The Journey Begins!

We are happy to announce that the way this blog is developed is changing! Last week’s post and the film, “Julie & Julia,” have inspired a new and exciting idea. Weekly posts will now be dedicated to researching and sharing information about world languages. While some will be about languages with which the majority of people are familiar, others will cover more obscure languages. Let the adventure begin!

The question upon which the idea was based is this: If one were to research a new language every week, how long would it take to cover every known language in the world? If you have a guess, please feel free to submit it as a comment to this post. It will be interesting to see what the timeline turns out to be!

So, Swahili?

Today there are so many languages in existence, I often wonder if a person were to research one new language per day how long it would take them to discover them all. Months? Years? Who can say? (Perhaps Wikipedia.)

As the Project Manager for Same Day, I am often asked what languages we cover. However, my broad yet true statement, “Just about anything!” is often interpreted as a challenge. So, people will try to shock and amaze me by bringing up some little-known language few people have ever heard of, let alone speak. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t.

One language that is often brought up in such instances is Swahili. It seems to be the measurement against which any language company with a claim like ours can be judged. Even people that don’t know a lot about language somehow know that there’s a language out there called Swahili and that not many people outside of Africa speak it. Thus, I’m very happy to announce that we do cover Swahili! And, here’s something interesting - according to Wikipedia, Kiswahili is the Swahili word for the Swahili language. One down, many more to go!

Software Development & Globalization Services

A recent report by Rebecca Ray highlights the perfect union that is formed when software development and globalization services combine. Although the notion seems highly intuitive, up to this point globalization has largely been considered an extra step in the process of creating software instead of part of the initial product. However, that will soon be changing.

This new way of creating software is projected to revolutionize the industry. The report strongly suggests that businesses serious about growth should consider this option as an obvious way to increase their competitive edge.

To find out more, please visit www.lisa.org.

The LinkedIn Controversy

Most of us by now are familiar with the idea of crowdsourcing. The role of crowdsourcing in the language industry and its possible effects, both positive and negative, has been widely discussed and debated.

Most recently, LinkedIn proposed to use a crowdsourcing project similar to that of Facebook and Wikipedia to localize their website. However, I believe their approach communicated an incorrect message to the translation community. Instead of coming across as a crowdsourcing effort, they asked in effect if professional translators would be willing to donate their time, or translate “for fun.”

An outraged translation community responded with pleas for translators not to become involved in the project on the grounds that LinkedIn was demonstrating a lack of respect for the profession. Again, I think it was just incorrect communication on the part of LinkedIn. Either way, they will likely have to come up with another solution in order to localize their website.

Ideas taken from "Translators Wanted at LinkedIn. The Pay? $0 an Hour"
New York Times (NY) (06/29/09) Newman, Andrew Adam

Machine Translation – A Good or Bad Idea for Your Business?

First and foremost it should be said that, in general, translators are not against machine translation.  In fact, most use some form of machine translation as a starting point for their translations.  However, the wisdom and effectiveness in using machine translation as the only source of multilingual communication for your business depends entirely on the situation.

Happy Birthday, USA!

In honor of Independence Day on July 4^th, I would like to include a small piece of the preamble of the Declaration of Independence as a quiet reminder of the principles this country was built upon.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
In addition to being one of the most recognized sentences in the English language, it’s also among the loveliest.  Its message is both concise and powerful.  Thus, I invite anyone who chooses to read this to think about what this means to you and what you can do to continue the legacy left to us by the founding fathers in insuring and promoting the life, liberty, and happiness of yourself and others.

What are the Top Ten World Languages? (Did Yours Make it in?)

Have you ever wondered what the most widely spoken languages in the world actually are?  As the Project Manager for a translation company, someone asked me that question recently and I didn’t have an answer!  I knew Mandarin would top the list, but had no idea what would follow.  Some were very intuitive and others surprised me.  In case you’ve ever wondered, here they are, listed by number of native speakers.  Enjoy!
 1.     Mandarin – 873 million speakers
2.     English – 508 million speakers
3.     Hindi – 497 million speakers
4.     Spanish – 438 million speakers
5.     Portuguese – 236 million speakers
6.     Arabic – 206 million speakers
7.     Bengali – 171 million speakers
8.     Russian – 145 million speakers
9.     Japanese – 122 million speakers
10. French – 113 million speakers Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_languages_by_number_of_native_speakers

So, How Long Does It Take to Become a Freelance Translator?

The short answer would be, it depends.  However, some basic steps and time approximations from one man’s experience are as follows:

• Startup Phase – 1 month
  • Basic website
  • Targeted resume
  • Join professional associations
  • Make area contacts
• Gathering Clients – 1-6 months
  • Research companies to see who’s hiring
  • Send out resumes and business cards
  • Apply to agencies
• Building Your Business – 6-18 months
  • Steady clients
  • Other projects
  • Additional job opportunities
• Expanding Your Business – 1 year and onward
  • Marketing campaign
  • Ability to pick and choose between projects

 If you’d like more details on this topic, see http://thoughtsontranslation.com.

Crowdsourcing and Translation

As defined on Wikipedia, “Crowdsourcing is a neologism for the act of taking a task traditionally performed by an employee or contractor, and outsourcing it to an undefined, generally large group of people or community in the form of an open call.”  Perceived benefits of crowdsourcing include:

• Problems can be explored at comparatively little cost, and often very quickly.
• Payment is by results or even omitted.
• The organization can tap a wider range of talent than might be present in its own organization.

Some possible pitfalls of crowdsourcing include:

• Added costs to bring a project to an acceptable conclusion.
• Increased likelihood that a crowdsourced project will fail due to lack of monetary motivation, too few participants, lower quality of work, lack of personal interest in the project, global language barriers, or difficulty managing a large-scale, crowdsourced project.
• Below-market wages or no wages at all.
• No written contracts, non-disclosure agreements, or employee agreements or agreeable terms with crowdsourced employees.
• Difficulties maintaining a working relationship with crowdsourced workers throughout the duration of a project.
• Susceptibility to faulty results caused by targeted, malicious work efforts.

For further information on crowdsourcing, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crowdsourcing.

 The effects of crowdsourcing on the translation industry are debatable.  On one hand, it follows that some companies will turn to crowdsourcing to fill their translation needs.  However, as such a method requires a much longer time continuum to complete in order to receive quality results, it is likely that many companies will continue to outsource their translation needs to well-known professionals in the field.

Translation as an Art Form

“If literature is an art form, then the translator must also be an artist.”  Such reads a statement from Kersti Juva who is arguably the world’s most widely known translator.  Her fame began when she was appointed an “Artist Professor” in Finland.  This position has earned her attention not only in Finland, but throughout the world. 

As one might expect, Juva, who has translated works from authors ranging from A.A. Milne to William Shakespeare, has much to say on the topic of translation as art.  She explains, “Translating can be described more or less like this: I dress myself in the original text and start to imitate the author’s gestures and movements . . .”  She also describes how a good translation must both resemble and yet differ from the original text: “If one sets out from the premise that the translation must be the equivalent of the original text in another language, translating is impossible.  A translation cannot empty the original into a new language.  The true goal of a translation is not to resemble the original text, but to fill its place, or, perhaps better, to create a similar place within the target culture.”  By doing so, the translator allows those in the target language to enjoy literature from all over the world. 

To learn more about Kersti Juva, visit her website: www.turanko.net/kersti/classics.html