A few days ago, BusinessGhana published a short but very interesting article about a new initiative implemented in Seoul, South Korea. Due to the massive immigration of foreign women married to Korean men, the Government has decided to revise regulations to allow more housewives to work as interpreters or translators in private companies and government [...]
Posts Tagged ‘interpretation’
Housewife and Interpreter at the Same Time?
Thursday, August 26th, 2010The Best Universities for Studying Translation and Interpretation
Wednesday, July 21st, 2010Many times in my life I have come across the same question asked by people I know or strangers on the Internet: how do I become a translator? In my opinion, you have to have a good foundation and solid skills that you have already developed in order to start working as a translator or [...]
Interculturality in the Medical Field
Tuesday, June 8th, 2010Since societies are becoming increasingly more plural, it is complicated and even dangerous to get sick in a foreign country, especially in one with a language you cannot communicate in. One of the clearest examples of this type of multicultural societies is, obviously, the United States, which is home to people from nearly every country [...]
Google and Language Interpretation for Cell Phones
Monday, May 17th, 2010The Times recently reported that Google is looking to progress in its voice technology for cell phones. The company is developing a software that will be able to translate almost instantly on cell phones. This technology would incorporate Google’s ASR (Automatic Speech Recognition) to convert the spoken words into text, translate it, and then reconvert [...]
Simultaneous Interpretation
Monday, May 3rd, 2010How did it start? Simultaneous interpretation, or conference interpreting, is a profession that came into being rather recently. Consecutive interpretation as a profession came into existence in the 20th century, with its initial usage taking place at the signing of the Treaty of Versailles at the conclusion of the First World War. Before then, French [...]
What is Interpretation?
Wednesday, April 28th, 2010This is a good moment to clarify exactly what is meant by interpretation. According to Merriam-Webster’s dictionary, “interpret” means: 1 : to explain or tell the meaning of : present in understandable terms <interpret dreams> <needed help interpreting the results> 2 : to conceive in the light of individual belief, judgment, or circumstance : construe [...]
Translation or Transcreation in Art
Wednesday, February 17th, 2010Art today is one more example of the global panorama that defines our period. The undeniable internationalization of the majority of works of art led me to do some research on the role that our profession plays in the field. The title of a work is a linguistic representation that is entirely conditioned by its [...]
The Importance of Language in Diplomacy
Sunday, December 13th, 2009The United States government has a high demand for linguists. President Obama’s administration is looking to put more emphasis on diplomacy through more effective multilingual communication in all areas: intelligence, defense, State Department agencies, etc. The ILR (Interagency Language Roundtable) was created and includes several agencies of the State Department. Its main focus will be [...]
Specialized Translation Agencies
Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009I recently read an article about the new national certification given to medical interpreters of Spanish in the United States. I think this is actually quite important, especially for the people who are receiving medical services. Unfortunately, these people have a very low level of education. In addition, they are looking to include languages besides [...]
What is Interpretation?
Friday, October 30th, 2009In my work as a translator, I often hear people, due to an understandable unfamiliarity, tell me that they once again needed an “oral translation”. I then deduce that the concept of “interpretation” is not well-known and that is why people who are not part of this small world of translation tend to be so [...]
English-only hurts immigrants and translators
Thursday, February 5th, 2009Last month, voters in the City of Nashville, Tennessee went to the voting booths to decide whether to make English the city’s official language. And, thank goodness, they voted against the proposal that would have made “Music City” the biggest U.S. city with such official language legislation. This is good news, not just for the [...]
Tips for new (or not so new) interpreters
Friday, January 2nd, 2009As we ring in the new year (Happy 2009!), I thought it fitting to provide the list of tips that the AIIC (Association Internationale des Interprètes de Conférence) for any of my readers who are embarking on a new career as an interpreter to coincide with the start of a new year. This is the [...]
