Guest post from the Association of Translation Companies. We were excited to see this news on how the industry is growing, even in places where localization is well-established — The editors at MultiLingual. A survey of Europe’s language service providers (LSPs) indicates optimism for further expansion of the sector (currently worth more than €20 billion),...
Author Archives: Donna Parrish
Emerging localization technology for startups
Our Startup localization issue went live today, and in celebration, we’re sharing a guest post on the subject from Blazej Szperlinski of Text United. Read more on the subject here. Why don’t more startups have their content translated? It’s easy to think that startups don’t localize due to limited funding or lack of language skills...
How does the future look and how do we feel about it? The emotions and technology of the language industry
A guest post from Roberto Silva, Technology Solutions Manager, Conversis At the beginning of a new year, many people take a look at the past and make plans for the future. Luckily, I would say, most of these plans are never finished. On an enterprise level, the situation is similar, although usually centred more on economy...
1,617,989 Scots left a wee bit uggit on Friday morning
(A guest post from Gary Muddyman, Conversis.) Whichever side of the Yes/No divide the UK public fell with respect to Scottish Independence, and of course, more importantly those who got a vote north of the border in Scotland itself, there were a number of positives to come out of the process, most notably, the incredibly...
Fake Unicode, Real Smiles
If you are ready for a smile in your day, check out the Fake Unicode Consortium page on Google +. Clever people with great imaginations are taking Unicode characters and giving them a new interpretation. Some of my favorites: NOW FLIP SNAKE TO COOK OTHER SIDE: MONOCLE OF DISAPPROVAL: And, my favorite: iPAD vs iPAD3
World library for kids
I just ran across the International Children’s Digital Library, whose lofty mission is “to support the world’s children in becoming effective members of the global community.” Who can be against that? The site lists books from all over the world, in many languages. Some of the books reside in digital form on the website, while...
Which names are English
I just came across this article on the ctv.ca website about the enforcement of a decades-old law in Quebec which requires companies in the province to use French names: “The Quebec government is getting ready to launch a campaign this fall against big-box stores and their stubbornly English names.” I refuse to get drawn in...
Carved in wood: endangered alphabets
Languages are constantly changing. But that change sometimes mean that a language dies. Much has been written about this in books, blogs, articles. Something that gets lost in that discussion is that there are also dying alphabets associated with those languages. A recent article in The Atlantic led me to Tim Brookes who is bringing...
Language as a weapon
A whistleblower tells ABC News (US) that many interpreters hired to work for the US army in Afghanistan cannot speak the local language very well. Story here. This is probably no huge surprise, and definitely not a surprise to the armed forces personnel who are trying to “win the hearts and minds” of the Afghan...
Computers translating voice; Phones translating text
Microsoft’s Translating Telephone and Google’s Goggles turn the tables on what devices normally do. The lines blur. In fact, there are no lines anymore. We’ve been using our computers to help us talk to people all over the world for some time now. But now, at this week’s TechFair in Mountain View, California, Microsoft is...