Lengoo raises 20 mill USD

Machine translation maker Lengoo has raised 20 million USD in a series B investment round, American business news site TechCrunch reports. Venture capital firm Inkef Capital was lead investor. According to TechCrunch, Lengoo — which is based in Berlin, Germany — will use the funds to expand its European customer base as well as launch in North America.

Translation a political ploy?

Federal Conservatives in Canada claim Liberal party representatives are using the country’s current translator shortage as a ploy to shut down House of Commons committees, according to The Canadian Press: “[Conservative whip Blake Richards] blames the government for deliberately ignoring urgent warnings from the Commons’ translation bureau that virtual sittings of the chamber and its committees have caused a steep spike in interpreters taking sick leave for workplace injuries, including acute acoustic shock, tinnitus, headaches and nausea.”

Seattle Mariner interpreter paid 75K USD

Want to work for the Seattle Mariners? An article in The Seattle Times about the baseball team’s chief executive officer (CEO), Kevin Mather, references the pay: An interpreter for the Mariners’ Japanese speaking special assignment coach earned 75,000 USD a year.

Info needed from European sign interpreters

The Centre for Deaf Studies in Dublin, Ireland has issued an open call for information from sign language interpreters who have worked in multilingual settings for more than three years. The organization is trying to identify the wide range of multilingual settings that European interpreters work in, as well as pinpoint what degree of training they might receive.

Google in Cree? No time soon

Comic book author Joseph John is leading a push for Google Translate to add First Nations language Cree, The Canadian Press reports, but Google has said no dice. “Unfortunately we don’t have a timeline for that specific language,” spokeswoman Molly Morgan told the news agency.