MAGAZINE

#204 – June

Smith Yewell

Language is fundamentally about a desire to connect — with friends, family, business associates, or perhaps the person you want to share your life with. That fundamental desire and need is what drives the language industry. But for Welocalize, a company specializing in translation, localization, adaptation, and machine automation, that dynamic goes a little deeper. That’s because the company was born from the very personal story of two individuals’ need to create a connection of their own.
And we asked Welocalize CEO Smith Yewell all about it.

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POSTEDITING

I

believe one of the benefits of print publications is that they allow writers and commentators to slow down and consider their thoughts a little more carefully. Removed from the emotion and spontaneity of the moment, time encourages thoughtfulness and care when expressing opinions.

We hope that MultiLingual magazine can be a forum for such conversations related to the language industry. As the work evolves and technology becomes more central to its operation, there will be no shortage of debates regarding ethics, best practices, equitability, and inclusion. The aim is to have those conversations with a mind toward respect and consideration of differing opinions, and we believe the monthly format of a magazine is particularly well suited for this.

That’s not to say there won’t be moments of intense disagreement. Last month’s Perspectives piece by Domenico Lombardini regarding his thoughts on encouraging fair contractor pay, for instance, provoked some vigorous online discussion. In such times, we want to remind readers that the magazine is a neutral forum for contributors to share a variety of perspectives, and on particularly weighty topics, we want to present as many well-considered viewpoints as we can.

If you have a burning opinion on some aspect of language work, consider sending a proposal or draft for a Perspectives piece to editor@multilingual.com. Do you find yourself disagreeing with a previously published piece or feel that it could use some expansion? Consider doing the same. We’re always curious about what our readers have to say.

Remember that conversations are the best tool we have to drive progress forward. If we can work toward a sense of mutual understanding and cooperation, the entire industry will benefit from the results. 

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COVER PROFILE

Smith Yewell

Forging Connections: Welocalize & the past and future of language work

Interview by Cameron Rasmusson

Language is fundamentally about a desire to connect — with friends, family, business associates, or perhaps the person you want to share your life with. That fundamental desire and need is what drives the language industry. But for Welocalize, a company specializing in translation, localization, adaptation, and machine automation, that dynamic goes a little deeper. That’s because the company was born from the very personal story of two individuals’ need to create a connection of their own.

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FEATURE

The Maze Runner: How to navigate out of the quality maze and bring objectivity into translation evaluation

By Angelika Vaasa and Dr Christopher Kurz

Quality. Not many words in the world of translation trigger such a wide range of emotions and opinions. Some say translation quality is not measurable. Others say it is. Some consider it to be at the core of translation philosophy and client satisfaction. Others view it as negligible and better left to the users to tell. Some say it is the eternal dichotomy between source and target text. In other words, quality can mean everything and nothing. It cannot be grasped. That’s it!

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Oleksiy Chekal, the Multilingual Calligraphic Artist of Ukraine

Interview by Marina Gracen-Farrell

Since Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine, MultiLingual magazine featured courageous Ukrainians surviving and working during wartime. Working under the worst conditions imaginable, they continue tirelessly collaborating on projects with colleagues from elsewhere.
One such individual is Oleksiy Chekal. A Ukrainian graphic designer, calligrapher, and art historian with an eye for multilingual scripts, he lives and works in war-torn Kharkiv. He describes himself as a cross-cultural designer, working in a complex array that includes museum, scientific, and religious projects, through typography and calligraphy featuring Latin, Greek, Cyrillic, Hebrew, Arabic, and Syriac scripts.

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COLUMNS

INUKTITUT Inuit

The Role of Standards and Regulations in Life Sciences Localization

By Mark Shriner

The International Standards Organization (ISO)

Kicked off in 1946 when delegates from 25 countries met in London to discuss the future of international standards, the ISO was officially founded in 1947 and is now headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland.  As of 2022 the ISO has 167 member nations and has established over 24,000 standards.

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INUKTITUT Inuit

Switching between languages? Hard enough.

By Tim Brookes

Even after working on the Endangered Alphabets for 12 years, I’m still just starting to understand how Eurocentric and provincial my own thinking — like that of most of us in the West — has been, and continues to be. Despite all my work in scores of writing systems, I can still, like most Westerners, read and write only one. I can recognize a fair number of non-Latin scripts, but I can’t read or write in any of them.

Elsewhere in the world, people are far more script-adept. The average educated person in South Asia may well flow back and forth between three or even four. In this light, it’s not surprising that the recently-released World Scripts Explorer (WSE) and Aksharamukha platforms originated in South Asia: They approach the concept of translation as not just a matter of switching spoken languages, but switching scripts.

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PERSPECTIVES 

The Evolution of Airbnb’s Localization Strategy

By Salvo Giammarresi

In 2018, Airbnb began a major transformation in its localization strategy and operations, developing and executing countless decisions, projects, products, processes and improvements — which have not only collectively produced strong business results, but also garnered external validation. 

Byte Level Research’s 2022 Globalization Report recently ranked Airbnb #1 in the Travel & Hospitality sector for the third year in a row, and #3 among the top 150 global companies. And while I believe this alone is an achievement, this recognition is even more remarkable when you consider that Airbnb was ranked just #17 in its sector and #96 among all companies a few short years ago.

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HOW-TO

Beauty Across Borders: Cosmetics localization, gender fairness, and inclusivity

By Tiziana Bottone

There’s little wonder why the beauty industry is so profitable — it’s been around for a while. Makeup was used first 6,000 years ago in Ancient Egypt, and it is mentioned in the Bible, too. At different eras, people used makeup for a variety of purposes: a healthy look, as a sign of wealth, to show their rebellion. Cosmetics are part of our culture, and wearing makeup can be a sign of distinctiveness — everyone remembers Amy Winehouse’s winged eyeliner. The beauty world evolved into the dominant industry of the modern day, worth about $511 billion.

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ANALYSIS

Rewriting the Myths of Life Science Translation (myth — a commonly believed but false idea)

By Dan Koenig

Throughout history, myths have served to explain the natural world and our place in it, bringing a sense of order and meaning to often puzzling circumstances and observable facts such as illness or floods. Whether the story of Sisyphus endlessly rolling a rock uphill, Prometheus stealing fire, or Zeus controlling the weather, human beings have found meaning and purpose in these tales and have been reluctant to relinquish our belief in some of them to this very day.

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BUYER’S GUIDE

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BUYER’S GUIDE