One Hour Translation Blog http://blog.onehourtranslation.com The Web's Leading Professional Translation Service Thu, 19 Aug 2010 15:02:31 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 en hourly 1 The logic behind translators’ and interpreters’ professional jokes http://blog.onehourtranslation.com/translation-services/the-logic-behind-translators-and-interpreters-professional-jokes/ http://blog.onehourtranslation.com/translation-services/the-logic-behind-translators-and-interpreters-professional-jokes/#comments Thu, 19 Aug 2010 15:02:31 +0000 Matt Moore http://blog.onehourtranslation.com/?p=993 The manner in which Hollywood has built perceptions of translators and interpreters, especially in movies like “The Interpreter” and “Charade”, it shall not be considered strange if people imagine an interpreter, as someone who sits at the glass booth, wearing his headphones and speaking very fluently in some international language. However, it would be amazing to know that there has been a drastic increase in professional translation service providers. Right from government offices to seminars, newsrooms and essential meetings, interpreters and translation agency are everywhere to be noticed. This has also led to the establishment to the need of professional translation service, which has turned out to be essential, especially in the medical field, legal proceedings, business meetings and site visits.

Be it the interpreters of jokes, the meetings, essays, and press releases, all of them have aided in the establishment of the cross cultural communication system. Today, translation agency is one of the major aspects for globalisation. In today’s society, be it any language, Chinese, Japanese or English, there has been the need felt to serve it, so that the foundations of the language can be strengthened in the right manner. Interpretation by translation agency is just not the manipulation of ideas. It is also the construction of the concepts and in depth study so that the manner in which the language is explained can be done at a flawless level.

In the mean time, the professional translation service providers also need to be very sensitive to the demands and traditions of the cultural background of the different countries so that there is no offence taken at any point of time. For example- the linguistics of English and Japanese language are very different. Hence, the interpreters from translation agency have a tough time in the process of translation and they need to be very specific about their work. The literal sense is not the mere important issue in the process of translation but it also includes the manner, perspective and scenario in which the translation subject has to be taken in consideration.

Since there is the need to explain the meaning, while the translation process is going on the basis of the scenario, it has led to the rise in the number of translation agencies in the world, which offer flawless output. There speech is naturally flowing and they also have to be very accurate in terms of facts and figures because the audience can be easily deluded if the subject matter is not right.

The cultural and linguistic barriers, which are created in between the two languages, have to be expressed and interpreted. The gaps need to be filled by translation agency. One must also understand that there is a difference between the translator and the interpreter’s work as the former one deal with spoken words while the later one is confined with the written words. No doubt, the professions are very challenging and hence, this is the very reason why they are getting the respect all over the world. Thus, this learning professional translation service from top translation agency should be enjoyed.

]]> http://blog.onehourtranslation.com/translation-services/the-logic-behind-translators-and-interpreters-professional-jokes/feed/ 0 Importance of crowed source translation http://blog.onehourtranslation.com/translation-services/importance-of-crowed-source-translation/ http://blog.onehourtranslation.com/translation-services/importance-of-crowed-source-translation/#comments Wed, 18 Aug 2010 14:59:55 +0000 Matt Moore http://blog.onehourtranslation.com/?p=991 Taking into consideration that the high valued institutes have a very massive appeal, there has been an increase in the demand of crowed source translation. For example, institutes like World Bank have a very diverse public appeal and demand due to which it is necessary that their content, rules, data and other necessary additions are explained in different languages. A very large part of this effort has been done by various translation agencies which have coming into establishment. Some of the sought after languages, where the conversion is basically done are Chinese, Arabic, Russian, French, Germany and English. These languages play a very essential role in the fostering of the cross cultural communication and dynamism part.

Crowed source translation is basically the process in which the task is taken from an established contractor employer and is distributed to the unknown groups of people on the level of outsourcing. There is this trend which is followed especially by Wikipedia as its content is widely outsourced. This particular process has led to the increase in the number of translation agencies in the world, especially in the freelance market area. In some sites, the users themselves have to translate in accordance with their language preferences. There are several organisations which face problems because of the need of the translation. This work needs to be very specific and to the point.

There is also the need to maintain quality and genuineness when the process of crowed source translation needs to be done. The maintenance of the quality control also depends on the budget which is being provided. Earlier, the process of translation was not very much publicised but with time it led to the increase in the concept of globalisation and cross cultural bonding which has further rejuvenated the essence of it. In most of the cases now, there is the need of extensive edits that has to be done.

But at the same time it can be seen that crowdsourcing will not be able to flourish when it comes to the big companies and the corporate world. The reason can be that there have been several company sites which need translation and they do not have stakes at the business level. Hence, there is the need of the right budgeting also when it comes to the process of translation. Social networking sites have the demand of these translation services such as Facebook and other applications. These networks give more reach and availability of wider audience to the type of translation which is needed.

There are several people who are fascinated with the concept of crowed source translation because it has several dimensions and domains and it leads to their establishment. This can also be explained in this process that one user who like some post which has been written in some other language goes forward to translating it. Thus, with the advent of this trend, there has been the basic increase in the number of the viewers, tariff and brand establishment of various languages and their global appeal.

]]> http://blog.onehourtranslation.com/translation-services/importance-of-crowed-source-translation/feed/ 1 Why machine translation is good for the translation industry? http://blog.onehourtranslation.com/translation-services/why-machine-translation-is-good-for-the-translation-industry/ http://blog.onehourtranslation.com/translation-services/why-machine-translation-is-good-for-the-translation-industry/#comments Tue, 17 Aug 2010 14:59:34 +0000 Matt Moore http://blog.onehourtranslation.com/?p=989 There has been this growing concern for the human translation agency that machines are definitely going to overtake the business. However, the topic remains to be debatable because there are people, who have different opinions. Some feel that professional translation service through machine translation is good because it has the potential to bring the translation agency, which is more than thousands years of age, on the headlines. Still, some feel that the Machine Translation is not very flawless and has its own loopholes. It’s expected that taking into consideration the computer industry is blooming at a very high rate; there are more developments and improvements, which are possible in the professional translation service offered by different companies. No doubt, there has been a lot of hard work of professional and computer geniuses to revamp the entire translation industry.

Machine translation is swift. It can be easily done and is more accessible, compared to the human translation. Computational linguistics has made it a lot more user friendly and functionally more acceptable. Moreover, it can meet the requirements of a large group of people, further enhancing the cross communication skills of the wider audience. The customisation of the language can be done in a very professional manner when it comes to machine translation. The output is not limited and the deadlines can be managed with great ease. The best thing is also that the machine translation has also led to the increase in the number of translation agencies and this really creates a very high range of employment options for professional translation service providers.

At the same time, allowable substitutions can be managed while the conversion of languages is taken into picture. Even in terms of the usage of the specific formulaic language, the use of the customisation done by the machine translators is very much in demand. This has also led to the increase in the usage of machine translation over translation agency, when it comes to legal and government domains. The standard of the usable output is very high. Hence, this makes it easier for the establishment of the improvement in quality when it comes to professional translation service.

In several cases, even those unambiguously identified characters can be substituted at the right phrases taking into consideration that the culture and the society aspects of the various countries in which the language translation is continuing in. It is obviously a great fact that right from the 17th century, the machine translation has been developing and today it has its own international niche with more and more people opting for it. But at the same time, there are improvements necessary because in few cases, the languages cannot be completely interpreted in the needed manner. So, machine translation cannot be trusted to be very accurate all the time and professional translation service by translation agency should also be given the needed preference.

The decoding and the recoding of the texts, words, phrases and language has further been made more smooth with the process of machine translation becoming more standard. However, in cases, where a word has more than one meaning, the process of translation, done by machines, becomes even more difficult. Thus, there should be changes bought in this regard for the eradication of the anomalies that exist in this professional translation service.

]]> http://blog.onehourtranslation.com/translation-services/why-machine-translation-is-good-for-the-translation-industry/feed/ 1 Translation Memory – What is it Good For? http://blog.onehourtranslation.com/translation-memory/translation-memory-%e2%80%93-what-is-it-good-for/ http://blog.onehourtranslation.com/translation-memory/translation-memory-%e2%80%93-what-is-it-good-for/#comments Sun, 15 Aug 2010 12:00:57 +0000 Matt Moore http://blog.onehourtranslation.com/?p=984 In the current times where the world is growing at such a fast pace and we are so closely connected with people in all corners of the world, it has become a must to make use of professional translation services. These services are used by all kinds of people for a wide variety of purposes. The latest breakthrough in technology which has considerably aided the translation system is the translation memory or TM. It has been over 20 years that this phenomenal system was introduced and almost all the leading translation agencies are making widespread use of this system to make their services superior and fast paced.

The professional translation services are extended to a lot of people which puts a lot of pressure on the service providers. Translation memory is a database that saves all the phrases, words and paragraphs which have been translated more than one time. This stored data helps in saving a lot of time and effort on the part of the translation agencies. The use of this translation memory has a favorable effect on the quality, price as well as the technical capability of the translation. This kind of system is beneficial for all kinds of document translation as most of the translations have to be completed within a short span of time which can be possible only with the help of the translation memory.

The most basic advantage of making use of this system is that it facilitates a systematic use of the translations made earlier. The advanced versions of the translating memory classify the translations based on the nature of their target and store it together. This saves the time that was earlier spent in searching for the relevant translation amongst a sea of translated data. The translation memory software that is used by most of the translation agencies support most file formats. This means that the translating services can be rendered to a variety of file formats using a single interface.

The translation memory also saves the translator the money that would have to be spent on training the staff as well as obtaining licenses. The latest standards which are being followed in document translation, CEN EN 15038 and ASTM F2575 require a person to revise every translation, ensuring efficiency and accuracy. In case of lengthy projects which require a lot of time, the translation memory becomes the sole factor that brings stability and uniformity to the translations. In these cases, most probably there is more than one translator and there is a strong possibility of differences in the approach to the translation. With the use of translation memory, the phrases or paragraphs which have been translated already get saved on the system and the chances of different translations are eliminated completely.

To sum it all up, it can be said that the translation memory is a boon to for the professional translation service providers as it can help them face a lot of problems that were earlier faced by them like inconsistency in translations, identifying errors, formatting the translations, spotting deviations from the glossary of the project and so on.

]]> http://blog.onehourtranslation.com/translation-memory/translation-memory-%e2%80%93-what-is-it-good-for/feed/ 0 Latest Development on the EU Translation Laws http://blog.onehourtranslation.com/translation-services/latest-development-on-the-eu-translation-laws/ http://blog.onehourtranslation.com/translation-services/latest-development-on-the-eu-translation-laws/#comments Sat, 14 Aug 2010 12:17:41 +0000 Matt Moore http://blog.onehourtranslation.com/?p=982 The latest translation law passed in relation to the European Union has come as a sigh of relief for the people who have been accused of crimes here. This law has been passed with an intention to protect the interests of the foreigners who are deprived of a fair trial as they cannot understand the language the trial is carried out in. This newly passed law is expected to eradicate the problems that have been arising in respect of the EU arrest warrant.

As per this new law which was formally passed on the 16th of June’ 2010, it is mandatory for all the countries belonging to the European Union to grant document translation to the accused who do not understand the language. For the proceedings, these people who are held responsible for crimes in a foreign region should be given access to a professional translation service or an interpreter who can explain the on goings to them in their local language in order to give them a fair chance to defend themselves.

This move has delighted all the authorities including the chief executive of Fair Trials International. This is a charitable organization which has a history of representing various Britons who have been struggling to get legal translation during trials against them for crimes in Europe. Jago Russel also welcomed the decision by saying that this new law will end the misery of the accused that have been denied of their right to a fair trial due to the difference in language.

Due to these lingual differences, the accused often fail to understand the significance of the charges they have been accused of as well as the evidence that has been presented to prove their crime. Russel also expressed that the European Parliament should come up with more such laws allowing professional translation service as they will help in defending the rights of the accused.

This is the first step that has been taken by the European Parliament to lay the base of common standards in EU when it comes to dealing with criminal cases. The spokesperson for the European Assembly further declared that there are a series of such laws including document translation that have been designed and are under consideration which will work to the mutual benefit of the authorities as well as the accused.

The lack of common standards and the problems faced by the accused from different countries while facing trials in the European Union were highlighted mainly in the Andrew Symeou case. This 21 year old belonged to the city of London and has been undergoing trial for the manslaughter of a Cardiff teenager named Jonathan Hiles. Symeou is suspected to have killed Hiles in Greece.

The family of Symeou is one of the many families that have had to face a lot of problems owing to the European Arrest Warrant procedure. A time span of three years has been allowed to all the 27 member states of the European Union to put this new legal translation law in practice. The implementation of this law will hopefully bring an end to all the criticism that has been faced by the EU authorities for a long time.

]]> http://blog.onehourtranslation.com/translation-services/latest-development-on-the-eu-translation-laws/feed/ 0 Interpretation – what is it? http://blog.onehourtranslation.com/translation-services/interpretation-what-is-it/ http://blog.onehourtranslation.com/translation-services/interpretation-what-is-it/#comments Fri, 13 Aug 2010 12:13:28 +0000 Matt Moore http://blog.onehourtranslation.com/?p=980 Interpretation means the art of translating one object from a framework to another framework without disturbing its original content. A simple example can be seen as the language translation from one language to another without disturbing the actual meaning of the sentences. Today, with the fast globalization and increase in the international business, it is important to deal with language barriers as quickly as possible. Previously, interpreters used to be on both the sides of international business to convey the business deals and eliminate the language barrier. Now, with global business booming up, professional translation services are required to simplify the communication process and ensure the business communications are happening at speedy rates.

It has been observed that since the concept of outsourcing was introduced, many offline, online jobs, and call centers started to settle down in various countries. Due to the language barrier, it was important to bring up a system or hire services from agencies like translation agencies to carry out the business activities. A professional service vendor is required because the art requires both the knowledge of automatic translation software as well as the actual language knowledge to ensure the interpretation is done neatly and with no errors.

There are many business sections utilizing the services of professional translation services. The document translation service is one of the most important categories of interpretation. It involves the complete transfer of foreign language document into a native language. Many freelancers and agencies use authorized and licensed software to translate the document keeping the original content in mind. With knowledge of the foreign and native language and the tools, each and every part of the text can be interpreted correctly including any idioms and quotes precisely. Translation can be applied both literally and commercially and both sections have different rules related to it.

There are other specialized translation services also associated with the business related to fields like medical, corporate, law etc. Every day, many communication talks, document exchange, and other responses are interpreted and later conveyed in the appropriate format as per the associated rules. The interpreter must be a bilingual expert and apart from having a profound knowledge of both source and destination knowledge’s; he must also have good understanding of the etymologic and idiomatic correlations of the 2 languages. He must be intelligent to analyze when the text must be paraphrase and when it must be translate literally.

The art of interpretation requires knowledge of the language. For instance, a document translation from English to Russian requires Russian translation skills. The knowledge of acute writing as well as smart conceptualization of the original content is required to be a master in this art. As a basic rule, it is important to keep the soul, theme of the content to avoid sensitive issues later.  Many corporate houses have acquired services to conduct business translation services for their day to day operations. The benefits of hiring a professional translation services ensure the services are available for each and every domain and it can help to reduce cost and make global clients.

]]> http://blog.onehourtranslation.com/translation-services/interpretation-what-is-it/feed/ 0 Translation related iPhone apps – IV http://blog.onehourtranslation.com/iphone-translation/translation-related-iphone-apps-%e2%80%93-iv/ http://blog.onehourtranslation.com/iphone-translation/translation-related-iphone-apps-%e2%80%93-iv/#comments Thu, 12 Aug 2010 11:07:01 +0000 Matt Moore http://blog.onehourtranslation.com/?p=970 In this fourth blog on translated related iPhone app series, we review 3 more popular apps viz. Jibbigo voice translator, Lingopal fun multilingual phrasebook and iTranslate plus. These apps are all aimed at global travelers who would find it useful. Jibbigo, though expensive compared to others, is versatile as it has voice recognition capabilities. However for a thorough translation job these apps would prove insufficient and approaching a professional translation agency is the only option.

Jibbigo voice translator

Jibbigo is an iPhone app released last year that converts speech in English to Spanish and vice versa. It was developed by Alex Waibel, a professor of computer science at the Carnegie Mellon University and sold by Jibbigo LLC, a start up company. It has a vocabulary of about 40,000 words. The tool costs $24.99.

Recently in addition to Spanish-English translation, Japanese-English, Chinese-English, and Iraqi Arabic-English have been made available. The user needs to speak a sentence or two into the iPhone and the app converts it into an audible translation in the language of choice. The software resides in the device itself and there is no need for internet connection for running the application. However the app cannot translate telephonic conversations as yet. More language combinations are being worked on.

Lingopal Fun Multilingual Phrasebook

This translation app costing just $3.99 is developed by Lingo Holdings can translate words / phrases from 42 languages including common languages like English, French, Italian, Spanish, Afrikaans etc.

The phrases have been grouped into categories such as dining, accommodation, finding directions etc. After a phrase has been chosen, the app opens a window with the translated text and an audio translation is also available. You can store a phrase as a favorite and also do reverse translation. No internet connection is required to run the app.

iTranslate Plus

This app costs $1.99 and is developed by Outer Space Apps. It can translate phrases between any two from a list of thirty five languages like English, Spanish, French, German, Arabic, Bulgarian, Greek, Latvian, Swedish and so on. The app is based on Google translate.

The user can save the translations and even email them to others. The GUI is very user friendly and the language pair can be chosen by scrolling down from a list. But there is no audio option with iTranslate Plus. The app can translate faster than humans but not as accurate.

]]> http://blog.onehourtranslation.com/iphone-translation/translation-related-iphone-apps-%e2%80%93-iv/feed/ 2 Translation related Android applications — III http://blog.onehourtranslation.com/android-translation/translation-related-android-applications-iii/ http://blog.onehourtranslation.com/android-translation/translation-related-android-applications-iii/#comments Wed, 11 Aug 2010 15:30:24 +0000 Matt Moore http://blog.onehourtranslation.com/?p=978 Three more translation related Android apps viz. Talk To Me, Spanish Translator and Star Translate are reviewed in this blog. These apps would be handy for people who are constantly traveling but some of them require direct access to internet. For professional translation jobs translation agency should to be contacted.

Talk To Me

Talk To Me is a real time speech to speech translator developed for Android 1.6 or above. It is available for free from the Android Market. Currently it can translate speech from English to French, Spanish, Italian, German and English (UK). It uses Google Translate and Android Text to Text translator (TTS) for operation.

This translation app is very easy and fun to use. You just have to click on the microphone widget after installation and start speaking. After recording, the application plays back synthesized translation in the chosen language. The quality of speech recognition is remarkably good. For translations of more languages other than the ones mentioned above, text to text translations are available in 47 languages. Settings like changing the language, speech pitch and rate can be modified by the user. The translations can also send via SMS and email to others.

Spanish Translator

This Android app does two way translations from English to Spanish and vice versa. It requires live internet connection for operation and is available free of cost. It also has facility for sending the translation via SMS. The latest version supports landscape mode which allows droid keyboard to be used. This is one of the popular apps used for quick Spanish translation particularly while traveling.

Star Translate

This online translator developed by Star Object S.A. Luxembourg serves both as a translator as well as a dictionary. It can deliver several contextual meanings for a word and also translate text into another language. It supports many languages including French, Chinese, Arabic, Thai, Hindi, Vietnamese and Hebrew. Source and target languages can be swapped for each other. Voice translation is also possible.

The translations are automatically put on clipboard by the app for easy access while sending emails, SMS etc. SMSes can be directly translated into one’s language of choice. The app also maintains a history of translations. Currently some languages like Japanese and Arabic are available in the translator part but not on the dictionary part as the latter is under development. Star Translate is based on Google translation services.

]]> http://blog.onehourtranslation.com/android-translation/translation-related-android-applications-iii/feed/ 0 Translation related iPhone apps – III http://blog.onehourtranslation.com/iphone-translation/translation-related-iphone-apps-%e2%80%93-iii/ http://blog.onehourtranslation.com/iphone-translation/translation-related-iphone-apps-%e2%80%93-iii/#comments Tue, 10 Aug 2010 10:44:25 +0000 Matt Moore http://blog.onehourtranslation.com/?p=968 We review three more popular translation related iPhone apps here below viz. the Oxford Translator Travel Pro, Linguo and Bd Translator in continuation of earlier blogs on the same topic. These apps are mainly useful for business / leisure travelers looking for some handy phrases in foreign tongues and can not be used in place of service from professional translation agencies.

The Oxford Translator Travel Pro

This iPhone app covers five languages viz. French, Spanish, Italian, Brazilian Portuguese and Mandarin. Each app costs $10 per language. Oxford Translator is more than just a translation app; it also introduces the user to a new language. It teaches how to put together a sentence in the new language and is more of an interactive teaching tool.

Audio is also provided like other translation tools but the quality is not something to rave about. Having only 5 languages is an obvious limitation but probably more languages would be added in future. These apps cover all the common travel categories like food, accommodation, conversation etc. and make a distinction with other commercially available tools in helping a novice user learn a new language. A free trial can be downloaded from the website before deciding to buy a full fledged product.

Linguo

Linguo is an iPhone app created by Edovia Inc. It costs $2.99. It has 400 preset phrases in 4 languages viz. French, Spanish, German, and Italian along with audio clip for each. It can store translations for future use and has custom translations in 20 languages.

It has simple user interface and the translations can be reversed by just a simple click. As with all machine translations, the translations may not be 100% accurate and is more useful for casual conversations in a foreign land rather than for rigorous translation of complex sentences that only a professional translation agency can provide.

Bd Translator

This iPhone app created by Bad Dog Applications can translate words and phrases in 16 different languages to those of any other language i.e. 2 way translation. The package costs $4.99 and can save user defined translation of 250 commonly used phrases.

The GUI is not very user friendly as searching for phrases is a bit tedious and the app requires internet connection for operation. Thus when used in foreign countries it may entail roaming charges which is an additional expense. Another negative point is that there is no audio clip of the translated phrases.

We will discuss some more iPhone apps related to translation in subsequent blogs.

]]> http://blog.onehourtranslation.com/iphone-translation/translation-related-iphone-apps-%e2%80%93-iii/feed/ 0 Translation related Android applications — II http://blog.onehourtranslation.com/android-translation/translation-related-android-applications-ii/ http://blog.onehourtranslation.com/android-translation/translation-related-android-applications-ii/#comments Sun, 08 Aug 2010 13:07:42 +0000 Matt Moore http://blog.onehourtranslation.com/?p=975 We review three more translation related Android apps viz. ConveyThis Translator, Trippo Monde Voice Translator, and Google Goggle in this blog. They would be found useful by frequent travelers in foreign countries. For quality translation of your own Android App you have to contact professional translation services.

ConveyThis Translator

ConveyThis is a translation app developed for mobile devices running on Android platform. It was originally developed for translating web pages instantly by placing a widget on them. It can be freely downloaded from the Android Market (listed under Communication applications) and installed using the online instructions.

ConveyThis can translate words and phrases from and into forty languages and there is audio option available through the ‘Play’ button. The source language can also be ‘auto detected’ by the app. The application is powered by Google and Eyes Free.

Trippo Mondo Voice Translator

This free Android app can handle translations in 28 languages with voice support (marked *) in 15 of them. The languages are English*, Spanish*, French*, German*, Italian*, Japanese*, Russian*, Dutch*, Portuguese*, Greek*, Arabic, Urdu, Simple and Traditional Chinese*, Hindi*, Bulgarian, Danish, Thai*, Hebrew, Hungarian, Norwegian, Persian, Polish*, Pashto, Romanian, Somali, Serbian, and Hausa.

The app also supports SMS/Email and text-to-speech translation, and can be used a language learning tool. The translations can be shared through SMS, email and tweet. Though not 100% accurate, this app will however be found useful while traveling. .

Google Goggle

This is a novel Android app that uses optical character recognition (OCR) techniques to identify words in photos etc. and then translate them into a language of our choice! Here is how this app works: Point the phone’s camera at the word or phrase like in a hotel menu etc. You can draw a box around specific words of interest using the region of interest button. Press the shutter button of the camera and Google gives you the option to translate the captured text by selecting the source and target languages.

In addition to text, Google Goggle can also identify images, barcodes, logos etc. They can be used to find location, shopping etc. Currently the version 1.1 running on Android 1.6 or higher can do English to Spanish translation and also in 3 other languages viz. French, Italian and German and supports only Latin based characters. Work is under way to include non Latin based languages like Arabic, Chinese, and Hindi etc. and also improve the quality of optical recognition and translation. This free app can be downloaded from the Android Market.

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