#SmartReads 5-2018 on the Translation Industry.
New Articles
I published two new articles on the WordBee blog:
– Translation Quality Management: A Holistic Approach – Translation quality management can be a rather confusing subject due to the lack of unique and standard terminology. For example, in ordinary quality management (i.e. ISO9000s), quality assurance (QA) is “part of quality management focused on providing confidence that quality requirements will be fulfilled” (ISO 9000:2005, 3.2.11), and focuses on preventing errors and defects. Quite differently, what is generally called QA in the translation industry is in fact a quality control (QC) task, very similar to the one that used to take place in an industrial setting, although with some major differences. Therefore, when we talk about translation quality management we need to take into consideration two different strands of quality: process-related and product-related (linguistic quality).
– KPIs for the Translation Business: A Short Intro – KPIs are essential to tracking your business performance and monitoring progress toward your goals. But choosing the right KPIs is not always easy. So, let’s see what KPIs are, why they’re so important, and how to choose them.
Event in Milan, Italy
Are you a translator working from/into Italian? The good people at Langue & Parole are organizing the second edition of “Artigiani delle Parole“, a whole day dedicated to writing, translation, communication and… yes, machine translation. I’ve been invited to try and convince colleagues to use machine translation to translate nonfiction. The early-bird promotion ends on July 16, 2018. So, if you’re interested, hurry! There are only 100 places, and from what I’ve heard, half has been booked already.
And here are your monthly #SmartReads.
Researchers Gathered to Share Emoji Research… – From the original set of 176 characters, emojis have grown to become a collection of over 3,000 unique icons. Most agree that these icons are not quite a language, but their influence on internet communication is massive.
For something more on the use of emojis, you could read Avoid Getting Lost in Translation with Emoticons.
Dynamic Machine Translation in the LinkedIn Feed – Curious about how LinkedIn handles machine translation? Here is an interesting – and technical – article by the LinkedIn team.
Ambiguity and the Computer – Lexicographer Ben Zimmer explains how computers handle words with multiple meanings. And yes, it has to do with context.
Wordoid: A Creative Name Generator – Do your clients ask you to “invent” names for new products? Do you sometimes lack inspiration? Wordoid might help. In addition to English, this naming tool is available in Italian, Spanish, German and French.
And it you want to test your creativity, Verbotomy might be the site for you.
The Russian Word’s Worth – This is a great collection of articles written by Michele Berdy, an American journalist who has been a Moscow resident since 1978. Topics vary from culture and current events to various aspects of intercultural communication, all accompanied by Russian vocabulary. Most articles also have a podcast version on the same page.