Lawyers slam Government’s new court interpreting system

Source: thelawyer.com

On 30 January 2012, the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) launched a new interpreter service, which has already been implemented in courts across England and Wales. The changes mean that court interpreters will now be sourced from one single agency, Applied Language Solutions (ALS).

Court interpreters were previously selected by the National Register of Public Service Interpreters (NRPSI). Interpreters listed on the NRPSI are accredited to work in specialist areas of the public services, such as law, healthcare or local government-related services.

Currently some 60 per cent of the 2,300 interpreters from the NRPSI are refusing to work under the conditions of the new system. As a result, a large number of lawyers and judges have reported instances where interpreters were late, underprepared, under qualified or failed to turn up at all. In one instance, an interpreter was spotted texting on their mobile phone during a court hearing.

While a spokeswoman from ALS admitted that there have been some “teething problems” so far, many lawyers believe that the changes are jeopardising the justice system.

Jacqueline Ng, a duty solicitor at Hines Solicitor who deals with a large number of cases in Polish, has noticed considerable problems across the profession since the implementation of the new system.

“There’s been a lot of unnecessary delay and expense with many interpreters not turning up and trials having to be adjourned,” she said. “Many of the interpreters that have come are not registered and don’t understand legal jargon. The changes are having a big impact on how defendants are being treated and I don’t think it’s right to mess with people’s human rights and liberty in this way.” More.

See: thelawyers.com

County to translate for Spanish speakers

Source: Cov News

Some county notices posted in departments’ offices and on the county’s website will soon be accompanied by Spanish counterparts, after the Board of Commissioners approved a federally mandated Limited English Proficiency Plan.

Because the county receives federal funding, it is required to offer aid to Spanish speakers conducting county business. County Manager John Middleton said the need for the county to implement the program came out of a federal audit of the county’s federal grants. The county receives about $2.6 million annually in federal funding.

According to the latest Census data, 3.6 percent of the county’s population speaks Spanish or Spanish Creole; this was the only statistically significant foreign language. Other Indo-European languages are spoken by 1.5 percent of the county’s population, but the data did not specify if there was any significant single language represented in that category. More.

See: CovNews

MoJ interpreting contract “partially abandoned”

Source: The Guardian

Courts given green light to hire own interpreters as ALS struggles to cope

A £300m private contract providing interpreters to all courts across England and Wales has been partially abandoned two weeks after being launched.

The Ministry of Justice has circulated instructions to courts and tribunals allowing them to hire interpreters from other sources in “urgent” cases because hearings are being cancelled when Applied Language Solutions (ALS) translators fail to appear.  More.

See: The Guardian

Translators Without Borders Prepares to Bridge the Last Language Mile

Source: Impact

Most people have heard about Doctors without Borders, an organization that enables doctors and nurses to provide urgent medical care in countries to victims of war and disaster. Far fewer individuals are aware of Translators without Borders, an organization that seeks to bring information to people in many of those same communities. I recently sat down for an interview with Lori Thicke, co-founder of the latter organization. Our conversation follows below.

Nataly Kelly (NK): Why did you start Translators without Borders?

Lori Thicke (LT): Up until 1993, I’d done an awful lot of almost giving. I almost worked on a crisis line, almost read books for the blind, almost became a Big Sister. But I was always too busy. Then one day Medecins sans frontières (Doctors without Borders) asked my company, Lexcelera, to quote on a translation project. I asked if they needed translation often, and if giving them the words for free would be like a donation to their work. They said yes to both questions and Translators without Borders was born. More.

See: Impact

Latino Coalition, SFS help translate aid materials for applicants

Source: The Daily Pennsylvanian

A Spanish version of Penn’s financial aid brochure will help Latino students in the admissions process

While standardized tests and college essays occupy the minds of college applicants around the world, some face the added struggle of having to explain the application process to their non-English speaking parents.

Recently, the Latino Coalition and Student Financial Services have spearheaded efforts to facilitate the financial aid application process for Spanish-speaking families.

According to SFS spokesperson Marlene Bruno, Penn has been working with student groups like the Latino Coalition to create a Spanish version of the University’s financial aid brochure — called “Just the Facts: You Can Afford Penn” — that is located on the Office of Admissions’ website.

When SFS was initially approached with the idea of translating aid materials, “the possibility of translating those sections … was costly,” Bruno wrote in an email. “In addition, it would only support one segment of the student population. Our commitment to responding to students’ concerns for translated information is paramount, but it’s equally critical that the translation be accurate and cost effective.” More.

See: The Daily Pennsylvanian

Court chaos follows interpreter change

Source: BBC News UK

The government is hoping to save £18m a year by changing how interpreters are provided for court hearings – but it is said the new system is causing chaos and costly delays.

A suspect charged with perverting the course of justice is told they are accused of being a pervert. Another is told that being charged means they have to give the police money. Two incidents cited by those opposed to the new system.

Courts in England and Wales previously hired freelance interpreters from a national register. Now they are provided by a single agency, Applied Language Solutions (ALS), which has promised to cut the annual £60m translation bill by a third. More.

See: BBC news UK

The most important Anglicism imported into the German language elected

Source: The local

Germany needed Shitstorm, according to a group of language experts who elected the word as the top English contribution to the German language last year.

The “Anglicism of the Year” jury defined Shitstorm as a public outcry, primarily on the internet, in which arguments mix with threats and insults to reach a critical mass, forcing a reaction.

“This new kind of protest is clearly different in kind and degree from what could be expected in the past in response to a statement or action,” said jury member Michael Mann, who runs a language website called Lexikographieblog.

The jury said in a statement on Monday: “Shitstorm fills a gap in the German vocabulary that has become apparent through changes in the culture of public debate.”

It added that established German words, such as Kritik (criticism), were simply not descriptive enough.

Shitstorm came into widespread use last year in connection with the financial crisis in Greece and the plagiarism scandal which forced the then Defence Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg to resign.

The second most important Anglicism this year was Stresstest, referring to the analysis of banks’ financial strength during the European financial crisis, the jury decided. More.

See: The local

Lost in translation: Chaos & confusion at press conference

Source: Indianexpress.com

Bursting through the latched door with panache, an Indian radio journalist based in Melbourne tore through the security officers with his wife in tow and bellowed during an on-going question-answer session: “Aapka naam Ajay hai?” The words resonated through the press conference hall, before it slowly settled upon the man behind the microphone bouquet — Jadeja, of the Ravindra variety.

Jadeja last played a match in Australia during the 1992 World Cup. Twenty years later, his greatest fan on this side of the Indian Ocean had woken up. “What is this? Do you have the right accreditation to be here?” the media manager asked. The RJ thought gazingly, before shooting back his best repartee. “Oh, I didn’t know there was a protocol. I’ll wait my turn to speak to Ajay.”

Press conferences are generally a tiresome ritual for both players and journalists, as cliched answers follow predictable questions. But on Friday, Ajay-man and the media manager tag-teamed to ensure that PCs are never yawned at again. The radio-man was hushed up, but the manager carried on to make it a comical affair. More.

See: indianexpress.com

MoJ interpreting hub a ‘false economy’

Source: http://www.lawgazette.co.uk/moj-interpreting-hub-a-false-economy

Concern is mounting that the Ministry of Justice’s central contract for interpreting work could prove a false economy, incurring knock-on costs for criminal justice agencies.

A week into the new framework agreement under which courts and justice agencies across England and Wales obtain interpreters and translators through a single agency, questions have already been raised about the quality of the service.

Applied Language Solutions, set up by Gavin Wheeldon in 2003 and acquired by Capita in December 2011, won the contract last August following a tender process. Criminal justice agencies had previously contacted interpreters directly from a national register. More.

See: Law Society Gazette

Dictionary compiled by Taiwan, China talents released in Beijing

Source: Focus Taiwan

Beijing, Feb. 8 (CNA) A new dictionary jointly compiled by scholars and experts from Taiwan and China made its first public appearance in Beijing Wednesday, highlighting the expansion of cultural exchanges between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait.

The dictionary, which includes common Mandarin Chinese words and phrases used in Taiwan and China, is part of a cross-strait cooperation project aimed at compiling and publishing Chinese language reference books and setting up a website that incorporates a database in the languages used in Taiwan and China.

The cooperation project was formed after Taiwan’s President Ma Ying-jeou initiated the idea in 2008 that the two sides work together to compile a Chinese language dictionary.

Discussing the new book, the Chinese chief editor, Li Xingjian, acknowledged that there had been many different opinions between the Taiwanese and Chinese talents who cooperated on the compilation. More.

See: Focus Taiwan

Inuit focus on translation of health terminology into native tongueki (Canada)

Source: Alaska Dispatch

Inuit women are meeting in Atlantic Canada this week to develop standard words for sexual health in the Inuit langauge in Canada.

Right now, there are no standard words for diseases such as HIV-Aids, or for infections such as Chlamydia and gonorrhea.

Health care workers have to describe the infections, and the descriptions can differ between Inuit language dialects in Canada.

Elisapee Sheutiapik is the president of Pauktuutit Inuit Women of Canada, the group working to develop the new terminology. More.

See: Alaska Dispatch

The Federal National Council passes draft law on translation

Source: The Khaleej Times

ABU DHABI – The Federal National Council (FNC) on Tuesday approved a draft law regulating the profession of translation and interpretation). It also stipulates penalties.

Under the new bill, only professional and licensed translators will be allowed to take up related jobs and the penalties include financial fines of up to Dh100,000 and jail term of up to two years.

According to the draft law, only licensed translators will be allowed to take up related jobs. Those practising as translators without a licence and not qualifying the prescribed tests will be penalised. They will face a jail term of three months to a year, with fines between Dh10,000 and Dh30,000. The penalty for the licensed translators who make mistakes be a jail term of six months to two years and fines of Dh50,000 to Dh100,000, it stipulates.

After a marathon debate, the House approved the bill with amendments pertaining to technical wording rather than key elements such as the penal codes.

However, the members suggested the laws regulating the jobs of translators must be tightened because a minor mistake in the job can ruin the life of an individual or a corporate organisation.

The house also maintained that professional translators were a must for securing social, communal and national interests. The members also stressed that professional and qualified translators at government establishments, particularly at courts, was the need of the hour. The house unanimously agreed with the draft that all translators must be qualified professionals, licensed and medically certified that they are mentally sound. More.

See: The Khaleej Times

Language experts to help identify internet ‘trolls’

Source: News Lanchashire

University researchers are developing a system to help identify people who are behind offensive comments posted on the internet.

Linguistic experts at the University of Central Lancashire (UCLAN) are working with police and child protection agencies to develop an automated system to recognise language patterns.

The aim is to track people who post anonymous malicious messages.

The activity, known as “trolling”, was recently raised with Facebook by Liverpool Walton MP Steve Rotherham following messages that were left on a tribute page to 16-year-old Georgia Varley, who died when she fell between a platform and a train. More

See: News Lanchashire

Foreign Minister commends on Portuguese as UN working language (Angola)

Source: All Africa

Scholar dreams of taking pansori to the world

Source: The Korea Herald

Korean literature professor leads English translation of all pansori lyrics

Pansori, a traditional form of narrative music performed by a solo singer, was added to UNESCO’s world heritage list nearly 10 years ago. But promoting pansori overseas has not been easy ― partly because there was no way for the foreign audience to understand the words during the performance.

To facilitate better appreciation of pansori performances, Choe Tong-hyon, Korean Language and Literature professor at Kunsan National University in North Jeolla Province, recently completed the translation of all texts of the five surviving pansori ― “Simcheongga,” “Heungbuga,” “Jeokbyeokga,” “Chunhyangga” and “Suggungga” ― a project that took five years.

“The amount of work was overwhelming. I thought I would die before I finished the work,” Choe told The Korea Herald in a telephone interview. The work was enormous for he was dedicated to translating all different “badi,” or versions, of each pansori. In all, he translated six different versions of each pansori on average which led him to publish a total of 21 books with 250-300 pages each.

The project was initially about publishing a book on pansori in English. But providing brief translation of summarized pansori stories does not mean anything, Choe said “The essence of the traditional narrative songs is bringing all sorts of emotions on the stage.” More.

See: The Korea Herald

NHS translation costs criticized (England)

Source: BBC

NHS translation bill tops £23m, says 2020 Health

The NHS in England spends £59,000 a day on translating documents and providing interpreters, according to a health think tank.

A Freedom of Information request by 2020 Health showed the total bill topped £23m last year – an increase of 17% since 2007, it said.

The organisation described the amount of money spent as “truly staggering”.

The government said the NHS had a duty to ensure patients and doctors could communicate with each other.

See: BBC

Finer points lost in Google translation

Source: The Montreal Gazette

Fifteen years ago, a chess-playing computer defeated the finest grandmaster in the world. Small wonder that some people see artificial intelligence as the next stage in human evolution. Yet despite the rapid and continual advances in technology, there are still certain tasks, relatively easy for humans, that computers find difficult. Facial recognition is one of them. Another is translation. For a sophisticated machine, thinking about a rook’s capture of a bishop four moves in advance is child’s play compared to figuring out idioms, metaphors, abbreviations, double meanings and slang.

A couple of weeks ago I happened to read a column on the TSN website about the Montreal Canadiens. It was a machine translation, made by Google, of a column by Mario Tremblay that had appeared on the website of RDS, the network’s sister site, in French. Tremblay’s prose is not particularly idiomatic, and most of his points were just about comprehensible – but it would be an exaggeration to say the TSN story was in English. Here are four examples of the published Google translation, followed by my human version.

“The Director General of the Canadian, Pierre Gauthier, seller is present: ” that’s how the column began. (The general manager of the Canadiens, Pierre Gauthier, is now ready to sell.) “Gauthier must linger to grow defensive.” (Gauthier needs to take his time to make the defence bigger.) “Many have before him.” (There are many teams ahead of them.) “His absence changed the data.” (His absence altered the situation.)

“Absence,” in French, is feminine, and the next sentence in Tremblay’s original column read as follows: “Elle a forcé Gauthier à aller chercher Kaberle et Chris Campoli.” Mysteriously, the machine twisted this into “She was forced to seek Gauthier Kaberle and Chris Campoli.” Google introduced other mistakes too. “Raphael Diaz et Subban, qui en est à sa deuxième saison” turned into the erroneous as well as ridiculous “Subban and Raphael Diaz, now in its second season.”

But even when the translated meaning is clear, the column’s wording often sounds peculiar to the ears of a native speaker: “the large center Ryan Getzlaf;” “none of them was sitting in the right chair because of injuries.” If it’s hard for a machine to translate a sentence with accuracy, it seems impossible for the machine to achieve elegance too. Even the most diehard technophile should not imagine that Google will eliminate the need for human interpreters and translators any time soon.

Salinas hospital to train indigenous-language interpreters

Source: HealthyCal

A new training program for medical interpreters is giving low-income women the skills needed for a hard-to-fill job – working as medical interpreters in indigenous languages.

Six medical interpreters will be taught to work with patients who speak indigenous languages from the Oaxacan region of Mexico, including the languages of Triqui, Mixteco and Zapotec, by the staff of the Natividad Medical Center in Salinas.

Linda Ford, the president and CEO of the Natividad Medical Foundation, said the group will try to recruit women who are trilingual in English, Spanish and an indigenous language.

“This has been a significant challenge here,” Ford said of the need for indigenous medical interpreters.

“The training trains interpreters to actually take cultural aspects into the medical care,” Ford said. “That is why it is so vital. We are not asking a family member, but someone who is trained with medical terminology.”

The Natividad Medical Foundation received a $25,000 grant through the Community Foundation for Monterey County’s Women’s Fund. The grant will cover stipends, transportation, books, and assistance with childcare for the participating women. The goal is that the women who complete training will be hired on a part-time or consultation basis to work with the hospital. More.

See: HealthyCal

‘Low readership behind limited translation of Urdu fiction’

Source: The Express Tribune

A literaty book with 200 copies can take years to sell but a magazine can easily sell copies many times more.

“This speaks about the complicated nature of the readership of Urdu fiction,” said noted literary figure Prof Muhammad Umar Memon at a critical literary session on “Urdu Fiction and its Audience” held here on Friday.

Dr Memon pointed out that the knowledge about scarce readership of Urdu literature can be answered by analysing the number of literate people who are interested in fiction.

Sharing his experience on translations, Dr Memon said he often amalgamates or divides sentences to make more sense of the work in the other language.

In addition to that, he also addressed the large canon of translations in Persian and Arabic compared to Urdu. He regretted that Urdu literature lacks the translation it deserves even though it is far more comprehensive and vast.

He also spoke on problems in translations due to cultural disparity and highlighted the difference which must be accounted for while translating a literary work. Some works, he posited, are simply untranslatable due to their firm grounding within a language and/or culture.

The notion of transcreating instead of translating was also introduced, which can entail transforming a work instead of trying to mimic the original. However, transcreating is a fairly new concept that is only accomplished by professionals. More.

See: The Express Tribune

De La Salle College wins EU Young Translators’ Contest, again

Source: The Malta Independent online

The Maltese winner of the European Commission’s annual Young Translators’ Contest, known as ‘Juvenes Translatores’ was announced this week. She is Natalia Grima – a Sixth Former at De La Salle College – who had the best translation out of six schools, the maximum number of Maltese schools that can participate in the contest.

A winner for each EU country was selected from among more than 3,000 students who participated in the contest last November. The winners, including Natalia, will be invited to Brussels on 27 March to receive their prizes and to meet translators at work in the Commission.

“This contest encourages students to get to grips with foreign languages in a deeper way and to consider using their knowledge in their future career, whether as a translator or in any other professional field where multilingualism is an asset,” said Androulla Vassiliou, Commissioner for Education, Culture, Multilingualism and Youth. “The contest also inspires schools to learn from each other and try out different methods of language teaching.”

The winners all demonstrate that a knowledge of languages can take you further and open your mind to new possibilities. More.

See: The Malta Independent