Jan 1, 2019 | Blog, Translation News
What Is Translators Without Borders? Translators Without Borders (TWB) is an independent, non-profit association. It started in 1993, helping non-governmental organisations (NGO) with language barriers around the world. TWB provides free and professional translations that could help those who are not multilingual to get useful information for their health and well-being. Translators Without Borders is associated with Traducteurs Sans Frontières, also a non-profit organization founded in 1993 by Lori Thicke and Ros Smith-Thomas. Goals and Achievements The goal of associations like Translators Without Borders and Traducteurs Sans Frontières is to connect the world’s volunteer translators with non-governmental organisations whose focal point is health, nutrition and education. By providing free translations, they allow the NGO to save money. Because they don’t have to spend money on translators, they can spend the savings on the cause itself. Every year, the two organizations contribute over six million translated words to non-governmental organizations. Among others for Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders), Médecins du Monde, Action Against Hunger, Oxfam, UNICEF and Handicap International. However, this is not enough to cover all of the need. A large number of other organizations still need help breaking language barriers in many countries. TWB are doing their best to improve the situation. They have developed an open digital platform, established an organizational structure, opened better communication between NGOs and TWB workers and translators, and created a training center for translators in Kenya in 2012 to help translate life-saving health information into African languages. Working in Translation Is Important Are you a professional translator and wish to play a role in the success of TWB? Why not apply...
Dec 5, 2018 | Communication, SEO, Tips, Worldwide
Global Websites for International Audiences If you have a website, it surely is one of your priorities to make it to the top of search engine results. To achieve this, having an excellent SEO strategy is essential. How about expanding your website to international audiences? Do you have to adopt a similar strategy or does it have to be different? Have a look at this article to create global websites! The Importance of Search Engines SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is a straightforward concept consisting in making sure a website comes up at the top of search engine results for terms and sentences relevant to the website’s content. In other words, SEO allows users to find the best websites on the web depending on the keywords used in the said search engine. If you have a good SEO strategy, you are most likely to have a successful website! But what if you wish to expand your website to foreign language markets? Your Target Search Engine in a Foreign Country First, you have to ask yourself, can your website be in the target country’s language? You also must not forget to consider the culture of that country, their consumers and most importantly what search engines they use. Yes, Google is not the only search engine. Let’s take China for instance. The main search engine in China is Baidu. In Japan, it is Yahoo. Another example, in Russia Google.ru is not the main search engine. It is Yandex, for the good reason that the latter is built around the Cyrillic Alphabet. So of course, if you have, let’s say, a Chinese website,...
Nov 8, 2018 | Blog, Language Services, Translation News
What we’ve been up to! It has been a long time since we updated you on our on-going projects! At LingoStar, we like to work on a wide variety of topics and we learn from each of them. All our professional linguists are fully-qualified and come from different backgrounds. Therefore, we always have a team member able to meet your needs. In this new blog post, we shine the spotlight on the role of languages in the film industry. We also introduce you to some outstanding projects we recently completed. To what extent are language professionals involved? The film industry relies on a wide range of linguists. You might think of dubbing and subtitling, which are obvious fields of specialization for professional linguists in the audiovisual industry. But there are others you may not have thought about! For example, production companies hire localization professionals for movies made in other countries, or movies that have plots in which different cultures are involved. Indeed, even if the director might know the target culture, it is likely that the actors, screenwriters, costume designers, etc., will need training on the particular culture in the film to portray a true representation of that culture. Behind the scenes, language specialists can play a big role, too! As professional linguists, we contribute! Currently at LingoStar, we are working on an interesting project for a film series where we play both the role of a tutor and translator. The characters in the series often have to speak Latin, which is very interesting for us as Latin is often referred to as a dead language, but in this...
Oct 29, 2018 | Blog, Translation News
A decade of change in communications Can you picture yourself answering a simple “Ok.” when receiving a text? Ten years ago you certainly would have and it is likely that you didn’t even know what an Emoji looked like. With the exploding increase in use of smartphones, you won’t have missed that the language of Emoji has been added to the 7,000 languages spoken worldwide. The 7001st language During the last decade, we have seen that people don’t use their phone as a simple tool anymore. It has quickly become a second version of one’s self. Your smartphone is your reflection in the mirror. You can easily tell whether someone likes a little colour in their life or prefers minimalism by looking at their phone case. The apps they download reveal a lot about their lifestyle. The wallpaper hints about their personal life. But what is betraying us in our way of speaking? Guess! The language of Emoji allows us to transcribe our emotions and tone much more efficiently than using words. How and when did the language of Emoji appear? It all started with the emoji’s ancestors : the emoticons. Emoticons were the very first common digital language. Combining existing characters in chatrooms allowed to insert emotions in a message. For example, if something made you happy you would write “:-)”. The first actual Emoji is born in 1999, in Japan, by Shigetaka Kurita, by request of the mobile carrier company DoCoMo. Their aim was to offer their customers a catchy and effective new way to communicate. For example, one could send an icon of a raining cloud...
Sep 28, 2018 | Blog, Translation News
Academic year resolutions for your children The backpack is ready, the sandwich is in the lunchbox, fall breeze starts to blow… it’s that time of year again: back to school! What resolutions have you made this year for your children? At LingoStar, we think that speaking foreign languages from a young age is an asset in every aspect of life. What is your opinion on the matter? Why is childhood the best time to learn a foreign language? Many studies prove that the best time to introduce someone to a foreign language is before the age of twelve. The language function is in development and soaks up vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation much easier than it will ever do in the future. Now, you might be wondering if it is not confusing for children to be exposed to foreign languages while they are still learning their native language. Scholars have demonstrated that bilingual children have the capacity to differentiate between two languages before even having the ability to talk. Therefore, they won’t mix them up when it is their time to talk, as changes are naturally made in their brain to assign certain words and sounds to the language they belong to. They also claim that it is totally fine to teach children two languages until the age of five. After this age, three new languages can be introduced. Is the study of a new language profitable to my children’s personal growth? Teaching different languages to your children is a very good way of providing education. It will improve their creativity, develop curiosity and give them more general knowledge. The...
Aug 29, 2018 | Blog, Translation News
Is machine translation about to replace human translation? Translation companies have always tried to provide the best quality translations possible. So far, using human translation seems to be the best option. However, some companies have recently announced new translation systems that would bring considerable improvements to the industry. Their promise is to provide high quality and natural sounding translations through convenient devices. Recent breakthroughs in the real-time translation field After adding instant image translation to its “Google Translate” service in 2012, Google launched its first headphones in November 2017. They enable users to have direct access to Google Assistant. They can listen to music; ask for traffic information; write emails and have a conversation in another language thanks to Google Translate. Google’s earphones – the Pixel Buds – are a real-time translating device that can translate 40 languages. Although its product gathered impressive press coverage, Google wasn’t the first company to develop this kind of technology. In 2016, Waverly Labs, an American company, produced the first earpiece language translator. Since then, real-time translation has been a trend that no company wants to miss. Several companies worldwide have been developing their own devices such as LeTrans, Travis The Translator, Ili Wearable Translator and Bragi Dash Pro. How do these new technologies compare to human translations? These technologies are very easy to use. For most of them, all you need are earpieces and a smartphone. With the translating earphones, two people who speak different languages can both hear the words in their own language instantly during a conversation, and straight in their ears. These technologies aim at making international communication easier....
