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?

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.

When a lack of translation services sparked an outrage

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This recent story is a one that highlights perfectly the need for professional translation services and localisation services when you are not familiar with the native language of the country you are operating in. Without the use of some sort of translation service, mistakes are likely to be made and it could result in having a comical effect like seen here, causing misunderstandings much like our previous reported story or even worse cause offence. Sadly the latter is exactly what happened to this restaurant owner in South Carolina, USA.

With all the issues and outrage surrounding immigration and migrants in the midst of Donald Trump’s presidential reign of the US, restaurant owner Sook “Sue” Shin unbeknownst to her had somehow managed to get herself and her restaurant involved into these political debates. Sue was just on the lookout for some new employees of the restaurant when she claims she came across a “help wanted” sign on eBay little did she know that this same sign would later make her restaurant go viral and not for any good reasons.

You see the help wanted sign she purchased had the phrase printed underneath “Minorities need not apply” in plain English along with a Spanish translation. With echoes of President Trump’s election campaign as you could imagine this didn’t go down well with the locals as one customer took a photo of the sign and posted it on Facebook, which of course sparked a massive backlash from the locals to ‘boycott’ the restaurant along with the apparently ‘racist’ owners.

But Sue quickly moved to take down the signs and put up a note to apologise wholeheartedly for any offence caused. Sue a Japanese native explained that English is not her first language, nor her husbands who is Korean and that she did not fully understand what the message had meant. This was further backed up by Melonie Henderson, an employee of two years who said “They thought it meant minors, not minorities,” she than went on to stress that Sue herself is a minority as well as the employees who work there.

Sue had also had to change her voicemail message to explain the situation and again apologise since they were getting abusive phone calls throughout the day. Despite Sue’s best efforts at reconciliation one regular customer of African-American ethnicity explained she was not comfortable eating at the restaurant after this incident. But it now seems that business has been getting back to normal as most customers have acknowledged this simple misunderstanding.

A simple misunderstanding it may be but due to the current political climate along with the migrant scepticism, you can’t help but think this could have all been avoided through a simple translation service. This incident could have major ramifications for the restaurants future due to an innocent mistake on something as menial as a help wanted sign. Or maybe not, but one thing is for sure if you are not fluent in the native language, seek professional services whether it is English, French, Italian, Spanish or Portuguese translation services. Let this be a lesson to all businesses around the world.

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

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

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

How one man’s scribble earned him a book publishing

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We all know that one person at work who scribbles on post-it sticky notes like their life depends on it perhaps that person may even be you. Surely if a survey was done as to what post-it notes were actually used for in the workplace certainly a fair amount would be attributed to scribbling unrelated writing and drawing pictures of things from our imaginations at that present time. Well in this case a former architect who translates modern everyday adult life on sticky notes has found a career doing just that (seriously).

Chaz Hutton a 32 year old Australian living in London posted his humorous and very spot on interpretations of everyday life on his Instagram page @instachaaz which has since gone viral and amassed an impressive following of over 150k followers.  His witty humour and accurate interpretations of what goes on in everyday life is so eye catching that you may find yourself spending the rest of your lunch break scrolling through his Instagram page laughing at your smartphone screen leaving your work colleagues wondering whether you have lost the plot!

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Chaz who told BBC Trending he did not have the patience to be an architect so drawing things on sticky notes “seemed like a step in the right direction” has even gone on to land a book publishing deal and has released his book ‘A Sticky Note Guide to Life’ both as a hardcover and Kindle edition on Amazon. He has even been branded as the “world’s first sticky note lifestyle guru” according to the book description on Amazon.

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So if you’re down in your career get creative you too could be the next social media sensation.

All images credited to Chaz Hutton and published on his Instagram page @instachaaz.

Is there any chance to save endangered languages?

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What can be done to save languages on the brink of extinction?

The definition of an endangered language is so complex that it is hard to narrow down it just to one simple definition. The United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) whose values include supporting global education so as every child has access to quality education and building cultural understanding among nations, have managed to categorise the definition of endangered languages into 5 groups highlighted below.

endangered-languages

Source: Moseley, Christopher (ed.). 2010. Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger, 3rd edn. Paris, UNESCO Publishing. Online version.

The latest Atlas of the Worlds Languages in Danger which was published in English, Spanish and French by UNESCO has estimated there to be around 3000 endangered languages worldwide. This alarming number leads to the question whether such languages can be saved and whether they are worth saving?

For many decades English has been referred to as the global language and is the official language in as many as 60+ countries such that it is the language used in education, work and government. Although that maybe the case, many people in these countries where English is the official language commonly use their native languages and also pass these languages onto their children and thus the language is preserved from generation to generation. Take a country like Zambia where the majority of people who have gone to school speak and write in English, you will find that many of them also speak languages like Bemba and Nyanja mostly at home with family but also when communicating with friends. Although such examples show that languages like Bemba will not become extinct anytime soon if ever, there are many other languages where even fewer than 10 people are able to communicate. Languages like Kuuku Ya’u an aboriginal language now spoken by only 9 people is classified as critically endangered on its way to extinction (Source: UNESCO).

Causes

Before finding a solution to any problem you first have to look at the cause. For many languages the causes of them being extinct are varied and these causes include a lack of incentive to learn the language where learning another language brings more benefits both economically and socially. History has taught us this through colonialism by the British and French Empire where those languages combined are now the official languages of over 100 countries worldwide which has not always been the case. Other causes for language endangerment include natural disasters famine and diseases. War and famine have also in the past contributed to languages becoming extinct.

Effects

The loss of languages can have negative effects in a people’s culture as some may experience a loss of identity. Speaking a language specific to your region brings a sense of identity for many people and that is why when a community loses its language it often loses part of its culture e.g. it may lose its songs, poetry and teachings which may not necessarily translate well into another language. Other effects may be a loss of political legitimacy for example in some African and Asian countries traditional leaders may lose their voice in favour of political leaders which could potentially have negative consequences for their own people.

Solutions

As far as solutions go there are several parties concerned and actively working towards the prevention of language extinction. Governements, NGO’s and international bodies such as the EU and UNESCO as well as for profit companies are all working in one way or another for this cause.

For example a new start-up Tribalingual which aims to teach endangered languages in order to prevent them from extinction has started with 3 dialects; “Ojibwe, an endangered musical language in North America; Tulu, a South Indian language that is passed down orally only and doesn’t have a writing system; and Ainu, the language of a marginalised indigenous tribe in Japan, with less than 10 speakers worldwide”. Read more at Cambridge News.

What are your thoughts? how do you think languages can be prevented from extinction?

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 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

Is this the most racist advert ever?

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A Chinese washing powder advert has been doing the rounds on the internet recently, now you might think a washing powder ad what’s the worst that could happen? You are probably thinking how can something as mundane as washing powder possibly go viral? Well this Chinese retail advertisement did just that and more which has led it to be seen as one of the biggest controversies of recent times, it has even been dubbed as the ‘most racist commercial ever’.

The advert in question was one commissioned by the Shanghai Leishang Cosmetics Ltd for their Qiaobi laundry detergent. There are no words spoken in the video so there was no need for retail translations services as mostly comical music and sound effects were used.

It features a young Asian actress and a black actor, the actor who has paint marks on his face from working, eyes the woman who is assumed to be the homeowner who smiles back at the man whilst standing beside a washing machine. He ‘wolf-whistles’ the woman then approaches her and puts his hands on her waist and goes in for a kiss, the woman at this point stuffs a washing tablet into his mouth and throws him into the washing machine where you hear comical screams as the lady sits on top of the lid to keep it shut, let’s be honest in reality that would be brutal and lead to a prison sentence. After the cycle has finished and most shockingly a fair-skinned Asian man emerges from the washing machine much to the woman’s adulation. He then holds the brands product to the screen and winks.

Now you don’t need Mandarin translation services to tell you what is going on here, in fact this advert will translate into any language in the world as a massive mistake.

After all this global condemning and outrage of the advert Leishang Cosmetics have apologised for any ‘harm’ they caused to African people and expressed their condemnation of racial discrimination. They also went on further to say that they take full responsibility of the content and that the media have ‘over-amplified’ the situation. Make of that what you will.

What are your thoughts on this? Have they gone too far or is this simply naivety?

Credit to Benoit Florençon

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.

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.

Top five trending topics of 2015 according to Google

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So as we wrap up another year, 2015 has been an eventful and hectic year that has seen a lot of changes happen in the world which has witnessed exciting, happy, sad and sometimes scary moments that have affected our lives. Either way, it was a year to remember and something we could use to build upon for the next year. Google has recently released their annual review of just what exactly had us Brits searching for on the Google search engine, translation = Britain’s top five trending topics of 2015.

 

1 – Cilla Black

The number one most searched topic of 2015 in Britain was the sad news of the passing of the widely adored TV and showbiz legend Cilla Black. The much loved Liverpudlian singer, real name Priscilla Maria Veronica White whose singing career spanned several generations passed away at her Spanish home earlier this year on 1st August 2015 much to the nations shock, her untimely death was met with tributes from all walks of life, she was 72.

Credit: Andy Butterton/PA Archive/Press Association Images

Credit: Andy Butterton/PA Archive/Press Association Images

2 – Lady Colin Campbell

She is one of the stars from the 2015 edition of the hit ITV show ‘I’m a Celebrity, Get Me out Of Here!’ But the Jamaican born socialite and royal family biographer was not popular amongst her campmates, but that did not stop our fascination of 66 year old as she was one of the most searched people by Britons in 2015. She exited the programme due to medical reasons.

3 – Rugby World Cup

There were many sporting highlights for us to salivate over this year, the premier league which saw this seasons relegation candidates Chelsea crowned as champions the season before, high profile boxing fights such as the long awaited Mayweather vs Pacquiao and a somewhat renaissance in British Boxing with the likes of Tyson Fury, Anthony Joshua and Kell Brook all finding success. But even in a year where the England cricket team retained the Ashes, there was one sporting event that had Britain searching for that was The 2015 Rugby World Cup. Hosted in England for the first time since 1991, Stuart Lancaster’s men were humbled as they were knocked out in the group stages. Stuart Lancaster as well as some of his underperforming stars were axed from the squad thereafter.

4 – Jeremy Clarkson

The enigma that is Jeremy Clarkson, you either love him or you hate him but you can’t doubt his charisma. One of the most highly paid people of the BBC and the face of popular motor vehicle/entertainment program Top Gear, the often controversial Clarkson found himself briefly out of work for a period; why? The BBC decided against renewing his contract as he was embroiled in an incident in which a ‘punch’ was thrown by Clarkson which led to him being suspended, dropped then axed completely. This event subsequently led to co presenters Richard Hammond and James May also leaving the program before all three were signed by Amazon for a rival program. Chris Evans will present Top Gear next year.

5 – Paris

The final most trending topic was that of the Paris attacks in which 130 people lost their lives. The devastating attack on the French capital was the worst attack made on the European continent for 10 years. The news spread around the world so fast translations of the story were reported in a matter of minutes.

So there you have it these are the top five stories that spiked our interests in 2015 according to Google. What has 2016 got in store for us? Hopefully more positives, one thing left is to wish everyone a happy new year!

Let us know your thoughts

You can read more trending topics of 2015 Telegraph.

10 things you might not know about Star Wars

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The Star Wars franchise, one of the most successful and most recognisable movie franchises of all time, a franchise with combined box office revenue of over $4 billion dollars worldwide has released a new movie Star Wars: The Force Awakens and it has just hit cinemas in London at midnight 17/12/15. The epic space saga, now owned by Disney has introduced the world to a variety of characters from the heroic to weird and wonderful, from Luke Skywalker to Jar Jar Binks while the series has been mostly centred on the life of Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader. The previous Star Wars movies have had astronomical success globally which has created a legion of dedicated followers from all over the world, the movies have had translations into numerous languages, which include a mandarin translation, no surprise as it is the most spoken language in the world. 

So to celebrate the launch of the release of Disney’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens, here are 10 things about Star Wars you might not know; well those who are not die hard fans.

1. Created by George Lucas in the early 70’s, Star Wars (Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope) was released in 1977 after many changes due to originally being rejected.

2. Many if the buildings that were built in Tunisia to depict the desert planet of Tatooine are in fact still standing and are in use by the locals. Coincidently the planet Tatooine was named after the city it was built in Tataouine, Tunisia.

3. The name Luke Skywalker which is synonymous with the Star Wars series might not have been. The name Luke Starkiller was originally intended right up until filming began.

4. Greedo’s language is actually a South American language called Quechua, not the only real language used in Star Wars as the language of the Jawas is actually based on a sped up version of Zulu, and the Ewoks speak a hybrid of Nepalese and Tibetan.

5. We all know what the wise Grand Master of the Jedi Order, trainer of Luke Skywalker Yoda looks like. Now imagine him as a cane carrying monkey with a mask because that was the original intended appearance of the wise one.

6. There is somewhat of a running gag in that the lines “I have a very bad feeling about this” or “I have a bad feeling about this” are uttered in every movie in the series.

7. The clone trooper attires you see in the movies are completely created with the use of CGI as there were no physical costumes produced.

8. The late 90’s/early 00’s pop group NSYNC actually made a cameo appearance before being cut from the final edit of Star Wars: Episode II Attack of the Clones. Why? George Lucas had to keep his daughters happy.

9. Darth Vader aka Anakin Skywalker has been portrayed by a total of 6 different actors: Hayden Christensen, Jake Lloyd, Sebastian Shaw, Bob Anderson, James Earl Jones, and David Prowse whilst Harrison Ford might never have played Hans Solo as Burt Reynolds was considered first for the role.

10. Steven Spielberg’s E.T.’s race of aliens makes a cameo appearance in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace.

What surprising video has the internet going mad?

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When you think of the most trending topics in the world at this time point of time, what do you think of? A celebrity gone mad? A big sports event? An ongoing war? A political corruption scandal? Kittens playing the keyboard? You would be forgiven for thinking anything along these lines, but no, none these topics are creating such a stir within the world of social media as Instagram and Vine comedian Nicholas Fraser’s (@Downgoes.Fraser) short 15 second parody video/song which became known as “Why you always lying?” The song spread so fast across the globe that soon there were many different variations of the original video from different countries which has seen the lyrics translate in to a numerous languages including Spanish, Hindi, Korean and Romanian translations, to name a few.

So what is this viral sensation that has the likes of Chris Brown, Wiz Khalifa, P Diddy and the rest of the world posting and talking about? Well it’s the work of talented funny man Nicholas Fraser or his online alias @Downgoes.Fraser. Where accompanied with the backing track of late 90’s and early 00’s R&B band Next’s “Too close” add to that some simple but rather adult lyrics and some pretty ludicrous dance moves. Fraser hilariously describes what mostly all of us feel to say when we get that one person who non-stop lies about everything in their lives and for no reason at all just lies for the sake of lying. We all know these type of people and now we have a perfect way to respond to them to finally shut them up.

The viral video has received very positive comments with Next’s lead singer RL praising the parody with maybe even talks for a collaboration between the two. Fraser has recently released a full song to go with the short clip so it remains to be seen just how long we will see this video around. Whatever happens, it has catapulted this young comedian into the online conscience.

Have a look at the video below for yourself, what do you think?