A friend once asked me if I believed that my career was in danger of being outsourced to translation technology. In other words, he wondered if I felt that my profession was threatened by advances in machine translation, whereby potential clients can simply enter their text in a computer and  – voila! – an instant translation appears before them.

I told him that while technology certainly has its merits, true quality in translations can only be achieved through human attention to detail, human patience, and human passion. After all, how can a computer possibly convey the subtleties and feeling contained in a text produced by a human being, whose very essence is manifested in the words that he or she has written?

So no, I am not worried that my profession – and moreover my passion – is in danger of being made obsolete. On the contrary, I believe that every time a client of mine receives one of my translations, he or she will understand that my work, like that of an artisan whose livelihood could never be replicated in a factory, exudes the quality that can only come from the hands of a human being.

These thoughts on quality brought to you by our translator Mac Layne.

An example of the evolution of English can be seen in the spellings of words in Anglo-Saxon, also called Old English.  The following passage from the epic poem Beowulf is an example:

Hwæt! wē Gār-Dena in ġeār-dagum,
þēod-cyninga, þrym ġefrūnon

The words hwæt, dagum and cyninga translate to the Modern English words what, day and king, except that certain letters of course changed.  In fact, there are letters that disappeared entirely from English.  Two such letters in the passage above are æ (ash) and þ (thorn), but others include ð (eth) and ƿ (wynn).  Over time, these letters were replaced with other letters.  For example, “th” represents all interdental sounds in English.

Another notable change in English occurred in verb conjugations.  Until the 1600s, the second-person singular pronoun was thou, with the verb conjugation –(e)st, as in thou knowest.  Then, the pronoun and its conjugation were dropped from English and replaced by you, although it still appears in religious texts and in the works of Shakespeare.

English has evolved since it first arose.  It is classified as a Germanic language, and of course maintains a number of Germanic root words, like gold.  But the language also acquired words like happy from Norse, words like nation from Latin, words like hyperbole from Greek, and words like algebra from Arabic.  During the 20th century, the language added Bolshevik from Russian and mahatma from Sanskrit, in addition to the names of numerous kinds of foods from different cultures.

Now, it won’t be long before a device is made that will enable audio to be translated to any language for display. In fact, a lot of transcribing services already provide the option to do this. However, a mobile device that could perform this feature would be newsworthy material.

Project Glass is still in its development stage, currently gathering patents on all its technology that’s being developed.  If this technology hits the market, the price is sure to be high. However, imagine a similar technology coming out for an affordable price. The means of technology are endless.

Picture and Info Source :
http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2012/05/google-glasses-patent-hints-at-speech-to-text-display-for-deaf-users/

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.

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

People in the translation and interpretation business stress the importance of having a professional on site, no matter what the job is. In an everyday conversation using a bilingual friend or relative may be acceptable; however, trouble arises when that relative is put into stressful settings such as a medical, legal, or business situation.

When a professional interpreter is sent to one of these places, not only do they know how to fluently speak the necessary languages, but they are also trained in the specific field. For example, a professional interpreter that gets dispatched to a hospital will know how to say all of the different medicines and terms in both languages. On top of this, they have the knowledge to make the translation smooth and grammatically correct in order to avoid any confusion.

One thing to avoid when looking for precise translations are automated translation machines on the internet; although these are useful for translating short lines of text, more than a sentence may cause confusion. This leaves you with a poorly constructed block of text that is not fit for homework, business, or even a short conversation.

If you want proof, go to one of these websites and enter a large block of text from a book or magazine in English to a different language. After you have received the translated text, re-enter it and switch the languages to translate from the one you chose back into English.

Notice anything different?

~By Greg Will

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

Monterey Language Services has become a solid provider for the government and numerous corporations. Our domains of competence are expanding into medical, legal, technical, and business sectors, as well as academic and research institutions.

More and more clients appreciate the individualized approach and personal attention we give to each interpretation or translation project.

For example, when translating a CEO’s letter to his or her employees, we will ensure that the CEO is communicating directly with his employees in their own languages instead of translating the letter mechanically.

When translating a public education brochure, we make sure to write it in a way that is easy to understand and comfortable to read.

The power of language can transform a company in a number of ways.  We are amazed by how well companies and organizations understand and are utilizing the role of languages to its full potential.  Through constant interactions and communications, Monterey Language Services is growing with our customers.