For legal documents: Translator is the way to go

While there are plenty of machine translation tools out there to help with getting a basic understanding of what has been written in a foreign language and there are still many problems with machine translation. Some time ago I was working on a project which would use computer mediated technologies as a way of bridging translators and interpreters with clients based on many different factors, which in the end would do one thing: ensure high-quailty translation or interpretation for the client on a mobile device, kiosk or desktop based device, without the hiccups so common with machine translation. The project was mothballed for a number of different reasons - though it was a good exercise in better understanding machine translation, voice recognition and the state of these technologies globally.

Speaking a number of languages and having been directly involved as a translator and editor I can just imagine the challenges that Microsoft is facing with its "live translation" feature on Skype, which was presented at Re/code’s Code Conference last week, held from May 27-29 in Rancho Palos Verdes, CA, by Gurdeep Singh Pall, a Microsoft Vice President.

The Skeptic

When I first wrote this, I made the error of not saving the image provided by Microsoft, and now its broken. Though at that time I was able to ascertain a bit about the product even though I myself was not at Pall's presentation. On the bottom of the screen, there was the phrase "What brings you to london?" This suggests two things. The first is that this technology will be a hybrid one - depending on voice recognition of the source language for input and the output or target language being printed out on the other users display. The non-capitalization of the world London also suggests that the technology doesn't have the "smarts" to ascertain a number of nuances. These naunces can be important in different situations, and non-verbal cues can be different between different languages, regions and cultures. Without these "smarts" the technology will not be picking up on the other seven aspects or non-verbal cues which must be considered by professional interpreters: intonation, tone of voice, vocally produced noises, body posture, body gestures, facial expressions and the pause.

I can understand that this tool will make it easier for a number of very simple tasks and may be developed at a better level in languages that share similar linguist and semantic structures, though I feel that there could be many major gaffes. I spent three years in a top law firm often editing many legal documents translated from Ukrainian or Russian to English, there were often many times that incorrect translation could cost someone thousands if not millions of dollars and this being the case I could not agree more with one of the skeptics of this technology Ken Erickson, a business anthropologist at the University of South Carolina’s Darla Moore School of Business.

When you are talking about this kind of electronic translation, good as it is, it “lulls you into a sense of comfort where you should be not so comfortable,” said Erickson. For over the last twenty-five years I have tried to keep up with developments in machine translation and then the first popular web-based application introduced by Digital Equipment Corporation and SYSTRAN known as Babel Fish in 1997. Since then many other web-based machine translation tools have appeared - Google Translate, and Bing Translation. Some of the experience which Microsoft has gain in the development of Bing Translation will somehow be integrated to function with Skype Translator, which is to be launched later this year according to Pall.

As in the past when suggested that journalists consult with their company's librarians/information specialists in the case of this still to be released Microsoft Skype product I will again concur with Erikson. "If you want to negotiate a contract, you better not rely on something like this,” Erickson says. In such a case spend the money to hire a professional translator - machine translation still has a long way to go!

Source of inspiration: Marketplace


Vasyl Pawlowsky
Independent Consultant

Bad Translations Cost Tourism Big Bucks

In France alone, bad translations cost tourism close to €120 million annually. Having lived in Ukraine for nearly ten years, there were plenty of times that going out to dinner could either be extremely entertaining because of how comical a menu item had been translated; however, I had the benefit of understanding the orignal menu be it in the Russian or Ukrainian languages. While things have improved a great deal in the last five to ten years, particularly in the larger cities, the figure noted above has nothing to do with things like menus, it is specifically about online content.

Those loses are just a drop in the bucket of France’s €18.5 Billion e-tourism industry, nonetheless, in a global economy where your clients are not necessary right next door, you want to reach out to as many of them as possible.

A study conducted by Textmaster, a professional translation agency, found that sixty-five percent of France’s e-tourism sites contained “blunders or translation errors”. Thibault Lougnon, the CEO of Textmaster notes a few more interesting figures in the short article on ths topic which was the source for the idea of this post. In short you are better getting your pages viewed in more languages and with few mistakes, then picking a few languages and doing a terrible job!

I decided to take a look at seven hotels in Ukraine’s capital Kyiv and lift a sentence or two for your perusal. And you be the judge as to wether or not you would really want to deal with these hospitality services. I have left out the big international chains on purpose and targeted primarly smaller entities.

Sample texts from hotels

	Phrase or sentence	Minimal Error count
1	Our Kiev apartments better then rooms at most of Hotels in Kiev.	2
2	Comfortable place for keeping business appointments or just pleasant chit-chat over a glass of wine or a cup of coffee.	2
3	Dear guests, please, please note that our hotel have new price system.	2
4	Welcome to our restaurant featuring the National and European cuisineand classic cocktails,in a warm setting, makes this comforting dining experience.	2
5	We care about our guests, therefore developed a special loyalty program, on which you can become a holder of personalized card of permanent guest.	2

This is far from being a meticulous study in any way, though it does illustrate a point. While I’m all for good translation, I encourage those who need copy localized for a particular language or area, that the copy be developed and written by a native speaker and someone with a good understanding of the culture of the target language. What may sound good in one language, may be culturally unacceptable in another.

A challenge to the translation agencies in Kyiv. Whic agency will take the time to conduct a study of what the lack of, or simply bad translation costs Ukraine’s tourism and e-tourism industries, and use it a tool to ensure that good translators and native speakers of other languages get paid a fair rate.


Source: Tourism-Review.com



Vasyl Pawlowsky
Independent Consultant
This commentary was first published at wpawlowsky.com

Lost in translation: British journalist 'shocked' Japanese book he dictated denies Nanking Massacre

Imagine that you as an author suffer a dibilitating illness, making it difficult for you to sit in front of a keyboard, let alone putting pen to paper. This is the case with vertran Britsh journalist Henry Scott-Stokes.

"Now 75, Scott-Stokes suffers from worsening Parkinson’s disease that makes it difficult for him to type or write. He was also unable to read all of the Japanese-language version of the book.

Scott-Stokes dictated the book during more than 170 hours to Hiroyuki Fujita, a translator who is a member of the nationalist group The Society for the Dissemination of Historical Fact," wrote Julian Ryall in the South China Morning Post.

So why was Scott-Stokes so "shocked"? Well it seems that the translator who worked with Scott-Stokes to publish the Japanese book added "his own language" to the text entitled Falsehoods of the Allied Nations’ Victorious View of World History.

Angela Erika Kubo, who works for the Japan Subculture Research Centre and who was helping create an English-language transcript of the book, noted on the centre's website. “I realised that I felt that Mr Stokes, who is a very nice elderly journalist who I respect, was having his words taken out of context.”

Did the translator go beyond the bounds of the work of a translator or was Mr. Scott-Stokes work hijacked for political purpose?

Read the complete story at the South China Morning Post at the source and you make up your own mind as to what happened.

Source: The South China Morning Post


Vasyl Pawlowsky Independent Consultant