The series consists of three engaging parts:

1. Educational Video: An introduction to the key terms and concepts in the song, providing valuable insight into its cultural and historical references.
2. English Translation: A clear and thoughtful translation of the lyrics, making the poetic beauty of the song accessible to a broader audience.
3. ASMR Lyrics Reading: A soothing experience featuring an ASMR reading of the lyrics, allowing you to enjoy the lyrics in a unique and calming way.

Click to watch all three parts combined in one video on YouTube.

Feedback Received

It is delightful to be able to engage our clients in a dialogue about culture, poetry and translation!

A client of Monterey Language Services shared a wonderful interpretation of Blue and White Porcelain of her own with us after reading our translation. She thought the song described the beloved landscape scenery of China as captured in blue and white porcelain pottery.

How did this story happen? Let us share how Monterey Language Services turned this beautiful piece into a fascinating project!

Spreading the Joy of Translation

The song “Blue and White Porcelain” by Taiwanese artist Jay Chou was released in 2007, so why did we choose it for our 2024 summer project? The idea didn’t come after a lot of planning or brainstorming, but as a sudden enlightenment.

At the start of the summer, Mei-Ling kept hearing “Blue and White Porcelain” in different places, so she decided to learn it. The more she sang the song, the more the beauty of the Chinese culture embedded in the lyrics resonated with her. Appreciating the poetry of the lyrics, Monterey Language Services decided to share the song with a broader audience by translating the Chinese lyrics into English.

Even non-Chinese speakers were able to join in this effort. In this video, Layla, a Spanish interpreter whose native language is English, read the translation as a poem. We then developed the reading further using ASMR techniques.

This story is an inspiring example of the power of translation to facilitate communication between people of different languages and cultures.

Collaborative Teamwork

This project is the product of collaboration between many colleagues and professionals. The end result surpasses what one person is capable of doing alone.

We started the project with Christoph, whose Chinese-to-English translation follows the syllable-count and meter of the original song and provided the foundation for what was to come. See our previous blog post for more information.

After the English translation video was complete, Shreya joined in. She suggested adding an educational video with eye-catching images to explain the key terms in the lyrics.

Layla thought the English translation was poetic, so she performed a reading in her clear and gentle voice. Her soothing tone inspired Shreya to suggest creating an ASMR version.

Finally, we wanted to create a complete sensory experience. Gary edited the background music and added sound effects such as rain falling on leaves, fire crackling, and pottery wheel clicking. These effects enhanced the video and made it atmospheric.

We are proud to mention that the younger generation also played a part. The background image of the ASMR video was drawn by De-Yi Lee, a junior high school student.

For this project, we have many people to thank, including the song’s original composer and singer Jay Chou and lyricist Vincent Fang. The song inspired a lot of creativity, which has made this project very enjoyable.

Through the collaborative efforts of many talented individuals, we were able to produce a video with a clear vision.

Video Editing

The combined video has three parts, and we created it in three different phases. As the videos consist of many different elements, video editing was required to combine and synchronize them. Smoothing the audio and creating seamless transitions between different segments were also fun to handle.

In the introduction to Parts One and Two, we used a stunning animated image of falling flower petals, while a blue and white bowl rotates in the background. On its own, the animation is beautiful, but when put it into our video, we felt that the speed was a little too fast.

The video is aimed to relax rather than energize, so we decided to slow the animation down, reducing the speed by half. The effect was immediate and magical. The animation was seamlessly integrated into the rest of the video.

From start to finish, we made sure that there are smooth transitions throughout the video. Our aim was to find a balance between joy and serenity as well as between majesty and simplicity, while maintaining a relaxing mood on the whole.

Translation Journey

Before translating the lyrics, we took the time to decide on our approach. We weren’t merely trying to produce a mechanical, one-to-one translation of the words. Instead, we aimed to create a singable English version that mirrored the rhythm and flow of the original song.

At the same time, we also wanted to faithfully convey the story told by the original lyrics. Therefore, every word went through a great deal of consideration and scrutiny.

To keep the translation accessible and easy for a non-Chinese audience to understand, some proper nouns had to be dropped. These included references to a Song dynasty style potter’s mark on a vase, and a town in Jiangnan, a region in China known for its romantic river scenery.

Both terms are richly evocative to a Chinese listener, but their dense cultural meanings could not be explained within the limitations of the syllable count.

For the Song dynasty reference, we simplified the phrase to “old potter’s mark”. Although “antique” may have been better at capturing the intended meaning, “old” was a better fit for the syllable count.

On the other hand, we omitted the reference to the Jiangnan region altogether. As Jiangnan’s literal meaning is “south of the river,” we gave up geographic specificity but kept its romantic associations by using the word “enchanted” in the same line.

After a process of painstaking deliberation, we are happy with the translation. It is both faithful to the original lyrics and singable to the original meter.

Interpretations of the Song

Song lyrics can be considered a form of poetry and can have many different interpretations. During the translation of the song, we had a debate about whether the speaker in the lyrics is addressing a blue and white porcelain vase or a human love interest.

One interpretation was that the speaker is an art lover recalling his encounter with a beautiful blue and white porcelain vase in Jiangnan. The art lover’s treasure hunt led him to discover the porcelain vase hidden behind a splashed-ink landscape painting among other works of Chinese art.

The other interpretation is that this is a love song that uses metaphors from Chinese art to describe his longing and the beauty of his lover.

Creative translation, also known as transcreation, of works such as “Blue and White Porcelain” can spark lively discussion, as there can be many different interpretations of the same text.

Behind the Scenes Part V

Please see samples here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLO-QGEbwcTr2MdhbLPPGszMw8Rdc5J9aI

Behind these formal presentations of audio video recordings, there’s something very intriguing and interesting happening behind the scenes. In a very liberal sense, we are not too different from journalists or reporters who report on stories due to inspiration from those around them. What primarily drove us to begin and continue this project were the comments and feedback from interpreters and our colleagues. They have helped prompt and shape our actions, ultimately leading us to explore further, and continue our quest for answers on what the future will be like between AI and interpreters. Some interpreters are worried about not being able to make ends meet in the future, while others are asking why they should worry about AI. Will human language disappear? Will humans become like computers communicating with each other without having to verbally speak as certain individuals claim?

Whether we like it or not, AI will become more and more prevalent on public transportation, on social media, on our phones, in our daily life, and even in our industry. There seems to be a trend where humans make language simpler and friendlier for AI, so it becomes easier and more accurate for AI to translate or interpret. In this way, humans become a conduit for AI and AI becomes a useful tool for people worldwide to communicate with each other instantaneously. AI has evolved to become our translators and interpreters, and this application of AI has steadily become more popular over time. Ever since Google Translate was released, there have been increasingly new AI platforms such as AI video translation, AI spokesperson translation, and so on, that have surfaced. AI has been developed so quickly and accurately that it is just a matter of time until humans fully adopt AI. We tried our hand using one of the latest AI platforms to translate/interpret one of our office videos into Chinese. The results were impressive, but not without some imperfections. The AI voice did much better than the usual, generic robotic voice we typically hear, which most likely has to do with voice cloning.

In the face of rapid development of AI, does it mean that eventually we as interpreters will no longer be needed? How should we give guidance to the younger generation who aspire to become interpreters or translators? These are serious questions that make us really sit down and think and here is what we would like to share.

AI voices are serviceable, but they lack the beauty and liveliness that human voices have. That’s why human voices will always have a place in our world. This is what we set out to prove with the Interpreters and Voices series, and we think we have succeeded. In this blog, we are giving a conclusion about our thoughts on AI and human voices. Everyone knows AI voices are usually robotic and monotonous, but with voice cloning technology, AI could sound better and less robotic. This is why, even in the future, human voices will always play a role because they have that personal touch, which allows us to feel heard and assured. In the Interpreters and Voices series, 17 of our passionate interpreter colleagues have recorded themselves reading various blogs on AI nature and capabilities. Our colleagues have demonstrated how human voices are beautiful and lively compared to AI’s. It shows how big of a gap there is and how big of a gap there will always be between human voices and AI.

First, thanks to the participating interpreter Liling who introduces the concept of “aura” from a mechanical engineering point of view. She said AI-voice interpretations lack a key element – “Aura”.  Aura refers to a quality integral to an artwork that cannot be communicated through mechanical reproduction techniques and was used by Walter Benjamin in his influential 1936 essay “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction”. Human-created artwork has its presence in time and space, its unique existence at the place where it happens to be, its ‘aura’.  Using this analogy, each interpreter recording has his/her unique interpretation in a unique space, time, and place, thereby creating an artwork with “aura”.

Second, while AI voices can only say exactly what they are programmed to say, interpreters are able to use their own individuality, smarts, and uniqueness to come up with clever phrasing that perfectly fits the situation, rather than just a word for word translation. Interpreters deliver words in a very exciting way that is palatable to the ear and also interesting to listen to. Each interpreter demonstrated their different interpretation of the script that we provided them. Some interpreters emphasized certain words. Others would, at times, speak at faster speeds. Some interpreters would ad-lib and sing certain parts while others would add a light laugh at a joke. Some interpreters go deeper with a dialogue style as if they are talking to each other, echoing each other, encouraging you to think further, or having a conversation with you. AI is not capable of this kind of responsiveness and communication. All the AI, regardless of which company develops them, lacks variation between them, making it easy to spot them almost right away even if it’s a clone of a human voice!

In the era of AI impacting every industry, including our translation and interpretation industry, these interpreters’ voices seem so wonderful and one of a kind. So we decided to create different collages of voices. We even have different colleagues work separately to create their own versions, and the results are stunning! Despite the colleagues making their own selections from the same pool of recordings, they arranged all the pieces together in different ways to convey their own take on the blog story. The entire project has been about human voices in range, richness, diversity and individuality.  It features different takes on the interpreters’ best individual moments, focuses on elevating each other to higher levels, and aggregates them to a beautiful, powerful collage as a whole. It serves as a reminder that we don’t want a world without human voices and also as a way to perhaps shed some light on the interpretation community. Quite a lot of work has been put into arrange everything for these purposes, but it’s a labor of love, and has been very enjoyable. We’re so excited to share it with everyone!

The video on Interpreters and Voices has a solo and two world versions. The solo version shows how powerful one person can sound while the world versions show how much excitement with many people from all over the world can generate. The world versions feature multiple interpreters from around the world, namely Asia, Europe, North and South Americas, and the Caribbeans. Each participating interpreter submitted their own unique and individual recording. Our colleagues combined them to the effect that it’s almost as if everyone is having a conversation with each other. It’s a truly beautiful collage of voices from around the world, all united for a forum discussion and you’ll feel like you’re right there with them!

It’s fairly easy to spot where different interpreters come from in the world, and it’s all thanks to their distinct styles. At times they are lighthearted, emphatic, or communicative that are embedded in their respective cultures. It’s truly a globally cultural feast! It’s also a showcase of the auras, emotions, and cultures prevailing in the world. Did you feel engaged listening to the interpreters? This collection of auras is something very difficult if not impossible for AI to mimic. We believe that as long as humans carry their own aura and pour it into their creations, AI will have a hard time getting a leg up over humans.

The video on Human Individuality, we’ve also created two versions: a trio and a quartet. The two versions feature three and four interpreters, respectively, and were also created by two different colleagues separately. The effect this makes is quite pronounced, and you feel as if you’re listening to two different pieces entirely.

For the short and sweet Thoughts about AI piece, we initially thought that with the way the content is structured, it’d be best for two interpreters to read it. But then what would happen if we added a third interpreter, someone who comes from another part of the world, instead of the duet of interpreters from the United States? The trio piece features wonderful chemistry between the three interpreters, and if you stay until the end, you’ll be rewarded with a surprise, which we are sure all listeners will enjoy! We have also made a solo version for those who might have been overstimulated by the different voices, and for those who might prefer just a single vocalist instead of an entire band. We enjoyed all of these so much, and absolutely recommend you check them out too! We’ve provided links to the audio and video series below for easy access!

Other than being fun, this project has also helped us see the bigger picture when dealing with translation and interpretation projects. Now we see our overall role very clearly and understand better what’s more important in the work we do. Therefore, we plan to show the series to younger generations, so they understand that translators and interpreters will always have work, and their value to this world will never change. The aura that naturally comes from being a human interpreter has and always will be something sought after. As long as we have energy and fun as humans and as interpreters, we will never have to worry about being replaced by AI. However, if we lose our energy or fun, we are doomed to surrender to AI superiority.

If you would like to encourage the next generation that there is a future for them, and they shouldn’t give up, we’d love to hear your advice to those who aspire to join our industry in the future. We will gather advice from all sources and present them in our next blog. We think that’s what we as translators and interpreters should aim for when we pass the torch on to the next generation in the face of a potentially AI dominated world! But we must always remember that interpretation is like art or music, or a fine-tuned performance, and that’s one thing area humans will remain dominant in for years to come!

Links to Audio Recordings:
1. Thoughts about AI (Solo Version): Posted
2. Thoughts about AI (Duet Version): Posted
3. Thoughts about AI (Trio Version): Posted
4. Diversity and Richness: Posted
5. Human Individuality (Trio Version): Posted
6. Human Individuality (Quartet Version): Posted
7. Interpreters and Voice (Solo Version): Posted
8. Interpreters and Voices (World Version 1): Posted
9. Interpreters and Voices (World Version 2): Posted
10. Human Aura: To Be Posted

Reference Video: Interpreters and Music

Christmas

A major holiday in the US and the world is Christmas, where Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ by giving gifts to friends and family members. It is a great time to remember what to be thankful for, repaying gifts, and giving kindness to others. Being such a significant holiday, December is often filled with Christmas imagery like trees, sparkling ornaments, and songs that fill malls, supermarkets, and radio stations.

Hanukah

Also written as Hannukah or Chanukah, this holiday celebrates the famous story about how, during a days-long fight against Syrian Greeks, candles continued to burn for eight nights rather than just one as was expected. Subsequently, Jerusalem was recovered by the Jewish, and the Second Temple was rededicated to the Jewish people. The significance of the holiday symbolizing resistance and religious freedom cannot be overstated.

Hanukah is observed by lighting the candles. On each of the holiday’s eight nights, one additional candle is lit by the ninth candle, called shamash (“helper” or “attendant”), until all eight candles are lit together on the final night of the celebration. Hanukah has attained major cultural significance in North America and elsewhere, due to often occurring around the same time as Christmas.

Kwanzaa

Like Hannukah, imagery around Kwanzaa also includes candles, one of which is black, three are red, and three are green. The black one, which represents the African people, is used to light the others; red represents the struggle that Blacks have gone through, and the green represents hope and future.

Kwanzaa is actually a newer holiday that began in 1966, created by Dr. Maulana Karenga after the Watts riots in Los Angeles. The holiday celebrates Black heritage and lasts for seven days, with each day highlighting a different principle: Unity, self-determination, collective work and responsibility, cooperative economics, purpose, creativity, and faith.

Las Posadas

Spanish for “The Inns,” Las Posadas is a Christmas-adjacent holiday that is celebrated in Mexico and some other parts of Central and South America such as Colombia, Venezuela, and Ecuador. The holiday takes place between the 16^th and 24^th, and acts as a reenactment of Mary and Joseph’s journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem, searching for safe lodgings for Mary to give birth to Jesus. The holiday highlights the importance of faith, prayer, and pilgrimages.

The nine days interval for this holiday represents Mary’s nine-month pregnancy. Each night, a child dressed as an angel leads others through the community, where they stop and ask for lodging. When they are refused lodging, those in the procession sing Christmas carols. At the end of every night, after the group is accepted into one of the homes or a church, mass is held, and children break a pinata that is usually shaped like a star—the one that led the wise men to Jesus’s birthplace.

Multi-Cultural Celebration

December is a wonderful month of the year; people from all over the world are taking multi-cultural celebration of holidays. The holidays bond us together as a family, a community, a nation, and even a whole world. Throughout the holidays, we can feel a sense of belonging and reflect on what is important to us. At Monterey Language Services, we will continue doing what we believe in—that is, to help community communication through translation and interpretation. We are thankful for having you to make our work meaningful and enjoyable. Happy holidays from the Monterey Language Services team, we send you our warmest wishes for a wonderful holiday season!

In this blog post, we would like to introduce an amusing fact: as neutral as numbers look, there is in fact significant and enriching information embed in them. Take the number “100” for example:

Arabic: ١٠٠ (Does this look familiar?)
Bengali: ১০০
Chinese: 佰，百
Greek: ρʹ

These are just a few examples. The truth is, the number “100” is no longer a number. Many cultures see “100” as a completion, as Arabic numbers suggest. The numeral “0” is a full circle in shape, and from both symbolic and meaning perspectives, the word “one hundred” suggests a completion, a milestone, or an achievement. For instance, in French, one hundred is “cent,” which is the prefix for “century” and “centennial” in English.

Language is a living thing. The more people interact, the more flexible language becomes. With speedy communication and instant information, it is very easy to take language for granted. That is not what we do at Monterey Language Services! We are passionate about language and appreciate language.  We express the passion and appreciation through our work and our blog.  Wow, 100 blog posts that’s incredible!

JAWS stands for Job Access with Speech, a software that uses speech synthesis technology to help the visually impaired enjoy numerous computer applications, programs, and even surf the web. The first version was released in 1989 by the American computer programmer Ted Hunter, who lost his sight in a car accident. That basic version has been updated immensely since then and now has windows support and even its own version of iTunes.

It’s nice to see technologies such as JAWS growing and getting more complex. Computers are one of our best sources of communication and should be available and easy to use for all.

Monterey Language Services watches the development of technology closely since it is such an important part of our work. In a way, the above-mentioned software localizes the computer programs for the blind. In this same spirit, Monterey Language Services offers software translation and localization services. We are currently working on a project to localize software into 14 different languages. In addition, we offer video-conferencing services for communication between two remote parties.

With that being said, we are sad to see that some languages are in fact going extinct. Google is doing their part as a worldwide service to provide these languages a lifeline:

As Google sees it, documenting the 3,000-plus languages that are on the verge of extinction — about half of all languages in the world — is an important step in preserving cultural diversity, honoring the knowledge of elders and empowering youth. And Google sees technology’s role in strengthening those efforts through research and collaboration.

This collaboration is through a website www.endangeredlanguages.com where people can upload the languages and share the most up-to-date information about them. An example is seen in the Miami-Illinois language, once spoken by Native American communities throughout the region. Although the last known person who spoke this language died in 1960, a contributor to the project is teaching himself the language through old documents. Because of this, children in Miami are now learning the language and even teaching it to each other.

If you know a language that is becoming extinct, post it in the comments or through the website and we will all do our best to preserve the language. Also, check out the video below to learn more about the project.

Information from: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2012/06/endangered-languages-project-supporting.html

Image from: http://www.endangeredlanguages.com

Melissa Krile’s is a former special education teacher who also has experience teaching lower levels of ASL. She has always noticed that her son had interest in expression through his hands and not only his mouth. By the time Noah Krile (now three years of age) was 15 months old, the toddler already knew 150 different signs.

Melissa noticed that by using signs such as “MILK,” “DIAPER,” “MORE,” and “ALL-DONE” Noah could clearly explain to her exactly what he wanted. In turn, this cut down tantrums and communication problems between them.

Now, Melissa is working with the Lancaster Parks and Recreation programs to hold Parent-Child ASL classes over the summer.

Source: http://www.lancastereaglegazette.com/article/20120523/NEWS01/205230313

Monterey Language Services provides medical interpretation and legal interpretation, which are among the most needed services.  In the medical field, we translate/interpret for doctors and patients, while also translating/interpreting forms, procedures, conferences, presentations, worker’s compensation, AME and QME.  In the legal field, the company translates and interprets depositions, witness interviews, court hearings, trials, conferences and presentations.

The following shows an example of our growth in the two areas.  We had to find interpreters in a pinch to help a hospitalized child, and a person who had been involved in a car wreck.  So, we made countless phone calls to interpreters who were available at the moment, and who could interpret for the right language combination.  This process required significant effort and motivation, but it was a very fulfilling experience knowing that we were helping people in their real lives when in times of need.

So what does this mean?  Overall, it relates to the concept of helping with communication.  We have the dedication and capacity to provide different kinds of language services in the medical and legal fields, whether it is an emergency or it is a language of which you have never heard before.

Please check out our pages about medical interpretation and legal interpretation:

http://www.montereylanguages.com/medical-interpretation-services.html

http://www.montereylanguages.com/legal-interpretation-services.html