Association of Translation Companies Releases LO-C 30 Report

The United Kingdom-based Association of Translation Companies (ATC) has recently released their research on the role of language capabilities in the growth and internationalization of the UK’s small and medium-sized enterprises (SME). In its LO-C 30 Report, the ATC found that SMEs that make use of language capabilities are 30% more likely to succeed in exporting and international business than companies that do not invest in a culturally and linguistically diverse staff. The report emphasizes the findings that hiring people with language skills is key to success in an increasingly global market.

France’s Ministry of Education Cracks Down on Gender-Inclusive Language

Within the community of French language speakers, there has long been debate about gender biases within the language — feminist speakers, writers and language advocates have often appended the feminine suffix “e” in contexts where the suffix is not typically used. For example, the word “dirigeants” is a generic term for “leaders,” which uses a masculine spelling convention — in order to feminize the word, some may use “dirigeantes,” even in generic contexts where gender is not relevant. Recently, however, the Ministry of Education has called for a ban on this attempt at being more gender inclusive, at least in the country’s school system. 

Endangered Alphabets Project Adds Takri to Atlas

The Takri script (also referred to as Tankri) is a script that was once widely used throughout certain northern Indian states to write the Dogri language. Though it was used for centuries beforehand, it fell into near obsolescence when the Devanagari script was adopted as the primary alphabet for the language in 1944 — now, Takri has been introduced to the Atlas of Endangered Alphabets, a project that aims to record alphabets that are not commonly used or have fallen out of favor in recent history.

Mortgage Bankers Association Responds to Improving Language Accessibility in Mortgage Servicing Act

The U.S. Congress will begin discussing revisions to the Improving Language Accessibility in Mortgage Servicing Act on May 19 — the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) has released an open letter to Congress calling for the legislation to be more clear in its approach to enforcing compliance with the act’s goals of establishing language access requirements for mortgage lenders. The MBA cautioned that the act might be difficult to enforce, however proponents of the bill believe that it would make housing loans more accessible for families and individuals with limited English proficiency.

Big Language Solutions Acquires Language Link

In a $27.5 million deal, the Atlanta-based LSP Big Language Solutions has acquired Language Link, an LSP specializing in over-the-phone and video remote interpreting. The deal closed on April 30, and Language Link will continue to trade and operate relatively independently while Big Language Solutions invests in the company’s internal infrastructure and ensuring that it is properly equipped with high-quality technology and motivated staff.

KantanMT and XTM to Launch High-speed Connector to Neural Machine Translation

The two language service providers (LSP) KantanMT and XTM have partnered up to develop a new connector that will allow users of XTM’s cloud-based translation management software to access high speed neural machine translation (NMT) via KantanMT’s platform. The connector lets users incorporate KantanMT’s NMT system while managing it through XTM.