning a foreign language their resolution for 2016. More.

See: BBC

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[…] Interpreters are easier to obtain with better technology. One analysis points out that physicians tend not to use interpreters much in the system I was using. It’s where the patient speaks to the interpreter over the phone then passes the phone to the physician for interpretation. Advancements in technology to two handsets and video phones now bring the telephone interpreter into the room with my patients and me. Some studies show these technological improvements have increased the use of interpreters by physicians. More.

See: wbur’s

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En 2015, el equipo de ProZ.com en Argentina propuso la iniciativa ¡Argentina está de powwow! y convocó a todos los traductores e intérpretes argentinos —y afines— a invitar a otros colegas a visitar y conocer sus ciudades organizando un powwow presencial. Los powwows de ProZ.com son reuniones informales de grupos de usuarios del sitio organizados por traductores locales y que representan una excelente oportunidad para entablar relaciones profesionales con otros colegas y socializar con ellos. More…

See: Translator T.O.

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[…] How far are we from one, really? Expert opinions vary. As with so many other areas of machine learning, it depends on how quickly computers can be trained to emulate human thinking.

Vikram Dendi says we’re very close.

“It’s cool to stand here and look back and say, ‘We really turned science fiction into a reality,’ ” Dendi, the technical and strategy adviser to the chief of Microsoft Research, tells All Tech. More.

See: NPR

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The Société Française des Traducteurs (SFT) is pleased to announce that registration for the 11th edition of its Medical English Seminar (SAM) is now open. Held from March 14‑18, 2016, at its traditional venue at the medical school of Lyon, SAM is the go-to event for professional French/English medical translators of all levels.

SAM is your opportunity to hear renowned medical and scientific specialists discuss their expertise, learn new skills and strategies in medical translation, and network and build professional relationships with colleagues from around the world. In addition to the many workshops and presentations, this year’s edition features an apéritif d’accueil, a gastronomic dinner and – in an exciting innovation – a translation slam.

For more information and to register for SAM 2016, click here! Registration closes February 22, 2016. To take advantage of the early bird rate, make sure to register by February 5, 2016. More.

See: SFT

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It’s official now. Google is not the answer to everything under the sun. Not, at least, in Maharashtra.

The BJP-led government in the state has barred its officers and employees from using Google’s popular translation tool for rendering official documents in other languages.

The ban, imposed through an official notification on Monday, comes in the wake of a major embarrassment to the state government over a faulty translation of a circular for imposing sedition charges. More.

See: Hindustan Times

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What languages do you speak and are they different than the languages you use online? According to a recent study by prominent mathematical linguist András Kornai, less than 5 percent of the world’s languages are going to make the transition to the digital realm and the Internet is contributing to the demise of the other 95 percent.

Kornai, in his research, estimates that 2,500 of the over 7,000 spoken languages in the world are considered endangered and that the vast majority of languages (spoken or otherwise) are not capable of what he terms “digital ascent.” That is, they won’t make the leap to online written usage. Kornai argues that if the written form of the language is the primary method of communication, then making the digital ascent is easier. To survive in the coming years, languages must function digitally. Unfortunately, many of them are already dead.

The primary registry of data about the world’s languages is the Ethnologue database of the Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL). The SIL estimates that there are 7,102 languages currently in the world (December 2015). Of that number, 916 (or 13 percent) are considered dying languages and since 1950, 367 languages have gone extinct, a rate of loss of five languages per year. More.

See: Big Think

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The BBC has announced the launch of a new production tool to provide audio in alternate languages for its news outputs, apparently incorporating existing translation technologies.

Built by BBC news labs, the workflow involves uploading the script of a video news item and the subsequent voice-synthesis of the resulting translation. The service is launching initially in Japanese and Russian. The video, embedded below, shows the process in action, with the narration provided by one of the synthetic voices – and even if the Hawking-style choppiness gives the simulant away immediately, it does appear to provide an above-averagely authentic flow of speech.

Digital Development Director James Montgomery comments in the post “I’m very excited about this trial. The BBC has some of the best original journalism in the world, with correspondents around the globe. Technology like this means we can bring more of our international journalism to more people.” More.

See: The Stack

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The challenges of interpreting from a signed language into a spoken one were under the microscope at the 2015 conference of the European Forum of Sign Language Interpreters.

Interpreting from a signed language into a spoken language presents many challenges but is relatively rarely discussed. With this in mind, the Polish Association of Sign Language Interpreters (SPTJM), hosts of the annual European Forum of Sign Language Interpreters (efsli) conference, made the topic the theme of the 2015 meeting. And nearly 300 sign language interpreters and trainers from across Europe traveled to Warsaw to participate in the discussion. More.

See: AIIC

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[…] What then is a profit margin that would make sense from an economical viewpoint both for the translation agency and for the translator, a profit margin that would at the same time be practical and morally justifiable?

Let’s compare the typical profit margin of most translation agencies, which I believe is between 40 to 60 percent, to another industry that also uses a system of agencies employing large numbers of independent workers, for example, the real estate industry. More.

See: Patenttranslator’s Blog

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A translation and interpretation firm that provided services to the federal government and other clients violated federal labor laws and underpaid its nationwide corps of interpreters by $1.47 million in wages and benefits, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.

A Wage and Hour Division investigation found that Monterey-based Language Line LLC failed to calculate properly overtime payments due to employees working beyond 40 hours in a workweek, a violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act. As a result, the division ordered the firm to pay more than $500,000 in back wages and damages to 635 employees. More.

See: INQUIRER.net

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[…] Every day, children, other relatives, friends, and even untrained hospital staff are asked to step in to do a job only competent, professional medical interpreters should be performing.

These dangerous practices persist despite federal law requiring hospitals and other health care providers to offer language services.

These institutions should be meeting their obligations. But it’s also long past time to require insurance companies to make medical interpretation available just as they cover exams, prescription drugs, and other health care essentials.

So far, we’re not holding insurers to that kind of requirement.

As we continue transforming our health care system through the Affordable Care Act (ACA), we need to incorporate professional medical interpretation into those efforts. The federal government should require insurance companies to make medical interpretation available to all patients who need and want it in their course of care. More.

See: The Huffington Post

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Guwahati: National Book Trust (NBT) director and Sahitya Akademi award winning author Rita Chowdhury is very keen on bringing Bodo literature to the global stage and has urged upon Bodo Sahitya Sabha to facilitate the cause of translation.

World classics should be translated into Bodo language and the best of Bodo literary pieces should also be converted into English and other prominent languages. “Here the Bodo Sahitya Sabha can play a decisive role by conducting workshops with writers who are involved with such works. I wish to see Bodo literary works in the global arena. But, it has to be done properly,” said Chowdhury. More.

See: The Times of India

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[…] Native speakers such as Coffey are in high demand in South Korea, where learning English borders on a national obsession. Some 20,000 foreign ESL instructors work in the country’s public school system as well as in private tutoring academies called hagwons.

Local law allows only citizens from seven English speaking countries to teach: Canada, the US, the UK, New Zealand, Australia, South Africa and Ireland. But some teachers who aren’t from North America say schools won’t hire instructors with their accents and some say their bosses even ask them to fake an American accent in the classroom.

Many South Koreans prefer the American accent over others because of their country’s historical and cultural ties with the United States, says Jasper Kim, who lectures at Seoul’s Ewha Women’s University. More.

Read the full story and listen to the podcast in PRI here: http://www.pri.org/stories/2015-12-18/whats-proper-english-south-korea-it-starts-sounding-american

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NEW DELHI – In a tiny apartment in a rundown alley in New Delhi, Rakesh Kumar Misra is working against the odds to bring India’s ancient Sanskrit language to the country’s millions.

The 4,000-year-old classical language was traditionally used by Brahmin intellectuals and Hindu priests. Rarely spoken as a mother tongue in India, Sanskrit is often dismissed as a dead language.

But Misra is undeterred, spending up to 12 hours a day hunched over his computer, translating and writing articles for a weekly 16-page newspaper in the script.

“My aim is to take Sanskrit to the masses, to make it accessible to everyone,” said Misra, who has a master’s degree in Sanskrit studies and sees the language as indelibly linked to India’s heritage. More.

See: The Japan Times

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Immigration services could be disrupted if mass action by up to 2,000 interpreters goes ahead in January

The system for processing immigration claims across the country is set to grind to a halt in the new year if a threatened mass boycott by Home Office interpreters goes ahead.

The looming action in protest at pay cuts is the first time the estimated 2,000 interpreters have threatened to stop work. The organisers of a fair pay campaign – who are running it anonymously for fear of reprisals by the Home Office – say that so far they have received solid support from several hundred interpreters. A meeting with Home Office bosses has been scheduled for 11am on Monday to discuss their concerns. More.

See: The Guardian

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4^th T & R (Theories & Realities in Translation & wRiting) Forum. Organized by the Università Suor Orsola Benincasa (Naples, Italy) in collaboration with KU Leuven, Belgium, University of Western Brittany, Brest, France with the support of Assointerpreti and the Università di Salerno and the participation of Yildiz Technical University (Istanbul, Turkey).

Keynote speaker: Michael Cronin, Chair, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Dublin City University, Ireland

See: Università degli Studi Suor Orsola Benincasa

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I’m wrapping up my work for 2015, which is always a good chance to take stock of the hits and misses of the past year. This is something I think every freelancer should do: no matter how long you’ve been freelancing, you need to keep moving toward your long-term goals (or risk stagnation!). Following are some questions I think every freelancer should ask, and I’ll answer them here; feel free to add your own thoughts in the comments. And thanks very much to everyone who read and supported my blog this year. It’s up to about 1,200 view on an average day, and over 8,000 subscribers, which is exciting!

Five questions every freelancer should ask at the end of the year:

Question 1: Are you happy with how much you earned, as compared to how much you worked?
Question 2: What were the highlights?
Question 3: Any low points?
Question 4: Did you do something that challenged you?
Question 5: Long-term outlook?

Read the full post in Thoughts On Translation here: http://thoughtsontranslation.com/2015/12/21/wrapping-up-2015-five-questions-to-ask-yourself/

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