This is the first #SmartReads on the Translation Industry, a digest of interesting, popular or unusual articles and news on the translation & localisation industry. If you want to be notified every time a new digest is available, please subscribe here.
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Post-editing: Painful (Maybe) but Necessary
While the attention of many has lately turned to Neural Machine Translation (NMT) and the benefits it can offer in terms of output quality and speed, the tech start-up Lilt (my favorite post-editing environment) has launched Lilt Labs, a virtual place where machine translation researchers and professional translators can work together to evaluate the technological progress within the translation industry. One of the first goals of the Lilt Labs is to provide an objective evaluation of the different machine translation options.
In the meantime, the number of courses on post-editing of statistical machine translation for translators is multiplying every day. But what about project managers? Within a translation project using machine translation, translation project managers are on the frontline when it comes to setup and run a translation project with machine translation: They collect background information, assess the output quality and define clear post-editing guidelines for post-editors.
Until now, TAUS is the only organisation offering an online post-editing course for project managers (PE4PM). The author of the TAUS course, Luigi Muzii, has now published a booklet, Post-Editing of Machine Translation for Project Manager, that can be purchased separately from the course. The booklet also contains a discount code for the online course. An Italian version is also available and, hopefully, other languages will follow soon.
Terminology Is Still Hot
Terminology is still the queen of the web. And it seems it’s becoming more and more popular among the new generation of linguists/translators.
The credit goes mainly (I think) to the Terminology Coordination Unit of the European Parliament. The TermCoord Unit has been connecting with a wider audience through blog posts, various publications and social media. Since May 2016, the IATE database is also available for mobile devices, making life easier for those constantly on the move.
The Universitat Pompeu Fabra joins the effort with an online master on terminology, available both in English and Spanish. You can check out the program on their website. A word of warning, though: the rates for each module are quite high.
If you’re looking for a somewhat cheaper, but equally interesting alternative, you might want to consider the ECQA Terminology Management Certification offered by TermNet. I took the course and obtained my certification in 2015: I can assure you it’s very well worth the investment of time and money.
Terminology channel
Besharat Fathi, a PhD candidate at the Institute of Applied Linguistics of Pompeu Fabra has launched the TeleTermino channel on the free messaging app Telegram. TeleTermino aims at “introducing the basics building blocks of terminology to beginners”, and it can be useful for translators/project managers, academic researchers (some of the subscribers to the channel work in the field of physics), social media mavens, language lovers etc.
Click here to join the discussion.
Translation Quality: Events in the Netherlands
Some rather exclusive international events are planned in the Netherlands, all focused on translation quality:
TAUS Industry Summit, March 22-24, 2017 (on invitation only)
GALA 2017 Amsterdam, March 26-29, 2017
TAUS QE Roundtable, March 30, 2017, hosted by Booking.com
Maybe more relevant for translators: On June 2, 2017, the 7th edition of the Nationaal Vertaaldag will take place in Amersfoort. The title is “Is de kwaliteit van een vertaling meetbaar?” (“Can translation quality be measured?”). Judging by the lineup of the program, most of the presentations will presumably be in Dutch; so, it’s going to be more a local affair.
Join the Translation Gym (Italian Speakers only)
The good people at Langue & Parole have launched a virtual “translation gym” where translators working from and into Italian can post questions and ideas about their daily work, do some online networking, take part in a brainstorming session on linguistic issues etc. You can join anytime. The subscription will also comprise discounts on Langue & Parole WebLabs.