France to Make French Primary Language of EU

Beginning in January 2022, France will take over the presidency of the European Union (EU) — the country’s first time holding the presidency since before Brexit. Earlier this week, a senior diplomat revealed details about some of Emmanuel Macron’s plans for elevating the status of the French language within the EU. During the country’s presidency (which will last through the first half of the year), all key meetings and debates will be conducted in French, with translations provided. This will break the long-held tradition of holding such meetings in English, though French was once considered the lingua franca of the EU in the organization’s early days.

Rubric Rebrand Unveils 100+ Localization Resources

Global language service provider (LSP) Rubric Inc. announced a major rebranding on June 4th. The company has redesigned its visual branding and messaging, as well as unveiled over 100 free resources designed to help global companies improve their localization processes. Rubric’s CEO, Françoise Henderson, says that the rebrand is driven by a desire to highlight what the company sees as key structural and operational differences between Rubric and other localization providers.

KUDO Launches AI Tool to Aid Live Interpreters

KUDO, a cloud-based multilingual conference platform, recently launched an artificial intelligence (AI) tool to aid live interpreters in preparing for interpreting assignments. The tool, which is called KUDO Interpreter Assist, creates glossaries for interpreters that can shorten preparation time. It is currently being rolled out in tiers, with KUDO Pro interpreters getting first access to the technology earlier this week.

Mount Sinai Adopts New Platform for Telehealth Interpreting

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, telehealth appointments have become an almost unavoidable part of life — but they also are not particularly accessible for individuals with limited English proficiency. New York City’s Mount Sinai Health System recently adopted a new platform that makes telehealth appointments more accessible for patients with limited English proficiency, in an effort to provide better access to medical interpreting services during remote appointments.

Pangeanic Launches Anonymization Tool for EU Languages

Pangeanic’s Multilingual Anonymization toolkit for Public Administrators (MAPA) went into pre-beta online testing in May. The international language service provider (LSP) developed MAPA in an effort to make anonymization easier for public administrators working in the EU. The tool automatically replaces identifiable or sensitive information with asterisks, and is currently able to anonymize texts in 24 official languages of the EU with an accuracy of at least 89%.

MasterWord Services Announces New Director of Life Sciences Solutions

Houston-based LSP MasterWord Services announced this week that Karen Tkaczyk will be joining the company as the director of life sciences solutions. Tkaczyk holds a PhD in chemistry from the University of Cambridge and has established herself as a leader in the language industry, having established and led McMillan Translation for nearly 16 years.