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Developing a mobile app? Plan ahead for translation
May 18th
By Heather Clancy, SmartPlanet
There is a veritable frenzy of mobile application development underway as businesses look to extend their identities and services to smartphones, tablet computers and other mobile devices.
But any company hoping to win over an international audience can make that job significantly easier by planning ahead for the translation process, said Matt Hauser, vice president of technology sales for TransPerfect, which develops linguistics and translation technologies.
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The Top 100 Language Lovers – The competition 2012
May 18th
The bab.la language portal and the Lexiophiles blog announced the start of the Top 100 Language Lovers 2012 competition on May 2nd. While the nominations phase is now over, the voting phase runs until May 28th.
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Was it a car or a cat I saw?
May 18th
by Matt Bramowicz
What’s a fun way to combine OCD with the written word? Palindromes! Not to be confused with the dark and depressing Todd Solondz movie, palindromes are words, phrases, or sentences that are spelled the same way forwards and backwards.
We are probably all aware of the classic examples from childhood, when that annoying friend who thought he had stumbled onto a language conspiracy would not stop repeating, “Did you know ‘race car’ spelled backwards is ‘race car’?” Or, even worse, “Hey Matt, ‘A man, a plan, a canal: Panama’!”
While palindromes are a fun way of annoying your friends, they can actually be pretty cool when you find new ones that make sense and are pretty clever. Even more fun is coming up with your own. Instead of filling out that Sudoku box on the train, why not try Palindromania! (Sorry, I’m trying to make it catch on).
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Wikipedia Busts the Language Barrier
May 17th
If you have ever pored over the Wikipedia entry “Conspiracy theory”, you may think you know what it is like to go through the looking glass. But have you read all there is to know about UFOs in Spanish? Or Hebrew? To unlock such strange information, Brent Hecht of Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, and colleagues have created Omnipedia, a software system that lets users browse topics from up to 25 Wikipedia language editions at once.
“There is so much information out there that isn’t in your native language, some of which reflects cultural viewpoints,” says team member Patti Bao.
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Intelligent crows can recognize human voices
May 16th
Crows are known for their craftiness, but new research into voice recognition show just how intelligent they are.
CARRION CROWS CAN DIFFERENTIATE between familiar and unfamiliar humans solely by the sound of their voice, according to a new study.
Crows have long been considered crafty, but the new research out of Europe confirms their intelligence, at least in discerning friend from foe.
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Milton Fingerman, who interpreted for Dachau survivors, dies at 90
May 16th
By John Pope, The Times-Picayune The Times-Picayune
Milton Fingerman, who, as a GI during World War II, was an interpreter for the cadaverous survivors of Dachau when that death camp was liberated, died Monday at East Jefferson General Hospital. He was 90. Those who knew Mr. Fingerman, a retired clothing buyer who had worked for stores such as Lord’s and Krauss during the 52 years he lived in New Orleans, said he was a kind, gentle man who loved children and was a longtime holder of New Orleans Saints season tickets, a volunteer at his synagogue and the Aquarium of the Americas and a member of the Krewe of Caesar.
But in the spring of 1945, Mr. Fingerman, a native of New York City who held an associate degree from the City College of New York, was a staff sergeant in the Army’s 20th Armored Division. One of the division’s companies liberated Dachau, the concentration camp where thousands upon thousands of people — there is no reliable number — had perished. Mr. Fingerman arrived at the camp about two hours later.
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The Benefits Of Being Bilingual
May 16th
By Jonah Lehrer of Wired
Samuel Beckett, born in a suburb of Dublin in 1906, was a native English speaker. However, in 1946 Beckett decided that he would begin writing exclusively in French. After composing the first draft in his second language, he would then translate these words back into English. This difficult constraint – forcing himself to consciously unpack his own sentences – led to a burst of genius, as many of Beckett’s most famous works (Malloy, Malone Dies, Waiting for Godot, etc.) were written during this period. When asked why he wrote first in French, Beckett said it made it easier for him to “write without style.”
Beckett would later expand on these comments, noting that his use of French prevented him from slipping into his usual writerly habits, those crutches of style that snuck into his English prose. Instead of relying on the first word that leapt into consciousness – that most automatic of associations – he was forced by his second language to reflect on what he actually wanted to express. His diction became more intentional.
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Duluth’s Phrazer Maker Sees Room For Device And Human Interpreters
May 15th
A Duluth-based company’s multilingual medical device won’t necessarily put human interpreters out of business, its inventor says.
“Our device is all about providing extreme accuracy and very timely service,” said Mat Johnson, founder and CEO of GeaCom Inc., which produces a device called the Phrazer out of the seventh floor of the Dewitt-Seitz building in Canal Park. “I could see the Phrazer and interpreters working together.”
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Understanding the difference between translation and interpreting
May 14th
Effective translation and interpreting are both vital assets to global businesses looking to seek growth in rapidly expanding economies, such as Brazil, China and India.
Effective translation and interpreting are both vital assets to global businesses looking to seek growth in rapidly expanding economies, such as Brazil, China and India. However, there are many distinct differences between these two disciplines and it’s important to establish the right service for your needs when embarking on a multilingual project.
Put most simply, translation deals with the written word, while interpreting deals with the spoken word. Translators and interpreters are not interchangeable, and the two disciplines are very different. Each is a profession in its own right and specialists hold different skills, expertise and specializations.
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