Arpan Sharma, a 10-year-old British Indian boy, has a gift for learning languages. He has learned 11 languages so far and is eager to learn more.
Arpan’s mother tongue is Hindi, which he learned from his parents growing up. He also speaks English, and learned French, German, Italian and Spanish at school. Using interactive CD-Roms, Arpan has taught himself Swahili, Mandarin, Polish, and Thai. Most recently, the young language genius has been learning the difficult language of Uganda- Lugandan.
He says learning Swahili was the biggest challenge, and that Mandarin was difficult, too. Hindi is his favorite.
The young boy enjoys studying music in school, in addition to learning languages. His headmaster believes that his musical training has helped him develop his talent for picking up languages, saying “Arpan is a language genius, a natural when it comes to listening to the exact pronunciation and repeating them perfectly. I think some of his talent is twinned with his ability as a musician. His good ear for music and tone is used for languages as well.”
So what does Arpan plan to do with his talent and passion? He says, “When I’m an adult, I want to be a surgeon who can work in all the hospitals of the world and speak the language of the country I’m in.”
Arpan came in 3rd place last year at the national Junior Language Challenge, and has reached the final round again this year, which will be held on Friday.
This article from the Chicago Tribune explores the efforts made by suburban Chicago immigrants trying to instill their native heritage in their children, primarily through language study.
Art and Maria Guelis are well-educated Russians who speak their native language at home, read Tolstoy and Dostoevski and watch Internet TV programs out of Moscow. But their 7-year-old son, George, always answers his parents in English.
Determined to pass on their linguistic heritage, the Guelises recently adopted a time-honored immigrant strategy that is burgeoning in Chicago’s suburbs.
They enrolled their son in Saturday language classes in addition to his regular public schooling.
George attends a Russian school in Naperville, one of scores of weekend foreign language schools springing up in houses of worship and cultural centers as migration from Chicago and the high-tech industry in DuPage County bring a polyglot populace to the suburbs.
While embracing English as essential in America, these parents are striving to keep their own languages alive in their family for another generation. But history shows they face an uphill battle.
February 7th marks the 1st anniversary of the first post on “A World of Translation Work”. It’s been an interesting year, filled with many new faces and exciting changes and projects.
Here are some of the highlights.
In February 2007, we announced Tarah McCarthy as the new Manager of Operations. Tarah has done a wonderful job throughout the past year, keeping a close eye on all projects, raising our quality standards, developing relationships with key customers and polishing up our invoicing procedures.
In March 2007, we announced the opening of our Chicago office by President of the Translatus North American Division, Matthew Miodonski. Matthew and our other Chicago staff have been enjoying the beauty and inspiration of the Michigan Avenue location.
In May 2007, we welcomed Veronika Svobodova to our Chicago office. Veronika had already been working successfully for Translatus for a year as a Project Manager at our Prague office, but she is really thriving in her role as a North American Account Manager, bringing in great new business. One of the blog’s most popular posts is Veronika’s piece about the culture shock she faced as a Czech moving to the big city.
Also in May 2007, we announced the expansion of our hours of operation. Project managers work from our Prague office between the hours of 9:00 and 22:00 CET, better serving our clients across multiple time zones.
In September 2007, we proudly announced the opening of Translatus China. Christine Kee currently serves as the Executive Vice President of the Translatus Asia division. Our Beijing office has been very successful in bringing new business from Asian companies and processing jobs. Translatus hopes to open a second office in the region soon.
The year 2008 already shows promise of being a big year for Translatus. We have many exciting projects in the works and anticipate many significant changes. I look forward to sharing our 2008 news with you!
Some Blog Statistics from the Past Year: Number of Posts: 90 Number of Authors: 5 Number of Visitors: 3,177 (since June) Number of Countries Where Visitors Come From: 105 Number of Languages Spoken by Visitors: 47
This article from the Chicago Tribune explores the efforts made by suburban Chicago immigrants trying to instill their native heritage in their children, primarily through language study.
Art and Maria Guelis are well-educated Russians who speak their native language at home, read Tolstoy and Dostoevski and watch Internet TV programs out of Moscow. But their 7-year-old son, George, always answers his parents in English.
Determined to pass on their linguistic heritage, the Guelises recently adopted a time-honored immigrant strategy that is burgeoning in Chicago’s suburbs.
They enrolled their son in Saturday language classes in addition to his regular public schooling.
George attends a Russian school in Naperville, one of scores of weekend foreign language schools springing up in houses of worship and cultural centers as migration from Chicago and the high-tech industry in DuPage County bring a polyglot populace to the suburbs.
While embracing English as essential in America, these parents are striving to keep their own languages alive in their family for another generation. But history shows they face an uphill battle.
This article from the Chicago Tribune explores the efforts made by suburban Chicago immigrants trying to instill their native heritage in their children, primarily through language study.
Art and Maria Guelis are well-educated Russians who speak their native language at home, read Tolstoy and Dostoevski and watch Internet TV programs out of Moscow. But their 7-year-old son, George, always answers his parents in English.
Determined to pass on their linguistic heritage, the Guelises recently adopted a time-honored immigrant strategy that is burgeoning in Chicago’s suburbs.
They enrolled their son in Saturday language classes in addition to his regular public schooling.
George attends a Russian school in Naperville, one of scores of weekend foreign language schools springing up in houses of worship and cultural centers as migration from Chicago and the high-tech industry in DuPage County bring a polyglot populace to the suburbs.
While embracing English as essential in America, these parents are striving to keep their own languages alive in their family for another generation. But history shows they face an uphill battle.
By Doug Caverly - Fri, 12/28/2007 - 9:29am. Because what the world needs now is a social network In order to make Facebook available in many different languages, the company could have paid dozens of professional translators rather large fees. Instead, in what we’ll call an “accountant-approved alternative,” Facebook has decided to involve its users and crowdsource the issue.
A new application called Facebook Translations allows people to suggest translations and vote alternatives up and down. Or would allow them, anyway - the accountants may have pinched a few too many pennies, as the app isn’t in working order at the moment.
Still, we know it was running, because Rodney Rumford reports, “There are already 839 people translating the site to Spanish. All for a whopping cost of ZERO Dollars.” And he offers several screenshots of Facebook Translations if you can’t get the link to function, either.
Once working, the app should make Facebook more accessible in a number of countries; this will likely translate into a large number of new users. The project should, at the least, result in added dedication from its participants, since they’ll have something invested in the outcome.
On a less optimistic note, given its failures in English, we have to wonder how well Facebook can handle privacy issues in multiple languages.
A few days ago, the MSN News World Blog posted about a “mystery” top-level interpreter who expertly rendered U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson’s speech into fluent Mandarin at U.S.-China trade talks in Beijing.
I was amused by the post, thinking that the author (NBC News Producer Adrienne Mong) made the interpreter seem like a rock-star of the interpreting world, marveling at his proficiency and pointing out that it is rare for an interpreter working at such a high-level Chinese diplomatic function to be anything other than ethnic Chinese. Indeed, Mandarin is a difficult language for Westerners to master, especially because of its multiple tones, and it is surely more common to see ethnic Chinese interpreters at these kinds of functions. But let’s not go throwing our knickers on stage just yet, ladies…
Ms. Mong was able to track down the elusive Mr. Brown for a phone interview. And it turns out he’s a very modest guy with an interesting education and career path that accidentally led him to this specialty. You can read all about it on the MSN News World Blog here: Mystery Interpreter Reveals Disappearing Act
Interpreter Jim Brown sits behind Henry Paulson, U.S. Treasury Secretary, during a meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao. Brown has been called “mysterious” and “shy”, but Brown insists that keeping a low profile is part of the job, saying, “When they forget I was there interpreting, then that is the highest compliment.” Photo: AFP - Getty Images.
The Chinese are by far the best in the world at being numerous. The country has a near-infinite workforce which will naturally drive the economy for years to come. Also, Yao Ming can get voted an All Star starter every year by legions of Chinese fans, whether he’s deserving or not. Yi Jianlian is likely not far behind. Such are the perks of being numerous. No surprises though, right?
How about this then? What if I told you China has one of the world’s best and most efficient language translation networks that this world has ever seen. And the secret to it’s success lies in numbers. Read more »
I know that Google has been offering a machine translation tool for translations of text and web pages, called “Google Translate”, though I’ve never used it and haven’t really been following the news about its advances or anything.
But today I stumbled upon a blog post at the “Google talkabout” blog discussing Google’s release of a machine translation robot, or “bot”, that translates text in “instant message” or “chat” online conversations. Anyone with a Gmail account can use this functionality.
It sounded so cool, I had to check it out.
The conversation started out well.. The robots translated the text well enough (not that greetings are difficult for MT software) and within seconds… …But, it didn’t work flawlessly. Perhaps it was user error, but you can see in this next image that the “en2fr” robot jumped in with some weird text of its own before my “fr2en” robot had a chance to translate my pricing question. Regardless of the hiccup, I think this is a nifty tool that can be very helpful in overcoming language barriers- when the quality of the translation is not crucial. Things like this allow us to communicate with almost anyone, anytime, anywhere.
Anyway, these bots are available to Google chat users in 24 language pairs: ar2en, bg2en, de2en, de2fr, el2en, en2ar, en2de, en2el, en2es, en2fr, en2it, en2ja, en2ko, en2nl, en2ru, es2en, fi2en, fr2de, fr2en, hi2en, hr2en, it2en, ja2en, ko2en, nl2en, ru2en, uk2en, ur2en, zh2en. (Don’t understand the language codes? Look them up here.)
Having been born in Chicago to Midwestern parents, but raised in Texas, I suppose my accent and use of American English got neutralized.. or warped. I’m without the nasal accent or long drawl often associated with each region. And I suppose it’s a little weird that both “y’all” and “pop” are in my vocabulary instead of “you guys” and “pop” (upper Midwest) or “y’all” and “coke” (South).
I love to bake, and this time of year is one of the best for baking. This Christmas, not only have I baked some typical American cookies to share with my friends, family and colleagues, but I’ve also had plenty of opportunities to sample Christmas sweets made by Czech families- for example, “Linecke”, or “Linzer cookies” (the “Na Zdravi” blog written by a Czech living in the U.S.A. offers a recipe for this popular Czech Christmas cookie) .
Why not sweeten your own holidays with a cookie recipe from another country?
My own personal favorite- the Chocolate Crunch Brownie- hails from the southern USA and isn’t really a cookie, but my mother has baked it for Christmas for years, and is always one of the first to run out!
Chocolate Crunch Brownies, photo courtesy: La Mia Cucina
1 c Butter or margarine; soften
2 c Sugar
4 Eggs
6 tb Baking cocoa
1 c Flour
2 ts Vanilla extract
1/2 ts Salt
7 oz Marshmallow crème
1 c Creamy peanut butter
12 oz Semisweet chocolate chips (2 cups)
3 c Crisp rice cereal
In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar; add eggs.Stir in cocoa, flour, vanilla and salt. Spread into a greased 13-inch x 9-inch x 2-inch baking pan.Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit (or 175 degrees Celsius)for 25 minutes or until brownies test done. Cool.Spread marshmallow creme over cooled brownies. In a small saucepan, melt peanut butter and chocolate chipsover low heat, stirring constantly.Remove from the heat; stir in the cereal. Spread over marshmallow layer.Chill before cutting. Store in the refrigerator.
Source: Country Woman; Collector’s Edition.
“Lost without Translation”, written by Mario Cacciottolo for BBC news, follows the linguistic and cultural challenges in the day-to-day work of a British midwife named Jayne Cozens. Though it’s fascinating to read about the cross-cultural aspects of the job (ex: advising women of certain cultures to avoid SIDS/cot death by refraining from sleeping with their babies and other family members in the same bed), what is particularly interesting and relevant about this story regards the methods that Ms. Cozens uses to meet her language needs- and their drawbacks.
Ms. Cozens works with many immigrant mothers and expectant mothers, many of whom speak and understand little or no English. In order to communicate effectively with her patients, she often requires the assistance of language interpreters. Sometimes she is able to find interpreters for her patients quite easily, but sometimes interpreters must come from many miles away - and they’re not cheap. She laments, “The costs are phenomenal, absolutely huge, and they get their travel expenses paid as well.”
Since she cannot always have an interpreter physically present during hospital appointments, antenatal classes, or house calls, Ms. Cozens often relies on a telephone interpreting service. But even that is not without hassles and complications- “…you have to call the interpreter on the phone, speak to her, hand the receiver to the woman, get it back, and hear the translated reply. Everything takes three times as long.”
While Ms. Cozens finds that the telephone interpreting service can be time-consuming and perhaps inefficient, many people in corporations, governmental agencies and non-profits find this kind of service to be an incredible asset to their organizations.
For example, take a situation where a non-English speaking woman in the United States is in labor and not able to reach a hospital. Emergency response officials would need to communicate with her to get important information about the baby and her health, inform her of the situation, and keep her calm - but serious complications could arise in the time it takes to arrange for an interpreter to come to the scene. Solution? Many police departments, hospitals, call centers and emergency response agencies depend on subscriptions to telephone interpreting services to give them inexpensive, immediate access to interpreters in virtually any language. (Click here to watch a video of how telephone interpreting company “Language Line” would respond to this situation).
In a business setting, when important deals hang in the balance, a telephone interpreter can help you to decipher not only your business counterpart’s message, but the cultural context of that message as well. For example, a telephone interpreter could tell you that your Japanese client’s response of “It would be difficult” or “I will consider it” most likely means that the answer is “no”, since a direct negative response might cause discomfort or loss of face.
Telephone interpreting does not come without difficulties, as Ms. Cozens has realized. Telephone interpreters cannot see and interpret body language, which is quite a serious drawback considering that most of what we communicate is done non-verbally. The quality of the connection is not always ideal- echoes, static and other noise can interfere with the process. And interpreting via the telephone can leave more room for error.
However, this method of communication provides instant access to interpreters in all of the world’s major languages. It saves the cost of paying an interpreter’s travel expenses to be on site. Telephone interpreting can be a blessing - whether you’re helping to deliver a woman’s baby or trying to get a big contract with a company in a foreign country.
Today I stumbled across an article of mine on GlobeArticles.com that has been translated into Italian. I think it’d be great to get some multilingual content on the blog, so here you have it- my article “Languages of the Former Yugoslavia” in Italian. (*Please note: I don’t happen to know more than a handful of phrases in Italian, and since Translatus did not manage the translation of this piece, I can’t guarantee its quality.*)
**Update, December 8th: A very special thanks goes to translator/interpreter Cristina Tabbia (www.intertranslation.it) for pointing out the poor quality of the translation of the article into Italian. I’m removing the Italian article from the blog, but if you would like to read the article anyway and don’t mind MT quality, you can still find it at GlobeArticles.com here. I apologize for exposing the blog’s readers to anything but the best translation work. Thanks for your help, Cristina! **
It was announced last Friday, December 9th that L-3’s rival, DynCorp International Inc., has been awarded a disputed $4.6 billion contract from the U.S. Intelligence and Security Command. The contract was first awarded to DynCorp in December of 2006, but L-3 Communications protested the move through the Government Accountability Office.
When reporting on the top language services providers of 2006 back in May of 2007, the Common Sense Advisory pointed out that a contract loss for L-3 would likely boot the company off the top 20, saying “The U.S. Army voted L-3 off the Top 20. In late December 2006 the U.S. Army awarded DynCorp International and McNeil Technologies a five-year contract worth up to US$4.6 billion to provide linguists to the U.S. military in Iraq. L-3 (number 1) was the Army’s incumbent provider. The company could drop out of the Top 20 altogether if it loses its protest, while McNeil – on last year’s list, off this year – could be at the top of the heap next year. L-3 violated a cardinal rule of business by putting all of its wars in one basket.”
Fortunately for L-3 Communications and its shareholders, L-3’s contract with the army had a series of extensions while the protested $4.6 billion contract was being sorted out, netting them almost an entire year of revenues that otherwise would not have been. According to the Motley Fool, “The failure to win a re-up or a contract extension will not affect [L-3’s] previous earnings guidance, which L-3 reaffirmed today: $13.7 billion in 2007 revenue, rising to between $14 billion and $14.2 billion next year; earnings of about $5.88 per share this year and $6.48 next year; and free cash flow of $1.1 billion or better in both years.”
Dyncorp entered into a joint venture with McNeil Technologies to create “Global Linguistic Solutions (GLS)”,which will provide translation and interpretation services to the U.S. Army in Iraq and other governmental agencies supporting “Operation Iraqi Freedom”.
The Japanese corporation NEC has created a mobile phone that can turn spoken Japanese words into written English words in a matter of seconds. It recognizes about 50,000 Japanese words and has been designed with travelers in mind.
A boy living in England has my dream superpower.
