Technology can make remote interpretation as easy as 1-2-3, but at the same time, there can be any number of technical problems that can interfere with an interpretation assignment. Even though problems do happen, it’s our responsibility to minimize them. Having the prudency to keep an eye out for any problems and their solutions is a key skill for interpreters and everyone to have in modern days. In today’s blog, we will be highlighting some common connection issues and what to do in those circumstances.

Interpretation Links

Occasionally, the link you use to log into the meeting may be incorrect. The most common scenario is probably due to a separate meeting being created, causing you to wait in an empty room. If you as an interpreter find yourself in this case, it is best to get in contact with the language service provider you are working with as quickly as possible to ensure that you receive the correct link.

Interpretation Times

The appointment time may be mistakenly written by any party involved in the scheduling, causing the interpreter to be either early or late. To prevent this from happening, it is best to set a reminder that’s sent 24 hours before an interpretation event starts, so all parties including the client and interpreter can double-check on the proper start time and the right link.

Updates

Many of us have experienced this situation. As soon as logging into a conferencing application, you were notified that the application requires an update. This can cause you to be nervous about being late to the meeting. Testing your application at least 30 minutes before logging into the appointment to make sure everything is up to date is a good way to ensure that you aren’t affected by any sudden updates.

Sudden Change of Interpretation Methods

For various reasons, there may be a sudden change in the method for remote interpreting, such as resorting to the telephone or another type of video conferencing service. In such circumstances, make sure to keep your email and phone ready and handy to see if any notification of changes come to you.

Power or Internet Fluctuations

Fluctuations in power or internet can be unavoidable and unpredictable. You may be able to circumvent power outages or battery shortage by planning ahead as much as possible. Charge your phone, laptop, and computer fully. Always think of a backup plan. If occasionally, things just can’t be helped. In these cases, be apologetic and contact your language service provider or the meeting host for contingency.

Watching the Disney multi-language video reminds us of the exciting times that our professional voice actors have brought to a variety of media. Monterey Language Services had quite a few opportunities to work on projects of this caliber. In one case, we formed a large team of voice-over talents to bring voices to multiple roles in an environmental preservation video. We were overdubbing the video from English to Mandarin Chinese. The dialogue and stories were told by various characters. village elders, youth, village leaders, national corporate executives, and local businessmen spoke about preserving their environment and the movement towards modernization.

The story was rich and compelling, so having the same actor voice multiple parts would not have given the characters as much depth. In light of this, a large team of Mandarin voice-over talents was brought in to a local recording studio to voice more than a dozen roles. The array of voices one after another was similar to the relay of different singers in the Disney multilingual video – very exciting and interesting!

We made sure that the entire production process, which required writing up a transcript, translation, voice selection, recording, and post recording engineering, was of a professional quality and thus the final product was a proud presentation that both our client and the end audience could enjoy!

Monterey Language Services provides subtitles, voiceovers, and audio recordings as well as translation and interpretation services. Please feel free to contact us to request a quote.

The expected readers for the Chinese version of The New York Times are the, according to the Times, “educated, affluent, global citizens” of China’s fast-growing middle class. The site will feature about 30 articles a day, two-thirds of which will be translated articles originally published for the English version of the paper, and the other third being original articles from Chinese journalists and freelance writers. The articles will range from international news to editorials.

Although China has some strict laws against what can and cannot be published, the Times will side-step that by not sourcing the physical site in China. The paper’s foreign editor Joseph Kahn said, “We’re not tailoring it to the demands of the Chinese government, so we’re not operating like a Chinese media company. China operates a very vigorous firewall. We have no control over that. We hope and expect that Chinese officials will welcome what we’re doing.”

This new translation service also has brought jobs to about 50 writers, translators, and editors. Chinese-based readers should enjoy the new various forms of media produced by the Times and all of the articles they would have normally not been able to read.

Monterey Language Services is a translation and interpretation company, offering high quality translation and interpretation services in over 175 languages.

We’ve uploaded some excerpts on our YouTube channel (Monterey Language Services).  Feel free to check these out, you may find them interesting!

According to an article posted in The Australian, this has become the case. However, they further go on to explain that the movement to reclaim dying languages has grown in larger numbers. However, any attempt to save languages will have to grow in larger numbers in order to have a chance of success. The problem is the vast majority of people feel it is too difficult to learn another language, thus simply choose not to.

Despite this, there are still millions of people that share a passion for languages. On the Monterey Peninsula alone there are hundreds of students fully devoted to learning new languages. With this undeniable passion, the culture of languages will still be here to stay for a good while.

The full article from The Australian can be seen here: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/higher-education/opinion/stop-revive-and-survive/story-e6frgcko-1226385194433

Since its creation, Twitter has been a worldwide phenomenon that has connected everyday people with their favorite celebrities, friends, and everyone in between.  Although the service has been provided worldwide, the company has been trying to translate the business tools into 33 languages in order to reach an even broader audience.

These languages include: Afrikaans, Arabic, Basque, Catalan, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Farsi, Filipino, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Malay, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese (Brazil), Russian, Simplified Chinese, Spanish, Swedish, Thai, Traditional Chinese, Turkish, Ukrainian, and Urdu.

At the Twitter Translation Center, translators can sign on using their Twitter account and help translate various blocks of text for the company. The upside for the translator is experience in the field, as well as their name possibly on the “Top Ten Translators” for those who have been translating the most.

The @MRYLanguages Twitter account isn’t in this top ten just yet, but it does connect directly with Director of Translation Mei-Ling Chen where she will gladly answer questions posed about the company, translation services, or any other related topic in the industry.

Because rather than hiring a professional interpreter, the court let one of the witnesses’ uncle do the interpretations.

The problem occurred because rather than following Ferrier’s instructions of interpreting word for word what the witness said, the interpreter went beyond relaying and started to explain what his nephew was saying.

Usually courts will not allow anything but professionals to interpret for this exact reason. Most court interpreters are trained exactly for this purpose so that there is no need to explain anything that the witness is saying, thus, preventing complications like this one.

Source: http://republicanherald.com/news/problems-with-interpreter-lead-to-continuance-in-auburn-attempted-homicide-case-1.1315986

A study put on by the Common Sense Advisory found that more translation in Africa could improve economic development, human rights, and even save lives. The study titled “The Need for Translation in Africa” surveyed a total of 364 interpreters and translators for African languages in 49 countries. Combined, these people represented 269 different languages.

269 languages is a large amount, but that only accounts for a little more than 10% of the languages on the continent. Major languages are used by millions of people such as Amharic, Berber, Hausa, Igbo, Oromo, Swahili, and Yoruba, however, across the continent there are over 2000 languages. Problems occur because of the 2000 languages, only 63 are used in the judicial system and around 56 are used in public administration.

Some of the data from the study is as follows:

• 97.14% of respondents said greater access to translated information would help individuals in Africa understand their legal rights.
• 95.85% of respondents said greater access to translated information would help protect human rights in Africa.
• 94.92% of respondents said greater access to translated information would have a positive impact on the collective health of people in Africa.
• 94.87% of respondents said greater access to translated information would help Africans in times of emergency or natural disasters.
• 91.96% of respondents said greater access to translated information would help people in Africa contribute to the political process.
• 88.78% of respondents said greater access to translated information would help prevent international, civil, ethnic, or communal conflict in Africa.
• 63.07% of respondents said greater access to translated information could have prevented the loss of life of Africans in their family or circle of friends.

If you are interested in looking into some data collected here is a link to the study: http://www.commonsenseadvisory.com/Portals/0/downloads/Africa.pdf

Picture taken from: http://exploringafrica.matrix.msu.edu/students/curriculum/m8/map1.php
Source: http://kontax.com/Greater_Access_to_Translation_Could_Save_Lives_and_Protect_Human_Rights_in_Africa-341-en.html

In this era of social media and instant communication, translation has stepped up to meet the needs for the Facebook generation. Most people have some friends on Facebook who speaks more than one language; personally I see posts in Spanish, Italian, French, and Croatian.

Recently, I have noticed a new feature underneath these posts in languages other than English that says “See Translation.” This is a button to click that will automatically translate the above text to English, or whatever default language you may have. I tried this out with a post in Spanish and the results were subpar. Instead of translating the text as a complete sentence, this feature translated every word individually, which can change the understanding of the post.

If I knew someone was translating my Facebook posts from English into a language of their choice, I think it could be unfortunate for them to take the post out of context because of poor translation. This could cause for a strain on a relationship with someone who is a Facebook friend, but may speak a different language.

The benefits are for those trying to learn and practice their vocabulary with a new language. It can be beneficial to follow a celebrity who posts in Spanish with proper vocabulary and translate their posts into English. Another way it can be positive is that these words that were once unknown can at least be given a general idea of what the post is about. Pau Gasol is one person who writes his posts in English followed by the same post in Spanish in order to avoid confusion.

By Sam Pereira

The name John Steinbeck is probably more associated with Monterey County than is any other name.  In light of Steinbeck’s unrivaled influence in Monterey County, several of us decided to check out the house in which he grew up in Salinas.  Here we were at 132 Central Avenue, Salinas. 

Visiting Steinbeck’s house was beyond edifying.  This Victorian-era abode gave a sense of what it was like to grow up in the early twentieth century, almost to the point of making a person feel as if he is a young John Steinbeck. 

We were not only visiting a historic landmark, but also having a literary experience by being in the house. A quote that we think really does a good job summing up Steinbeck is what he said while accepting the Nobel Prize for Literature: “Literature is as old as speech.  It grew out of human need for it and it has not changed except to become more needed.”  The first thought that came to mind was that if we were to replace “Literature” with “Translation” or “Interpretation”, the quote would sound great as well.

We started to debate who the greatest American author is who can be compared to Shakespeare, Molière and Cervantes.  We came to the conclusion that Mark Twain, Ernest Hemingway and John Steinbeck are the ones who have come the closest.

Discussing literature while having lunch in John Steinbeck’s childhood home puts one in the right frame of mind to feel compelled to come back to the office and write a blog about this encounter with one of America’s greatest authors.

Not only was Steinbeck a great author, but he also represented the heart and soul of this region of California.  In his novels, Steinbeck looked at the ethnic makeup of Monterey County, at the lives of different groups of people, and at the significance of the agricultural industry in central California’s economy. 

His novel East of Eden is set in Salinas, while Cannery Row is set in Monterey.  These novels show Steinbeck’s relation to the environment in which he grew up, and even give a sense of the cities today. In looking at the best and worst of central California, John Steinbeck showed himself to be probably the best that the region has ever had to offer.  There will very likely never be another like him.