Is Virtual Reality Language Learning of the Future?

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Virtual reality has become the premiere source of party entertainment in the modern world – but is there scope for this to extend beyond entertainment and into the domain of learning? There are studies that suggest virtual reality can help you to improve your language skills through interactive experiences. Does this really mean that future translation services could be provided by those who have learnt languages through virtual reality?

The main reason this is powerful as a learning method is because it simulates interaction which is proven to be more engaging than traditional methods. You can also practice more extensively without the need of tiring out another human being, as well as saving yourself from the possible intimidation of facing somebody and struggling to communicate.

In the future we will easily be able to simulate life-like scenarios including ordering food in a restaurant, going on a date in a coffee shop or even sitting in an airplane – the potential is limitless. This functional and practical learning method will set language learners up for much more efficient use of language in everyday scenarios and more importantly, let them do it in a fun and deeply engaging way. It is also not a bad tool for kid’s party entertainment either.

For more information about virtual reality and how it can be used in a manner of different ways, you can contact VR Base, a London-based virtual reality equipment hire specialist firm.

How do you say “get lost” in ‘Elephant Language’?

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The world of languages can often throw up some odd translations due to the sheer complexity and varied ways of how diverse cultures have expressed themselves not to mention the customs of communities around the world. For these reasons, in a world of global communication professional translation services provided by professional translation agencies has played a pivotal role in connecting different language speakers as some words or expressions in one language could mean something completely different, gibberish, or worse offend in another language and in some cases it may simply not translate at all.

But in truth translation and localisation services have come so far in the recent decades and the growing amount of technological advancements in recent years has seen the acceleration of improved, fast translations amongst humans that we are now starting to look at communicating with animals!

We have already seen with the Temptations ‘catterbox’ device which is hoping to translate cat ‘language’ and how Swedish tech company Gavagai AB are hoping to gain an understanding of dolphin communications and now the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust along with ElephantVoices have developed through over 40 years of research a text/emoji to Elephant translator. So if you have ever wanted to greet your partner or tell that annoying co-worker to “get lost” like an elephant, well good news, you can do exactly that right now!

All you have to do is head over to Hello in Elephant which was launched on 12th August 2017, World Elephant Day; input your phrase or emoji into the translator and you will be shown a quick video of the elephant translation. Other selected phrases include “I love you,” “Let’s go,” and “hello” to name a few.

But behind the fun of this elephant translator comes a serious message, the number of African elephants are decreasing at an alarming rate due to poaching and the effects of an ever-increasing human population. According to the Great Elephant Census the number of African elephants being as high as over 10 million at the start of the 20th century and now less than 400 thousand there has been a major decline in the elephant population. Hopefully this elephant translator can highlight the way in which elephants communicate with each other as a way to raise awareness and as a result conserve the African elephant population.

Original story: National Geographic.

Meet the woman creating positive change in literature and translation

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It is the month of August so in the world of literature and translation services it could only mean one thing; it is Women in Translation Month. Women in Translation Month or WIT Month for short is a movement that was started back in 2014 by an Israeli-born biology grad student Meytal Radzinski who, being an avid reader and possessing the ability of reading both in English and Hebrew translations of books discovered through tracking her own reading lists in translation that there were very little female writers who had their works translated as when compared to males.

So being the scientist that she is, Radzinski identified the problem and immediately started gathering information and when she had released the statistics it depicted a vast majority of books translated into English had been written by male writers. According to the statistics on Radzinski’s blog as of 2016 only approximately 30% of new book translations are from female writers. These statistics had amassed a great deal of attention amongst writers, bloggers, literature communities and translators to name a few and thus ‘Women in Translation Month’ was born.

When interviewed by The Forward’s Aviya Kushner, Radzinski explained that after she had released these little known statistics she was urged by another blogger to start an event or carry this on as a movement over a month so she decided August was the best month as it was for her the least stressful month.

WIT Month is run in the UK by the Arts Council backed charity, The Reading Agency and aims to even up the playing field of the gender gap when it comes to translations of literature from different languages into English because of this some great books and great writers could miss out of prestige worldwide acclaim as well as receiving accolades for their works and not to mention the limited financial translation of being available to only the original audience.

This year marks the third year of WIT Month and there are signs of progression as creator Radzinski says “Last year on August 30th I happened to be in New York and I saw a shelf in Book Culture devoted to women in translation.” Hinting at a possible shift in thinking and with events happening from Dublin to New York and the movement continuing to gain momentum on social platforms further putting pressure on the publishers, it will only be a matter of time before change.

Read the full interview and Radzinski’s book suggestions here.

Image: Screenshot of biblibio blog.

The real meaning behind Despacito

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Arguably the song of 2017 and certainly the anthem of the summer has been the Spanish-written song “Despacito” (translation: “Slowly”) by Puerto Rican singer songwriter Luis Alfonso Rodríguez López-Cepero also known as Luis Fonsi featuring legendary Reggaeton artist Ramón Luis Ayala Rodríguez better known as Daddy Yankee.

The song itself has been remixed and repackaged to the English speaking world which features Canadian pop artist Justin Bieber to help the song gain popularity in English speaking countries and there is also an official Portuguese translation for the song featuring Brazilian singer Israel Novaes replacing Daddy Yankee.

The official video has amassed nearly 3 billion views on YouTube which many believe will become the most viewed YouTube video of all time as well accumulating a whopping 4.6 billion streams and counting leading Despacito to become the most streamed song in history as you can imagine the retail translation is big bucks.

But for those of us who do not possess the skills to understand or speak Spanish enjoy the songs melodic and rhythmic tone coincided with the reggaeton beats we could be forgiven thinking that Despacito is nothing more than a happy, innocent Latin American song. Well it turns out when translated into English the lyrics are more sinister than we might have originally thought.

You see the lyrics to the pop-reggaeton track are actually quite edgy with lines such as “Let me trespass your danger zones” and “I want to see your hair dance” it would be a big surprise that if the song was in English it would have even received the go ahead to be released let alone parents playing Fonsi and Daddy Yankee in front of their kids. Some of the lyrics get even more X-rated and you can see the full translation here on Billboards website.

Despacito’s lyrics were even considered bad enough in Malaysia to see the government ban the song from government-owned media platforms due to be “un-Islamic” and “not suitable to be heard” whilst advising other radio stations to follow suit.

But as the song is just so catchy we can just use the excuse that we don’t understand it and enjoy it anyway. Let us know what you think of the lyrics.

China aiming to eradicate translation fails

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We have all seen or heard of the dodgy translations (not carried out by professional translation agencies) that have been written up on signs, information boards and even advertisements from big businesses across China. You see China can often be a tricky place for English speakers whether you are a business trying to enter the market or just a tourist looking to get around. In fact we even dedicated a whole blog article about how big companies from the west such as Nike, Dior and Burberry; to name a few have gotten things so wrong in China with these retail translation fails.

As well as on the flipside how ‘DIY’ Chinese translation services carried out by Chinese locals can sometimes lead to confusion, frustration or humour amongst English speaking travellers. One time leading to a very heated argument between a shopkeeper and a customer over a “free tea” sign.

Well these tales of confusion and comedy might soon be a thing of the past according to authorities in China. The authorities in China announced that a new national standard of English translation will come into place from December that will affect 13 public domains such as financial, transport, medical and the entertainment areas according to the People’s Daily newspaper, China’s state newspaper. The aim is to implement proper localisation services which would spell the end of poor English translations that are too literal and riddled with grammatical errors on signs such as ‘Please do not feed the fish with your private’ or ‘Racist Park’.

This type of Mandarin to English translation is known as ‘Chinglish’ and is somewhat of an embarrassment within China as children are given English lessons early on. The newspaper goes on to say that the new English translations do “not contain content that damages the images of China or other countries”. So if you are out in China towards the end of the year, be sure to be on the lookout for such changes and let us know the worst ever translated sign you have ever seen.

This new app helps you verify your Google translation is accurate

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Most of us at some point have attempted to use language translation apps like Google Translate to assist us with conveying our message from one language to another, whether at work dealing with a client who does not speak or understand our language or perhaps when on holiday trying to communicate with the locals when hand gestures fail! The go to for fast instant translation services is usually through a quick Google search where you are able to translate your text or speech into more than 100 languages at the click of a button.

Now many Artificial Intelligence (AI) assisted software such as Google Translate which we have previously discussed lacks human touch and thus lacks nuance especially when you are trying to translate a complex message. As a result the meaning behind what you are trying to say gets lost in translation which can prove to be a non-starter and even costly especially when in professional settings like business meetings. This is where the benefits to you for using a professional translation agency to help you with your language translation needs comes into effect.

Now on the other hand not everyone requires professional translation services and a new app called Boomerang has taken on a task to correct inaccurate Google translations. The app which was developed by Ishmael Shabazz and Heidi Helen Pilypas is designed to help you verify that what you are trying to say in another language actually makes sense before presenting it to the intended party. This works where the app translates your source language to your target language and then translates the content back to the original source language allowing you to make sense of it before you send it out. The app which is currently on the iOS platform translates your text using Google Translate then translates it back to you to ensure that your message reads as you want it to in another language. The app currently translates in 104 different languages.

The Boomerang app is free to download but as with many apps these days has ad’s. For a subscription of $1.99 however you are able to utilise the app ad free according to The Verge.

Although this app appears to be basic it could help prevent the most of awkward situations like what was demonstrated on The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon where actress Ana Hathaway sang songs translated through Google translate into another language then back to the original language which although created some good comedy for TV could have been disastrous had that been a serious setting.

Although many new creative apps seam to edge closer and closer to eliminating the need for human translation services it seems a long way ahead before the need for professional translators will be a thing of the past. Businesses and individuals who require their translation to be the most accurate still need a qualified translator to translate or interpret their message as accurate as can be.

How machine translations are being used for good over evil

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We recently brought you a post about how machine translations were used for evil, but today comes a story originally reported on Newscientist.com about how these artificial intelligent assisted translation services can in fact be used for the good.

The development of AI assisted machine translations might not be any use when translating documents, specifically technical ones and they will produce ‘awkward’ real time translations that might get you into trouble, but one area in particular that could see AI translations becoming valuable is for translations of sign language.

Machine translations are being used to help translate sign language into text and then back again into sign language for those who are hard of hearing or deaf. A Dallas, Texas based start-up KinTrans have been trialling this technology in government offices and banks in the United Arab Emirates.

The way KinTrans sign language translator works is by means of a 3D camera which records the hand signs being gestured by the individual using sign language; the hand movements are then translated by the device into text. It can also be used the other way around for those trying to communicate with a deaf person but don’t know sign language, by typing the message in text the translation into sign language will then be shown on screen using an avatar.

KinTrans currently supports American and Arabic sign language with 98% accuracy according to the company’s founder Mohamed Elwazer. Although with an estimated 70 million sign language speakers and over 100 different dialects, they are looking to expand on this in the future with sign language for Indo-Pakistani and Portuguese translation services.

Another company SignAll from Budapest, Hungary along with Gallaudet University in Washington DC, USA has also developed similar technology to aid students who are deaf or cannot hear well. They aim to have the largest database of sign language sentences, as of now it can translate around 300 signs from American sign into English text and the CEO Zsolt Robotka hopes his device will have learned 1000 signs by time they start their trials next year.

Of course like any new technology there will be teething problems and initial issues that will undoubtedly be sorted as technology advances but this is the way in which machine translations can do good for humans and make life easier, who knows we could eventually have these machine translations running perfectly like human translations, American sign language to Hebrew translation services and vice versa.

Image by: langfordw on Flickr

3 ways to boost your marketing activities

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The business market is a very competitive place to be whether you operate in the tourism  industry or legal sectors many businesses find themselves constantly trying new ways to differentiate themselves and stand out from the crowd and this can be a challenge at times. There are many ways in which businesses can reach their target market some of which are highlighted below.

  1. Invest in a good website

This is by far one of the most effective ways of marketing your business especially if you aim to reach an audience outside your local community. A website today must be fully functional and mobile friendly as more and more people use their Smartphone’s when it comes to their online activities. Most Smartphone’s have the ability to give users the chance to download apps whether it is banking apps or news apps. Ensuring your site is mobile responsive or even taking it to the next level where you can create an app for your service will ensure you are ahead of the competition as not only will you rank better in search which will ensure you are visible to a wider audience but you also will be able to monitor online behaviour for your audience and adapt your marketing strategy accordingly.

  1. Use professional translation services

With many consumers more comfortable purchasing in their own language this is a part of your marketing mix worth tapping into. Take for example you are an English tourism agent who helps people book holidays and tours. If you aim to target more people in China it may be worthwhile you investing in professional Mandarin translation services as this is likely to boost your enquiries allowing you to achieve more sales. Often times people look at translation services as too costly but forget to see past the greater benefits this may have on their marketing.

  1. Actively use social media

We all know that in 2017 social media is not just some cyberspace platform where teenagers and twenty-something’s get to showcase their ‘perfect lives’ go on rants or snoop on others! Many businesses ranging from large corporations to small companies and freelancers have been tapping into the benefits of social media. With a chance to reach millions of users on a daily basis surely it is a no brainer that you can benefit from increased brand awareness and the ability to get your products and services in front of your intended audience without sitting and waiting for them to find you.

These are just a handful of ways in which your business can reach a wider audience. There is plenty of information online which goes into depth and can all be found by a simple Google search. Sites like Search Engine Watch and Moz provide a great staring point.

What other methods would you recommend?

Image by: Brisbane City Council

Ever wanted to talk to the animals? You might be able to very soon

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Translation services, whether it is translating a sentence or a whole advertising campaign, it is a very important tool in understanding or getting a message understood in another language. Sometimes to convey your messages to an audience who speak the same language but different locale you need localisation services, for media translations you might need transcription services or if you needed a simultaneous translation the interpretation services are what you need.

Whatever the type of translation service you require you would be pretty well covered by the vast amount of professional translation agencies out there, But how about if you wanted to talk to the animals? Dr. Dolittle comes to mind whenever the idea of being able to communicate with animals is brought up, that the idea is nothing but nonsense some have even argued that if communication between humans and animals was to exist the outlooks and reference points of two different species could be so different that it would be pointless even trying.

Well it turns out that the notion of being able to understand animals through the means of translation services could be realised sooner than you think! We previously talked about the ‘Temptation catterbox’ which aims to translate a cat’s meow into human languages; well now it’s the turn of dolphins.

Swedish language tech company Gavagai AB along with KTH Royal Institute of Technology are working together with the aim of being able to understand the language of dolphins. Gavagai AB has already developed language analysis software that has grasped 40 human languages. They plan to have an understanding of the way dolphins communicate by monitoring bottlenose dolphin using Gavagai’s language analysis software.

Jussi Karlgren the Gavagai co-founder and KTH adjunct professor had this to say when speaking to Bloomberg “We hope to be able to understand dolphins with the help of artificial intelligence technology,” as well as commenting on the complexity of dolphin communications “We know that dolphins have a complex communication system, but we don’t know what they are talking about yet.”

The project will run for four years and they hope to have an understanding on the dolphin communication by 2021. This could be the first real breakthrough in being able to understand animals and have them understand us. Who knows we could have something like dolphin to Romanian translation services or rabbit to German translation services sooner than we think!

Why you must not overlook language translation services to boost international sales

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Doing business internationally in present times is something that can be easily done providing you have the medium to reach your target market, have the channels to distribute your products or the means to deliver your services. With the likes of social media platforms such as Instagram and Twitter continuing to be top branding and advertising platforms which are not only free but can each put you in front of 700 million active monthly users on Instagram and around 317 million active users on twitter respectfully.

Gone are the days when big top brands with hefty budgets had almost the entire market share in a multitude of industries which could have been attributed to lack of choice from the consumer. With things having shifted drastically over the years and there is no sign of this slowing down. Take for instance the local bakery or vintage clothes store in your local area whereas before they would have been limited to their local area and relied on word of mouth to advertise their products however today at the click of a button, with a good social media and internet marketing strategy they are able to place themselves amongst the big names in the industry and give themselves a fighting chance to gain market share.

In addition with shipping companies like DHL, UPS and FedEx shipping to nearly every corner of the world you can guarantee not only to get in front of people who are searching for your products but to also be able to deliver you products to them in a speedy way.

With more and more people choosing to skip the hustle and bustle of having to go to a store to shop and as technology continues to shape the way in which people shop online, many companies are taking advantage of this opportunity by upgrading their e-commerce platforms and taking advantage of language translation services.

With many free tools such as Google translate which is able to convey your website content into another language at the click of a button this will surely lead to more sales? Well that is something that in theory works but marketing managers need to be careful about using automated translation tools when it comes to reaching an audience who does not speak your language.

It is therefore imperative to use a professional translation agency. Although the likes of Google translate will translate your content word for word the lack of human touch can misinterpret your message altogether and not only prevent you from gaining new customers but could easily result in you losing existing customers who may no longer trust your brand. Adding translation services to your marketing budget will yield results especially if your product or service is in demand on an international scale.

Many reports have showed that people prefer to shop in their native language and studies by Common Sense Advisory found that more local language content on a website lead to a greater likelihood of purchase.  

If you require translation or localisation services you can contact Exchange Lingo today to discuss your needs.

Image by: Robert Scoble on Flickr

Are emoji translations more than a gimmick?

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In a previous post we have already touched to the emergence of emoji’s or emoticons and how they are now being used every day to communicate with one another instead of using actually words. And now in fact there are now emoji to text translation software’s available to download on your phones right now. You could be forgiven by thinking this is all just a gimmick and nothing really more than a novelty that would eventually lose its appeal. But for some people these alternative translation services mean much more to them.

In a story originally reported by VICE’s Motherboard; they tell a story of how a stroke survivors use of emoji to text translation software is having a positive impact for people who have communication problems, helping them to break the barriers.

In 2005, Judy Crane was at the peak of her powers in medical sales when she was diagnosed with aortic dissection at the age of 47. As a result of a complication from the surgery of her aortic valve, she had a stroke she which left with paralysis and aphasia. Aphasia affects the part of the brain responsible for communication. Crane had problems reading, writing, speaking and processing information; this inevitably left her unable to continue her job.

Crane, who runs the Young Aphasia Communications Club, said to Motherboard that all she wanted to do was to get her message across and tell her story and that not being able to convey her message was frustrating as well as isolating and anything that could aide this would be ‘wonderful’.

There are an estimated two million people in the United States alone who suffer from aphasia, according to the National Aphasia Association (NAA) but not enough technology to support them. However Crane did use Dragon’s speech recognition software as well as things such as speech to text and predictive texting via her phone. This is where Samsung’s emoji to text translator ‘Wemogee’ can help improve matters.  Wemogee is an app which is used to communicate through emoji’s, the sender will send their message using an emoji from the library of 140 phrases and the receiver will then get the fast translation of the message written in text. For example a smile and thumbs up emoji sent will be received as “How are you?”

When asked her thoughts on this app for people with aphasia she noted that although she did not really pay attention to emoji’s as such but friends in her Young Aphasia Communications Club will find it useful as sometimes those with this disorder will shy away from communication when it becomes too hard and this app just might be the way to keep them communicating which is vital for individuals with aphasia.

Crane can write, send emails and hold conversations now twelve years after her stroke and she advocates that assistive technology could be better in helping however they can.

Of course this technology is in the early stages so it is understandable there are glitches in the app but it just goes to show the potential in this software and that emoji translations are not as ridiculous as you once thought and who knows maybe one day companies would be offering multi-lingual emoji translations, emoji to Romanian translation services anyone?

Why many African languages may become extinct

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When it comes to discussing Africa and its role in the world there are many topics which are up for debate and despite being the second most populous continent with around 1.2 billion occupants and over 2000 languages spoken, it seems as though African languages are never at the forefront when it comes to global discussions on this topic. In spite of being hailed as the origin of human kind it is sometimes perplexing as to how such a culturally diverse, natural resource rich continent is often overlooked.

We previously talked about which languages in Britain would pay the most and found that on average the best paid jobs were those which required candidates to speak a second language with the top language being Mandarin. Evidence of this was highlighted based on a search of how many job opportunities were available online via jobsites. There are many reasons for this some of which can be attributed to China’s economic growth one being its shift to becoming a global force to be reckoned with over the last few decades. With China’s GDP ranked second on a global scale behind the US it is no wonder why many people are deciding to learn Chinese more specifically Mandarin which is China’s most widely spoken language which has also fuelled the need for Mandarin translation services for businesses looking to trade effectively with China.

Now back to the point about African languages one of the major reasons why African languages are not at the forefront of discussions could be put down to the fact that many African countries still use their colonial languages as their first language and these languages are also used as the official language by their governments and education. This is evident in countries like Nigeria arguable one of Africa’s richest nations and one of the most traded with western nation’s especially exporting oil which is one of its major resources. Nigeria adapted its colonial British language of English as its official language. Countries like Angola which was colonised by the Portuguese also adapted the language as the official language of the nation. This being the case many local languages although spoken by large numbers of the population, many of them cannot read or write in their native tongue despite being able to do so in their colonial languages.

This has become even more of a concern as more and more people travel across the world and settle down in different parts of the world where their local language becomes less and less relevant as they often communicate with their children in the native tongue of the country they are living in. You will find this is the case with many first and second generation immigrants in the UK who will communicate with their children in English instead of their mother tongue and thus eliminating the development of their native language. This is not only the case with migrants there are many native Africans within the African continent who cannot understand or speak their own mother tongue but are highly fluent in English. With that being said is there any hope to save African languages for generations to come?

What are your thoughts?

Image by: Paul Birnie

The awkward translations of the French election

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As the nation of France has been continuingly gripped by the race for the French presidency, the fate of their countries political affairs and futures are at stake. With the first round of voting, which was held on 23rd April 2017 indicating no majority winner the two most voted for candidates, Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen will face off in a run-off election this week on Sunday 7th May 2017 to decide who will become the next French president. Now the slogans of each political party is usual something that sends a clear strong message across to the public that embodies the whole ethos of the party in a short phrase so least to say they are pretty important, but how much meaning do they lose once translation services are used to make it legible in another language?

In an article originally reported by international new network FRANCE24 they take a look at how each of the potential French president’s slogans and party names translate from French to English. They started with the most awkward English translation, that of the far-leftist candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon.  Mélenchon’s campaign was named “La France Insoumise” which makes complete sense in French but in English has been awkwardly translated to “Unsubmissive France” by FRANCE24 journalist Florence Villeminot, although the author of the article Christine Buckley noted that another of their journalist suggested the phrase to be translated to “Indomitable France” whilst others like Politico have used “France Untamed”, The New York Times went with “France Unbowed” and “Rebellious France.” This just goes to show that there are many different ways that words can be translated and even the best French translation services can be in disagreement of a translation.

The rest of the campaigns translation into English were more or less straight forward with the conservative François Fillon slogan being “Le courage de la verité” which translates to “The Courage of Truth” and Buckley commented on the fact that ironically the truth part was not so accurate as he had been plagued with scandals so the slogan was swiftly changed to “Une volonté pour la France” or “Willpower for France”. To which political activists then changed to “Un vol pour la France” which actually means “Theft for France,” due to the scandal involving Fillon. Socialist candidate Benoît Hamon’s slogan read “Faire battre le Cœur de la France” which translated well into English, “Make France’s Heart Beat Again.

Of the two remaining candidates left running for the presidency, far right’s Marine Le Pen’s campaign slogan is simply “Au Nom du Peuple !” which means “In the Name of the People!” in English. Her opposition on the other hand centrist Emmanuel Macron’s “En Marche” campaign was meant to translate to “Onward!”, but like most translations this was up for debate with some English language-based media outlets using the terms “Forward” or “On Our Way”. Saying this political translations are not unlike marketing or retail translation services as many political parties just like businesses will have a slogan to sum up what they are about or represent and these phrases can easily be misconstrued  when being translated into other languages and essentially lose their impact or their meaning altogether.

Let us know your thoughts.

Google translate songs?

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We all know about the bad press that Google translate receives when it comes to language translation. Obviously these awkward translations that Google translate produces are no match when compared to translation services carried out by human translators at professional translation agencies.

But regardless the discussion of whether machine translation software’s like Google translate will ever be taking over professional human translators remains a hotly debated topic, and of course with all the advancements in technology within the past couple of years and all the different applications and gizmos who is to say that the day when machine trumps man in the translation fields is not closer than you think?

Imagine the world in just a few years where you could be getting your Portuguese translation services from a machine or even further down the line when you can receive localisation services from a robot!

Of course this is just an exaggeration, but we are not truly sure of what the effects or what role these new machine translations will have on the translation and interpreting industry but one thing is for sure they are not good now and we should still make fun of them whilst we have the chance.

This is exactly what television host and comedian Jimmy Fallon decided to do when he dedicated a segment of his popular late night talk show ‘The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon’ or ‘At night show stars Fallon Jimmy’ to which Fallon describes is the shows name once it has been translated through Google into Hungarian and back into English.

The skit itself is named ‘Google translate songs’ and uses the same rules with three songs  being translated into Hungarian and back into English and the twice Google translated lyrics had to be sung by show guest and Actress Anne Hathaway and Fallon himself backed up with live music from the soulful hip-hop band, The Roots.

The songs included Hathaway singing The Weeknd’s “Can’t Feel My Face” which is translated hilariously to “My front is not felt”, whilst Fallon took on the new translated version of the old Gloria Gaynor classic “I will survive” which is now “I will be punctual” and finally the pair came together for a duet of Pink and Nate Ruess’ “Just Give Me a Reason” which became a nonsensical “Only tell me grounds.”

Have look at the full video below and tell us what you think.

2 reasons to visit Zambia this year

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Zambia a country landlocked in the southern region of Africa is home to many different cultures, fascinating nature and wildlife and also great weather. With each season boasting its own adventures Zambia is definitely a traveller’s perfect destination to explore. With an estimated 17 million residents this beautiful country has plenty of land to go with modern cities like the capital Lusaka offering all your latest entertainment spots such as cinemas, restaurants and theme parks to your more rural areas offering amazing views of nature and wildlife including the Zambezi River and South Luangwa National Park, Zambia is definitely a place you will like to relive over a over again once you have been.   

So what is it that attracts people to this land locked country? Well asides from the friendliness of the local people who welcome people from foreign countries with open arms there is a lot more than meets the average eye.

Victoria Falls + Animal Parks

Undoubtedly one of the biggest tourist attractions in Zambia is the Victoria Falls which lie between the borders of Zambia-Zimbabwe and are commonly described as one of the 7 wonders of the world. These 355 ft waterfalls are located on the Zambezi River, Africa’s 4th longest river after the Nile, Congo and Niger rivers. The source of the Zambezi River is located in Mwinilunga District of Zambia and flows through 6 other countries before it ends in the Indian Ocean.

Image by: Harvey Barrison (Flickr)

The Victoria Falls are locally known as Mosi-oa-Tunya which when using a translation service into English reads “The Smoke That Thunders”. The original name is derived from the Lozi language of Zambia. Victoria Falls was named after Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom after Scottish Missionary David Livingstone became the first European to visit the falls. The town in which the Victoria Falls lies was also named Livingstone.

Whist in Livingstone there are plenty of activities to do although just visiting the falls is breathtaking enough. For the thrill seekers you can actually bungee jump close to the falls. You can also walk across the Victoria Falls Bridge to catch some amazing views of the falls. In addition the Mosi-ao-Tunya National Park is home to wildlife such as Zebras, Giffaffes, Crocodiles and Buffalos to name a few.

Image by: Walter Schärer (Flickr)

The best time to experience the falls is during rainy season which normally falls between late November to April.

Culture & Languages

Zambia is home to around 72 languages and dialects each with its unique use of words. Although English is the main language spoke and taught in schools the main local languages spoken are Bemba, Nyanja, Tonga and Lozi. Many of these languages are known as tribes. For foreign travellers you will not need to worry too much about translation services as many Zambians do speak or understand fluent English so there won’t be a need for professional Bemba translation services or Nyanja translation services however if you do visit rural areas for example filming documentaries or need legal translation services then the use of a professional translation agency may need to come into play.   

There are many more reasons to visit Zambia including the tasty food, lovely weather and wildlife which we will discuss in our next post about Zambia.  For now Stay tuned and “Tukamonana Limbi” (Bemba translation of ‘see you later’)!

Should you ever use machine translation?

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A topic of debate amongst many linguists especially those performing translation services is whether you should use machine translation software to convert text from one language to another. We have discussed earlier some of the implications of using machine translation services in different situations and there is no black and white answer as to whether or not to use this as it all depends on the situation and what you need the translation for.

Take for example you are out and about on holiday in China and need to order food at a local market where the owner only speaks and understands Mandarin. In such a situation because of the informal scenario you are found in surely using translation software such as Google translate to perform the Mandarin translation should do the job? Although as several tests have shown that machine translation is not always accurate and usually translates word for word and is not yet able to digest the feel of the conversation as well as a human being would, it’s worth a try to see what you actually receive after making your order.

On the other hand there are times when a translation is required for professional use usually via legal translation services such as birth certificate translation or marriage certificate translation. In such instances it is imperative to use a qualified translator to perform the translation as this will have a big impact on the decision made by the intended party that requires seeing such documents for various purposes. Another time when the use of professional translation services is imperative is when you require your website translated from one language to another. Yes there are tools online where automated translations of your web text can be done at the click of a button, however you will find that the literal translation of text does not always make sense leaving your website visitors to perceive your business as unprofessional and you may lose out on potential clients because of it.

As much as it is easy to use machine translation one has to assess the situation as to how important getting an accurate translation will be to you. If the answer is yes you are better off finding a qualified native translator or a translation agency to manage the translation process for you.

Image by: Tinou Baou on Flickr

Google’s back in China (well sort of)

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Good news if you are living in mainland China, from last Wednesday US internet giants Google have made a new version of their translation app available to Chinese users without use of virtual private networks (VPN’s). Now this might not seem like massive news to us in the western world because of how easily accessible Google’s translation app is to us so essentially if we ever needed some basic translation services it was always one click away.

But you see in China it has been a different story because back in 2010 Google had to remove their search engine (www.google.cn) and direct all searches to their Hong Kong website (www.google.hk) because of disagreements about censorship as a result from the Chinese-based hacking and cyberattacks on Google. Although Google translate has been available on the Google webite for Chinese users for years, this is the first since the ban on Google that the Chinese have been able to access Google’s ‘fast translation services’ without having to use VPN software’s to bypass China’s censorship firewalls.

Google had this to say on their blog post. “Today we’re releasing version 5.8 of the Google Translate apps for Android and iOS, adding instant visual translation between English and Korean, as well as an improved experience for users in China.” This indicates that Google might be willing to make some big improvements on their relationship with China, which makes sense since China has now the biggest population of mobile users in the world at an estimated 700 million.

But when asked to explain why they have all of a sudden made this app accessible to Chinese users, a Google spokesperson declined to comment on the situation. Although most of Google’s services have been blocked in China, most notably their search engine, Google have been able to keep themselves in the Chinese zeitgeist by aiding Chinese companies operate in foreign territories with services such as localisation services and Mandarin translation services.

But all in all the release of Google’ translation app is definitely a step in the right direction for Google-China relations and with something such as an app offering a less controversial first step as it contains less sensitive information than other Google products due to the lack of data collected.

What are your thoughts on this move by Google?

A major factor overlooked by businesses to increase your business prospects

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As we all know by now when it comes to doing business one of the main aims of it all is to make profits. Whether your business is designed to help the less fortunate or you operate in bullish markets like stock brokers the ultimate goal it to ensure your sales outweigh your overheads and there are many different factors to take into account when designing your business strategy to do just that. Whether you operate in the medical sector or translation services sector we all ultimately share the same or similar goals.

When deciding what you want to achieve with your business there are many different factors to take into account when devising your business model and your sales & marketing strategy. Obvious things come to mind during this process, things like who your target audience will be, what your pricing will be, where you will advertise and how your budget will be allocated.

Something that is overlooked especially when deciding your marketing strategy is how best to reach your audience. Take for example you are a hospitality provider looking to attract more visitors from South America, your first considerations would be to advertise your business on south American platforms but a key factor often overlooked is that although many more people will be aware of your presence is the fact that in that part of the world English is not peoples first language nor is it the number 1 choice for people looking for products or services. Statistics show that people in South America would rather use their local native languages such as Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese hence a need for professional Spanish translation services or Portuguese translation services would be highly advantageous through the use of professional language translators or a translation agency. Doing so allows you to reach and capture a clientele that is more ikely to book through reading in their mother tongue.

Not only does it benefit you to use language translation services but using localisation services will give you that extra edge to generate new business. Localisation services in comparison to translations takes into account things like colour schemes used by the local market. Things like numeric representation and the way images are places and what images are used to convey your message all play a big factor in appealing to the local market.

If you would like to maximise your customer base it is worth consulting a translation and localisation services provider. At Exchange Lingo we do just that. Get in touch with us today for a free consultation to help you tap into new markets.

Image by: Cydcor Flickr

How idioms translate hilariously into English

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Languages are very complex and interesting ways to communicate from one person to another. The way in which some languages are expressed are more creative than others, without these sometimes utterly bizarre differences between languages there would be absolutely no need for things such as translation services.

These services that are provided by a professional translation agency and professional translators help us comprehend and translate one language to another for individual or professional use. You could also obtain basic translations from machine translation software’s such as Google translate although not the greatest tool. One thing that machine translation would definitely be no help for is idioms of different languages.

These certain quirky sayings can easily be misconstrued when translated unless they are carried out by a native of course. For example from an infographic created by Citybase apartments, take the German phrase ‘Leben wie die Made im Speck’ without some type of German translation services or native to help, you will get the literal English translation of ‘to live like a maggot in bacon’! Now to us that makes no sense because through simple translation the phrase has lost its meaning, the true meaning of this German idiom is ‘to live luxuriously.’

Another perfect example of idioms lost in English translation is that of the Italian phrase ‘un cane in chiesa’ which if you were to use translation software the literal English translation would produce a phrase of ‘A dog in a church’ which would mean absolutely nothing, but if you were to use Italian translation services by native translators they would tell you what the idiom actually means ‘An unwanted guest’.

It is not just limited to the German and Italian languages, all languages have phrases and idioms that will have bizarre and hilarious translations including English, imagine what the Romanian translation of ‘Like water off a duck’s back’ will be like. Thanks to Citybase apartments here is a list of 21 idioms translated into English to comedic effect.

Idioms

Lost In Translation: 21 Idioms Which Literally Make No Sense When Translated – An infographic by the team at Citybase Apartments

 

 

How a ‘robot’ is offering legal advice to refugees

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You’re probably thinking oh no not another robot story! Well as many seem to think they will become more prominent within human society in years to come virtually performing tasks which today we as humans cannot comprehend a robot performing, we thought we might enlighten you on this story we came across where a robot is able to assist some of the most vulnerable in today’s society. Not all robots are bad and not all robots are here to steal human jobs as some may argue.

This robot developed by Joshua Browder a 20 year old British student currently studying at Stanford University in the US is not necessarily helping refugees through translation services although Browder intends to expand his chatbot from its current functionality through Facebook messenger into more applications like whatsapp and also other languages. For the not so tech savvy readers a chatbot is a computer programme which conversates via audio and text methods. The aim of such programmes is to allow for a human like conversation to take place between actual humans and technology.

Joshua Browder initially created his chatbot DoNotPay to help people challenge parking and speeding tickets having been frustrated with the amount of parking tickets he received since passing his driving test. With over 160,000 successful appeals he expanded his chatbot to help people in need of emergency housing and has now gone on to enable the chatbot to assist refugees and asylum seekers needing help on their immigration applications and funding. Browder’s app was created with the help of lawyers across the UK, USA and Canada and can now help refugees in each of these countries for example assisting UK asylum seekers with applying for financial support.

With many refugees coming in from regions such as the Middle East it may be a challenge for them to effectively use such software as presently the chatbot works in English and is not yet able to offer an Arabic translation service. In the US with many migrants from South America a need for Spanish translation services is valuable and this is something that the chatbot could add on in order to help a wider audience.

It goes without saying that technology is advancing at a fast pace but with inventions like Joshua Browder’s many people will be able to access the help they need much more easily.

What are your thoughts on this? We would like to hear your opinions.

Image: Screenshot, donotpay.co.uk

How ‘fake’ translation services got this man in deep trouble

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Translation services can come in all forms, it could be professional translations carried out by professional translators and interpreters and they could be specifically catered towards businesses for anything from tourism to retail translation services. Or individuals perhaps looking for quick translations that can be done through software’s which include the likes of Google translate. Translation services also cover a wide range of languages from around the world even lesser known languages up to more broadly spoken languages like English, Spanish, Mandarin, French and German translation services.

However whether you are using professional Mandarin translation services for legal documents or are just trying to get an Italian translation for something like “Where are the toilets?” One thing is for sure, they better be spot on! As one Tanzanian tourist guide found out.

A Tanzanian tourist guide who goes by the name of Saimon Sirikwa and works at one of the ten natural travel wonders of the world, the Northern Tanzanian Serengeti National Park was arrested and charged with breaching Tanzania’s cybercrime laws by producing what they are calling a ‘fake translation’ of a tourists words from English into Swahili in a video he uploaded onto his Facebook page. Here is what was said in the video:

Tourist: “Hi. My visit to Tanzania has been beautiful, gorgeous. The people are fabulously wonderful and friendly. Greetings are always jambo (“Hello” in Swahili). Happy to be here. The land is beautiful, beautiful. The animals are wonderful.”

Tour guide (translating into Swahili): “You Tanzanians complain/cry a lot about hunger. Every day you cry about hunger when you have flowers at home. Why don’t you boil the flowers and drink them. It is not good to cry/complain about hunger.”

Tourist: “The variety of animals and people you see is incredible, unlike anywhere else. It is just fabulous.”

Tour guide: “You are asking your president to cook for you. Do you think your president is a cook? Can you get busy, even boil your clothing and eat.”

Tourist: “It will be an experience to savour for all of your life. It is fantastic and beautiful and incredible and just unremarkable.”

Tour guide: “Get busy in every corner of the country. The president can’t leave State House to cook for you. You have to cook for yourselves.”

Despite Mr Sirikwa, who is known to be a comedian where he has been seen to regularly post comedy videos on his Facebook page, posting a second video with the tourist from the original video explaining it was all a joke and his love for his country as well as apologising to anyone offended. 

He was still accused of putting the Tanzanian tourism in a ‘bad light’ according to the police. With the regional police commander telling the BBC there was sufficient evidence to back up these claims that Mr Sirikwa had breached the legislation. The cybercrime law which was introduced in 2015 had been deemed to give the police “too much power” by politicians and activists alike. According to the BBC some correspondents noted that Mr Sirikwa’s joke translation was not unlike the words uttered by Tanzanian President John Magufuli when he told people at a rally to stop complaining about hunger.

So you can make your own mind up about that one. Let us know your thoughts.

And the winner is: A translation battle

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Previously we brought you a story that should put to bed (for the time being at least) who is more superior when it comes to translation services, man or machine? The showdown that was organised by the International Interpretation Translation Association in conjunction with Sejong Cyber University in order to get a real feel of how machine translations are when compared to traditional human translators. With all the advancements in translation technology of the past year alone such as the neural machine translation or NMT which self learns from over a million examples of over 100 languages and allows for a more holistic translation of sentences rather than word by word so would be perfect for those seeking say Portuguese translation services for non-professional reasons.

Just a reminder the human translators were represented by four professional translators who were pitted against three artificial intelligent (AI) machine translators which consisted of the western world behemoth Google translate from Google Inc. based in the USA, the self-learning hybrid translation software Systran machine translator from Systran International and Naver’s Papago from Naver Inc. which is Korea’s leading internet provider. All seven competitors were given 50 minutes to translate two random English articles into Korean and then two Korean articles to translate into English.

So standing in the red corner, they have been walking this Earth for roughly 200,000 years, they have risen to the top of the food chain, countless languages spoken and an unknown amount created; we have the Human “Homo sapiens” Translators! (CHEERS) And in the blue corner we have the younger, faster, and created by humans but maybe better than humans; Machine “Robot” Translators! (Boo’s obviously.) LET’S GET READY TO RUMBLEEEE!!!! Of course that’s not really how it happened but that’s how we like to think it might have happened.

It was tense, it was difficult, it was one hell of a battle, after all the pride of all translators and professional translation agencies and humans everywhere was on the line. But just as the bookies predicted the fan favourites, and still the champions of the translation world, the Humans did in fact come out on top. With the professional translators delivering the knockout blows by scoring an average out of 30, a massive 25 on the scorecard whilst the AI/machine translators scoring only between 10 and 15 for Korean translation services.

But man’s triumph over machine may not last so long, with more advancement the gap will surely be closing, with the NMT progressing and learning more it is only a matter of time before the machines take over hopefully not any time soon.

Should robots be taxed the same as humans?

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We all know how much technology has advanced over the last few decades at a rapid pace that even the fastest man on the planet Usain bolt cannot match! It’s sometimes hard to believe that 10 years ago the majority of us needed to physically go into a shop to purchase mobile phone credit or have to go into a local bank branch to make a payment or transfer money between accounts, friends and family or even more painful sit on the phone for hours waiting to get through to an actual human being whilst listening to the entire Abba catalogue as hold music. Gone are the days of such hassles with features such as mobile banking on 4G networks and WIFI allowing us to perform the same activities we had to leave our warm and cosy homes during the winter mornings which could have taken us a few hours to actually achieve what we intended, to now being able to do the same within minutes and within the pleasure and comfort of our homes.

As much as this type of technological advancement has occurred as with most things in life there is a downside. Many industries have automated their processes and as a result have had benefits such as increased productivity and reduced costs to the expense of human workers. Some reports have even suggested that in the USA robots will eliminate 6% of all jobs by 2021.

With the likes of driverless cars likely to be in full force in the future eliminating jobs for the likes of taxi drivers, drones being tipped to be the new delivery guys and advancements in Artificial Intelligence (AI) software such as computer assisted translation services which will have an impact on the way a translation agency manages its translations, these examples although benefit companies highly pose problems for employees in these positions.

Now that we have discussed touched on the potential threats that technology advancement may have on humans a topic of debate is whether such technology should be taxed the same as humans? Well technically speaking if a robot is replacing a human being who is now unemployed as a result then realistically you would think that the “robot” or the company using the robot should pay some type of tax on that wouldn’t you? It all really depends on the point of view that you are looking at this from.

From a company’s point of view you are more than likely to disregard this notion completely as this will save you money and although some may argue that an increased productivity means more profits therefore more company tax paid, this is not always the case as there are several ways companies enable themselves to pay less taxes as any accountant would tell you. Even the richest man in the world Bill Gates recently stated that he believes robots that steal human jobs should pay taxes, although European Union lawmakers rejected such a proposal in the past.

What are your thoughts on the idea of robots being taxed the same as humans?

Image by: European Space Agency ESA–G. Porter | Flickr

The ultimate translation showdown is here

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As one of the most talked about topics in the language translation and interpreting community, this issue of human translators versus machine translators is still a very undecided issue with some claiming that with all the advancements in technology giving machines the capabilities to translate from language to language without human interaction, that machine translations are the way to go. Whereas others are adamant that computers will not be able to reach the levels of human translators any time soon. If machines were to overtake human translators, what would this mean for the professional translation agency whose businesses are based on providing professional translation services? Or even worse what will happen to all the translators whose livelihoods are at stake?

Well thankfully for the moment at least it is not something we have to really worry about, it is not more than a hot debate in this present time because in truth although machine translations have advanced a great deal in the past couple of years thanks to the development of NMY (“neural machine translation.”), it’s fair to say machines are still somewhat lagging behind their human counterparts. This is because the sheer complexity of languages and even though machines can translate words and sentences in a select number of languages, it is not fluent yet and grammatical errors still occur as well as not taking issues such as localisation services into account, maybe one day it will be the norm but that is for the future.

To prove who is on top at the moment Korea’s International Interpretation Translation Association along with Sejong Cyber University are holding a competition pitting a professional human translator from Ewha Woman’s University against three machine translators in the shape of Naver’s Papago (a Korean translation app specialising in English, Korean, Chinese and Japanese), Systran’s machine translation solution (a self-learning hybrid translation software) and Google translate (probably the best known free translation software in the western world).

The big translation showdown will commence on Tuesday 21st February 2017 on the Sejong Cyber University website. Each contender will be given the task to translate two random English articles into Korean and two Korean articles into English with a time limit of 30 minutes per paragraph. The human translator for now is considered as the favourite but in the future machines and AI translations will become more and more prevalent, for example who wouldn’t want their Romanian translation services carried out in a matter of minutes and at a fraction of the cost? But hopefully like any industry the translation agencies and translators can find a way to adapt and live side by side with machine translations.

Robots to Aid 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea

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Winter Olympics who watches that you may ask? It may be a surprise to many but the Winter Olympics may be more popular than you would imagine them to be. The first winter Olympics were held in Chamonix, France in 1924 and have since grown to be a popular global event in the sporting world. In truth the Winter Olympics attracts viewer numbers in excess of 20 million across multiple platforms.

Winter Olympics traditionally includes sports that are practiced on snow and ice, sports such as ice hockey and snowboarding. Over the years the Winter Olympic Games have included events such as free skiing on a skip also known as Freestyle Mongul Skiing attracting more countries to participate and as a result increased interest in the sport from a wider audience.

The forthcoming winter Olympics due to be held in PyeongChang, South Korea between 9-25th Feb 2018 are expected to include 2500 competing athletes from 90 competing nations. Usually during these types of events a need for professional translation services or interpreting services are higly valuable to aid good communication for participants and the audience to help avoid embarrassing situations similar to what transpired during the 2015 Women’s FIFA World Cup where a twitter hashtag suggesting “Gonorrhoea for Sweden” was misinterpreted.

Now we know the Japanese are ahead when it comes to technology advancement and this latest reveal does not seem to be slowing them down. Hancom a Seoul based computer software company is set to reveal a new “artificial intelligence (AI) powered robot interpreter” for use at the 2018 Winter Oympic Games according to Korea Times. This human like robot is designed to emulate human-like facial expressions and is to be initially developed to translate 9 languages supporting Chinese translation services, Spanish translation services and French translation services to name a few with plans to expand in the future.

Will this development reduce the need for human translations? Now that is something to debate. Let us know your thoughts?

Image by: YOHNAP NEWS

Instant camera translation services?

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Are you about to go on your travels to experience a whole different culture and way of life but just don’t know the first thing about the language? Have you taken a new job abroad in order to broaden your horizons but have only learnt how to say hello in the native language? Or are you a first generation foreign-born individual who is visiting your parent’s homeland but have never bothered to learn the language of your ancestors? Well you probably should have put some effort into learning these languages but there is some good news for those who don’t have the time or don’t have the patience, these special translation services are perfect for you.

Google have offered us a unique fast translation service for the last year in which all you have to do is take a picture using the camera on your phone of the quote or sentence written in the language you want translated from and then it is instantly translated into whatever language you wish. For example if you were over in China and wanted to order food from a restaurant but had no idea what it was because the menu is written fully in Mandarin. Don’t panic! just whip out your phone head over to Google translate, set your language pairs e.g. Mandarin to English and click the camera icon and just like that you get an English translation and as a result you avoid ordering those prawns you hate. It also works the other way around where you will receive a Mandarin translation from the written English.

Google’s live camera translation feature can be used offline also by downloading the offline translation pack which is around 42MB with Google’s latest update adding the language pairs of Japanese to English and English to Japanese to the growing list of instant image translations. Of course this is never going to replace professional translation services carried out by human translator, but it’s definitely more convenient and useful in certain situations. So if you are ever in Munich reading German directions for some reason, you know you have portable German translation services at your fingertips, Or if you are out in Rome and even though you don’t speak Italian you choose the Italian menu anyway because you know you have Italian translation services in your back pocket.

Image by: Rich DeMuro

 

How translation services changed the world

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The human race; we are a very intriguing race we consider ourselves at the top of the food chain, smarter than the rest of the species on this earth and this is all thanks to our ancestors who always looked at new ways of doing things, always evolving skills and techniques with innovative ideas which is why we have come so far.

We learnt how to make tools to hunt animals that are much bigger and powerful than us, we managed to create and control fire which we used to cook food, keep us warm and protect ourselves amongst other things, we built houses and buildings, we made art, we made cars etc. But one of the most impressive creations we have had is the use of complex languages.

There is such a vast array of languages, dialects and variations in the modern world not counting the amount of now extinct languages right through human history and as more and more languages formed there was bound to be a time where two cultures meet with completely different languages and the need to understand each other is a necessity, this is how translations were born.

These early translation services so to speak enabled the skill of learning a language from a completely alien civilisation which in turn introduced different cultures and encouraged more spreading of populations around the world.

In today’s world learning what something means in another language is not a problem and thanks largely to the internet a fast translation is something that can be done through typing it in on Google.

Alternatively if you wanted an official document to be translated there are professional translation agencies so all the work is done for you. You could even pick which language you wanted to be translated for example Romanian translation services.

Of course due to all the studies and knowledge on languages coupled with the ever increasing globalisation and the internet making the world smaller, translation services are even more in demand as businesses and individuals alike have more of a reason to be in contact from someone across the world.

You don’t even have to know the languages anymore if you wanted to have a basic conversation with someone of a different tongue as advances in technology have made this possible. There are so many ways how translation services have had an effect on the world; these are just some of the ways.

Human Translation vs Machine Translation; The Battle Continues

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The ever mounting development of software and mobile applications configured to help people to translate text into hundreds of languages have helped to some extent, but it is still challenging to obtain a perfect translation this way. This task can only purely be done efficiently by human beings! A large number of software’s and applications provide us with rough ideas or near exact elements of our text in a different language however, this kind of translating cannot be wholly relied upon.

In terms of translating documents for example legal documents, immigration documents or documents which call for certified translations, it really is fundamental to use a human translator in order to increase accuracy and quality.

A translation agency is one way to seek out qualified translators. It is usually fast, and easy to obtain a quote. By using this service you are able to save time as well as money. This gives you the opportunity to contact a quantity of companies, get quotes and judge which translation agency to make use of based on your requirements. Another benefit of using professional human translators instead of using automated services is the grammatical accuracy that is included with it. Despite the ever changing and advancement of technology it is still crucial that you proofread documents before they are handed back to a client or professional body. Translating using software programmed services will translate your text word for word; however, it does not think along the lines of the grammatical accuracy. Not yet has there been an invention which has met all these needs. Again from this, one can clearly see where it becomes more reasonable to work with human translators in such occurrences.

Hundreds of languages are spoken globally and with globalization on the rise, companies are investing heavily in markets like India and Brazil.  This has created many opportunities for firms to grow and reach broader horizons. This really is also where the utilisation of a translation agency comes into effect. On account of language obstacles, a superb translation is critical in order to be aware of all of the messages or instructions. This can vary from translating a technical document for only a car manual, translating a legal document for immigration purposes or translating an organizations website into another language. Take for instance visiting any company website on Google that targets the Slovak market and has a website translated in Slovak professionally, also try and use some of the free Slovak website translation tools online and compare the two. There is no doubt that you will spot the difference instantly as websites do not only require translation of words but need to be localised to suit the intended audience.

For businesses seeking to branch out and go global, the use a good translation company is vital in effectively reaching a wider audience with the ultimate goal of increasing sales and revenues.

 

Image by: Prank Sky Media – Flickr

Translation services in a very loud way

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When you think of translation services you would usually think of one or more qualified translators looking at text in one language, comprehending it and then producing the same sentence in a whole  other language, sometimes a different alphabet for example when a translator translates a document from English to Hebrew as part of Hebrew translation services. Or you might envision an interpreter talking after someone to repeat back what they said in another language or maybe you would even think about translations in subtitles as part of a movie or television programme.

How about someone shouting translations in your face? Because that is exactly how Japanese electronic product giants Panasonic want you to see translation services. Just imagine yourself in a foreign land, lost and not able to speak the local language even to get by and just when you are about to give up hope your saviour turns up shouting something in your face that you can actually understand and this is all possible thanks to Panasonic.

This is because Panasonic have come up with a megaphone that is capable of automatically translating about 300 pre-set information and warnings messages from Japanese to English, Chinese and Korean in order to help companies deal with the increased foreign visitors coming to Japan. This really is the definition of retail translation services as Panasonic plan to obtain contracts to produce 10,000 units aimed for 2018.

The megaphone works in a way such as when the user speaks in Japanese into it; the software recognises the phrase and instantly translates into one of the three languages programmed into the megaphone so far, even if the sentences are incomplete. The estimated 300 pre-set sentences includes lines like “Watch your step” and “The train has been delayed,” and can even function with background noise which makes it perfect for places like train stations and airports. Although more phrases can be added through updates.

Panasonic have started offering the megaphone translation for around ¥20,000 ($183) per month based on a three-year contract with organisations such as the police already trialling these services since 2015. Depending on how well this product is received by the public, it could spell a very positive financial translation for the Osaka based company.

We think it is a great idea and something that can potentially expand greatly in the future. What are your thoughts on this?

 

Image by: Jason Hargrove via Flickr

Is the customer always right? What every business should consider

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A typical job interview question and a question all businesses instill in their employees. There is no right or wrong answer to this ever popular question. It simply depends on the scenario or context that it applies to. Take for example if you are dealing with a customer who is clearly in the wrong, do you still consider the notion that they are right or that customers are always right? That is something that will be discussed in this post.

In such a situation it is vital for the person dealing with the customer to maintain a professional level of composure and despite knowing that the customer is wrong and they are right, does the serving party still need to bear in mind that the customer is always right? Some may say; how do you do that? It is important to understand that sometimes people do not follow instructions well.

It may be a simple case of not reading an advertisement well or a more serious one. E.g. in a situation such as a translation agency offering Russian translation services or Chinese translation services and you are offering a special promotional discount whereby the customer has to purchase a particular product in order to qualify for the special promotional discount on offer, but the customer having misread the promotional details or “small print as they call it” is unhappy that they do not qualify for the discount, it easy to pinpoint where the customer is wrong and the issue would usually be resolved there and then.

However in a situation more complex where there is no quantitative data to back up your companies point against the customers, it takes much more effort to resolve the issue at hand. This can be seen as a waste of time and is something that is overlooked by managers at times.

In such cases it is fundamental to ensure that the customer does not feel as though they are being belittled or their point of view is being undermined but to empathize with the customer and make them feel as though they have not made a mistake will in most cases work as an advantage to your company.

This will make the customer know that they are in the wrong without you explicitely stating that (and despite them not admitting it in most cases); however they will be more likely to use your services again because of the excellent customer service they received. We as human beings do not want to be told we are wrong and in most cases do not like to admit we are wrong. That is just human nature!

When answering the question ‘is the customer always right’, one cannot simply say yes or no without explanation. It simply depends on the situation at present and the way in which the serving party handles the situation.

For companies, training employees to effectively manage situations such as the ones raised earlier in this post is an invaluable step in ensuring customer satisfaction is met. This can be the fine line between keeping a customer and losing one. We all know the value of customer retention and many researchers have noted that it is more valuable to retain a customer than to get a new one.

No matter how popular your products may be with the public, if you do not provide a good service, customers will not feel valued and your company could be in deep trouble as customers will most likely decide not repurchase from you. On average a customer tells around 10 people when they experience negative customer service from a company but hardly tells anyone when they do experience positive customer service.

This alone should be something that managers in a company should bear in mind and this should be communicated effectively to supervisors and also the workers who interact with the customer at the point of service delivery. If conducted appropriately, there is no doubt that customer satisfaction will increase as well as sales and profitability.

How to utilise translation services in 2017

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By now it can be assumed that we are all pretty much settled into the New Year and back on the grind whether that is in employment or self-employment. A new year for many symbolises a new beginning, a time to leave all the negative happenings of the previous year and embark on new journeys to achieve set goals. If you haven’t set your new year’s goals by now well you know where the pen and paper is.

When it comes to doing business in 2017 one thing you must avoid is to limit your possibilities. Now more than ever is the time to maybe take that leap of faith and invest into reaching global markets. Perhaps it is something that has been weighing on your mind for a while and you just haven’t got round to doing it. Once you have sorted out the logistics as to how you can deliver your product or service on a global scale your next step should be the utilisation of professional translation services.

Using translation services can be a huge benefit to your company and separate you you’re your competition. After all, research has found that despite English being the most popular language in the western business world as we previously discussed many countries prefer and do business in their native mother tongue.

When targeting countries like Germany you would see major differences in terms of your marketing by utilising a German translation service for your website translation you could see a dramatic increase on traffic from Germany. If you aim to reach the South American market, Brazil to be specific a Brazilian Portuguese translation would be highly advantageous for your business.

When it comes to using translation services the most common objectives are the usually “oh it’s too expensive I’ll just use Google translate”. Well try and send a proposal to a potential new client in China using Google machine Chinese translation service and see what happens. We don’t really advise you do that. In all fairness Google translate has its benefits and can be used in many instances to get quick translations of text to have an understanding of what is being said.

However technology has not quite yet replaced the human touch so for now the most accurate translations can only be performed by humans. Before jumping the gun and translate your entire content test the waters with a few pages and see what difference it makes.

You’ll never guess which language translation these two children’s classics received

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Over the years a lot of famous books and literature have had the ‘translation service treatment’ including what is widely considered as the world’s oldest novel which we previously wrote about in an earlier post. But now two more recent famous children’s classics; Julia Donaldson’s ‘The Gruffalo’ and Roald Dahl’s ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, have now received a translation and you would be forgiven for thinking that it would be along the lines of a French, Spanish or even German translation but that is not the case.

You would usually associate book translations with some type of translation service of more prominentg languages for example Mandarin, English, Arabic, and Italian translation services to name a few, so it might come as a surprise that these children’s favourites from Julia Donaldson and Roald Dahl have been translated into the Scots language from Scotland.

So instead of Oopmpa-Loompas how about Heedrum-Hodrums? This is the Scots version of Mr Willie Wonka’s (or Wullie Wonka’s) tiny orange helpers. The 1964 Roald Dahl story was translated into Scots by poet, novelist and translator Mattew Fitt. Fitt has previously worked with Black & White Publishing’s to translate other Dahl stories into Scots including The BFG (The Guid Freendly Giant), George’s Marvellous Medicine (Geordie’s Mingin Medicine) and our personal favourite The Twits (The Eejits).

Whilst The Gruffalo has been giving more of a Glaswegian take on the language of the story originally released in 1999 and written by Julia Donaldson, The Gruffalo has been translated into Glaswegian Scots by Actress and comedienne Elaine C Smith for Scots language books specialist Itchy Coo. To give you a feel of the translation, the opening line of the original Gruffalo goes “A mouse took a stroll through a deep dark wood. A fox saw the mouse and the mouse looked good.”  Whilst the Scots translation is as follows “A gallus moose taen a dauner through a scary big wood. A fox clocked the moose an the moose looked good.” The Glasgow Gruffalo as it has been renamed has also had a Dundonian Scots in addition to a Shetlandic Scots translation.

It will be interesting to see just how the translations of these series of children’s books influence the number of Scots speakers within the new generations to come.

Image by: pettifoggist Flickr

New year; New language? Learning a new language: Part 2

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It is that time of the year again; well the end of the year where even though nothing really changes at the same time a whole lot can be changed. As we wave goodbye to 2016 and say hello to 2017 it can be and is widely embraced as a benchmark for better things or a shift in mentality if you will. New mind-set, new goals, new life and yes inevitably, “New Year, new me” posts on social media! But why not a new language? There are so many pros compared to the cons when learning a new language, imagine not having to rely on translation services all the time when you are traveling or the money saved on localisation services.

Following on from our first post on what to take into account when learning a new language we know that even though a lot of people will set new goals and new ways of thinking most will soon drift back into their old ways but fear not we are here to give you some tips on how to stay on track when you hit those oh so familiar speed bumps of the new year.

Don’t be afraid to make mistakes

When you set out to learn anything in order to grow yourself you will soon encounter some difficulties and learning a new language is no exception. When you are learning new words you only have to look at children as an example, they are not born speaking a language, they learn from their environments and experiment with words that they utter and the reactions they receive. They are not afraid to make mistakes or look foolish so why should you? Leave your ego at the door with 2016 because you will learn much more from making mistakes than not trying at all. You are not a professional translation agency you are going to make mistakes, it is part of life, learn from it!

Consistency is crucial

Consistency in general will get you through anything in life and when you do start learning from these mistakes alongside being consistent in acquiring your newfound language skills you will see yourself becoming more fluent. This would hopefully lead to a snowball effect where you should start gaining more confidence to attempt to carry out advanced conversations and as a result more of the language will stick with you which means you will not need that Mandarin translation service when you travel to China on that impulsive trip you booked as part of your New Year goals.

Remember why

Finally just like any other goal you want to achieve, remember exactly why you are doing this and remind yourself of this reason every time you feel your motivation slipping away! It could be a desire to learn a new language out of necessity like relocating for a job abroad or traveling to a certain country that requires so. On the other hand you could be learning a new language as a passion or part of your New Year resolution to yourself. But whatever your reason for learning a new lingo you will get that motivation back once you have thought about exactly why you started learning it in the first place.

Comment on your experiences of learning a new language.

Image by: Robert Lowe | Flickr

The best Christmas advert of all time?

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Ah Christmas, it really is a special time of the year where you eat until you feel sick and drink yourself silly whilst being surrounded by the ones who mean the most to you, not to mention the best part receiving gifts! What is there not to like about Christmas? Well one section of the world that can’t get enough of Christmas is the retail industry. They have been able to commercialise the Christmas holiday in the UK and US and major companies with the aid of retail translation services the rest of the world.

In the UK we are all too familiar with the battle of Christmas TV adverts mainly from companies such as John Lewis and Marks and Spencer’s who use their advertisements to manipulate our emotions like any advert to be fair but these certain ads always seem to garner so much more attention so it is reasonable to say that it plays a key role in how well these companies are likely to perform over the Christmas period so much so that they are prepared to spend millions in order to see a huge financial translation in sales.

But this year even though Buster the Boxer ad by John Lewis and the Amazon ad involving an Imam and a Priest, just to name a few have caught the eyes of many this year in the lead up to Christmas in the UK there is one advert that has seemingly topped them all, not from John Lewis, M&S in fact not even from the UK.

The ad in conversation is from Poland by Polish based online auction website Allegro. The advert has been viewed nearly 13 million times on YouTube and is titled ‘English for beginners.’  This heart-warming advert begins with an elderly man receiving a package from Allegro which consists of Polish to English translation audiobooks as well as English for beginner’s books. He then gets himself completely immersed in the English language in the following comedic scenes which involves putting sticky notes with English words on objects around the house including his dog as well as copying rude phrases he hears from the movie.

Eventually we see the man as he prepares to board a flight which sees him arrive in the UK to a nice house where he embraces his son who now lives there with his wife when rather timidly, a little girl appears out of a room to which he walks up to her and says “HI, I am your grandfather”. The conclusion was he learnt to speak English in order to be able to speak to his granddaughter the first time he met her. The response for social media was massive with many saying that this is the best Christmas ad ever and even more saying they shed tears just watching it.

We dare you not to cry!

Image by: Art DiNo

Has Google created its own language?

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Will this lead to the end of human translations?

The Neural Machine Translation or simply ‘NMT’ is the name of the latest technology that Google has employed to help improve their real time translation services. Originally showcased earlier this year in September, Google announced that these neural networks are going to be the process behind Google Translate. Google has already started utilising NMT for some languages within the last month.

Traditionally Google Translate has always been a useful tool if you ever needed to know anything from a word to a phrase in another language and was perfect if you required a fast translation as it is instant. But Google Translates’ translations for anything more would mostly be grammatically wrong and lacked a ‘native feel’ (don’t even think about translating slang words). But now with these improvements in technology Google aims to have more accurate translations as well as the NMT being able to learn more with what Google are calling “zero-shot” translations which could be bad news for the professional translation agency of tomorrow.

The zero shot translation is essentially a translation system that has the ability to translate one language to another without previous experience of translating that language pair beforehand. So for example if the NMT had been taught to translate English into Hebrew and vice versa as well as being taught English to Romanian translations and vice versa; now imagine you were in need of Hebrew translation services from the Romanian language the Neural Machine Translation system would be able to translate without having learnt that language pair before.

So for this to happen there must have been some kind of ‘learning’ process involved from Googles artificial intelligence (AI) which begs the question ‘Has Google created its own language?’ that’s the hypothetical thought Devin Coldewey offered when he wrote an article in which he discussed Google’s NMT and its ability to understand a language pair it hasn’t faced before through connections made from prior knowledge.

In fact he is partially correct with these assumptions as AI researchers have suggested that the zero-shot translation might have been a result of Googles NMT being able to communicate with itself potentially bringing the translation level up to exert level.

This all sounds impressive but in the longer run could this ‘Interlingua’ that this AI possesses be the foundations for something more sinister? We tried to warn you before in our previous posts. But in all seriousness it is the forward step in making language translations easier to obtain.

What are your thoughts?

Image by: Kathryn Decker

Blame it on the Translation?

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A rather amusing story has emerged from Australia in recent times, which for once is nothing to do with dodgy retail translation services. For the first time we are actually bringing you a story of a translation fail without any help from a less than accurate translation service at all. No instead this story involves a Uruguayan footballer, an Australian team’s cup glory, an ‘alleged’ and very odd translation fail and a rather rude word. We will leave it up to you to make up your mind.

It all started on Wednesday 30th November in a Westfield FFA cup final that was contested between two Australian teams Melbourne City FC and Sydney FC at AAMI Park. The tightly fought cup final was eventually decided in the second half when Australian footballing legend Tim Cahill scored with one of his trademark headers on the 53rd minute to secure Melbourne City FC the win and their first ever trophy in the clubs history.

As you can imagine emotions were most likely running high after such a historic game for the club and this is where the controversial and comedic moment happened. Melbourne City’s Uruguayan captain Bruno Fornaroli was giving a speech to the fans in the stadium on his side’s extraordinary win, bearing in mind his mother tongue is Spanish and his English has been described as ‘broken’ so he was reading his speech from cue cards; when after he ended his speech he threw the cards into the air and screamed out ‘And f..k off!’ Perhaps better localisation services are needed here?

But in all seriousness Bruno came out the next morning to explain this odd expletive. According to the skipper himself, he apparently was meant to say ‘vamos’ which has a Spanish to English translation of ‘let’s go’ to cheer on his team refer to his excitement and overjoy as the reason why another word came out instead, he also apologised to anyone it might have offended.

We are not sure how true that explanation is or that anyone has been offended but one thing is for sure it is definitely hilarious. Let us know what you think about him blaming translations, see the footage below and tell us your conclusion.

Image Screenshot: The Tight Five Football YouTube

3 Things for English speakers to take into account when learning a new language

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So you have decided that you want to learn a new language, first of all well done to you. As someone who speaks English and just like many other English speakers, the truth is we expect everyone around the world to know our language with a fluency of the Royal Family! Although English is generally accepted as the ‘universal’ language of the world, the majority of the world doesn’t actually use it instead communicate in their own various different languages and dialects and it would be arrogant to go traveling around the world without some sort of translation service to help.

So do give yourself a pat on the back for considering putting effort into learning another language, whether it is for a need, hobby or just something for you to tick off the bucket list but there are a few things to take into account before you embark on this journey

It takes time/patience

Learning a new language, especially a language that is on a separate branch of the language tree is going to require full attention and a lot of time and patience. It is estimated that for an English speaker to achieve a basic fluency in a new language could take between 480-720 hours of learning depending on the difficulty and intensity of learning. So if you are heading on your travels in a weeks’ time and you think a couple minutes of your English to Mandarin translation book will help you, think again!

Forget your language rules

Forget every grammar rule you know, well at least just for when you are trying to comprehend your new chosen lingo. The mistake that many people make when they are learning a new language from English is that they apply the same rules that the English language consists of for the language which they are learning. Save yourself a lot of time and frustration and remember, most languages just have different rules and you have to adapt yourself to them accordingly. You will find that some languages are affected by male/female words, some languages where a different tone of voice will change the meaning and so on. You will also discover that some words and phrases might not have a direct nor fast translation into English.

Immersing yourself is key

This last point really is an important one because like any growth skill actively engaging in your subject will lead to quicker results and this applies to learning a new language. If you were to constantly speak to a native, read literature, watch films or even live in the country of the language you are learning you will find yourself becoming more fluent at a quicker rate. For example if you were learning Romanian, a good idea would be to live out in Romania for a while and with the help of Romanian translation services of some type or English speaking locals you would then be able to encounter the Romanian language on a day to day basis, thus picking up the language even quicker as well as learning some informal expressions used by native speakers.

Are you an English speaker that has learnt a new language? Share your experiences below or if you have learnt English as a second language let us know your thoughts!

Image: © Thomas Williams/Crossroads Foundation

How interpreting and translation services influenced Brexit

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One of the most if not the most talked about event in the UK this past year has been that of the Brexit vote. The drama of the vote has seen the British public show their translation of their lack of faith in the European Union which they then decided on a vote to end ties with the EU and the agreements.

By voting to opt out of the EU with a view of an independent UK in control of their own borders and able to set up new trade agreements has led to a major split within the countries that make up the UK as the vote was a close one. Brexit had even seen former Prime Minister David Cameron, who previously campaign against the EU step down from his position which has since seen Theresa May take over as PM. Not to mention the financial translation the Brexit vote has had so far for the pound (GBP).

This major split has been highlighted in the way the media have gone about reporting the story and can be clearly seen in how the major newspaper services interpretation of the stories surrounding Brexit.  Of the major newspapers in the UK the Daily Mail and The Telegraph are pro Brexit whilst The Guardian is pro remain and this is clearly seen in their articles which has been underlined by Francesco Guerrera for Politico.eu, he compared both the Daily Mail’s and The Telegraph’s headlines in a recent speech by German chancellor Angela Merkel implying that Merkel had given in or softened her stance to adhere to the British government’s requests regarding immigration, with the main focus on the story being that she stated the EU will need to further discuss the laws on freedom of movement.

Angela Merkel did indeed say that but with headlines of “Merkel Hints at New Migration Limit” you would think its 1-0 to the UK. When in fact she went on to explain that freedom of movement within the EU is not negotiable as it is one of the four fundamental freedoms and rather than stop that Merkel was indicating a discussion on clamping down on “benefit tourism” which is where migrants abuse a countries welfare system. So you can clearly see the way these outlets influence their readers, perhaps it’s just isn’t professional German translation services they are using who knows.

But translation agencies beside, The Guardian themselves have admitted that 56% of their articles about Brexit have been led with headlines such as “the pound will weaken”, “unemployment will rise”, and “racism will increase”, to name a few but as you can see these extreme headlines are obviously put in place to have an influence of readers opinions.

It’s well known that media outlets are used in manipulating views and opinions; do you think you have been swayed by this? What do you make of these interpretations?

Three online marketing strategies new websites must follow

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Setting up a website and maintaining it is no walk in the park. There’s initial brainstorming, choosing which colour scheme you want to use, choosing which widgets go with your product/service or which images to use for your home page etc. Once you have gone past these stages and are ready to launch your website it is imperative to understand that just having a website live is nowhere near enough to get you found online by your intended audience. You have to remember that you are competing with millions of other websites for search engine rankings after all the majority of website traffic for the majority of businesses comes via search engines with Google being the largest. For example you are looking for professional translation services, you most likely will go to a search engine and type your key word and choose which translation agency to go with based on the results you find. Even via word of mouth often times people will browse your website before actually contacting you making your website a powerful first impression for your potential clients.

Below are three must follow online marketing activities you will need in order to rank well online and maximise your website success potential.

Blogging

When it comes to blogging many people have this misconception that blogging is just for individuals who write about their life experiences and occasionally review products they have somehow either received for free or they have been paid to advertise.  Well that’s not the case; if you look at most websites they will have a section that states blog or news. This section can allow you to elaborate on your business activities and keep your customers informed on industry news highlighting your know-how of market trends. Blogging allows you to produce high quality content which is a key player for search engine rankings today.

Social media

Well social media is not just for the Kardashian brand although they are one of the most if not the most popular figures on social media amassing more than 250 million followers between their social media accounts. Social media is a high ranking factor for search engines and is a must to get your business active on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and more. These platforms are a great tool to share your website content to reach a wider audience.

Email marketing

When it comes to email marketing many people frown upon this type of strategy because of the bad rep this activity has achieved over the years. Let this not put you off as doing this right can increase your business returns. When you decide to perform email marketing you need to be clever about your approach. One way to do this is to link your other online activities to your email marketing so as to emailing people who have actually shown an interest in your product/service. We all receive junk mail at least several times a day however some so called junk mail is actually relevant to us and we end up reading on and sometimes even doing further research and purchasing a product or making use of the advertised service.

Image by: Sean MacEntee

How this confusing translation led to a ‘heated’ argument

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In the world of languages, translation services and professional translation agencies there is always going to be some difficulties as are the complexities of languages. For every one flawless translation example there is most likely going to be a few erroneous, problematic and mistake riddled translations. These you would usually find are DIY, google translated types of translations which are completely fine when it’s not for professional use for say any business or organisation of any reputation because these mistakes will have an inevitable effect on how clients or potential clients will view your professional image and operations.

We have already shown you how a bad translations has negatively affected a company such as Tesla here, however on the other hand we have also shown you some terrible examples of Mandarin translation services to hilarious effect here. But very rarely these translation fails could have such a comedic effect that it becomes viral and is reported around the world, which in turn could actually help boost a business/organisations audience to reach more people more than anything else.

This is exactly what happened in Japan recently in an episode of localisation services gone wrong as reported by twitter user Domoboku whose real name is Akiyama Kojiro from Tokyo. It all started in a Japanese convenience store when a non-native man took a bottle of lemon iced tea off the shelf and started to drink it without paying; as you can imagine this resulted in a heated argument between the man and the shop’s cashier, with neither speaking the same language before Kojiro intervened.

You will probably be thinking the shopper was in the wrong but in his defence he was not to blame but rather the miscalculated Japanese to English translated brand name on the bottle. The reason why the man was not to blame was because the drink which is produced by Pokka Sapporo had in clear English words ‘FREE Tea’ on the bottle, (See image below) other than that everything else was Japanese. It turns out that this is just the brand name and not an offer, which according to Kojiro anyone could easily confuse as given the amount of freebies you receive in Japan. A quick look on the website explains that the drink “encourages people to be free from a stress-filled society,” hence the name.

localisation services

Image credit: @domobuku

Kojiro’s account on this ironic incident has seen his post attract over 34k retweets and more than 19k likes, leading to a discussion of people sharing their own translation fail stories. A lesson for everyone to take from this is whether you need English, French, Spanish or Hebrew translation services make sure it’s done professionally and localised too or if you are going to make a mistake, make it so funny and bizarre that it leads to a viral sensation to reach a massive population.

Why being a hard worker isn’t enough

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Which other skills do you need to be successful?

Whether you run a business or are an employee of an organisation there is no doubt that each respective role involves a high level of competition, graft and perseverance which translates to success. In spite of this there is something that seems to stand out when people think of success which is attributed to being a ‘hard worker’! When you ask most people what the key to success is, the first thing that comes to thought is hard work. This is also something that is instilled in us from a young age by our parents and teachers, as children we are taught that if we work hard we will be successful and be able to afford all the things we want in life. Although that is very much a big part of becoming successful it is without saying that hard work only gets you so far.

As we get older it becomes clearer that hard work simply isn’t enough to get you to the top of the chain when it comes to career or business. Whether you are in the translation services business or are a medical doctor you have to be able to communicate with different levels of stakeholders, be able to plan and meet deadlines for projects, be willing to sacrifice sleep to get stuff done, be able to network with different people, be a good leader and the list goes on…

Leadership

Having good leadership skills will surely help propel you to get further in your career after all if you look at any organisation often times the leader delegates and the workers perform tasks assigned to them by the leader/supervisor and in most cases the leader earns a substantial amount more than their juniors so if you want to become successful in whatever you do it is important to develop your leadership skills. Although some may argue that some people are natural born leaders there is nothing stopping you from becoming a good leader. So next time your boss asks you to participate in a leadership training programme at work take that with two hands and learn as much as you can.

Networking

Being able to network is very important not only in business and career wise but life in general. Now we have all heard the saying it’s not what you know but who you know. Sadly in most cases it is! Statistics show that hiring managers are more likely to hire someone who is referred to by a family or friend before they select others. If you are looking for new business opportunities or a new career network the life out of yourself until you meet the right people that can help you achieve your goals. Here’s a great piece of advice from Forbes about networking.  

Having been taught that hard work is the key to success many find later in life that all these other skills are vital, take for example you have a manager who works hard but does not know how to lead or communicate with their team, chances are they will probably not last long in that role. Another example could be a hard worker who settles to work in a supermarket warehouse but has talents that can enable them to be successful in the business world. In that case they are not harnessing their full potential and although they might be happy and feel successful and some may argue that success differs from one person to another which is true, they are not living up to their full potential.

Taking from this remember hard work will get you far in life but life skills and your network will take you even further.

Image by: Go Fish Digital

Why Trump’s comments are an ‘impossible’ translation service

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Unless you have been living under a rock these past months you probably have heard the rather explosive and sometimes tedious popularity contest that is the US presidential election race. The Presidential election race, for those who may not know is mainly contested between 2 polarising parties the left-winged Democrats who have selected former first lady Hilary Clinton as their leader and the right-winged Republicans which is led by American billionaire businessman Donald Trump, who if you don’t know is a straight talker to put it mildly. This blunt and abrasive way of speaking that Donald Trump employs can either make you love or hate him and one set of people who fall into the latter category, other than Democrats are those who offer translations services.

Translators and interpreters across the world who are there to keep their respective nations up to date on what is one of the most widely publicised presidential debates of any country to date are finding themselves in a bit of a bother when it comes to providing a fast translation service of Trump’s speeches in their native tongues. As if translating political affairs into other languages isn’t sensitive and tricky enough, translators have to deal with Trump’s unorthodox way of speaking which could sometimes yield some interesting results.

One twitter user @tylerantichrist commented on an interpreter providing German translation services on a German radio show for the elections that she felt sorry for the interpreter as he had explained his friends teased him because he had to first emphasise with Trump in order to quickly translate his comments into German.

There is also an example on The Huffington Post showing trump’s misogynistic and offensive language which has had a Mandarin translation which actually makes him sound worse. The words that have been translated makes his comments sound even more sexist and sometimes racist in other languages. On the other hand when some of his harsh and brash comments are translated into other languages it sometimes has the reverse effect and makes his tone sound softer when his intentions may be otherwise. For instance he was criticised and mocked for rudely interrupting and shouting “Wrong!” but when translated into Spanish “Es falso” which means that is not true actually made him sound civil.

With less than two weeks to go until America elects a new president, whether its Hilary or Donald, whether you love or hate Donald Trump, you can’t say he’s not entertaining.

Image credit: Gage Skidmore

3 signs you need to take a career break

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Before even going into the depths and actually deciding you want a career break one must first understand what that actually means. A career break is not just a period you take off work to go travelling and relax on a beach somewhere in Southeast Asia (although that might not be such a bad translation) it is a period of time taken off work often when one is not feeling motivated in their day to day role. A career break may also be time taken off work due to family emergencies such as taking care of a sick family member or to spend more time with your children. Many people choose career breaks because they want to set up their own businesses which works for some especially those trying to set up online businesses as they can do so remotely, some decide to go freelance e.g. to offer French translation services for businesses and others just to take time off and return to regular employment. One thing for sure is that a career break will help you rejuvenate and help get you motivated again for work if you decide to go back.

When it comes to taking a career break one of the main obstacles which arises is the fact that your existing employer may not offer such a policy in the workplace which as a result could force you to resign. With the current job climate being very competitive this often puts people off the idea of actually taking a career break although they may need one.

Below are some signs which can help you decide whether taking a career break is the right choice for you.

  1. You wake up in the morning and your first thought is ‘I don’t want to go to work’!

This is something many of us experience from time to time and is a natural feeling which may not necessarily indicate that you need a career break however when this occurrence happens on a consistent basis then you may have to think about taking time off. Sometimes a career break may not be the best option especially if you have been in the job less than 2 years where maybe a one or two week holiday can help you refocus and relax ready to go back to work.

  1. You feel stressed, anxious and depressed in your role

Stress, anxiety and depression are some of the major causes of illness in the workplace with reports from Health and Safety Executive (HSE) finding that stress, depression and anxiety accounted for 440,000 cases in 2014/2015 in the UK. These psychological problems are behind one in five visits to a GP in the UK according to NHS reports. Major causes of stress in the workplace include lack of support from management, work pressure and work related violence and bullying. If you are experiencing the above at work the best thing to do is to speak to someone you think could help. This could be a family member or other professionals in your industry who may have overcome the same problems you are facing. If you do all you can to help resolve the issues you are facing but feel as though you are banging your head against a brick wall then it may be time to consider a career break.

  1. You lose creativity and are not performing at work

Ever sat on your computer at work and failed to do a task that you could easily do before, perhaps you work in the creative media industry or in a digital marketing role where you are expected to come up with creative ways to do things or produce fresh organic content but you just can’t seem to wash off that period of writers block? These are perhaps some signs that you need to take some time off, even go travelling and explore other parts of the world and push yourself beyond your comfort zone. Many choose this path as it often leads to finding one’s self and finding your inner passion.

Choosing to take a career break can be overall daunting with many outlooks to consider. The first step should be to identify why you need a career break and afterwards look at the different options available to you. For example you could take on a short term course whilst you travel the world therefore you gain new skills and a qualification that can help you in your next role.

You can find some help and advice for taking career breaks on the GOV.UK website.

Careershifters is another organisation that helps people find fulfilling work.

You can also find some useful tips on bow to get back into work after a career break here.

 

What experience have you had with career breaks or perhaps you are thinking of taking a career break. Leave a comment below and share your thoughts.

3 ways you didn’t know how translation services could help your business

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So you decided to take the leap of faith and take your life back into your own hands and started your own business. First of all hats off to you for taking the plunge. You have been running your business pretty successfully for a while now and through your products or services you have built up a decent brand identity, customer base and a steady income, congratulations to you, seriously give yourself a pat on the back!

This is because as we know an estimated 55% of start-ups in the UK fail to make it past the 5 year mark let alone find any success. But this leaves you at the very awkward and uncharted stage of whether you want to carry on being a stable business maybe looking to grow a little more or find a new strategy or market to expand or grow you current business? Maybe you want to attract new customers or maybe you just want to please your existing customers for the loyalty they have shown you. Well one much overlooked tool that you could utilise to help your business is none other than professional translation services.

Growth

The growth of a business is seen as a key stage in a business’s life span. Growth serves as a motivation for any entrepreneur who has ambitions to live off of their own earnings which is one of the main reasons behind starting a business in the first place, for the growth of one’s business does financially translate. With the help of translation services your business could discover new markets with a whole new customer base which could potentially bring more success to your business in the long run. This is a very risky strategy which requires a lot of research and consideration but from those big risks you could reap the big rewards.

Localisation

Different countries and regions have different customs and varied ways of doing things. This is why localisation services are of the utmost importance when considering setting up business operations in not only just other markets with different languages but also countries and regions who communicate through the same dialect. For example you might find success in the way you promote your business in the UK but it won’t necessarily translate across the pond in the US because there are even significant differences in UK and US English which is why it is crucial to localise your content.

Localisation is even more vital when you translate into different languages because it is not enough to just get a professional translation but it is also important to get help in what colours and images to use as well as type of products to sell. So if you are a BBQ restaurant who is looking for Hebrew translation services to set up operations in Israel it would best that pork ribs are a left off the menu.

Professional image

Having your existing website or advertisements available in numerous languages just smacks of professionalism as it shows evidence that the business is reliable enough to be run in several different countries. It could give a potential new customer the confidence to go with you rather than somewhere else, because sometimes even if they have no prior knowledge of your business just seeing you have an English, French, Spanish and Italian translation of your website could mean the difference between a sale and no sale, because a business appearing to operate in many countries must be doing something right?

Image: Colby Stopa

Find out which foreign language will pay you the most in Britain

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Great Britain although some may argue is not as great as once was is still a place with lots of history. From its prominent monuments such as Buckingham Palace to the famous Big Ben which has tourists flocking from all over the world, Britain has always been a place where people from various walks of life from all corners of the world have emigrated to, many for the sake of family, friends and relationships and others for the sake of work. With the Great British Pound (GBP) still holding its ground as one of the top currencies in the world in terms of value it is no wonder why many people choose to come and earn a living in so called ‘Blighty’.

With that being said British corporations have capitalised on the influx of foreign workers in many ways including skills and also language. With even the smallest of SME’s doing business with people from different countries who speak languages they cannot even understand it is no wonder why the demand for foreign languages workers has been on the rise and you can see this in many job advertisements often stating a second language skill as ‘desirable’. After all it is not always that one will be able to use professional translation services or to give a specific example French translation services to close a trade deal with a vendor in France. For this a company might decide to hire a French speaking salesperson to negotiate and close such deals after all selling is most successfully done after a good relationship and trust has been built between two individuals.

A recent post by Business Insider highlighted the top 9 languages which can earn you the most in Britain. The data was derived from Job search engine giant Adzuna who analysed over 1 million job postings on their website and below was what was found.

9. Mandarin – £28,268. The study found there to be around 1,246 job opportunities for the Mandarin Language.

8. Italian – £28,723. The beautiful romance language of Italy came in 8th and with an average salary of over 28K you sure will have enough to treat yourself to a cheeky pizza on a regular.

7. Russian – £28,858. The most popular industries that favour Russian bilingual speakers in Britain is the financial industries sector. Adzuna reported a total of 1,237 job postings on their Website requiring a Russian speaker.

6. Japanese – £28,954. Although the number of job postings was the lowest amongst this list the earnings for Japanese managed to put the language up in 6th place beating 3 others.

5. Spanish – £29,262. With currently 3,106 jobs available on Adzuna which favour Spanish speaking candidates it is no surprise as Spanish is one of the most widely spoken languages in the world. This language can be used not only around Europe mostly Spain but also in the USA and South American markets, a big advantage for Spanish speakers.

4. Dutch – £29,423. May come as a surprise to some but the Dutch language had a multitude of 1,865 job postings.

3. French – £32,646. Of course French would be nearer to the top with a record number of job postings on Adzuna’s website amounting to 6,149. Anyone who is business fluent in French and needs a job better get stuck in.

2. Arabic – £34,122. The language of multiple continents most prominently spoken in the Middle East and Africa made it into the top 2 list of highest earning jobs in Britain for anyone who speaks and can do business in Arabic.

1. German – £34,534. Well with Germany’s close business ties with Britain it is no wonder why this Indo-European language tops the list. From manufacturing to financial services, the most traded European country for UK exports in terms of goods and services is Germany. Germany is also the most traded country worldwide for UK imports according to a latest report by the Office for National Statistics (ONS). This as a result has boasted good pay checks for Britons who have mastered the German language. Perhaps it’s time to use that Babbel language learning voucher you got last Christmas and get yourself learning German.

Photo Credit: Charles Clegg

Can these two ‘languages’ really get lost in translation?

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Here’s a story from the good people at the Daily Mail which depicts the tiny differences between two different ‘language’ pairs that share a lot of the same words, in fact they are largely the same.

Now when we are talking about tiny differences between languages which share some same words, we are not talking about similar language pairs like Spanish to Portuguese translation, which both share the Iberian branch of the Romance language group or even languages that originate from the same country such as a Mandarin translation of a Cantonese word or phrase.

The Daily Mail, in actual fact has provided a sort of translation service for the language pair of…….English to English! You would be right to think that they might be going mad here but in truth the two types of English languages we are talking about is the UK Standard and American Standard English which you’ll find out has quite a few differences in which certain words do not match or translate over the other side of the pond.

Thanks to the mass ‘Americanisation’ (or US spelling ‘Americanization’) of the UK through Hollywood movies and US television programs, music and retail translations; Brits are more likely to be clued on certain American lingo than the Americans on UK terms, concluding that it is American English that holds a bigger dominance over UK English. This comes after airline giant British Airways conducted a survey of 2,000 individuals which were split 50% British and 50% Americans to see whether they could decipher each other’s common words or expressions.

British words and phrases that Americans found it hard to grasp where things like ‘brew’ (drink) where 60% had no idea what it meant and ‘titchy’ in which a massive 94% did not know meant ‘small’. Over a third also had an idea about what the cockney term ‘knees up’ (celebration) meant, albeit the wrong and x rated adult description. Where on the other hand majority of Brits understood what Americans meant by ‘zip code’ (post code) and ‘eggplant’ (aubergine) although almost 75% of Brits did not know what ‘broil’ (cook) had meant as well as a massive 93% not knowing Americans use ‘arugula’ for salad rocket.

The survey also found the words we do share often have different pronunciations with Americans finding the British pronunciations of ‘vase’ (varse), ‘schedule’ (sked-ule) and ‘vitamin’ (vit-a-min) the most irritating; Whereas British people found the American pronunciations of ‘aluminium’ (alu-mi-num) and ‘math’ the most annoying.

Although it isn’t all bad having a British accent as it seems to make you more attractive to Americans who associate Brits with ‘class’ but, however they also think of Brits as ‘having bad teeth’. But all in all this hasn’t affected our relationships as both Brits and Americans mutually agreed that each cultures have had a positive effect on each other’s despite the minor language barrier.

 

Which company failed with translation services?

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Tesla Motors, Inc is an automotive production company who are famous for being the biggest car manufactures that produce solely fully electronic road-worthy cars. The company was fittingly named after the Serbian-American engineer Nikola Tesla whose ideas are now seen ahead of his time as he advocated the likes of wireless technology and electrical use. The now owner and CEO of the electric car manufacturers is South African born, Canadian-American business mogul and innovator, the one and only Elon Musk who had previous successes most notably with X.com (PayPal) and SpaceX, which aims to find a sustainable habitat for humans outside of Earth. Since the company’s inception in 2003 it has seen its fair shares of ups and downs over the years from being heralded as the saviour of the ozone layer as well as controversies ranging from the reliability of the electric cars batteries especially in cold weather to their website being compromised. But who knew that a translation error or rather the lack of accurate translation services would affect them?

This comes after the news that on 2nd August a 32 year old man from Beijing named Luo Zhen who had recently purchased a Model S had a minor accident with a parked car because he had been told and shown by the sales manager who sold him the car that the Model S was a self-driving car and that he could drive with no hands. Lou took his eyes off the road and hands off the wheel which resulted in the crash. Lou criticised the sales tactic stating that “They did not clarify the risks” and “It can easily mislead people to overuse the function.” The accident resulted in no injuries with only a scratch to the Model S. But Tesla has reacted quickly though with a fast translation alteration.

The original Mandarin translation had read the car was had a ‘self-driving system’ which has now been changed to a ‘driver-assistance system’ to clear up the confusion. Gary Tao, Tesla’s Beijing spokesman aimed a statement on their website towards this incident to clear it all up. Tao explained “We hope to clarify that it is a driving-assisting function and hope people can use it in a correct way,” he also said he did not know about Lou’s test drive. All in all, this incident should not disrupt Tesla’s innovation in which many see them as the future of automobiles.

Whether it’s bad localisation services or just a simple error what are your thoughts on this miscommunication?

Are Emoji’s replacing languages?

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How emoji’s are transforming the way we communicate.

In this day in age many of us communicate with one another via technology and the most common being the smartphone. The smartphone allows us to create spreadsheets, record videos and even perform language translation whether that is French translation or Spanish translation. Virtually all adults today own or have access to a smartphone at any given time. Our smartphones have somewhat become like our best friend who carries out our every thought out action in a virtual sense (apart from when your phone crashes). People would risk breaking their hand or leg to save their precious iPhone in a tumble. Our smartphones are used as alarms to wake us up in the morning and sometime put us to bed via listening to soothing music on apps such as YouTube and Soundcloud. Our smartphones virtually do anything we tell or ask them to and even speak back to us via extensions such as Ok Google or Siri.

With new smartphones being released every 6 months or so, there seems to be an increasing wave of different communication tools which have and are making big impacts on how we communicate whether that is the development of language translation apps or speech assisted messaging the latest wave of virtual communication is via emoji’s (emoticons). For those of you who do not know what emoji’s are which the majority of you will, they are the little images you find on your smartphone that help you to describe your mood in the form of an image. If you own an iPhone or Android phone you will notice hundreds of emoji’s to choose from ranging from facia expressions whether happy or sad to birthday balloons and cake. 

Emoji’s are so big right now that even todays celebrities have gone to the extent of cashing in on the craze by creating their own emoji’s. Take Kim Kardashian for example who recently “broke the apple app store” with the release of her ‘Kimoji’ emoji’s in late 2015 which she most likely made a few million $ from and most recently the comedian Kevin hart announced he is to release his own emoji’s on the app store stating “My Emoji App will be the Emoji App of all Emoji Apps”.

Facial expression and body language can overcome any language barriers and that is exactly what emojis have done. Nowadays when you text you almost feel obliged to use some type of emoji to describe how you feel and this has led to some campaigners proposing emojis that reflect women in more professional roles which in the current ‘emoji world’ is dominated by men. The Google employees who backed this stated that “We believe this will empower young women (the heaviest emoji users), and better reflect the pivotal roles women play in the world.“

With the emoji craze now being just a normal everyday thing to use, will the need for translation services be gone. Well probably not but they sure will continue to play a big part on how we communicate.

Here’s an emoji filled song that you may recognise. Comment below if you do.

Has this company changed translation services forever?

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The language and translation industry is big business, one that is worth an estimated $33billion worldwide. The need for humans to communicate over various different languages has never been greater thanks to the globalisation of the world, thus professional translation services are highly sought after.

One of the main driving factors of this massive need for global communication is really the financial translation of profit for both large and small companies in global markets. Like any industry, it pays to keep ahead of the pack and with this high need for language communications coupled with the advances in technology has enabled some professional translation agencies and other major corporations to produce products such as ‘real-time’ translation devices and app based translations that could help people who don’t necessarily have a grasp on a particular language in a foreign land.

At this early stage these advancements are capable of helping people just about get through everyday problems but in the professional world only human translations will do, the retail industry is still going to seek specialised retail translation services for example.

With all this competition for real time translation products and apps, one company has broken the mould recently with their ground breaking technology. Could it be a new way that will change language translations for kids such as German translation services babies? An alien translation app? Well it’s sort of along those lines, well maybe not as Temptations cat treats along with ad agency adam&eveDDB have come out with a cat to human translation device called ‘Catterbox’ that cat lovers all around the world will hopefully soon be able to get their claws on. (Bad joke I know)

Cat lovers rejoice as now you will be able to tell what your cat really wants instead of you asking “what’s wrong?” and expecting an answer like the cat is going to all of a sudden start speaking your language. Rather than getting a blank look from your cat followed by another “Meow” the Temptation Catterbox aims to translate your cats’ cries into human language thanks to research carried out looking into an adult cat’s communication with humans.

The 3-D printed prototype has been released in the USA as well as New Zealand. The device itself is a rubber collar and inside contains a microphone and a speaker whilst it also includes Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connectivity. Although it will not be completely accurate, it would be interesting to see what your cat actually wants as they are never happy unless they are sleeping or eating which is probably all they will say.

You won’t believe what this famous Disney line’s English translation is

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Ah, good old Disney, when most people think about their childhood they are bound to have some sort of memory watching a film produced by The Walt Disney Company. The company that was founded by Walt Disney and his brother Roy O. Disney in 1923 as the ‘Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio’ has become one of the most instantly recognisable brands in the world boasting films, TV shows, TV channels, merchandise, theme parks and much more. All of these retail operations have led to a phenomenal financial translation for Disney over the years.

With the help of translation services Disney are able to have an impact on generations or young children around the world. Whether you are young or old you will know at least a few of the Disney films, characters and songs to go with the films.

Whether you grew up watching the first feature film released by Disney in 1937, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Disney’s main character Micky Mouse who made his first appearance in ‘Fantasia’ (1940), or other iconic characters both new and old such as Pinocchio, Dumbo, Bambi, Cinderella, Mulan, Minnie Mouse, Mary Poppins, Winnie the Pooh, Aladdin, the list just goes on and on. All of the movies that have starred these Disney characters have been viewed and translated across the globe from French, Italian, Mandarin, Spanish, Hebrew and even a Romanian translation!

So it is good news for the generation of 20 and 30 somethings that one of the movies of ‘their time’ has finally had a translation, albeit not a very fast translation as it comes a whole 22 years after its initial release. The film in question is none other than the timeless classic The Lion King which takes place in a kingdom of lions in Africa, details the story a lion named Simba who is the son of the king Mufasa who is murdered by his brother to succeed him as king, basically a lion version of Hamlet. The story features many elements amongst others are a love story, coming of age, betrayal, and a song from Elton John.

However one of the most popular takeaways of the film is the start of the song ‘The Circle of Life’. Most of us don’t even know or thought about what the words are but the direct English translation has now been revealed. Rather than most of our renditions of the start which resemble a shouting rambles of a madman, the words are actually of the Zulu language “Nants ingonyama bagithi Baba / Sithi uhm ingonyama” (you definitely tried to sing it whilst reading) and the translation of this familiar line is not what you would expect but after 22 years waiting we can finally reveal the translation to be *drum roll* “There comes a lion. Oh yes, it’s a lion.”

Pretty underwhelming and absolutely sounds better in Zulu but those who were having sleepless nights trying to figure out what it meant can now rest easy at night.

Image: Pedro Plassen Lopes

How Facebook’s new translation software will translate slang

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Facebook is one of the most popular and most recognisable social media platforms in the world today with over one billion people from all corners of the world logging onto the social media platform on a daily basis. So it only makes complete sense now that Facebook has decided to integrated their very own automatic translation software to translate posts from one user to another, a move which has seen the need for professional translation agencies and their translation services diminished, well on Facebook at least. Read more

5 crucial points to consider before you start a business

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Starting a business is almost like venturing into a new relationship with someone, you don’t know exactly what is going to happen but your desire for this person gives you optimism that something good can come out of it. Much like a relationship with a human, being your business becomes very similar to such an instance if not the same. People always say it is what you put in that you get out in a relationship and the same applies in business if not more. The collapse of a relationship can be due to several factors such as mistrust, lack of effort, disrespect and disloyalty. All these qualities if present in business are a recipe for disaster and a push in a downward spiral. Here below are some key points to ponder if you are thinking of going out on your own and starting a business. Whether you desire to start a beauty company, translation agency or would like to make your mark in London’s tech hub, Shoreditch or even thinking of setting up an internet business, you will be able to relate to the points below. 

  1. Is it profitable

The main reason that most people start a business is to make a profit. Yes even charities need to be profitable in order to run. After all the current world we live in is majorly driven by the value of money from the financial institutions to your everyday corner shop. The aim for these establishments is to provide an income for one self and earn a profit. When you are in your initial stages of business planning it is helpful to understand when you are likely to make a profit and how much you could make as this will help you to allocate resources appropriately. This will also help you with budgeting which is imperative when setting up a business.

  1. What resources do you need

When deciding to start a business you cannot simply go into it blindly expecting to do things as they come along. Yes there is uncertainty in business all the time, however carefully listing the resources you for not only the initial start-up stages but as you grow will help you see clearly how much investment is required and also help you decide which means of investment is best suited for your business, be it bank loans or venture capitalist investment. For example if your business is not expected to make a profit until year 3 you may favour investment by means of selling shares as opposed to bank loans with high yearly interests. Another point to think about is whether your business is likely to go global as in knowing so your will be able to allocate resource’s such as legal costs for trading internationally or translation services to help market your business to international markets.

  1. What are you trying to achieve (personally and professionally)

This point is very important in a sense that it will drive you in the direction where you will be most happy. The whole point of starting a business is to do something you enjoy doing that doesn’t feel like you are working all the time even though you will have to at the beginning. Otherwise you can easily settle for a 9-5 and switch off at the end of the day and collect your salary at the end of the month. Know and understand the ‘real’ reason why you are starting a business and where you want to be in the future as this will help maintain your drive and energy during hard times.

  1. What help do you need

As the famous saying “no man is an island” goes, business is also that. Whatever your business you will need people’s help along the way whether that is starting a business with a business partner or going at it alone. The relationships you build with people will help determine your success. This applies to all aspects from how you manage your employees, how you deal with your suppliers and how you communicate with your clients.  All these stakeholders will play a key role in how successful your business will be.

  1. What is your plan B

Many people start a business without having a plan b. Now others may argue that having a plan B can sometimes deter you from your main focus which is your current business and not having a plan B will drive you even more to be successful in your present business. Although that may be the case, in some ways having a plan B is imperative as it will enable you to bounce back quicker when things don’t go to plan. Before you launch your business know your exit strategy, when it is time to sell or close down the business and have an idea as to what you will do next, after all life does not stop when your business stops.

Image by: Nana B Agyei

4 Useful Translation Apps For Travellers

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So you have decided to embark on a journey into the unknown, you have packed your backpack and ready to jet off to explore the other side of the world and indulge in rich culture, amazing views and exotic food. Just one thing, you can’t speak the language of the local people. In the past many travellers who went travelling to non-English speaking countries would find it difficult to communicate with local people unless they had some type of access to translation services.

Tasks such as asking for directions would take you maybe 10 minutes just to get through to someone whilst using a tremendous amount of hand gestures as though you were in an aerobics class. Well in 2016 this is a thing of the past. With the ever improving technology we have access to and the ability to access internet even in the most remote parts of the world has helped decrease language barriers which has benefited travellers in many ways. Below are some of the best language translation apps on the market.

  1. Google Translate

Rated 4.4 stars on the android Google play store with over 4 million downloads on the Android play store, Google Translate app must be doing something right in helping people interpret their message from one language to another. Whether it is a Spanish translation you require whilst you visit Spain or South America or perhaps you need to translate your English to Russian, professional translation services google translatethe Google Translate app is easy to use and most importantly free to download on the play store. Google translate is also available to download on the apple app store.

Top features:

  • Translate between 103 languages
  • Translate 52 languages when you have no internet
  • Two way instant speech translation in 32 languages
  • Take a picture and have it translated to text instantly in 29 languages
  1. Lexiphone

Lexiphone is like having your very own interpreter in your mobile phone. The app developers claim it to be the “world’s first automated phone interpreter”.

Key points:professional translation services lexiphone

  • The app supports Chinese translation, French translation and Polish interpreti
    ng to name a few.
  • This app however does not come free but for a fee you can easily call more than 100 countries and translate your conversations into 16 different languages in real time.
  • The app is available both on Google play store and the Apple App Store.
  1. Trip Lingo

Their motto says it all “helping international travellers stay safe, productive and savvy during trips abroad”.

Key features:

  • The app has a voice translator feature so you don’t have to always type what you are looking for
  • The app also includes safety tools such as how to call emergency services when you are abroad or how to tell someone you have a particular food allergy
  • Included in Trip Lingo is the ‘phrasebook feature that includes slang, formal and slang options for over 2000 phrases per language.professional translation services trip lingo
  • Not only does the app help you to translate between languages its cool Wi-Fi Dialer feature allows you to make free international calls when connected to Wi-Fi.
  • Having only been around for about 2 years this app is promising and is worth to keep an eye on to see how many other cool features arise.
  • Trip lingo can be downloaded on both Google play store and the Apple App Store.
  1. iTranslate Voice

This app is handy especially for travellers who require a fast and easily accessible translation feature.

Key features:professional translation services itranslate

  • iTranslate Voice allows you to speak into the app which automatically translates your speech and reads it out in one of the 42 languages compatible with the app. This allows you to get the real pronunciation if words in different languages.
  • Includes a dictionary feature so you can understand the meaning of each word.

What is the Romanian translation for ‘Brexit?’

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Or more to the point what is the Romanian translation for ‘remain?’ If you are one of the large group of ‘remainers’ of which the outcome of the Brexit vote has left a sour taste in your mouth and left you with no or little hope for your future outside of the European Union, then surprisingly Romania just might be the answer for you!

You do not need to be of Romanian descent, speak the Romanian language or to even have stepped foot in the country so there would be no need for a professional translation agency or their translation services if you were to emigrate.

“Why?!” I hear you gasp, well a daily online newspaper in Romania’s capital Bucharest called Gândul (Romanian to English translation: The thought) with the help of local advertising agency GMP Advertising have launched a campaign to re-home disgruntled remain voters who accounted for a massive 48% or just over 16 million British citizens.

The cleverly titled campaign “Romanians adopt Remanians” aims to attract the remainers by promising a chance to leave the “Brexiters” behind with the bad weather in hope to start a new life in Romania which is very much a part of the EU.

The way in which the campaign works via a Facebook app is to pair up the unhappy Brits with “loving Romanian families” to adopt them in order to apply for a Romanian ID.

As well as having the section for the British remain citizens there is also a section for local Romanian volunteers to sign up to aid “the good people” of the UK who casted their votes to remain part of the EU as they “share European values deserve to be our relatives” (TheGuardian). Although there is no mention for those who voted to leave initially but have since had a change of heart, they are known as ‘Regrexiters’.

This initiative is largely the reverse considering that immigration into the UK has been a massive talking point amongst a relatively large section of the British population and media outlets. Gândul had previously run a campaign at the peak of these fears of mass immigrations in 2014 when restrictions were lifted for Romanians and Bulgarians to come in and out the UK. The campaign called #WhyDontYouComeOver was a counter campaign aimed at Britons to immigrate the other way with offers of jobs and accommodation amongst other things.

Tell us your thoughts, fancy moving to Romania?

Image: Jeff Djevdet

How to support England in ‘French’ at Euro 2016

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Heading to France this summer to see The Euros? Well you are going to have to hunt down your old French to English dictionary and you have got to brush up on your GSCE level French or if you have the budget, invest in some professional translation services because you will have to know how to get about the country and look out for yourself but most importantly you are going to have to know what the French are saying about their national football team and how to counter back in French from an English point of view.

Luckily for you we are here to help and have put together just some of the current trending French lingo surrounding the UEFA European Championships 2016. Here is a list of French to English translations of some of the most trending general French footballing terms.

Let’s start with an obvious one ‘Les Bleus’ or ‘Allez les Bleus’ which is the most popular chant or saying when it comes to roaring on the French national team. The English translation is ‘The Blues’ or ‘Come on the Blues’, so England fans should use the term ‘Allez les Anglais/Angleterre’ which in French would be ‘Come on the English/England’ but in all honesty you are better off getting Italian translation services and backing Italy this tournament but, we still believe!

Another catchphrase the French are using in support of the national team is ‘fiers d’être bleu’ which means ‘proud to be Blue’ something that immediately sends out positive French patriotic signals. Now how can a proud Englishman respond to this? Shout back ‘Allez les trois lions!’ or ‘Come the three lions!’

Now one thing that has been so successful about these Euros, other than the late drama and intense matches has been the fanzone or ‘le fanzone’. Fairly simple to remember you just put ‘le’ instead of ‘the’ and your best but none the less dodgy French accent and that’s how you say the fanzone. The most popular fanzone is based in the French capital Paris which is free of charge and open to the public. With the commercial success of this tournament resulting in a very positive financial translation so far, these free-to-use fanzones have been a major success.

Last but not least the French use the term ‘Le 12ème homme’ or the English translation, ‘The 12th man’ something that we use already to liken the fans to an extra player on the pitch. There are many more footballing terms but these should see you up to England’s usual final stage, the quarter finals. But you never know with Jamie Vardy on the team.

Who do you think will win the Euros?

Image: Patrice CALATAYU

How could the Brexit vote affect Language Service Providers and SME’s?

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As the Brexit vote moves closer and closer, on 23rd June, 2016 millions of British, Irish and Common Wealth citizens who live in the UK as well as Britons who have lived abroad for less than 15 years will head to their polling stations and decide whether to remain in the European Union (EU) or leave the EU. A decision so simple yet so many varying factors to be considered. Now we have all seen the endless TV debates, news articles and Prime Minister Questions in the past few months and despite this there are many people who are still not decisive as to whether they will vote leave or remain.

In this post we are looking at how a Brexit or a leave vote could impact language service providers such as Translation agencies in UK or individual translators and interpreters. This can also apply to small and medium sized enterprises (SME’s) who operate not only in Britain but conduct trade within the EU.

The impact on currency and tax

For translators who deal with businesses across multiple countries Britain leaving the EU will include new tax laws which could result in accounting becoming more complex especially for those who deal with their own legal affairs in the form of annual accounts.  

Many translation companies in the UK trade in different currencies including the Euro and Dollar. The pound is currently the strongest of the three and will most likely continue to be, however the pound has recently fallen leading up to the Brexit vote and if it continues to drop this ultimately means higher costs for UK translation agencies.

On the other hand many leave campaigners have attributed a major benefit to the leave campaign as a benefit for businesses as Britain will not have to contribute to the EU budget which will mean an “immediate cost reduction of around €180 per person in the UK, raising the prospect of tax reductions”.

The impact on free movement and free trade

Being part of the EU has enabled many UK businesses to trade freely within the EU. This has eliminated trade barriers such as high import and export tax. 

When it comes to the translation industry it is imperative that the translation is completed by a native translator in order to maintain the highest quality translations. For example if a document needs translating from English to French, the most effective way is to use a professional French translator who is a French native and has fluency in English. In such cases you find that many such linguists are French natives who have come to the UK to study and work. Another benefit related to free movement for members if the EU is that this allows British translation agencies to travel to other European countries to attend events and conferences in order to secure business.  

The impact on education and language learning

Many translation companies take advantage of the use of translators and interns that come to the UK to learn the English language often on their assignments for university degrees. Voting to leave will reduce the ability to study abroad. While the UK does pay fees to the EU some sources have stated that the return universities receive is a financial profit.

Another point is that British workers lose out on a potential £48 billion a year due to not having non-English language skills and leaving the EU will only add to that as the incentives to learn other European languages reduce. 

Frankly the vote leave or remain will affect different groups of people in different ways and many people will vote based on how Brexit will directly affect them in the near future. Take for example the multinational airline owners like Richard Branson who has gone as far as saying that “Brexit would be ‘worst decision Britain could ever make” whose business Virgin Airlines relies and benefits heavily on European trade or Ryan Air who heavily take advantage of the tax benefits of the less restricted trade the EU allows them to have. Clearly Brexit would be a huge blow to their business ventures. Not only that, there are languages service providers who work with these companies providing translation services who will also be negatively affected in one way or another.

Should Britain remain in the EU or leave? Let us know your thoughts below.

Image: Descrier

How translation services failed Roy Hodgson ahead of Euro 2016 clash

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Translation services play a major role in football as football is played all over the globe by many different players from different countries and therefore is translated into numerous languages.

Translations in football is no more evident than at a major tournament, be it the biggest stage in football which is The World cup; the pinnacle of European national football, the European championships which features a plethora of languages across Europe; the Copa America which consists of mostly Spanish countries from South America as well as Brazilian Portuguese and English (If USA and Jamaica are invited); the African cup of Nations which includes diverse nations from the whole African continent; the AFC Asia Cup which includes Asia and Australia and the European Champions League final which is probably the world’s biggest club football final. 

So with football being such a global event, the need for language to language translations is prevalent and essential. It would have not been possible to stage The FIFA World Cup 2006 in Germany without some form of German translation services.

The same goes for The European Championships of 2004 which was hosted by the nation of Portugal so therefore good Portuguese translation services were needed in order to make the event run smoothly for everyone involved. Of course without these services how would fans know how to get around from place to place if the language is not familiar to them?

So with translation services being utilised so much in these big events it is bound to produce a fail now and again. This is exactly what happened to England manager Roy Hodgson ahead of England’s Euro 2016 first group stage clash against Russia. After comments from the Russian manager Leonid Slutsky about Wayne Rooney not being the same player he once was, the Manchester United striker and England captain was answering some tense questions alongside Hodgson at a pre-game press conference.

A Russian journalist started to direct a question at the pair in his native Russian tongue. It was at this point Hodgson reached for his headphones in order to get a Russian to English translation only to be bamboozled by the headphones in which he then claimed didn’t cover his ears. Rooney then began to laugh at his manager’s misfortune which cut the tension at the conference. Hodgson managed to get himself sorted whilst looking a bit embarrassed by the whole commotion.

Learning a new language can advance brain power in just one week

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When it comes to picking up a new language many can agree that it does not come easy especially as you get older of which there are many reasons as to why you don’t pick up a language as quickly as someone who is 6 years old. Some attribute this to the way in we have been taught to learn and how we process information which is not so beneficial when trying to learn a language. Many people take to studying a new language at university level, using language translation software, migrating to a new country or for other reasons such as business or marketing use a professional translation agency to translate their documents for them.

Learning a language is not simply about memorising words and their meanings but it involves using those words in practical everyday life situations and this takes time to master especially as adults who are used to doing things in a particular way compared to children who are more free as their brains are not yet as conditioned to do things in a certain way.

Recently a study conducted at the University of Edinburgh where a sample of 76 students aged between 18 to 78 (33 of the students were participating in a one week intensive Gaelic language course and were compared with 16 other students who were taking part in a comparable course but not involving foreign language learning) showed evidence that the language learners had in fact increased their attention span. The non-language learners who were taking park in a similar intense programme did also increase their attention spans however when compared to those that did not take part in a one week learning program, results showed that the Gaelic language learners had a more significant change in their attention spans.

Within the Gaelic language learners group a study was conducted to see whether age had an effect on performance. Having split the students into 3 groups (18-40, 41-60 and 61-78), results showed that the lower age group scored the highest in the subtests testing everyday attention. In second place was the learners aged 41-60 and in third the students aged between 61-78.

The results also showed that those that practiced 5 hours or more per week had improved performance 9 months after the initial study in comparison with students who practiced for 4 hours per week whose results were inconsistent.

Lead researcher on the study Dr. Thomas Bak stated that “I think there are three important messages from our study: firstly, it is never too late to start a novel mental activity such as learning a new language. Secondly, even a short intensive course can show beneficial effects on some cognitive functions. Thirdly, this effect can be maintained through practice”.

The full results were published in the Journal PLOS ONE.

Image source: Neil Conway

Leave a comment below. We would like to hear your take on this theory.

Fast translation services like no other

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Netflix, the massive online streaming service has started something rather unfamiliar in the world of television and indeed translation services. Netflix have commissioned a new late night talk show starring American comedienne Chelsea Handler. But this is no ordinary late night chat show; in fact this is something that has not even been done before in the history of television and streaming. The show will be made available simultaneously across 190 countries to make it the first truly global show.

But there are many reasons that this type of global release has not been done before with one major and very obvious reason being the language barriers that are prevalent. Imagine the issues of trying to get a Hebrew translation of “There are two kinds of people I don’t trust: people who don’t drink and people who collect stickers.” That is an example, a rather pre-watershed example of Chelsea Handler’s joke; would that even translate well into another language?

That’s not the only problem that Netflix have had to deal with. There is the issue of getting each translated version of the show done in time and ready for release as well as localised for different variations of the languages. That is the precise reason that they have assembled a team of 200 linguists selected from a pool of 5000 to provide translations and localisation services to make sure that the jokes are understood worldwide. Amongst the linguists includes ‘dirty’ words specialist for Handler’s unconventional humour.

The show is recorded live 34 hours before it is released on Netflix. To help make the translations quicker and smoother, Netflix creates a live transcript in English which someone then reiterates into voice recognition software for the waiting translators and language experts who sift through the transcript to highlight any non-formal English words or idioms that might be a problem to localise. This then leaves the translators with just a 12 hour turnaround time to translate the show into the 20 languages that Netflix are aiming for it to be available in, then a 90 minute safety cushion in case anything goes wrong. This massive operation is all done so you could have the Portuguese translation of the show exactly at the same time as the English version.

When Football gets lost in translation

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Football, fútbol, fussball, fotbal, futebol, voetbal, whatever you call it; football is a game that is played worldwide by many different cultures and people from all corners of the globe. Football is often referred to as a universal language of which a need for translation services is not required. All you need is a football and some goalposts! So with this seemingly massive worldwide appeal and the many different nationalities plying their trades in the top European leagues, there is bound to be some sort of miscommunication within the game right? Here are some examples when football has got lost in translation.

Soccer?

The name football has many variations as to how it is pronounced or even what it is called around the world. In Germany it is ‘Fussball’ (Fußball ), in the Netherlands ‘Voetbal’, and you don’t need Romanian translation services to tell you what ‘Fotbal’ means. Nearly everywhere the term football has translated well except one place, the USA. The US refers to the beautiful game as ‘soccer’ much to the annoyance of the rest of the world. The reason for this was because America caught on to football relatively late and had already created their own game called American football, which in fact is mostly played through carrying the ball so they had to distinguish between the two games. The term soccer actually comes from Britain but usage of the word declined after the Americans caught on to it.

Lee Chung gone?

A recent story involving Premier League side Crystal Palace and their South Korean left-back Lee Chung-yong. Lee was quoted in the Korean media stating that Palace boss Alan Pardew was too ‘hot tempered’ during a match that he would forget how many substitutes he had made. Although Lee pleaded his innocence that his comments had been misinterpreted and lost in translation, Alan Pardew did not accept that as an excuse and fined him a week’s wages, reportedly £30k. Now you don’t need a professional translation agency to tell you Lee’s thoughts on that.

Rafa the Gaffer

Also recently former Liverpool, Valencia, Real Madrid and Napoli manager Rafa Benitez was given the task to keep Newcastle United in the Premier League. He narrowly failed in doing so but was also given little time to achieve his goals. Spaniard Benitez who is tri-lingual in English, Italian and Spanish admitted that he had to brush up on his French language as a vast majority of United’s players are French speakers and that instances such as half-time team talks proved somewhat of a challenge as he could not get his message across even in English due to some players not being able to understand the language very well. This just highlights how important the language barrier is in football where a manager might not be able to get his message across properly. The fact that Benitez had little time and not being able to get a fast translation across to his French players could have contributed towards their downfalls, thus leading to his tactics somewhat getting lost in translation.

Image Source: joshjdss

 

How the benefits of using professional translation services far outweigh the costs

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The increase in globalisation over the past few decades has created numerous opportunities for the average individual to set up a business that is able to serve and compete in global markets, a luxury that only the large corporations or the wealthy were able to reap the benefits of in the past. Running a business today is something one can achieve from the comfort of their homes with just the help of a computer and an internet connection and with access to professional translation services. Internet businesses have been thriving and have shaken things up when it comes to the traditional way of doing things, whether it is the way we purchase groceries or how we decide to book holidays.

An example of this would be when looking for a holiday package, you would either visit a travel agency at their local office or call one over the phone to find out what was available. Now with sites like lastminute.com it is easy to see exactly what is on offer and compare in order to achieve the best deal and simply book at the click of a button.

The ability to reach a wider audience has posed a challenge for businesses to communicate effectively with all key target audiences as language barriers surface. With research including a survey conducted by Common Sense Advisory showing that consumers substantially prefer to view and digest information about products and services in their mother tongues. Findings like these are extremely imperative to businesses that provide services or are looking to grow in areas such as France, China or South America where native languages are used primarily before the English language. With that being said it is clear to see that using a professional English to French translation service or English to Chinese translation will ultimately increase your exposure and as a result have a positive impact on your sales as well as brand awareness.

Another benefit to using professional translation services for your business is that the end user feels valued that you have taken the time to communicate to them in their own language in which they communicate best.

For many businesses especially SME’s the value of time and resources is very crucial in determining efficiency. In cases where your company is too small to hire in-house translators an alternative solution is to use a professional translation agency which can manage the entire translation process for you from sourcing a suitable linguist to perform the translation, to performing quality checks ensuring that your message is portrayed in the way in which you intended.

It is tempting to use free translation tools when it comes to administering your message in other languages. When you decide to use free translation tools you must consider this; firstly the content translated by machines is a literal translation of the source language. Now as humans we do not process information in quite the same way as machines and different languages and cultures communicate differently so what might make sense in English may not in Italian when translated word for word. This is where the use of qualified and experienced translators comes into effect. Investing In website localisation services in clearly would achieve more benefits to you and your business than the costs incurred.

Image Source: Corbis

Captain America set to keep Mandarin translation

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Captain America has officially touched down in China amidst opposition to the film and Disney films in general. The Captain America series will continue both Disney’s and Disney’s Marvel dominance in the Chinese territory. It is the fourth release by Disney in China this year, following the blockbuster Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Zootopia, and The Jungle Book which coincidently are three of the four highest grossing imported films this year earning over $100 million so far in China alone. The financial translation equals ka-ching!

Even though there is a huge dominance from Disney and a big demand for their films in China when it comes to ‘imported’ movies, there is also an opposition from parts of the Chinese population. A Chinese military newspaper was quoted that America were using “invisible propaganda” within their films which prompted a People’s Liberation Army academy professor to state “Hollywood has long been an effective propaganda machine for the U.S. by using blockbuster films to promote U.S. values and global strategy,” then going on to say “In a world of cruel reality, it is always a wolf that eats a sheep instead of the other way round. Such a fundamental concept that even a child could understand was easily turned around by Hollywood.”

These comments are not just from a few people, the Chinese authorities do not agree with Western values and have been making efforts to clamp down on them in films, television, the internet and textbooks whilst even going as far as releasing guidelines to protect the national identity. Although there are a lot of Chinese people on social media platforms such as WeChat and Weibo who have ridiculed the newspaper as “overthinking” the whole issue.

Although there is a Chinese backlash to ‘American ways’ surprisingly Disney actually have decided to keep the direct Mandarin translation of Captain America instead of having it changed for political reasons, a move which had been taken in other countries such as South Korea and Russia.

Captain America had been rebranded in Russia and South Korea to a rather less American glorifying “First Avenger” in an attempt at the localisation of the film to audiences who, let’s just say might not be the biggest fans of the USA, although the name still fits as it is often referred to as The Avengers 2.5.

What’s the Italian translation for ‘Haka’?

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A rather bizarre showing last week in a Serie A league match on Thursday night which saw Italian giants AC Milan host Carpi. They say the home team should always try and put on a show for their fans but Milan managed to take it to a whole other level. A video taken from the pre-match preparations depicted both the Milan and Carpi team run out on to the pitch with the Carpi team lining up opposite the Milan team who had stood in a choreographed formation and what followed will surely go down in football fails history. The Milan players then started to perform a very dodgy and awkward version of the ‘Haka’ dubbed the “Tekitanka” and you don’t need Italian translation services to tell you this did not go down well.

It turns out that the Tekitanka was performed not by the actual Milan players but rather actors which were made to look like the players and that this was in fact all a big publicity stunt by the clubs sponsor the skincare company Nivea. The words “uomini questo e il vostro ritual” was seen across the stadiums advertisement boards, the English translation is “Men, this is your ritual” with the players acting out washing their faces and applying the cream instead of the actual battle cry. The Haka is a traditional war cry or dance performed by the Maori’s of New Zealand. The dance was usually performed by warriors before battle and has been used and made famous worldwide by the New Zealand national rugby team the All Blacks who perform it before a match to strike fear into their opponents.

Here’s how the AC Milan ‘actors’ performed:

Image: YouTube

Image: YouTube

 

Image: YouTube

Image: YouTube

As you could imagine there has been a major backlash to both Nivea and AC Milan which has seen people on social media declare the stunt as a ‘cheap rip-off’, ‘fake’ and ‘culturally insensitive’ amongst others which has led Nivea to issue an apology. A statement from Nivea’s parent company Beiersdorf sent to Mashable Australia read “NIVEA Men has organized a one off activity before the match AC Milan – Carpi on April 21. Actors were wearing the shirts of AC Milan and have performed a dance – inspired by the HAKA Maori dance. It was never our intention to offend anyone. We are truly sorry if this has happened.”

Maybe they should have sought professional localisation services first or maybe not done it at all.

Here’s how the ‘real’ Haka is done performed by the All Blacks.

Has this new creation changed translation services forever?

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A clever little idea that could soon render all forms of translation services useless has just been released! But before everyone in the world of linguistics and translations loses their minds let me just reassure you, that was a complete over exaggeration. Maybe not something to put an end to the $33 billion valued global industry but definitely an idea worth a mention. The idea and now product line in question is not a ground breaking, highly advanced, technological gizmo. It is not a real time translation app or service in fact it does not even require electricity or batteries at all and it is wearable.

What can this product be? I hear you frantically ask. Well it is a T-shirt, yes a normal printed T-shirt. The Iconspeak T-shirt is simple but yet effective and is perfect for anyone on their travels around the word who have not yet mastered or bother to learn any of the language or languages they might come across on their foreign encounter. The Iconspeak T-shirt is designed to help you get through basic situations as the shirt has printed on it 40 universal icons in a grid format. From a telephone to a toilet, from bed to wi-fi, all you would have to do is point to the specific icon you require in order to convey your message across the language barriers. Clever stuff?

Say you were in Germany and had no idea what the German word for nightclub is and had no access to German translation services and not one person around you knew what you were talking about, well all you would have to do with the Iconspeak T-shirt would be to point to the music sign and do a little one-two step then problem solved.

Alternatively if you were in Portugal and had no access to Portuguese translation services and needed to us a toilet, you would simply point out the toilet sign on the T-shirt and you can probably guess what happens next. It just goes to show that despite all these technological advances in recent years, you might not always get an internet connection which many of these heavily rely on, your battery could run out or you might not have access to electrical supply. So you might save a lot of time and money by just pointing out a picture of what you want to help you in a variety of situations.

What are your thoughts on this? Leave a comment below.

Forget Iron Man, Student’s smart gloves translates sign language into speech

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When it comes to technology in the 21’s century it is almost as if the moment you blink, some type of a new technology has been invented. Nowadays it is not only professional software engineers working in labs that are able to come up with new inventions such as creating sophisticated mobile phone apps or hardware for appliances. Everyday people can now create ground-breaking technology from the comfort of their homes thanks to the many tools we have online that help with researching information. Something that has recently got people talking, a pioneering creation in the world of translation services in which has seen an undergraduate duo of Navid Azodi and Thomas Pryor who are studying business administration and aeronautics and astronautics engineering, respectively at the University of Washington recently invented gloves that translate sign language into text and speech.

Their invention which is called ‘SignAloud’ is designed to translate sign language in a simultaneous way as if professional translation services were being used minus a human interpreter which aims to help break communication barriers between sign language users and non-sign language users. As the University of Washington reports; ‘each glove contains sensors that record hand position and movement and send data wirelessly via Bluetooth to a central computer’. If the data matches a hand gesture then the related phrase or word is vocalised through the computer. The gloves are currently targeted to American Sign Language (ASL) users or learners of ASL but could also be commercialised to work in other fields such as medical technology to monitor stroke patients during rehabilitation as well as provide support to the ever growing world of virtual reality as the University of Washington reports.

As a result of their efforts Pryor and Azodi won $10,000 for the 2016 Lemelson-MIT Student Prize from a pool of students from over 77 universities in the US.

Watch the video below to see the SignAloud gloves in action.

5 times retail translation and localisation services failed in China

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We all have heard and know of China’s importance to the world’s economy. In fact since their economic liberalisation in the late 70’s, China has been one of the fastest growing economies which has led the country to emerge as one of the top major players of global markets subsequently becoming the second biggest economy in the world today. So it makes complete sense that major companies of the western world have followed suite and have tried to gain a foothold in the country for a number of years. The first obvious issue they face is the language barrier which any professional translation agency worth their weight would be able to handle properly through their translation services.

But one other big issue they face is the sheer fact that the Chinese culture has many differences when compared to western cultures. This means that the way they market their products and services will differ from say the US market. That is why for years big businesses have been producing products and promotions specifically for the Chinese markets with the help of good Localisation services to pinpoint Chinese culture.

But this tactic has not always been seen as successful; in fact sometimes theses localisation attempts have been near disaster and some to comical effect. Some of these products and promotions backfired and were mocked amongst Chinese people. A popular Chinese fashion blogger on Weibo called ‘Gogoboi’ shared these localisation fails amongst his 5 million followers. Business Insider, with the help of a global brand consulting firm, Landor managed to compile a list of top five times global brands absolutely failed in China.

  1. Nike

This is truly a case of retail translation services gone wrong when Nike had an idea to release special edition trainers with Mandarin characters sewn into the pair. On the left trainer was “Fa” which means “Getting Rich” and on the right trainer was “Fu” which translates as “Fortune arrives,” which doesn’t sound too bad. But when you put them together it means “Getting fat” definitely not what the biggest sportswear company should be promoting.

  1. Louis Vuitton

The high-end fashion house Louis Vuitton is the next culprit in these localisation faux pas. Maybe with good intentions or maybe naivety decided to honour the Chinese year of the Monkey by releasing a special edition necklace, which can only be described as an odd looking, gold finished necklace vaguely resembling  a monkey. In which Gogoboi’s followers described as “creepy,” “like an alien,” and ironically a “knock-off” considering it retailed at $2,450 (£1,720). Ouch!

Image via: Louis Vuitton

Image via: Louis Vuitton

  1. Dior

Dior, another massive French brand of luxury goods committed a near enough exact offence as Louis Vuitton. Dior also saw fit to release a monkey-inspired piece of jewellery to celebrate the year of the monkey but the limited edition “Diorelita” was rather underwhelmingly likened to a ‘piece of red rope’, probably not the type of response Dior where looking for.

  1. Givenchy

Another Chinese year of the monkey inspired product fail, another French fashion brand behind the failure. This time it is Givenchy had used images of not so much your typical chimpanzee looking monkeys but rather images of orangutans, which needless to say left Gogoboi’s followers largely unimpressed. Fail!

  1. Burberry

Last but not least comes another fail celebrating the Chinese New Year, this time from up-market UK brand Burberry. They had made a different error to the rest; they decide to release their classic print scarf in a special edition with the Mandarin character “Fu” which as previously mentioned means “fortune arrives” printed in red which didn’t go down well as a design with Gogoboi’s following. But the main error was that when worn “Fu” was displayed upright which in Chinese culture “Fu” needs to be upside down to actually carry its meaning which is “beckoning in fortune.” As the special edition scarf retails $215 (£150) more at $925 (£649) that unsurprisingly left people totally bemused.

How accurate is Google Translate when Russia is translated to ‘Mordor’

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Anyone familiar with world politics will know that over the years there has been tension between Eastern European country Ukraine and Eurasian country Russia. Just when you thought couldn’t get any worse, the most popular machine translation platform Google Translate managed to muddle up some sensitive words when it came to the translation of words from Ukrainian into Russian. Needless to say had this been for professional or business use, professional Russian translation services should have been sought after.

Reports by Russia’s News state news agency RIA Navosti stated that words relating to Russia and one of its politicians were improperly translated from Ukrainian to Russian. The words that were interpreted were insulting and demeaning to Russia and its people. The words in question include the phrase Russian Federation which translated into Russian as Mordor when inserted into Google translate. Mordor is a fictional place in the world created by writer J. R. R. Tolkien which is most known for its depiction the Lord of the Rings as an evil place where cruelties such as torture are an occurrence. Newsweek reported that Pro-Ukranian groups took to the term when referring to Russia. Newsweek also reported that when translating the last name of Russia’s foreign minister Sergey Lavrov, the machine translation interpreted his name as ‘sad-little-horse’. Another glitch which was spotted was the word Russians which when translated from Ukrainian read as ‘occupiers’ in the Russian language.

Whether or not this was a result of successful hacking or perhaps just a machine error, Google did respond by saying that Google Translate “worked by looking for patterns in hundreds of millions of documents but translation remained difficult as the meaning of words was tied to the context in which they were used”. “This means that not all translations are perfect, and there will sometimes be mistakes or mistranslations”.

Such happenings always create a debate as to whether platforms such as google translate are reliable when it comes to website content translation or even Russian financial document translation to be specific. Google has stated that ‘although translations are conducted automatically it is possible for users to suggest alternative translations manually’ which can sometimes leave room for biased results. The best way to be sure to receive an accurate translation is to use translation services by human translators especially when you are translating for work, legal or educational purposes.

Have a comment about this? Let us know your thoughts below.

Retail translation services gone wrong?

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The increasingly popular supermarket retailer Aldi have been doing a lot right in terms of muscling in on the ‘big four’ supermarkets in the UK and successfully creating a brand identity for value for money but they have caused a bit of commotion recently. There are claims from some that the German budget chain has been insensitive and ‘racist’ towards Scottish people in one of their new advertisements. This is well and truly a case of retail translation services gone bad.

The advert in question was a radio advert that aired on Australian radio to promote Aldi’s whiskey range. The advert features a Scotsman who announces himself as the head distiller for Aldi’s own-brand whisky accompanied by the unmistakable sound of bagpipes whilst an Englishwoman supplies a voiceover for the Scotsman for a fast translation into ‘English’ despite the Scot’s objections that he is already speaking English.

The advert received a complaint of racism from an expat Scottish national which prompted the Australian Advertising Board to investigate. The complainant who was not impressed, explained how the advert depicts the stereotype that Scots are hard to understand and insisted if it were an aboriginal who received a translation service there would be an ‘uproar’ and question why it was ok to be ‘racist’ towards the Scottish.

The complaint however was rejected by the board who stipulated that the promotion was intended to be more humorous rather than racist. The board ruled that the advert suggest that the Scottish man’s accent is likely to be harder to understand to the average person but is in fact completely clear and the use of a translator adds to the humour of the advert. They also state it is not acceptable to make fun of a person’s accent regardless of nationality but in this case it is the translator that is the one that looks ‘silly’ because there is no need for her translation whilst the Scotsman is not presented with a negative stereotype at all.

Aldi had commented to the board saying that this is just one of a series of light-hearted advertisements which will see other accents such as the French and New Zealand accents used in the same way.

Photo credit: Mike Mozart

What are your thoughts?

Why your business needs localisation services

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In the world of language translations and translation services you would think that a translation from one language into another would be sufficient and enough to pass as a ‘complete’ translation. You would think that you could get by on Google, Skype or some other third party translator software but that is not the case. The word ‘translation’ is defined by the Oxford dictionary as “The process of translating words or text from one language into another” and that is exactly what these said software’s achieve, but that is where the issue lies as a translation from one language to another word for word is just going to be a bunch of nonsense in the target language. This is where professional translation agencies come in as they provide professional translation services or in other words human translations carried out by actual qualified human translators.

These translators would more often than not be fluent in the source language as well as being a native speaker of the target language. This is so that the text could be translated into another language so that it makes complete sense rather than just random words put together. It is majorly important to have a readable translation but there is another step that can be taken specifically if the translation were to be aimed at different markets where it may need to be made as though one is speaking to the “locales”. This process is a vital one and is known as localisation or localisation services.

The localisation of a language is something businesses would use in order to target their products to ‘local’ markets where the general language may differ slightly such as French Canadian, Brazilian Portuguese and Mexican Spanish, to name a few. Localisation services are generally used for websites, software, videos games, audio voiceovers and other forms of multimedia. In addition to a translation from one language to another (making sense, grammar, correct spelling etc.) localisation will adapt the translation for the local market they intend to target, taking into account the proper formatting of letters and numbers, currencies, times, dates, as well as other details such as local customs and sensitivities towards certain images, phrases, graphics and colour schemes.

This is why your business needs to take into account localisation when looking to expand overseas, do not assume you can take a ‘one size fits all’ approach when marketing to different countries. One thing that works in Spain may not necessarily be successful in Spanish-speaking Argentina.

Let us know your thoughts?

Photo Credit: Nick Richards

What unexpected language has got a German translation?

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Languages, translations and globalisation are truly wonderful things because without these key factors we would not be able to communicate with the rest of the world, we would not be able to know the things we know now or learn new things from different cultures. Professional translation services are great in aiding this as it has allowed even the most obscure language to be understood all over the world.

A language such as the Ho-Chunk language of the Winnebago tribe of Wisconsin and Nebraska which is only spoken by a total of 11 people in the world or the Tinigua language of Colombia which is said to derive from no other language and is only fluently spoken by 2 people! Yes only 2 people left are known to speak Tinigua. Although these languages are translatable I highly doubt you would require a service such as Tinigua financial translation services, but you get the point.

Now one other obscure language has finally been given a translation, this time a German translation service. Is it a rare Amazonian tribal language from a tribe that has only just made contact with the modern world; a lost African language only spoken by the elders; or something with an exotic back-story along those lines? Nope! Not even close.

The language in question is none other than the Merseyside dialect of the Scouse community. Yes that’s right you can now finally get a Scouse to German translation service. All our prayers have been answered! We could thank God but it was German football team FC Augsburg who rather comically provided their traveling fans with a German translation of known Scouse sayings ahead of their trip to Anfield for the first leg of the Europa League’s last 32 round. The Scouse phrases included “Lad” (Boy/Man) which translated into “Alter” and “Mi head’s chocka” (???) in German “Ich kann nicht klar denken”. FC Augsburg eventually lost 1-0 to Liverpool over two legs to end their cup run, but at least the Germans can now feel comfortable knowing what a “Bevvie” is.

See the full list of translations below.

Ever wondered what Disney princesses sound like in their native language?

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Ever wondered what your favourite Disney songs would sound like if they were sung in the native languages of the characters? Well wonder no more! Thanks to a popular Film orientated YouTube channel known as ‘Movie Munchies’ who have revealed the translations of each song from the characters country of origin. As E! Online reports Movie Munchies have rather cleverly compiled various different clips of the most popular Disney princesses and their catchy songs which were all originally recorded in the English language followed by the translation of their mother tongues.

As Disney is one of the most popular brands of all time and their timeless films have seen many generations grown up with them over time, everyone is likely to have a favourite. With the release of each movie comes a new star and for some a new favourite and due to the massive influence Disney has around the world multiple different translations are released for everyone to interpret.

You can watch all your favourite Disney princesses sing their songs in the way that nature intended it. You can actually hear Mulan who is Chinese sing “Reflection” in the Mandarin translation; you can see the Norwegian rendition of the massive hit “Let it go” by Elsa from Frozen. Also there are other classic tunes like the Arabic version of “A whole new world” sung by Jasmine from Aladdin and Snow White from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs singing German.

There are many more languages in each of the princess’s native tongue such as Belle from beauty and the Beast in French, The little Mermaid, Ariel in Danish, Megara from Hercules in Greek, Rapunzel from Tangled in German  and many more, all of which just further add to the beauty of each song. Check them out for yourself below.

Part 1:

Part 2:

What do you think of these versions? Let us know below.

Has this company gone a step too far?

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A lesson in how not to advertise or retail a translation device today, coming from a story reported on BBC trending. A promotional video was released for a new portable translation device and the video in question has sparked cries of sexual harassment and outrage. The advert for the device depicts a young Englishman named “Dean” who goes around to random women in Japan using the device in order to break down the language barriers and communicate with them, doesn’t sound too disturbing right?

The only problem is he wants a kiss, a move which has seen the advert and the actor himself widely criticised and been branded as ‘creepy’ and claims that the actor in the video is ‘sexually harassing’ the local women. This is after it appears in the video that some of the women did not react well to his advances with one even running away and another hitting him with her hand bag. Although not all the women seen in the video were afraid some actually responded well with giggles and one even reciprocating his advances and gives him a quick kiss in the final scene.

But all this outcry of harassment of these unsuspecting women have been shut down by the translation gadgets CEO who told BBC trending it was all an act and in fact all of the women involved in this video, seen as tasteless by some were all in on the act and were all paid actresses. The pressure of the negative reaction has seen the video now have a disclaimer saying everyone involved in the video are all paid actors. That however hasn’t stopped criticism of the advert to which some think is very low brow and degrading to oriental women and some even claiming that it adds to the stereotype that if you are European in Asia you can do as you like.

Whatever your views on this advert you cannot deny the fact that it has garnered much attention albeit which has seen it go viral and received more than five million views online. As the saying goes ‘All publicity is good publicity.’

What are your views?

Why Messi and Neymar owe Ronaldo

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Football fanatics will understand what the FIFA Ballon d’Or is about. For those that don’t it is almost what the Oscars are to the movie industry or what the Grammys are to the music industry. The annual event honours the best men’s football players of a particular year as voted by international media delegates, national team coaches and captains. The award itself initially was The Ballon d’Or awards which awarded the best European football players and it wasn’t until during the 2010 world cup held in South Africa did the award merge with FIFA World Player of the Year therefore awarding the Ballon d’Or to the recipient of the FIFA award and now called the FIFA Ballon d’Or.

Since the two awards merged they have been dominated by no other than Argentinian Lionel Messi and Portuguese Cristiano Ronaldo with Messi winning four of the six awards including the latest award (2015 best player in the world) whilst Ronaldo has won two FIFA Ballon d’Or awards in 2013 and 2014 respectively. 

This year saw something interesting happen well as Cristiano put it he feels as though Messi and Neymar owe him money and you’ll never guess what for? For his translation services! Yes Ronaldo who speaks Portuguese, Spanish and English acted as the interpreter for the duo who do not have a very good command of the English language. As the players took to the stage to accept their awards, he acted as an English to Spanish translator for Messi and an English to Portuguese translator for Neymar whilst they posed for pictures and talked to the press. Ronaldo who came in second place said “When we were up there on the stage neither Messi nor Neymar speaks English, and I was their translator,” as he laughed.

Ronaldo went on to say “I spoke with them later and told them not to forget to pay me later for the translation!”

It will be interesting to see what Messi and Neymar have to say as this friendly rivalry.

Let’s see whether Ronaldo will receive his payment for his translation services at the Ballon d’Or awards. Wonder if he has sent them an invoice?

Share your thoughts below.

A translation mix up in Sweden

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A bit of a light hearted story coming out of the municipality of Helsingborg in Sweden. This story demonstrates just how translation services could go badly wrong due to the vast complexities of languages. Now let me set the scene for you, you just arrive in a new country, an environment completely alien to you, the buildings are different, the weather is different, the people are different and you don’t speak a word of the language so communication is hard to come by. Well this is the predicament that newly arrived Romanian immigrants to Sweden were facing.

Now you would think that if you were in the position of the Romanian migrants, you would like to establish some form of contact when you need to speak to the Swedish authorities or health care staff and this is exactly what the Helsingborg council tried to do in order to cater to the migrants. They did this by providing translators and interpreters but there was one huge error. According to Helsingborg’s newspaper ‘Dagblad’ the translators and interpreters provided spoke a completely different language to that of the Romanians. Instead of offering Romanian translation services they had mistakenly chose Romany translators, an Indo-Aryan language which is known as a ‘gipsy’ language whereas Romanian has its roots in Latin.

The difference between the two languages was highlighted by an expert Romanian linguist, Lucian Bagiu who explained “Romanians don’t understand Romany any more than a Swede does, you could say that there are more similarities between Romanian and Swedish than between those two languages and Romany.”

It is understandable how the mix up could have come about, through the similarities of the names of the languages. One of the Romanian immigrants commented saying that they “did not understand anything, not a word” before the actual Romanian translators were brought in. Although Per Pehrsson, a Helsingborg official explained that there were no problems faced in communicating with the Romanians regardless of the mix up, he stated “We haven’t had any problem communicating with these people with the assistance of the interpreters we have.”

What are your thoughts on this?

A Major shakeup in Baseball and how translations has helped

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Big news coming from the world of sport today involving one of America’s favourite pastimes baseball. All 30 teams of the Major League Baseball (MLB) are now being required to employ an all year round full time translator for their players from Latin American countries. This new proposal has been championed by current New York Yankees player Carlos Beltran, who himself hails from Puerto Rico wanted to see the implementation of these translation fast!

The translation and interpreters will be partially supplemented by the MLB with $65,000 given to each team to help with costs. The money will come from the penalties incurred by the teams that had preceded the international signing bonus limit, according to documents acquired by The New York Times and ESPN.

It comes after an incident which took place in April 2014 when Beltran’s teammate, New York Yankees pitcher Michael Pineda’s game was cut short as he was ejected for having pine tar on his neck as it helps the pitcher manipulate the flight of the ball. Once the game was over Pineda was grilled by the press but due to his limited English he was not able to communicate properly. Beltran was unhappy with this event, as he said at the time “It’s a problem, of course, because he can’t express himself the way he wants to.”

Beltran wants fast transaltions

Pineda (Left) and Beltran (Right)

Beltran had pushed and with the aid of the Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA) the new policy has been introduced by the MLB.

Translators and interpreters have long been offered by MLB to Japanese and Asian players but has not been the same for the Latin American Spanish speaking players who make up nearly 25 percent of the MLB roster. It makes sense for these services to be offered pre and post games to help the Spanish speaking players communicate with the press as there are far more from Hispanics than there are Asians in the league.

“I am very happy about this, this is MLB we have a large Spanish-speaking contingent of players and coaches, and we need to be as professional as possible in everything we do.” Beltran told the Times after the decision had been agreed.

What are your thoughts on this?

http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/sports/2016/01/14/no-longer-lost-in-translation-mlb-now-requires-translators-for-latino/

What are the best languages to learn and why?

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With globalisation at an ever increasing rate people don’t stay in the same city/country/place they were born and brought up in anymore. Nowadays people tend to travel for all sorts of reasons whether it is backpack traveling for leisure, for business or work purposes you will not be surprised to see communities fused with different cultures at any given time. With this has come a very common glitch that is language barriers. Have you ever been on holiday in a foreign country and tried to ask where the toilet was and the only way was pointing towards your private regions to get your message across? Well depending on who you were speaking to, their interpretation of your query may have differed to your intent. There is however a solution to that, one is you can use translation services to get your message across in a different language or you can learn the language yourself.
With that being said let’s take a look at six languages worth learning today based on performing economies and/or job/business prospects in no particular order.

1. Mandarin
Well this is an obvious one, the language spoken in China and also being one of the official languages of Singapore both booming economies, it is no surprise that the Mandarin language is at the top of the list. Over the years China become a global force to be reckoned with and is rapidly becoming one of the biggest economies in the world. With that being said it is important to note that learning mandarin is not an easy task for English speakers. The language itself has been classed as one of the hardest to learn with some schools in the UK making studying Mandarin compulsory for 13 year olds as reported by The Telegraph.

2. Portuguese
Portuguese is the official language of Portugal as well as Brazil. The language is not only spoken by over 200 million people in Brazil alone but it is also the first language for its inhabitants and official business language in the region. Alongside Portuguese, having a good grasp of the English language as well as Spanish (which is predominantly spoken by surrounding Latin nations) is sought after by Brazilian employers and is also likely to broaden your business prospects.

3. Japanese
Placed 3rd in the list of top 10 biggest economies in the world Japan is a global force to be reckoned with. Its profound influence in sectors such as automobile manufacturing and electronics has made Japan an attractive place for business and work. Its rich culture is also an attractive place for tourists with the reporting that an estimated 14 million people visited Japan between January and September 2015. A huge opportunity for English speakers to teach in japan has been around for years and has been a popular option for English degree holders. Average monthly salaries for teaching English in Japan are around 250,000 Japanese yen roughly 1,357 British pounds. This is a good way to earn money whilst you learn Japanese which can increase your work prospects once you get a good understanding of the language.

4. Russian
Russia has had somewhat of a rocky relationship with the UK with one contributing factor being the Russian-Ukraine conflict. Despite Russia’s ‘rocky’ relationship with the West, the country is among the top 10 biggest economies of the world. Not only that, Russia is listed amongst the biggest markets for exports of UK goods with around 600 U companies having a Physical presence in Russia according to UK Trade and Investment (UKTI).

5. Arabic
Arabic is predominantly spoken by countries of the Middle East and North Africa. The Middle East in particular possess huge opportunities for businesses to trade within this oil rich region of the world. Countries such as Qatar and Kuwait have attracted expats from all over the world to work within the oil industry which boats huge rewards. Learning Arabic will surely teach you valuable language skills which can be used to your advantage in over 20 countries. For students this could also help your scholarship horizons.

6. German
Germany has had a big influence on the UK economy in a sense that it is the biggest trade import partner by value according to UKTI. Germanys economy is a very attractive one for both job and business prospects. With the population of Germany estimated to be over 80 million of which for the majority of people living there German is their first language. Germany is one of the major languages sought after by graduate recruiters with speakers of both English and German having an advantage in the recruitment process. This applies heavily for multi-national corporations and is desirable for hiring investment banks as highlighted by Target Jobs.

What languages do you think are the most worth learning? Leave us a comment below.

Why musician Prince is hitting the headlines

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The artist formally known as Prince, who a year later in 1994 changed his name back to Prince; famous for being eccentric, controversial, pioneering and often just damn right bizarre. Whatever your opinions of him, he is a musical legend having sold over 100 million records worldwide and at the same time picking up an Academy Award, a Golden Globe and 7 Grammys, there’s no doubting his credibility.

In a career that spans nearly 40 years Prince has made countless headlines, but why is he hitting the headlines now? Well not so much Prince himself but rather his work, more specifically the album and movie of the same name which was loosely based on Prince’s rise to the top had between them sold over 13 million copies in the US alone and spent 24 straights weeks at number 1 as well as winning an Academy Award and grossing over $80 million (£53m), the legendary ‘Purple Rain’. The reason being is that Purple Rain the movie is set to be remade. You would be forgiven to think the movie would have received a French, Spanish, German or even Hebrew translation! Not even close.

The movie has been remade in none other than the Western African Saharan Republic of Niger. Yes that’s right, The Republic of Niger. Now you might consider that to be a bit odd or the fact that the remake is aimed at the Tuareg people of Niger who probably have no idea who Prince is, but what’s worse and even stranger is there is no direct translation for the word ‘purple’, instead of ‘Purple Rain’ the Tuareg version is ‘Akounak Tedalat Taha Tazoughai’ which translates into a rather long-winded awkward title of ‘Rain the Colour of Blue with a Little Red in It’.

For those of you thinking this must be some sort of a joke, the low budget Akounak Tedalat Taha Tazoughai or Rain the Colour of Blue with a Little Red in It has actually become quite popular in Niger as it follows real life musician Mdou Moctar’s rise to the top as he rides his purple or blue with a little bit of red bike around the city of Agadez.

But there is some truth in the idea that this remake is some sort of joke as Christopher Kirkley, the co-writer and director of the remake confirmed when speaking to The Guardian “It started out as a joke, the idea to take this cult film from the west and remake it in the Sahara. But we realised if we took the original story and modified it, the remake would reflect the lives of every guitarist in the Tuareg community.”

What are your thoughts?

A story originally reported on The Guardian.

Seven ways to keep good employees

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So I recently came across a post on LinkedIn which listed reasons why employees stay in a company. Having been an employee myself and now running a translation agency in London I thought I would elaborate on some of the points highlighted.

When running a business as you grow you are more than likely to employ staff and the more you grow the more employees you will have. With this comes several challenges and when it comes to managing employees there are several pointers you should always have in the back of your mind in order to create a positive work environment and most of all keep them.

  1. Pay them well – Some of you are wondering why this was listed first. Some yelling in their minds, pay is not the biggest motivator! Well let’s face it in this day in age with the current economic climate and the ever increasing cost of living especially in developed cities like London, pay is one of the biggest motivators for employees to stay in a company. However it is important to note that as much as you pay your employees well if you don’t treat them well they will eventually leave once they have achieved what they wanted (pay wise).
  1. Mentor them – Mentoring is a good activity which benefits both the mentor and mentee. For the mentor it is a chance to listen to the needs of the employee and help guide them into achieving their goals. For the mentee it is a chance to learn from experience and get one to one help. Such activities have huge benefits for the organisation as employees and managers develop a better understanding of each other and as a result have a clearer understanding of the organisations needs which are critical for success.

Treat employees like they make a difference

  1. Challenge them – As humans we have a tendency to want to solve problems. We want to feel as though we are the ‘man’ and this translates into the work place. As a species we easily get bored and when we feel we are not challenged enough we tend to look for a better opportunity where we can showcase our skills. It is however important for managers not to over-challenge their employees as this may backfire and result in a hostile working environment as well as a contributor to stress for the employee.
  1. Promote them – When it comes to staying in a company for years you will notice that the majority of people who have stayed within the same company for more than 3 years have been promoted in one way or the other. You cannot simply expect your employees to stay long when you keep them in the same position without promotion.
  1. Involve them in decision making (empower them) – This is very important as not only does this instil a great sense of authority within the employee but your business benefits from valuable insight from the people that are actually carrying out the day to day activities of the company. When employees feel they are involved in decision making they feel valued and who doesn’t want to feel valued?
  1. Appreciate them – A simple thank you or acknowledgement goes a long way. When employees feel appreciated they feel a sense of belonging to the organisation and therefore are likely to stay. Simply recognising their efforts and giving credit where it’s due are ways of ensuring your employees feel valued. Incentives such as employee of the month and other benefits are a good way of showing appreciation.
  1. Trust them – Trust! The word that makes or breaks relationships. Yes this also applies in work place relationships whether it is amongst employees or between an employee and a manager. If your workers do not trust you they are more than likely not thinking of staying in your company for the long run. When you show your employees you trust them and most of all you make them feel they can trust you, you create a sense of loyalty which will motivate them to stay.

What are your biggest motivators for staying in a company?

Are our languages shaped by the heat in our environments?

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An interesting new theory has arisen recently on just how our languages have developed, but could it really be down to the heat of the environment? Take the English language for example, with consonant heavy words such as ‘catchphrase’ in the vocabulary; it comes as no surprise that the language evolved in a cold, open environment. Well at least not to Ian Maddieson, a University of Mexico linguist as he explains how consonants do not translate well in dense forests or mountain ranges. “If you have a lot of tree cover, for example, [sound] will reflect off the surface of leaves and trunks. That will break up the coherence of the transmitted sound.” Although vowel sounds such as “a” and “e” are able to transmit much further through a dense environment, whereas consonant are likely to be drowned out.

translation services

Dense Rainforest

Added to the environmental factors, the heat factor could have a hand in shaping how words and sounds travel as in warm climates; the sun creates pockets of warm air that can affect the sound waves. As Maddieson explains “You disrupt the way it was originally produced, and it becomes much harder to recognize what sound it was.”

interpreting services

Open cool environment

Maddieson backs up this theory by further illustrating that an open, cooler environment produces a consonant thick language such as the Georgian language whereby on the other hand, compared to a warm, dense ecosystem such as Hawaii a language consisting of very few consonants have occurred. “In a more open, temperate landscape, prairies in the Midwest of the United States [or in Georgia] for example, you wouldn’t have that. So the sound would be transmitted with fewer modifications.”

Tecumseh Fitch, a linguist of the University of Vienna, who was not part of this study, has put forward an argument using bird songs which could relate to human languages developed in forest habitats. Fitch suggests that when a bird in a forest sings “Stree! Stree! Stree!” due to the thick, humid environment, others interpret and learn the song as “Ree! Ree! Ree!” as the “St” has filtered out through the environment.

Fitch, although impressed and intrigued by Maddieson’s hypothesis, proposes that there are too many factors involved in a formation of a language and until more research is carried out it is hard to know exactly, thus the hypothesis remains unproven.

Sean Roberts, a researcher from the Netherlands at Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, also not involved in the study champions such research carried out by Maddieson and claims that Maddieson’s hypothesis is just the start of research into how nature shapes our languages. Roberts further concludes that he has found that dry, empty places are unlikely to ever have developed tonal languages such as Mandarin. He even studied decade’s worth of Larry King transcripts, claiming he matched the days for the humidity data and on the dry days, Larry King used more consonants.

A story originally reported on http://www.npr.org

What are your views on this interesting piece of research?

How your business can benefit from professional translation services

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When it comes to doing business this day and age, as much as traditional fundamentals of business continue to be practiced technology advancement has contributed to the change in the way we do things. For instance most retail companies prior to the year 2000 could only target their local geographical region unless they had big budgets for tv commercials and customers willing to travel long distances, they were limited to specific regions. Post 2000 when the use of internet began to escalate a new window of opportunity arose for businesses around the world. The internet phenomenon opened up doors for the very same companies who were limited to their local region to reach a far much wider audience on a global scale. One way this was made possible was the use of professional website translation. It made it possible for companies to reach even the most remote town in Brazil with the help of the world wide web.

With the aim to reach a global audience, businesses are sometimes faced with language barriers. Although English is deemed a universal language and also the premier language of the internet, it is not the first language in many countries which attract trade. Countries like Brazil, China and Portugal do not use English as a first language. Most people in those countries don’t even speak the English language. With that being said companies have to look for alternative ways to effectively reach these audiences and that is where translation services come in.

software-translation

Businesses have had to use translation services such as marketing and website translation which can be tricky if you yourself do not speak the target language. As a result companies have turned to translation agencies who are able to assist them with ensuring their message is put across effectively in a different language. In doing so businesses have gone on to increase their audience engagement whether it is via their website or social media platforms, reach more customers and sell more products. In 2015 simply creating your website and expecting to reach the global market is simply just not enough! The need to not only translate but localise content is key in effectively communicating your message in another language. Not only does this attract more people to your business it helps build trust and customer loyalty as research Common Sense Advisory has found that people feel more confident making a purchase when information is in their own native language.

When it comes to translating your content be it your website or advertising campaign it is highly advised you do your research as to whether this is feasible. For example if you operate within the film industry just because a particular movie is successful in one market does not mean it will be in another. Research is key before making final decisions.

Examples of companies who have translated or localised their content and are highly successful include the likes of:

  • Uber – translated into more than 30 langauges and predicted to boast profits in excess of 1.5billion according to Techinsider.
  • Huffington Post available in English, French, Spanish, Italian, Japanese, German, Portuguese, Korean and Greek.

So if you are ever unsure of why you need to include the cost of translation services in your budget remember these points.

  • Consumers prefer to use their own native language when making purchases
  • Reach more customers
  • Receive more enquiries
  • Sell more products
  • Build trust
  • Increase engagement on your site

Why is this young Nigerian man making waves in Japan?

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The name Ufot Ekong Junior is a relatively unknown name, but is definitely a name you should remember. “Why should I know this name?” I hear you ask. Well for those of you who do not know or haven’t heard yet, Ufot Ekong is the name of a young Nigerian student currently making waves in Japan.

What is it that is so impressive about this young man from Nigeria? Well, Ufot Ekong Jnr, 24, who had studied at Tokyo’s Tokai University, a private university which was established in 1942 by Shigeyoshi Matsumae, has rather spectacularly managed to achieve the highest grades at the prestigious university and universities nationwide in Japan, for the last 50 years, a record which has stood since 1965.

Ufor Ekong

Not only has Ufot Jnr succeeded in breaking the 50 year old record for highest grades achieved in the private Japanese university, he is also credited with solving a previous ‘unsolvable’ maths equation which had stood to see many unsuccessful attempts for the last 30 years. He managed to solve the quizzical equation amazingly in his first semester at Tokai University.

EkongThat wasn’t all for Ufot Jnr’s achievements, throughout his university career, through dedication and hard work he immersed himself in his work and managed to earn a staggering 6 academic excellence awards. In the end he graduated with a first class degree with honours in electrical and electronics engineering.

He had no need for a translator or translations as such, as Ufot Jnr is fluent in Japanese seeing that previous to enrolling himself on the electrical and electronics engineering undergraduate course, he studied Japanese for a year and a half. He is also fluent in English, French and Yoruba; it wouldn’t be surprising if he added Hebrew to this list of languages.

All of these wonderful achievements in academia for a man so young and in a country not of his mother tongue and perhaps the most amazing this is that he is completely self-funded and managed to put himself through the respected university by working 2 jobs whilst studying with no financial aid. He is currently studying for a master’s degree at the same university with a view to pursuing a PHD in the future.

Whatever Mr Ufot Ufot Ekong Junior goes on to achieve in his life, his story should be used as inspiration and himself and individuals like him should be celebrated.

Photo credits: Ufot Ekong Twitter

The newest twist on the world’s oldest novel

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Written in around 1,000 A.D., consisting of over 1,000 pages, ‘The Tale of Genji’ is widely regarded as the first ever novel written. The Tale of Genji depicts the story of Prince Genji, an illegitimate son of Emperor Kiritsubo, who due to politics demotes Genji to a life of a commoner; the story focuses on his romantic life whilst also detailing character in and around the imperial throne. Seen as the epitome of translation challenges due to the complexity of the Heian period court Japanese, Murasaki Shikibu’s ‘The Tale of Genji’ is no fast translation, as Dartmouth College professor Dennis Washburn found out as he embarked on the mammoth task of translating this influential Japanese novel from Japanese to English. He states “It took me 15 years of steady, almost daily, work.”

Washburns effort is not the first complete English rendition of Prince Genji’s life story; it was the work of Arthur Waley, a researcher of the Chinese and Japanese language that took that honour. Although Suematsu Kenchō produced the first English version more than 40 years before ‘The Waley Genji’ as it is known, The Suematsu Genji was not of a good quality and to add to that only a few chapters were translated. The English translations of note are The Waley Genji (1926-1933), The Seidensticker Genji (Edward Seidensticker, 1976), The McCullough Genji (Helen McCullough, 1994), and The Tyler Genji (Royall Tyler, 2001). Now Washburn can add his name to the list, not bad for someone who did not initially intend to carry out this massive task as he explains “I had never considered doing a translation of it before then, and to be honest, I had to think a long time before undertaking the work. It was a daunting prospect and I wasn’t confident.”

All of the English translations of ‘The Tale of Genji’ vary significantly from one another. For example, Waley’s Genji combined his modern world with the Heian period original and although considered a great accomplishment at the time and is still widely read today, it was criticised by some purists for the changes Waley made to the original. Whereas Seidensticker’s Genjis tried to improve on Waley’s version by not deviating too much from the original text and making it more readable by giving the characters names so that the story is easier to follow. McCullough’s Genji is an abridgement, while Tyler’s Genji is focused more on the poetic version that the original displayed, and the use of commentary and footnotes to explain the cultural aspects of the story, he was also praised for not adding in his own interpretations which is something other translators have given into.

Washburn himself has said he ‘respects’ all the earlier translations, stating “They each do different things well. However, there can never be a definitive translation of an important work like the ‘Genji,’ and so I had a couple of key aims for my version.” Washburn said he wanted his version of Genji to give readers the same feeling as the readers of the original from the Heian period whilst trying to replicate the style of Murasaki. Washburn’s Genji is something in between Seidensticker’s and Tyler’s Genji as he attempted to mix the original style of writing with clarity for the English language readers, not a task for the faint hearted.

 

A story reported by Japan Times

London and ‘foreign’ languages how the city has transformed?

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As one of the world’s most diverse cities and one of the biggest financial capitals in the wold it is no wonder why London is one of the most desired cities to live and work. From its signature landmarks like big ben, Buckingham palace and Trafalgar square, to the vibrant central London which never sleeps it is no wonder London welcomes tourists in excess of 16 million per year. Being home to 8.6 million people, a record high as of 2015 London shares its glory with around 270 nationalities of whom between them speak over 300 languages. Over the years as a result of mass immigration this has seen an increase in translation services being utilised by the general public which has caused some controversy. In addition the foreign born population accounted for around 36.7 percent according the 2011 census, making London one of the most diverse cities in the world.

Immigration has always been a big part of British history and as such there are many reasons why London in particular is as culturally diverse as history teaches. People from all over the world came to Britain for many reasons. From the Jewish people immigrating to Great Britain during the middle ages to the West Indian’s who were recruited to come and work for the British transport system and hospitals amongst many other industries, whilst others returning soldiers who fought for great Britain in the second world war or Indian people brought in to help rebuild England after the second world war. Many of these groups settled in London and that is a reflection of what London is today.

brick lane

Brick Lane famously translated into Bengali

Travelling on the London tube you are bound to hear many languages being spoken around the city. The guardian has created several infographics illustrating London’s second languages mapped by tube stop (http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2014/oct/30/-sp-londons-tube-languages-visualised).

The results depicts that the most spoken language after English in London is Polish, which is also considered by many as not only London but England’s second language. In London this is followed by Turkish, Bengali and French respectively. The influence of the polish language in London can be attributed to Great Britain joining the euro zone as a result allowing all member states visa-free access to the UK. This of course has created a lot of controversy among the British and one which stands out is the use of polish translation services for non-English speaking Poles which in certain instances such as legal proceedings a qualified translator may be required which may sometimes be funded by taxpayers.

It is interesting to see how different languages have influenced London and what positives and negatives such change brings. One thing is for sure London will never be a complete English speaking city and more and more people will continue to infuse this great city with the most remote of language in the coming future. All we can do is watch what the future holds for languages in London.

When translation goes wrong! Sweden women’s national football team blunder.

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Here’s a light hearted story from one of Scandinavia’s biggest countries, Sweden. This is a prime example of translation services gone wrong. A video was launched as part of a campaign to promote the Swedish women’s national football team ahead of the upcoming women’s FIFA World Cup which kicks off on 6th June 2015 in Canada.

The promotional video in question features the slogan and hashtag of “#klappaförsverige” which when translated into English is “#clapforsweden” which went viral and spread throughout the world wide web like wildfire.

The video was originally intended to garner support for the Swedish team’s effort in this summer’s tournament but rather than provoking a considerable backing for the Sweden nation team, the rather unfortunate slogan produced quite a few laughs and giggles.

The reason for the outbreak of laughter and comedic effect is in the English translation of the slogan #clapforsweden. You see ‘clap’ is an English slang for the venereal disease gonorrhea. So they essentially saying gonorrhea for Sweden, which is why the video has spread (no pun intended) throughout the English speaking world. Ironically gonorrhea is Sweden’s most sexually transmitted disease.

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The Swedish Football Federation’s spokesman, Niklas Bodell chose to look on it positively, accepting it and even seeing any publicity is good publicity when he had this to say when speaking to news agency TT. “This kind of thing happens, we have chosen to smile a little at the translation and instead rejoice over the fact that it has given the national squad so much attention.”

Twitter users were quick to pick up on the video, here are the best tweets. Johan Rylander (@rylanderjohan), a journalist from Gothenburg tweeted “I wonder who thought of this hashtag? Google what clap means in English…” Whilst @LarsSund1 suggested “Swedes think they master the English language. They don’t.” and @nvlk21 wrote “More gonorrhea for the people!”

Daniel Ahonen, who plays Swedish club IK Sirius, tweeted: “Clap quickly translated means gonorrhea. The hashtag #ClapforSweden is pretty funny. Good PR people over at the ladies’ side!”

Lastly Adam Waller (@FRfotbollAdam) said “Unfortunate hashtag when translated to English… Nevertheless, wish the team well for the #WorldCup.”

Sweden are to commence their FIFA women’s World Cup 2016 campaign on the 8th June against a strong Nigeria team but face stiff opposition for the crowning glory from the likes of tournament favourites and joint record holders USA and Germany, Brazil, France, holders Japan and host Canada.

Although Sweden are not among the favourites the national team coach Pia Sundhage thinks they could be the dark horses of the competition saying “The central line and the goalkeeper are important, if we can get ourselves together whilst there we can go far. Caroline Seger, Lotta Schelin and Nilla Fischer are three world players who can inspire others to play well too.”

Whether or not this is true or the worldwide attraction from the viral video helps, remains to be seen, we wish Sweden well in the world cup.

You won’t believe what British ‘thing’ is trending in China.

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Can you guess what it is about Britain that is making a big impact on the online traffic in China? Could it be the iconic British landmarks and history? The royal family? London’s vibrant fashion scene? The Barclays Premier League? You would be forgiven for thinking it was any of these things but in fact they are all wrong.

What has been trending in China is The London Underground; yes the London Underground according to BBC Trending. The London Underground also known as ‘the tube’ or ‘the underground’ is rich in history and is known all around the world by the widely recognisable logo and tube lines but yet these are still not the reasons for the underground’s popularity in China. The reason why the London Underground has been so popular recently in China is because of the “handsome” men commuting via the tubes. Sina Weibo, a Chinese micro blogging site (which is in Mandarin, currently being translated into English) is responsible for this. Images of photogenic male tube commuters have emerged on these micro blogs and been shared and liked numerous times, where a single image alone could receive over 100k shares and likes. The images receive largely positive comments generally about how good looking the individuals are. One user wrote “Handsome people really look good in anything” whist another declared “I want to take Tubes every day!”.

tubecrushpic

The pictures come from TubeCrush.net which was launched by a group of friends from London. TubeCrush.net is a British website which enables users to upload snaps of good looking men taken in secret whist on the tube. Speaking to BBC Trending, the popularity of these pictures are not much of a surprise to co-founder Stephen Motion, as he says that China is the third biggest source of traffic to their website, he then goes on to say “the website isn’t blocked in China. It’s fully available in all of the cities. We see most traffic coming from Guangzhou and Shanghai.”

Naturally, a website based on secretly taken pictures without the individual’s knowledge or consent is bound to raise some issues about legality and privacy as well as whether or not the website has an element of sexism in the way the images ‘objectify’ these men. These are issues TubeCrush.net is keen to contest; they argue that all images are legal as they were all taken in a public place. Stephan Motion also goes on to say if these individuals are not comfortable with their faces being published on their website, there is a way to get the image removed “We have a photo removal function where they can request to take it down” he then states “Interestingly we don’t receive many requests. When people discover they’ve been photographed, they’re actually quite proud.”

So why are these pictures of British men proving so popular with Chinese internet users? Ruhua Xianyu from the BBC’s Chinese Service says that Chinese people’s perception of the British man is one of good manners and politeness suggesting “When Chinese people think about British men, we think they’re true gentlemen” whilst concluding its more about the ‘quality’ of the man rather than the looks.

Thought you knew the richest man of all time? Think again!

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When the topic of who is the richest man of all time arises, often times names that appear in such conversations include the likes of Bill Gates – Co-founder and head of the technology giant that is Microsoft with an estimated net worth of $136 billion , John D. Rockerfeller who’s company The Standard Oil company dominated the American oil industry and has an estimated net worth of around $340 billion, Rothschild family who founded financial houses and own or control major banking institutions around the world have an estimated net worth of $350 billion while Carlos Slim, a Mexican businessman and investor has a net worth in the region of $71 billion. A name that does not seem to make the rounds is that of Musa Keita I of Mali.

Musa of Mali also known as Mansa Musa of Mali which in translation reads “king of kings” or “emperor” of Mali reigned for 25 years from 1312 – 1337 and his inflation adjusted net worth is estimated to be in excess of $400 billion making him the most wealthy man of all time. The Mali Empire is a kingdom that is usually overlooked by many historical books. Its rich gold mines and its capital city Timbuktu which was a centre of world trade in the later Middle Ages propelled it as an empire to be reckoned with. Its leader Mansa Musa reported to even have given gold to people he came across during his travels which subsequently depressed its value in Egypt at the time [Source British Museum].

Below is a list compiled by Celebrity Net Worth which highlights the richest people of all time and their net worth. The top 12 are as follows:

  1. Mansa Musa I (Emperor of the Mali kingdom) – Net Worth $400 Billion
  2. The Rothschild Family (Established finance houses also known as the Rothschild banking dynasty) – Net Worth $350 Billion
  3. John D. Rockefeller (Started the Standard Oil company in the USA) – Net Worth $340 Billion
  4. Andrew Carnegie (Led the enormous expansion of the steel industry in the United States in the 12th He is also known as a philanthropist. – Net Worth $310 Billion
  5. Nikolai Alexandrovich Romanov (Last emperor of Russian, reinged from 1894-1917) – Net Worth $300 Billion
  6. Mir Osman Ali Khan (Monarch of the Hyderabad in India reigned between 1911 and 1948) – Net Worth $230 billion
  7. William the Conqueror (King of England reigning between 1066 until his death in 1087) – Net Worth $229.5 Billion
  8. Muammar Gaddafi (Revolutionary and prime minister of Libya between 1969 until his death in 2011) – Net Worth $200 Billion
  9. Henry Ford (American industrialist and founder of the Ford Motor Company) – Net Worth $199 Billion
  10. Cornelius Vanderbilt (American business magnate and philanthropist who made his fortune in railroad and shipping) – Net Worth $185 Billion
  11. Alan Rufus (1st Lord of Richmond and cousin to William the Conqueror) – Net Worth $178.65 billion
  12. Bill Gates (Cofounder of Microsoft, investor, investor and philanthropist) – Net Worth $136 Billion

This powerful anti-racism social experiment will make you think

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An interesting, thought-provoking Lithuanian PSA video by Lithuanian anti-discrimination organisation Svetima Geda has been doing the rounds and is very quickly going viral on the internet. The aforementioned video, which is mostly in English with the Lithuanian translation on the subtitles, is a social experiment that highlights and challenges attitudes towards racism in Lithuania and the modern day world of social media.

The video which is 5 minutes and 30 seconds long starts with a sped up time-lapse of the experimenters wiring the actor up, setting the cameras up and arranging the ‘set’ which largely resembles a waiting area for a job interview or something similar in a big corporate building where the candid experiment is carried out.

The plot of this candid social experiment starts with an actor playing an African immigrant new to Lithuania, who is sitting in a waiting area when a variety of unsuspecting Lithuanian locals including men, women and even a child from all walks of life, join him in the waiting area each at separate times.

The video depicts a montage of each time the African man and each of the locals exchange pleasantries and small talk then silence as they wait until the African man then asks each of the locals to translate a message in Lithuanian which he received on Facebook and cannot understand. He explains he is new to the language and someone has sent him a message on Facebook which maybe the locals could help him translate. The video cuts to each of the locals mostly happy to help and some politely agreeing with a smile, but once the locals read the message their faces immediately change.

The interesting part is how the Lithuanian locals react once they read the message. Some take a long pause and are visibly distressed by the message they have just read, some shake their heads whilst most refuse to even say back what they have read. It is clear to see all the locals are shocked and appalled by the message and have great difficulty to even tell the African man what the message entails. One woman describes it as “humiliating” and a man responds after being asked “nope, there is no useful information here” whilst another local man pronounces that he cannot say what has been written while looking at the African man.

What is striking is that the men all decline to interpret the message whilst majority of the women emotionally recite back the message to the African man whereas the child innocently interprets without any thought. All of the unsuspecting locals apologise to the African man with a look of guilt and remorse as if they have written the message themselves.

This is the purpose of the video that no matter whom these people are and what their beliefs are when confronted face-to-face with racism there really is no good that can come out of it and how anyone reacts to it is largely the same, there is simply no place for it in today’s world.

How would you deal with this situation? Would you be honest? Would you refuse? Would you lie? On the flip side how would you react if you were the African man hearing these things?

What you don’t know about Facebook’s privacy?

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Undeniably Facebook is one of the most recognised brand names in the world and is listed in the top 20 world’s most valuable brands by Forbes. The power social media site which has captured over a billion users worldwide was only founded 11 years ago and has continued to grow on a massive scale since its launch in 20 accumulating over 800 million active users per day and over 1.3 billion monthly active users.

The social media site has grown from its humble beginnings as a platform for individuals to keep in touch, share images, videos and instant chat with friends and family to a global branding and marketing tool for businesses to increase awareness and engagement. The past four years has seen Facebook launch its translation tool allowing users to read posts and comments in different languages including Spanish, French and Italian. Furthermore Facebook’s success has seen the online social media site turn into a public company and its growth is still looking stable despite fierce competition from other social media sites such as Twitter.

On the controversial issue of privacy Facebook has seen its fair share of backlash from the public about how user’s content is handled.

Facebook has been criticised by some regarding how easy it is to make a Facebook profile. When signing up to Facebook all you need is a name, email address and password. With this simple account set up process Facebook has seen the creation of 83 million fake profiles according to CNN despite strident process of requesting proof of identification for suspected fake profile users. Shocking? With such a huge number of fake profiles do you really know who you are talking to on the other side of the net? Well for the most Facebook is used as a means to keep in touch with people they already know, however some use it as a platform to meet other like-minded people. On the other hand Facebook utilises face recognition software allowing them to close in on fake accounts.

A privacy concern among users involves third party companies having access to your information. We have all received the Candy Crush invites or clicked on apps which ask for permission to have access to our information, even going as far as asking permission to post on your behalf in order to use their application. For many wanting to use these apps it simply is a non-starter as you have limited to none access if you do not agree to such terms. In some cases Facebook is obliged to give information to third parties such as the government upon request.

One major subject which has hit headlines in recent years is that Facebook owns rights to your photos and videos. In that respect Facebook has a right to use your content in any way it sees fit. A report by The Telegraph highlighted that:

“Specifically for photos and video uploaded to the site, Facebook has a license to use your content in any way it sees fit, with a license that goes beyond merely covering the operation of the service in its current form. Facebook can transfer or sub-license its rights over a user’s content to another company or organisation if needed. Facebook’s license does not end upon the deactivation or deletion of a user’s account, content is only released from this license once all other users that have interacted with the content have also broken their ties with it (for example, a photo or video shared or tagged with a group of friends)“.

With the vast amount of information people share on social networking sites some even sharing their home and work addresses it is always a concern as to who has access to this information.

Another feature of Facebook is that it automatically sets your profile photo to be seen by the public when uploaded despite you having only friends or individuals set to see your updates. This is missed by so many people who think ‘all’ their photos are private. Although that is the case it is easy to revert your profile picture to private once uploaded.

Overall Facebook has captured our attention and its addictive nature will sure continue for the foreseeable future as it continues to implement new ways for people to be engaged whether it’s the buying up of other social media platforms such as Instagram or WhatsApp, Facebook has a mission to remain among the top social media sites for a long time and remains a force to be reckoned with.

Four signs you need to leave your job!

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When is the right time to leave your job?

We have all been there, stuck in a job where the future just seems bleak, day in day out Monday to Friday feeling that same old miserable feeling of hopelessness, bitterness and worry; the feeling of being stuck in a job you are not happy with. Whether you work for a medical institution, marketing agency, engineering firm or translation company, you may be faced with challenges which may result in you deciding to leave your job. Some of the signs it’s time to move on from your current employment are highlighted below. If you can relate to any of these points it might be your time to leave.

 

  1. Waking up in the morning and feeling sick? This feeling is very common and is a definitive sign that maybe things need to either change at your current workplace or maybe it’s time to hang your work boots for that particular job. Ever woken up and felt anxious about your day at work? Many of us do whether it is because of important meetings ahead or boardroom presentations, it is normal to experience such emotions. What is not natural is feeling this way consistently to the point where you are physically sick. If you feel this way it probably is time to make some changes firstly for your health and wellbeing and secondly for your peace of mind.
  1. Feeling underappreciated? Whenever you have an idea and present it to your supervisor or manager and despite you highlighting the benefits, you are completely ignored and your suggestions and opinions are disregarded without any thought. The question is for how much longer can you withstand such behaviours? Considering we spend most the time we are awake at work it is vital to spend it in an environment where you are appreciated.
  1. Is your boss is always right, even when they are wrong? Now dealing with different personalities is a quality we   all have to learn and in some ways are forced to develop in the workplace. Let’s face it we are all different in one way or another and we all have differences in the ways in which we deal with situations, however a sign that it may be time to leave your job can translate through how your manager approaches situatio
    ns     especially when things aren’t going to plan. We have all been taught to not let other peoples actions dictate our emotions however when you are working under the supervision of someone who feels they are never wrong and is always putting the blame on you this can be hard to follow. If after speaking to your management/HR about their behaviours the same pattern follows it really is time to look elsewhere.
  1. When promises never manifest. Ever been promised a pay rise, flexible working hours or even a bonus which has never been fulfilled? Yes the same old story of “oh the company did not perform as well as we thought this year, maybe next year” and before you realise it’s been 3 years. This is a clear sign of false promises which will never manifest. Good employers value their workers and understand that them being happy is good for the business.

The job market has in recent years taken a huge slump which has forced many people to put up and get by as the demand for work has been consistently higher than the jobs available. A dilemma many people face is whether to leave their well-paid job they do not enjoy to work in an environment they are happier to be in for lower pay. This dilemma is something we may all face at some point in our careers. Whether it is due to parental duties we will have to experience once we have children or other push factors which may well put us in such predicaments. On the plus side the job market seems to be on the mend with the Guardian highlighting that 50% of British businesses were planning to take on more staff in 2015.

Are robots more harmful than we think?

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We have all seen the movies, read the books and even heard things from the weirdo at the back of the bus saying robots will take over the world and enslave the human race one day. Most of us will usually not take any notice or even laugh it off as a sign of paranoia, but do the movies; books and weirdo all have a point? Do they know something we don’t? Is there more to these artificial beings than just a way to aid the human race? Are robots more harmful than we think?

To decide whether these lifeless beings pose a threat to the human race we must first understand where robots came from. The original idea of artificial beings stems from the ancient world, although it wasn’t until the age of the industrial revolution that through the introduction of electricity made it possible to power machines using electric motors. Therefore in the early 20th century the modern concept of humanoid robots were conceived. The term ‘robot’ was coined in the 1921 science fiction play R.U.R (Rossum’s Universal Robots) by Czech writer Karel Capek whose brother Josef created the word from Czech word “robota” which roughly translates into servitude or job.

Of course not all robots are bad; robots are actually very beneficial to us. They help us with everyday menial tasks, the machine robots have helped us advance as a race by basically being the automotive, manufacturing and engineering industry by mass producing on a major scale because without robots we would have not seen demands met. Robots have taken humans out of dangerous and health hazardous jobs and probably saved a lot of human lives in turn. You can find robots anywhere from the retail industry to the entertainment industry but one of the most important jobs robots are conducting right now are in the medical sector. Robots are utilised within the pharmaceutical side of mass producing medicines for all types of medical conditions as well as preforming potential lifesaving surgeries on patients through human controlled robot surgeons. Of course as technology moves on there are more and more autonomous robots being created with a view in mind to make our lives easier, for example auto vacuum cleaners, self-driving cars and so on. But could this be making us too complacent? In short, not really but we could well be weakened as a race.

When discussing robots and their effect on the human race it is hard to deter from the topic of whether all these advantages of robots in the work place can be a disadvantage in the long run and lead to displacing humans in the workforce altogether? Could we be at the start of industries looking to invest in artificial intelligence for more than just laborious tasks, leaving more of us unemployed? It remains to be seen whether the bleak vision of current trending Hollywood films of a future of a globalised world filled with mass poverty, disease, and unemployment is true, where artificial intelligence is put in place to work for the rich whilst strictly controlling the poor. As more and more money is being used to fund the type humanoid robots that mimic human and even animal movement, we could be witnessing the actualisation of scenes straight out of the Terminator series. Adding to the fact that robots have the potential to be stronger, faster and more ruthless than humans. If the movies are true and robots develop their own agenda then we don’t stand a chance.

So are robots more harmful than we think?

Right now, no. In fact robots have been responsible for a lot of good and advancement for the human race; they have made our lives easier and maybe made us lazier, also robots do not have the capacity to feel emotions, to love, hate, envy etc. So they are only as smart as the human they are taking orders from. There is a lot of sensationalism about robots and what they have the potential to become and of course there is a potential for them to fall with the wrong people to utilise them in a wrong way and if we are not careful, things could become depressing like the films but one thing that is for sure it is in our own hands for now.

The Overlooked History of Christmas

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It’s that time of the year again where Christmas is once again upon us. For some a magical time of the year where family get-togethers are the norm and stuffing ones face and drinking far too much for which one cares to remember are acceptable. Where, thanks to the commercialisation by the retail industry, holidays gifts are exchanged from one person to another on a massive scale, leaving people immersed in the excitement and anticipation of the build-up to Christmas.

For the remaining population, Christmas is the exact opposite. The build up to Christmas consists of overcrowded shopping centres, traffic on the roads, Christmas advertisements (as early as September), stress of last minute arrangements, costs, even seeing family could be a bad thing, not to mention some pretty cheesy and awful Christmas songs.

But however you feel about Christmas, there is no denying that it is a unique time of the year with a unique feeling that only comes around once a year for one day. Christmas is celebrated all over the world and ‘Merry Christmas’ has a translation in over 80 languages, further adding to the wonder of Christmas.

But for this Christian holiday celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ there are many little known facts that get overlooked whilst everyone is capsulated in the Christmas spirit, here are some for you.

25th December is not Jesus’s birthday

nativityContrary to popular belief the 25th December is not Jesus’s birthday, although we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ on Christ-mass day, Jesus was not actually born on this date. In fact there is no mention of Jesus Christ’s birthday in the Bible so it is not known what his actual date of birth is. There were holidays before Christmas existence dedicated to Jesus, Epiphany on 6th January and Easter, although it wasn’t until 336 A.D. that an official holiday was celebrated in honour of Jesus’s birth. One widely believed theories for celebrating the birth of Jesus on 25th December is owed to Christian writers efforts to ‘Christianise’ a Roman pagan festival Dies Natalis Solis Invicti, English translation: “the birthday of the Unconquered Sun”, which was celebrated on 25th December.

Santa Claus is a mixture of legendary figures

SantaSanta Claus, Father Christmas, Saint Nicholas, Kris Kringle or just Santa, whatever your name for him, you will know that familiar figure of the red and white clad, gift bearing jolly old fat man with the big white beard and Christmas hat. But many do not know the history behind this mythical legend who hails from the North Pole. The modern figure of Santa Claus originates from the Dutch figure of Sinterklass who himself is based on Saint Nicholas. Saint Nicholas was a historical Greek bishop known for his generosity and gift giving from Myra which is modern day Turkey. It is also believed that the cheerful figure of Santa Claus also has elements of the Germanic pagan god Odin who is of the ghostly pagan midwinter event of Yule. Odin was a white bearded gift bearer from the North who rode across the sky with his eight legged Sleipnir, giving out gifts to people; sound familiar? The modern day Santa Claus owes itself to Saint Nicholas, Odin as well as commercial industries.

The Christmas tree is borrowed

The Christmas tree, a decorated evergreen conifer tree, for some is the pinnacle sign of Christmas. The Christmas tree is the one thing that signifies Christmas is here. With the bright sparkling lights, decorations and tinsel wrapped around the tree finished off with an angel or bright star perched right on the top. Where presents received are kept under until Christmas day. The Christmas tree can be enjoyed anywhere from public places to the centrepiece of one’s home.

There are many customs and traditions surrounding the Christmas tree but the original concept of erecting a tree for Christmas stems from 16th century Germany. Although, like Santa Claus, the use of Christmas tree is most likely a borrowed idea from German pagan religions as well as Ancient Egyptians, Hebrews and Chinese who all also utilised evergreen trees.

Christmas Tree

So there you have it, some of the main overlooked and often rarely known facts about Christmas. Christmas day is ultimately a Christian holiday created to celebrate the birth of Christ with many elements borrowed from pagan religions to make the conversion to the Christian religion more straightforward. The original celebration has changed so much even in the last 30 years, due to commercial efforts and translations of the holiday in countries where Christianity is a minority; that inevitably has led to Christmas losing some of its religious meanings. One thing is left to say and that is, we wish you a merry Christmas!

Will Skype Translator be all it’s cracked up to be? How will human translation be affected?

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In mid-2014 Microsoft announced its plans to release the anticipated Skype Translator and now in late 2014 a new video has been released to support the campaign. The video shows two school children one in America and one in Mexico conversing over skype with real time audio translation. Similarly to Apple and Google’s speech recognition software the Skype Translator is able to convert speech into text but with a twist, the speech is then translated into a different language in real time and fed back to the other party. So far the application is able to offer English to Spanish translation and vice versa in audio form and in around 40 languages in text form.

What impact will this have on learning languages?

Some may argue this is the end of learning languages. Would one want to go through the effort of studying a new language, watching countless videos, reading numerous books, understanding new dialects and having to emigrate and live in a new country just to learn a new language, when one can easily communicate in real time with someone who speaks a totally different language to them with just access to internet connection and a mobile or laptop device. This is a debatable topic one left to individual preference.

Although this new technology is ground-breaking it is highly unlikely to deter people from travelling and wanting to learn new languages the old fashioned way and surely that is not what Microsoft intended when they first brought the idea into development. In fact it would probably encourage people to travel and learn new languages as people have been for years.

Privacy issues

As reported in the Guardian one controversial factor which has stood out with the new Skype Translator is the fact that Skype will record conversations in order to continually improve the translation, voice recognition services and train the system to better learn each language. Ask yourself would you be happy for your private conversations being recorded by Skype or is this a breach of privacy not worth the use?

Overall the Skype Translator has its benefits when it comes to convenience when communicating with someone who speaks a different language to you. The application could even go as far as being a cost effective way of using translation services, however the fact that the translation is not 100% accurate like many other machine translation platforms it is highly unlikely to replace human translation anytime soon. Apart from some privacy and accuracy issues it is likely to capture a great following and be a great addition to machine translation.

The world’s first ever smartphone celebrates 20th anniversary

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On Saturday 16th August 2014 the world’s first ever smartphone, the IBM Simon celebrated the 20th anniversary of its release to the public way back in in 1994. The London’s Science Museum, has added a display in their new ‘Information Age’ gallery, to commemorate the 20th year since it was released.

The gallery’s overseer Charlotte Connelly explained “The Simon wasn’t called a smartphone back then, but it had a lot of the features we see today. It had a calendar, it could take notes and send emails and messages and combined all of this with a cell phone.” The IBM Simon was only released in the United States of America and only had network coverage in 15 states, so there was no need for any translation services because it didn’t penetrate most local states in America let alone international markets.

The IBM Simon was the first of its kind to combine computing features and mobile phone technology. Although it was ahead of its time in terms of technology and innovation, it was a far cry from what we are used to in today’s modern smartphones dominated by the Apple’s iPhone, the Samsung Galaxy range and HTC. In terms of sheer size and weight, the comparisons between the IBM Simon and say the Samsung Galaxy S4 is like comparing an elephant to a mouse and not the type of mouse with big ears and white gloves that you might find in Disneyland either!

Samsung-Galaxy-S4

Modern day smartphone – Samsung Galaxy S4

With the IMB Simon weighing a whopping, not so pocket friendly 500g (1.1lbs) compared to the Samsung’s featherlike 130 g (0.3lbs) and a battery life of just one hour compared to the S4’s 17 hour talk time battery life. With the tiny battery life coupled with the fact that it weighs nearly as much as a small child and that hefty black box look, it is no wonder the IBM Simon wasn’t very successful.

As Charlotte Connelly describes “It looks like a grey block but it’s not as big as you’d imagine,” she said. “It had a stylus and a green LCD screen, which is similar in size to the iPhone 4. In fact, it’s not a bad looking thing.”

ibm-simon styles

IBM Simon with Stylus

Although attracting members of the business community because of the gap in the market for a portable device with the capabilities of a computer and despite having some impressive software applications such as the ability to link up to a fax machine. The IBM Simon never made an impact and eventually disappeared into the abyss just two years after it was released with just 50,000 sales probably owing to its substantial price tag and the fact it was truly ahead of its time. Ms Connelly says “It only had an hour’s battery, it was $899 and there was no mobile internet at the time. So it wasn’t very successful,” said Ms Connelly.

Now 20 years later the IBM Simon is finally being celebrated and appreciated, which often seems to be the way with a lot of retro technology. The IBM Simon will be displayed in October along with more than 800 other objects of retro technology highlighting how much technology has evolved in the last 200 years. Without innovative technology such as the IBM Simon the world would have never become so globalised and connected as it is now, there would be many more barriers in international relations and a lot of things would get lost in translation. Ms Connelly describes the exhibition as a reminder of a different time. “It does remind us of that time. I definitely enjoy getting away from things and deliberately disconnecting myself, there’s something quite nice about that.”

How doing business in Africa is changing; 3 things to consider

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The African continent has for many years attracted interest and investment from all over the world. With its raw materials ranging from gold, oil, copper, diamonds to its natural resources and agriculture the continent has for decades continued to be a goldmine for international investments. When it comes to setting up a business in Africa it is imperative to be aware of the changing factors that influence how business is conducted ranging from government policy, culture, languages, technology and innovation.

Growth of internet usage

The internet has continued to be used broadly on the African continent with an estimated 170+ million people using the internet to communicate, browse and shop. Many African nations are adapting to the rise in internet demand with Nigeria alone being the most prominent achieving nearly 50% of Africa’s internet usage according to Internet World Stats. This figure is likely to continue to rise as more and more technology is being invested with corporations such as Google planning to increase internet coverage in the region. ‘oAfrica’ states that the rate of “annual household Internet access growth stands at 27%”. This is clearly a positive motivator for people looking to set up business in the retail sector and marketing sector amongst many. This also opens doors for running e-businesses as the internet reach continues to grow. Some may argue that gone are the days of setting up a market store as an investment and more sophisticated business ideas such as estate agents are taking shape and taking advantage of the wider potential customer reach which can be achieved.

africa-business-greenIncreased ‘middle class’ population

Despite the flooding news stories covering corruption and poverty which seem to dominate African headlines internationally, there is an increasing growth of a so called ‘African middle class’ society. Some sources have described this as the fastest growing middle class in the world. With this comes many benefits for businesses to specifically target this group. With businesses more prominent in the west selling luxurious goods or providing services more targeted to middle class people this is a great opportunity to take their ventures to a global audience in particular Africa. Although it can be argued that it is not yet a big enough market to target it certainly is looking to be in the near future. For example in some affluent districts in Africa where prices of houses can match that of western countries.

images africaGovernment regulations and politicsafrica-business-green

Although corruption is a huge debatable factor in many African countries as an African I have seen a much more positive approach to politics affecting Africans. The number of African academics is increasing with many acquiring oversees education and returning to their mother countries with a different mind-set and some western influence on politics which has generated positive debates about the futures of corruption.

In order to be successful in African countries your business idea must be transparent and for a cause. It must be clear as to how your business will benefit your region and society be it creating employment or for a more social cause. Being successful in Africa includes being in tune with government operations and regulations, languages and cultures. When you do so governments are more likely to back your ideas which makes it easier to set up and grow your business.

One thing to understand is that Africa is a huge continent and each country differs and should be carefully researched before deciding to start doing business. Africa is its own market and money alone should not be the utmost factor of investment in Africa. Good innovative ideas will continue to make huge impacts on the people and the continent as a whole and such businesses are likely to experience positive growth in the coming years.

What it means to buy your first house

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Getting onto the property ladder and owning your own home is an aspiration that almost all human beings would like to realise. Some list this step as one of life’s major goals. However, one question that seems to arise when discussing home ownership, is why owning a house is so important that people are willing to go to great lengths to achieve this goal? Lengths such as leaving family and friends behind and relocating to different cities or even different countries.

As many would agree the benefit of owning a house is not only financially rewarding but on a personal scale can bring a sense of achievement and security.

From a financially beneficial point of view getting on the property ladder will allow you to own such a valuable asset while on the other hand providing you with shelter, a basic human necessity. Imagine the torture of having to live outside without shelter. What happens when it rains, snows or you experience a heat wave? Imagine living in Dubai without shelter when a sandstorm occurs. Although a population experiences this in their daily lives, it would be challenging to say the least to withstand the dirt which is swept away by wind at high speeds reducing visibility. Not only is it a necessity but it puts you in a better position to be more financially independent throughout your life.

spain houseOwning a property these days is also an opportunity to travel and live abroad. As many know it is near impossible to acquire a property in a city like London on an average UK full time income. People have now resorted to either buying to let in the outskirts of London or totally relocating further up the north of England or even abroad. A popular destination abroad to buy cheap in the current economic climate is Spain where houses and villas can go for less than half the price you would pay buying within the UK.

One thing that is overlooked by people when deciding to buy is the costs that come with the process; legal costs, stamp duty etc. When buying abroad it is even more vital to take the right steps in ensuring contracts are drawn up accordingly in your best interest especially when you are dealing with information in a different language. You cannot simply rely on Google translate to clarify legal information. In such instances it is imperative to use professional translation services to ensure you are making the right decisions.

One thing that many may agree with is that the desire to own a property is something that is instilled within us from an early age. As we get older the reality of owning a property is realised and our actions show a tendency to achieve this goal. After all we all want to experience the feeling of being financially independent and having a worthy asset for security and if done correctly is a rewarding and comforting feeling.

The Good, Bad, the Ugly; 5 things graduates should expect after graduating

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It is that time of the year, students receiving their final grades and classification on what they have been working on for 3-4 years. For the majority it is a journey which you began as a teenager seeing the end to your juvenile years, developing you into a young adult now into your early twenties ready to become a fully functioning member of society. A transition marked by a single lavish ceremony simply known as graduation! A joyful time to reminisce and celebrate with family, class mates, friends and tutors for those who made it this far, a time to cross over to the next chapter of your lives but the most important question is what lies ahead?

Well the answer to that starts with the actual reason why you enrolled at university in the first place and for that there is no one answer, however a common binding factor for all who attend university is to advance in life, whether professionally or personally.

After graduation you will inevitably be faced with the decision of what industry to take your career path down, whether you stick with what you studied or seek pastures new? When it comes to industries to look out for, the major ones include the financial, marketing, sales, and engineering industries; but an industry of great importance internationally that is often overlooked by many is translation services. For those who are able to speak different languages can use this to their advantage and work on freelance basis. Other roles such as graphics designers or animators also present similar opportunities to work on a freelance basis giving you more time to relax and enjoy a less stressed working environment.

The hope for most is that a university degree will help you advance from one stage to another. Some attend university in order to follow a direct career path such as accountancy or Law, others attend to acquire knowledge about business in order to start their own ventures. One thing is certain there are things to take into consideration once the fun of graduating is over.

1. You need a job: Once you have graduated the number one thing which is on people’s minds is what they are going to do next? Where will they work? Who will employ them? This question is one which should be asked from before signing up to go to university. It is important to know why you are doing your degree and where it will get you. This helps to focus on your goals, know what is expected of you by your future employers in terms of degree requirements whether 2.1 or first and what experience is needed to get that position.

2. Interviews, lots of interviews: As far as interviews go all graduates after competing their studies should be able to attend interviews with confidence, after all your years of hard work may get you an interview, however if you cannot communicate what you have to offer to your future employer effectively then your years of experience will hold no value in an interview instance. The best way is to research, prepare and practice as much as you can.

3. No, No, No: With the competitiveness for graduate jobs still at a high not everyone will be able to get into their specific job role requirements and graduates should prepare themselves to hear the word no. With this graduates should not be discouraged but continue to pursue their passion until they get there. You cannot give up until you have tried all possible avenues to get to where you want to be and in doing so you will find what you want so giving up should not be an option.

4. Learn to budget/save: You are not a student anymore, you need to save, you cannot rely on your student loans or grants anymore, what you work for is what you get. For many ex-students you will be moving back in with your parents and hoping to one day live on your own having experienced that during your university years. Saving is key in ensuring you achieve that goal of being independent and living on your own.

5. Freedom: Graduation to some, can be seen as a sign of freedom at least temporarily. For those choosing to venture on travelling whether short or long term may feel a sense of freedom without any commitments. This is the perfect time to see another side of the world and get to learn about yourself whilst having fun and meeting new people. For those worried about the prospect of travelling not looking as though they are working and as something holding them back from work experience compared to their peers who go into work straight away, do not be discouraged because employers actually value travelling as good experience. Another point to add on to this is whilst you are on your travels try and do some voluntary work whether it is working with underprivileged children or teaching English abroad, if possible try and squeeze this into your time travelling as this may not only advance your career prospects after graduating but also help you grow as a person.

Despite it being a tough job market always stay driven and motivated to succeed and you will get to where you want. Do not be shy of hard work and follow your dreams whether you dream of becoming an entrepreneur or working in a specific industry, do not pick a path only because it pays well. Think about whether you will be happy doing what you will be doing 5 days a week. Take this time to reflect on where you have been, where you are and where you want to be and most of all enjoy these moments.

Has KLM gone too far with Mexican ‘exit gibe’?

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KLM Airlines

KLM Airlines

When the Netherlands met Mexico on 29th June 2014 for their crunch encounter in The 2014 FIFA World Cup round of the last 16 to decide who progresses into the quarter finals; that night in Brazil’s amazing 67,000-seater Estádio Castelão in Fortaleza, few would have predicted that the match would have been remembered for off field antics rather than on the pitch itself. But even more unprecedented would be the fact that the match was more talked about worldwide due to a bad joke, the Dutch airline KLM, and translation services.

Koninklijke Luchtvaart Maatschappij (KLM) which roughly translates into the Royal Dutch Airlines had stayed largely patriotic in their support of the Netherlands throughout the 2014 FIFA World Cup which is all good and well as most business and celebrated individuals would follow suit regardless of international presence but there is a fine line you tread between friendly banter and offending a whole nation. In a joke gone horribly wrong KLM had kicked their competitive nature well into overdrive; which in all fairness encompasses the World Cup and football as a whole, and in all honesty was probably not a very well thought-out gibe broadcasted internationally on Twitter at the fact that the Netherlands had overcome Mexico’s 1-0 lead to then overturn the deficit to win 2-1 thus eliminating Mexico from all further participation in this year’s World Cup. A joke which left a very sour taste in many Mexican’s mouths. The joke itself was a picture of a departures sign in an airport with a small image of a man wearing a sombrero, poncho and a moustache with the caption phrase “Adios Amigos” which you don’t need professional translation services to work out that was their way of mocking Mexico’s exit from the World Cup at the hands of KLM fellow countrymen.

In all fairness to KLM the joke itself was pretty harmless but when you are making it at the expense of the whole Mexican nation with an estimated population of 120 million with even more worldwide, you are bound to offend someone. Not everyone will take a joke like this in good humour. One such person Gael Garcia Bernal an A-list actor in Mexico launched an expletive rant on Twitter about the joke declaring his intentions to never fly with KLM again. “It was meant to be a joke, but there was too much negative reaction.” KLM spokeswoman Lisette Ebeling Koning said, adding that KLM never intended to offend any Mexicans, this form an airline which it serves daily direct flight between Mexico City and Amsterdam. Was KLM’s Mexican World Cup exit joke just friendly banter or was it a step too far? Right now it seems the latter but as the dust settles this will most likely be seen as a lesson learnt or could blow over, who knows but what is for certain right now is that if KLM came to Exchange Lingo for translation services or interpreting services you can put your money on the fact we would have definitely advised KLM to steer well clear of any World Cup exit jokes especially while it is still hot.

Referees at The World Cup 2014, be very afraid…

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The FIFA World Cup, the epitome of international football a competition which is steeped in history, a competition that has seen the footballing elite grace the world stage time and time again. The competition which began in 1930 hosted and eventually won by Uruguay has seen many superstars created such as a relatively unknown 17 year old kid from Brazil who went by the name of Pele, as well as tarnishing reputations on a worldwide scale. The World Cup may also be held in such high esteem because much like the Olympics is only staged every 4 years.

Translation services are not always the immediate thought you would have if you had to think of anything even remotely associated with The World Cup, but the truth is the process of translating languages from one to another is a major part of The World Cup, the clue is in the name. Furthermore it is key in helping a global audience understand everything about the competition hosted on foreign soil from advertisements, commentary and ceremonies to name a few. Interpreting services would also play a crucial role in determining how quickly each footballer of each national team can settle in.

Now in 2014 the World Cup is just around the corner and where better to host the most prestigious tournament in world football in no other than, as some would say ‘the spiritual home of football’ and the home of Pele himself, Brazil. Brazil are the most successful team in The World Cup winning the tournament on five separate occasions 1958, 1962, 1970, 1994 and 2002 respectively. The Brazilian national synonymous with the Yellow, Green and Blue colours of the national flag have produced some of the finest players to ever appear in football players such as Pele, Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, Zico, the list goes on and on. Along with these great players Brazil are also known for their flair football. In Brazil the official national language is Portuguese but rather the same language from Portugal, the Brazilians speak a slightly different locale with many ‘slang’ words you might not often find in the Portuguese language which has come to be known as Brazilian Portuguese. These slight differences could have major implications which further highlight the need for professional translations services at The World Cup because without them the majority of words will get lost in translation.

Among these important effects translation services could have on The World Cup, none are more so important to the diehard football fans than being able to vent your anger and frustrations at the referee. So imagine the delight and adulation around all corners of the globe as the language learning network Busuu have launched their “Busuu banter translator” which is able to translate football phrases or ‘banter’ as it is known into Portuguese as well as 12 other different languages. These phrases include “Até a minha avó poderia ter marcado esse gol” which roughly translates into “Even my grandmother could have scored this goal” and many more. The founder and CEO of Busuu,Bernhard Niesner had commented on their ingenious idea saying “The FIFA World Cup is one of the biggest international events on the planet, and the upcoming series anticipates fans from all corners of the globe flocking to Brazil. We wanted to equip Brits with the banter which will give them the edge over their international counterparts, making them part of the global conversation of football.” This idea will no doubt prove popular with the fans and just shows the relevance of translation as well as interpreting services on global events such as The World Cup and The Olympics which will also be hosted in Brazil in 2016. Will the Busuu banter translator be reintroduced in 2016 for the Olympics? It remains to be seen.

Will Skype Translator kill languages?

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The announcement of Skype Translator to be launched as early as before the end of 2014 in some languages is without a doubt a major breakthrough in the world of technology. This ground breaking technology would allow people to effectively communicate with people in another language in near real time. Take for example an English speaker Skyping a German speaker, this technology would allow ones words to be translated in near real time as they speak. Impressive?

It is estimated that Skype has around 300 million monthly users according to Microsoft, surely this development if successful will add to the increase if its users.

For the average user this technology is without a doubt a phenomenon allowing you to connect with people you may never have had opportunities to communicate with and to fluently converse without language barriers.

In some ways this technology will also help some businesses e.g. importers and exporters may have clearer communication means through near real time translation allowing them to save time and speed up decisions.

But how will this technology affect professional businesses? Although the Skype Translator will allow people to effectively speak in different languages it is still yet to be confirmed whether this type of translation will be a competing force against human translation. Furthermore it is not clear about the accuracy of the translation or whether this is a stepping stone for business. In cases where businesses are required to communicate from one language to another such as conferencing or meetings it is normally a qualified interpreter who is used to conduct the translation. The point is despite this technological breakthrough it is unlikely that the need for professional translation services will die!

This announcement also brings a debate of whether there will be any need to learn a new language. In the modern world people are always looking for ways to do things quicker with less effort and a development such as this will simply fuel this need. Moreover, it is arguable whether this technology If applied to a multitude of languages will dismiss the need to learn a new language.

Although the concept of simultaneously interpreting ones speech from one language to another via a popular platform like Skype is a truly ground breaking platform, it is still to be argued whether this is 100% accurate. Whether this technology can be used for legal hearings or professional marketing campaigns it is still debatable. In order to achieve 100% accuracy human translation services are more than likely to still be the number one choice for professional translation services.