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Another Week, Another Tech Translation Fail

Published On - October 28, 2011

Gemma Brackenbury Language Blog, Technical TranslationTags: Technology

Another Week, Another Tech Translation Fail

Last week, Apple was roundly mocked for using the name “Siri” for its new voice-controlled personal assistant. Apparently, they didn’t bother to see if the name would have any negative connotations in other languages. In fact, it sounds very much like “buttocks” in Japanese and is a ...

Published On - October 12, 2011

Richard Brooks Language BlogTags: Language, Technology

Amazon’s Kindle Now Speaks French

French speakers now have a new option for consuming ebooks and other digital media that speaks their language: Amazon’s Kindle, which was just released in French last week. The French version of the device, which costs 99€ on Amazon.fr, is Wifi only and comes with neither a touchscreen nor a...

Published On - July 19, 2011

Richard Brooks Language BlogTags: Technology

Games Computers Play

Can we really teach computers to understand language, like a human can, or are they more like parrots, able to memorize certain words and phrases without actually grasping the meaning? A new paper presented by MIT researcher Regina Barzilay and her graduate students indicates that computers will one...

Published On - June 23, 2011

Richard Brooks Language BlogTags: Language, Technology

Losing Language

“Poetry is just the evidence of life. If your life is burning well, poetry is just the ash”. This is a quotation of the artist Leonard Cohen which points out the necessity of poetry. It is the same for language. Humans need to talk and share between us but for this, reading literature is very ...

Published On - November 27, 2009

Richard Brooks Language BlogTags: Language, Technology, Translation

Hit West End Show Pioneers Translation Device

The hit West End show Hairspray, currently showing at the Shaftesbury Theatre has introduced a pioneering system which translates the show into 8 languages according to the BBC. With one third of theatre audiences in London being tourists AirScript developers, Cambridge Consultants, hope the handset...

Published On - November 16, 2009

Richard Brooks Language BlogTags: Languages, Machine Translation, Technology, Translation

Glasses that Translate Speech?

It might sound like something out of a science fiction movie, but according to Reuters, a Japanese company is developing eyeglasses that can translate speech....

Published On - October 20, 2009

Alison Kroulek Language BlogTags: French, Language, Technology

Cloud Computing, C’est Quoi En Français ?

It is becoming increasingly difficult for the French language to keep up with the pace of technology, according to this article in the Wall Street Journal. New buzzwords like “cloud computing,” “social media” and “web 2.0” are introduced frequently, and since new French translations for ...

Published On - August 7, 2009

Alison Kroulek Language BlogTags: Ancient Civilization, Technology, Translation

The Meaning of an Ancient Hieroglyphic Script

Translating ancient scripts is difficult, especially when the civilization they belonged to is long gone. We lucked out with the ancient Egyptians when we found the Rosetta Stone, which had the same passage translated into three different scripts: Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics, demotic Egyptian and...