Olympics bring Change to Arab Women

'Baby' Robot Learns Language Like The Real Thing

by DANA FARRINGTON

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A baby robot has been born. Now, with little DeeChee's help, researchers are studying how babies transition from babbling to forming words.

Dr. Caroline Lyons of the University of Hertfordshire is one of the computer scientists who helped design DeeChee the robot. She tells Weekend Edition host Scott Simon that humans are also critical to their experiments.

"One of our ideas is that you only learn to speak by interacting with another human. So we brought in a lot of ordinary participants and just asked them to teach DeeChee the names of shapes and colors."

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Wartime Translator Explores Her 'Father's Country'

by NPR STAFF

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In My Father's Country

An Afghan Woman Defies Her Fate

by Saima Wahab

Hardcover, 346 pages

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April 22, 2012

As an Afghan-American woman, Saima Wahab straddles two worlds — disparate places that have been brought together over the past decade by war.

Wahab has literally mediated those two worlds. As a Pashto translator and cultural adviser for the U.S. military in Afghanistan, she often found herself standing between American soldiers and Afghan civilians.

In her new memoir, In My Father's Country: An Afghan Woman Defies Her Fate, Wahab writes about leaving Afghanistan as a young girl, growing up in the United States and later returning to her birth country.

Wahab says she titled the book in reference to her father because he was always incredibly supportive of her. Traditionally, Pashtun men fire gunshots into the air when their wives deliver a son. But Wahab's father fired his gun when she was born, too.

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Translation Software for Music Makers

by SAMI YENIGUN

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When you hear a song on the radio today, there's a good chance that song was made using a computer. There's also a good chance that it was made using Western music software like, say, Ableton Live.

That makes sense, of course, for Western musicians, who are used to things like a 4/4 time signature and a 12-tone scale. But Eastern musicians unfamiliar with these defaults might have some issues. Now, a piece of software called Sufi Plug Ins is offering a solution.

A plug-in is a little program that adds abilities to a larger software application, like a video player or a synthesizer. Sufi Plus Ins is a package of such programs that work with Ableton Live, a commonly used music production software. The Sufi Plug Ins include four synthesizers, a drone instrument and a drum machine.

Sufi Plug Ins were created by Jace Clayton, also known as DJ Rupture. Clayton is based in New York, where he works as a freelance music writer and composer. He has DJed in a band with Norah Jones, lectured at Harvard University and hosted his own radio show on WFMU. He runs a record label called Dutty Arts, and some of his work takes him to other countries. He says he came up with the idea for Sufi Plug Ins while making music in Barcelona.

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New Online Resource Provides Immigration Information in Up to 22 Different Languages

July 26, 2012

WASHINGTON - U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) today launched its online Multilingual Resource Center, a new feature on www.uscis.gov. The center provides a central location for USCIS resources in a variety of languages, to include - Haitian Creole, Polish and Vietnamese. Offering certain immigration application information in other languages helps ensure USCIS communicates across many cultures and reaches a broader audience, while also ensuring that customers obtain information directly from USCIS, and not from unofficial - and possibly unscrupulous - sources. Materials are available in up to 22 languages, covering information on USCIS application processes as well as frequently asked questions.

"Our Multilingual Resource Center is our most recent step in increasing customer access to important and accurate immigration information," said Director Alejandro Mayorkas. "By providing immigration information to our customers in their native languages, we improve our customers’ experience and enhance their ability to navigate our nation’s legal immigration system."  

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Languages at the London 2012 Summer Olympics

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It’s a matter of hours until the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games and 10 days until I visit London 2012 myself, so it’s probably about time Language Rich Europe got into the spirit of things!

London is a multilingual and multicultural city regardless of whether the Olympics are happening or not, but the arrival of participants and spectators from all over the world has resulted in a greater effort to recruit multilingual staff to meet and greet arrivals at airports and to produce multilingual signs. Unfortunately this hasn’t always worked as effectively as the organisers may have liked, with reports that some Arabic signs in train stations andWestfield Shopping Centre are ‘gibberish.’ But it’s a well-meaning gesture and for an Olympic Games which places so much emphasis on legacy, I will be interested to see if there will be any lasting impact on multilingualism.

UNHCR News Story: Language class helps refugees span cultural gaps in Costa Rica

African students in Spanish language classes for refugees and asylum-seekers from outside the region. 
© UNHCR/E.Kastelz

Language class helps refugees span cultural gaps in Costa Rica

SAN JOSÉ, Costa Rica, July 26 (UNHCR) – Bangalay came to Costa Rica by accident. He arrived while travelling from his native Côte d'Ivoire, heading towards what he believed was the United States. However, the ship he boarded left him in Panama and after being detained for some time, he managed to take a bus to Costa Rica, where he sought asylum.

This explains how the 17-year-old came to be seated in a Spanish class created exclusively for asylum-seekers and refugees from outside the Americas living in San José, the capital of Costa Rica.

The Association of International Consultants and Advisors (ACAI), a non-governmental organization that has been implementing UNHCR programmes since the 1990s, developed a programme in May last year that offers Spanish classes twice per week.

"The classes are a great support system for them," said Gloria Maklouf, director of ACAI. "All of the students fled their home countries to save their lives. Now, during the classes, they are able to talk with each other and share their experiences. Language is an indispensable tool for their integration process and for finding work."

For complete article, click here

Court interpreters play crucial role in criminal justice system, officials say

By ANN ZANIEWSKI

P. Lanette Pinkard’s hands can change a person’s life.

Pinkard, a certified sign language interpreter, works in courthouses in Oakland County and elsewhere doing sign language interpretation for the deaf. Officials say interpreters, whether for deaf people or non-native English speakers, are key in ensuring defendants have a fair path through the criminal justice system.

“Regardless of what the legal obligations are for providing interpreters, if you cannot communicate with the court, how is it that you can fully avail yourself of your rights and participate in the legal process?” said Richard Lynch, manager of Oakland County Circuit Court’s Civil/Criminal division. 

Lynch said court interpreters must be highly skilled and dedicated. Those who interpret foreign languages must be fluent in both English and the other language.

“In a courtroom environment, they’re going to be exposed to such a breadth of language at so many different levels that an interpreter must be an exceptionally dedicated student of both languages in order to adequately perform the task,” Lynch said.

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Is Rowling Tarnishing Her Rep Abroad over Piracy Fears? 
A Delayed ‘Vacancy’ 
By Rachel Deahl 
Jul 27, 2012

If you’re a Slovenian fan of J.K. Rowling, and you’re eager to get your hands on the first available copy of her forthcoming novel, The Casual Vacancy, you’re probably going to have to read the book in English. This will also be the case in Italy, Finland, and several other countries. The reason is that Rowling’s team has made an unusual move: they are delaying the delivery of the manuscript to a handful of foreign publishers over concerns about piracy.

Rowling’s worries about piracy—and her attempt to stop it—have been quite public. (She famously refused to allow the Harry Potter series to be made available in a digital format for years, citing piracy concerns.) Now, with Rowling’s first adult novel, which publishes in September in the U.S. (as well as in the U.K., France, and Germany), her agency is taking it a step further: to tamp down on the possibility of the book being ripped and shared, the manuscript is being withheld from publishers in territories considered high risk for piracy. The move has raised more than a few eyebrows in international publishing circles. Some publishers are worried about having to scramble to get translations ready for the holidays, while others worry that more blockbuster authors may now try to follow in Rowling’s footsteps.

Zoe King, an agent and partner at Rowling’s literary agency, the Blair Partnership, said the novel is being withheld from some houses until its U.S. pub date—September 27—to “minimize the risk of the manuscript being leaked.” Adding that the move is something the agency believes is “in both the author’s and publishers’ interests,” King said the reason some countries are receiving the manuscript earlier has to do with where “security” is deemed the strongest. “We have agreed to let publishers in some countries publish simultaneously with the English-language release, as some publishers are better able to handle the security demands of a simultaneous release,” she explained, via e-mail.

Andrej Ilc, editor at the Slovenian publisher Mladinska knjiga (which acquired translation rights toVacancy), said his house is struggling with the schedule. “We will most likely be forced to employ more than one translator and abnormally speed up the editorial and production process to publish in time for the Christmas season,” he said. “Her agent would like to establish her as a quality author for adults, but at the same time this is forcing publishers around the world to break all the rules of good translating and editing.”

Jill Timbers, a translator of Finnish books into English, recently wrote a blog post about the situation in Finland. Writing for the Web site Intralingo, Timbers said that the Finnish publisher of Vacancy, Otava, is giving its translator only three weeks to turn around an edition of the book in order to hit the holiday deadline. This, she said, has caused a stir among translators and others. “Some translators argue that it’s good [that] bestsellers are translated into Finnish even if time pressure means the level of the Finnish isn’t top quality. Others predict that soon ‘entertainment literature’ will not be translated into Finnish at all.”

For complete article, click here

iTranslate Voice HD comes to the iPad with lots of features

by Mel Martin

I've looked at some translation apps before, and it seems each time I review a new one I see increased capabilities and better performance. iTranslate Voice has available on the iPhone for awhile, and now it has come to the iPad in an HD edition.

Like its smaller sibling, iTranslate Voice HD can translate 31 languages both directions. Some of the 31 are variations or dialects of one language, like Spanish, that appears in Mexican, Spanish and US versions.

Operation is simple. Speak into the iPad microphone in your language, and out comes the selected language in your choice of a male or female voice. Another nicety is that you can control the speed of the translation, which is really quite helpful when you are learning a language. You can also use the app like a dictionary, and look up words for definition. Translations can also be copied to the clipboard and mailed. For all its features, you need an internet connection because the heavy lifting of recognition and translation are done on remote servers.

For complete article, click here

Software Developers Work With PP12, Create Medical Translation Technology

Release Date: 8/5/2012 9:16:00 PM  

By Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Michael Feddersen, Navy Public Affairs Support Element West

SIHANOUKVILLE, Cambodia (NNS) -- U.S. Pacific Command (PACOM) and Mobile Technologies teamed up with Pacific Partnership 2012 (PP12) Aug. 2, to develop medical translation software for use during the event of a natural disaster.

Researchers from PACOM and Mobile Technologies are collecting realistic data by recording dialogue between English speaking physicians, Khmer speaking translators and patients.

"The important thing is that we get realistic, relevant dialogue," said Scott Hourin, a U.S. Marine Corps Forces, Pacific, Experimentation Center representative. "We have done this in the past where we created medical scenarios and it works to a certain extent, but coming out here and collecting real dialogue and the local speech is important."

The software, called Jibbigo, is expected to allow for quick translation in the event of a disaster in the area. Jibbigo will give a disaster response team the flexibility to use human translators in more important areas. 

For complete article, click here

Scientific and Professional Symposium on Medical Translation, September 20th-22nd, Barcelona

Dear fellow translators, editors and linguists,

It is with pleasure that the Translators Association of Catalonia (APTIC) and the International Medical Translators Association (Tremédica) invite you to attend their first joint Scientific and Professional Symposium on Medical Translation, which will be held in Barcelonaon September 20th, 21st and 22nd and which is being organized in collaboration with IDEC-Universitat Pompeu Fabra.

We would appreciate if you could distribute this information among the members of your professional association.

Comprehensive information may be found here: http://www.aptic.cat/tradmed2012

SESSIONS, SCHEDULE AND LANGUAGE

All sessions will be in Spanish and practical cases will deal with the EN-ES pair. However, some of the sessions will focus on topics such as drug development and veterinary translation, which are universal to most language pairs.

For the complete schedule with abstracts and speaker information, please refer to: http://www.aptic.cat/noticia/jornadas-cientificas-y-profesionales-de-traduccion-medica#resumenesybios

REGISTRATION AND VENUE

Registration is now open until August 31st. For fees and registration conditions, please refer to the official website (http://www.aptic.cat/tradmed2012).

Attendees will be awarded 10 Continued Education (CE) points by the American Translators Association (ATA).

In addition, all attendees will be given a 20% discount for purchasing the Spanish Royal Academy of Medicine’s Diccionario de términos médicos, published by Editorial Panamericana (http://dtme.ranm.es/index.aspx).
Sessions will be held at IDEC’s main conference hall — Balmes 132-134, Barcelona, Spain. http://www.idec.upf.edu/espais/es/auditorio.htm

ADDITIONAL ACTIVITIES AND NETWORKING

All attendees will be invited to join the welcoming reception on the evening of the opening day, which will be held at the venue. In addition, there will be an official dinner (at an additional cost) held at an open-air venue, taking advantage of Barcelona’s pleasant late-summer weather.

We encourage all translators —including not only those who specialize in medicine— to join us in this very interesting event, which is also the perfect excuse to network with colleagues and spend a summer weekend on the shores of the Mediterranean.

For more information, you may refer to the official website (http://www.aptic.cat/tradmed2012) or write the organizers atBarcelona2012@tremedica.org. You may also call us at +34 932 92 86 59.
We look forward to welcoming you in Barcelona!

Tomás Pérez Pazos (Member of Tremédica; on behalf of the Organizing Committee of the Scientific and Professional Symposium on Medical Translation)

Coordinators
Lorenzo Gallego & Maya Busqué

Speak the language when you travel

•         Article by: STEPHANIE ROSENBLOOM , New York Times 
• Updated: July 28, 2012 - 12:38 PM

Affordable options -- including audio files, podcasts and videos -- can help you feel less like a tourist.

Regardless of budget or destination, there are numerous instructional language programs available that help travelers feel less like a tourist.

One of the pleasures of travel is being able to speak the language of the place you're visiting -- or at least say "hello" and "where's the bathroom?" Here are some language-learning options that won't break your budget:

The BBC (BBC.co.uk/languages): Users will find instruction for 40 languages, including French, Spanish, Greek, Chinese, German, Italian and Portuguese. Click on a language and then "holiday phrases" to see an array of vocabulary categories -- Food and Drink, Shopping, Getting Around -- that can be downloaded as audio files. For those who have at least 12 weeks before a trip, there is an easy-to-use beginners' course. In all, a lively, breezy introduction to a language, though some of the videos are not available in all areas.

Coffee Break Spanish and Coffee Break French (RadioLingua.com/shows): A search on iTunes will turn up many delightful (and free) language lessons, including these spirited podcasts from Radio Lingua Network, which promise "language learning with your latte." Each 15- to 20-minute podcast encourages participation. The network also offers "One Minute" crash courses (really two to four minutes) in languages including Arabic, Greek, Mandarin and Irish. The hosts are Scottish, so while you're learning French or Spanish, you also may feel as if you've been transported to South Ayrshire. But you'll enjoy smart, energetic, well-produced lessons.

Digital Dialects (DigitalDialects .com): Visitors can beef up their vocabulary by identifying items in animated scenes. Choose Italian and a category like "Clothing," and you'll be asked to match the word to the fashions worn by a graying Italian lady (when red arrows point to her dress, select "il vestito"). It's more educational than playing FarmVille on Facebook, but the site may be better suited for children.

For complete article, click here

Election raising stakes for Spanish-language TV

With Latino voters playing an important role in this year's presidential election, Univision and Telemundo have scored more face time with the candidates, and more political ad dollars are pouring in.

By Meg JamesLos Angeles Times

July 28, 2012

Latino voters could play a deciding role in this year's presidential election, raising the stakes for Spanish-languagetelevision networks eager to solidify their role as the voice of a vital community.

For years, leading Spanish-language broadcasters Univision Communications Inc.and Telemundo, a unit of media giant NBCUniversal, have pushed for a higher profile and larger slice of the advertising pie. These broadcasters have approached past political election seasons with high expectations — only to be disappointed.

This year, however, could be their breakthrough moment.

"We are seeing more interest than we ever have in the past," Univision Networks President Cesar Conde said in an interview. "The candidates want to proactively reach out and speak to this community. It makes sense: The path to theWhite House is through the Hispanic vote."

With more than 50 million Latinos in the U.S., the TV outlets have become more relevant to candidates. An estimated 12 million Latinos are expected to vote in November, representing a 20% increase from four years ago. Polls show a majority prefer President Obama.

For complete article, click here