Vol. 86 February, 2008
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A Message from the President
As McElroy Translation celebrates 40 years in 2008, we savor the past and we celebrate the future. Production Manager Jennifer Cardenas describes a unique high school with a multicultural mission in her article, and she reflects about how closely the Lee High focus matches McElroy's heritage of cross cultural appreciation. In his article Chief Editor Mark Ritter describes technology advancements in the translation industry, and looks forward to the exciting potential for our company and our clients. McElroy has a strong foundation and an exciting future. This E-Buzz edition touches on both.
Shelly Priebe, President
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George Bush’s 18 Year Old Binoculars
By Mark Ritter, Chief Editor
The binoculars in this phrase from a machine–translated French article are named Barbara and Jenna. It seems the French word “jumelles” can mean both “twin girls” and “binoculars.” I can’t cite a source – this may be a translator’s urban legend. But even if it isn’t authentic, such an absurdity will certainly seem plausible to most users of conventional machine translation.
Linguistic skeptics like Alan Melby have explained why a computer can’t translate like a person. Developers of machine translation (MT) have largely conceded that point and focused on developing systems that provide rough information (“gisting”). But if MT is still unable to make a contextual distinction between two teenagers and an optical instrument, can it ever really be useful?
It turns out that it can, but only if it ceases to be purely machine translation. It’s as if developers said, “You know, maybe Melby has a point. Maybe language is just too complex for us to ever develop good enough rules to make machine translation really useful for general purposes. But can we use computers to capitalize on the linguistic creativity of human beings?” This was the starting point of academic research into what was initially known as example–based machine translation (EBMT). Rather than struggle to make ever more complex rules systems for analyzing the source language and transforming it back into the target language with the aid of a dictionary, why not use a computer to sift through a corpus of human translations and pick the best matches for a given sentence to be translated?
The EBMT approach did not make the jump from research institutions to practical application in its first incarnation. It was just too difficult for a machine in those days to come up with enough examples and analyze them sufficiently – unless the “machine” was a human being. If a computer could show a person examples of how a sentence (or very similar sentence) had been previously translated, the person could use his own linguistic skills to choose the best example, or modify it to fit the new sentence. This approach, now known as translation memory (TM), has revolutionized the field of translation in the past ten years.
TM can speed up the translation process and enhance consistency with minimal loss of quality, if used correctly. However, its speed is still limited by the length of time a person can work with full attentiveness, and its quality by the skill of the translator. And because a TM system has no linguistic intelligence of its own, it only works at all if there is a human translator available for the desired language pair – a real problem for many languages. Finally, a TM system breaks the source text into segments – usually entire sentences – and checks them against the existing translated segments in the memory. It is generally not able to compare smaller phrases inside one segment to phrases of other segments and suggest translations. Researchers, such as those at the French firm Lingua et Machine (developers of the Similis TM system), are working on “second–generation” TM systems. The TAUS (Translation Automation Users Society) has begun referring to early commercial tools in this area as “Advanced Leveraging”. Even as these early tools are hitting the market, though, they may be superseded by more powerful technology.
The enormous speed of modern massively parallel computing, combined with the staggering amount of translated content now available on millions of websites, has revived the seemingly lost cause of EBMT, in a much more sophisticated form referred to as Statistically Based Machine Translation (SMT). The huge advantage of the SMT method is that the machine no longer has to “know” the context to decide, for instance, what “jumelles” means. It analyzes the collective wisdom of a huge database of human translations, assesses the probabilities of the alternative translations and incorporates the most likely candidate into the translation. It’s a fairly safe bet that, with a sufficiently large corpus of examples to analyze, the statistical process would generate the correct translation of “jumelles,” because there are a lot more sentences in the real world that refer to 18–year old twins than to 18–year–old binoculars.
If SMT technology lives up to its auspicious beginnings, it may have sweeping effects on the language industry, not least on McElroy Translation. Executive strategy at McElroy embraces the potential of this dramatic MT technology advancement. As was the case with translation memory technology, the inclusion of SMT will open up new types of translation work that were never before feasible. For some large localization projects for instance, a judicious mixture of TM and MT (“MTM”) can lead to reduced cycle times and greater productivity. These are exciting times for the translation industry. The best part is that instead of threatening the value of human translators, these new technologies increase it.
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“Personal relationships are the fertile soil from which all advancement, all success, all achievement in real life grows.”
—Ben Stein
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Lokraj Adhikari
Software Developer
Lokraj Adhikari brought his software programming skills to McElroy Translation last year. With his eye for software design and crafty programming skills, he has quickly become an asset to the team! He has been working on an important McElroy initiative, The HUB. This system, currently in limited production, streamlines our interaction with translators and other vendors. This has already reduced the time it takes for PMO staff to assign translation tasks, cutting cycle time and freeing staff to focus on recruiting and other areas of process improvement. In addition to streamlined task assignment, The HUB provides both a PMO dashboard to track project progress and a web-based vendor dashboard to track assignments, invoices, profile changes, etc. These dashboards replace the current email blizzard and will be the basis for many more exciting features in the future. Lokraj has worked closely with the PMO to ensure that we retain all of the flexibility and “high touch” that has long characterized our vendor interactions even as we eliminate time-consuming manual steps.
Born and raised in Nepal, Lokraj grew up surrounded by family. The youngest of 3 brothers and 2 sisters, he was never starved for attention! 4 of his 5 siblings were over 10 years older than him so he was quite literally the “baby” of the family. Coming from a time that most of us can appreciate, before the computers and the video games, Lokraj spent much of his youth outside playing cricket and soccer with friends. He carried his fondness for soccer with him throughout his college days.
Lokraj left Nepal in 1992 to obtain a Masters of Computer Science at the Georgian Technical University in the People’s Republic of Georgia. After graduation, Lokraj returned to Nepal where he met and married his wife, Chaina. He spent 2 years there and then took a job for a few months working on an international project in Singapore, where he began to get a taste for the global working environment. Upon completion of the project, Lokraj snagged a gig in the States. He, along with Chaina and their baby girl, Snehi, moved to San Antonio where he continued to work for 7 years at an insurance company as a software programmer until finally landing here in Austin at McElroy.
In addition to all the places he’s lived, Lokraj has also built up quite a nice travel resume including India, Russia, Turkey, and Azerbaijan. He has always enjoyed the mountains, in particular, the magnificent view of the Mansalu and Himalchuli peaks of the Himalayas in Gorkha, near the capital of Nepal. Also on his list of favorites are the places in India of religious significance including Tirupati and Mathura.
Today, Lokraj most enjoys sitting at home with his family and watching movies, but often finds himself attending parties with friends and family. He feels fortunate to not be the only Adhikari to bring themselves over to the Western hemisphere. With his mother and a brother in Louisiana, a brother in Oklahoma, and a brother in Canada, he gets plenty of opportunity to travel and be close to them and see family.
IDB, One Laptop Per Child to launch pilot project in Haiti
Source Inter-American Development Bank, February 14, 2008
A test of one-to-one computing capacity to improve education in harsh conditions
The Inter-American Development Bank and the One Laptop Per Child Foundation (OLPC) will finance a pilot project to test whether one-to-one computing can improve teaching and learning in schools in Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere.
OLPC makes the XO laptop, a low-cost computer designed for children in places with poor infrastructure. The rugged machine, which uses open-source software, can be powered with car batteries, solar panels or devices such as cranks, pedals and pull-cords.
The IDB will make a US$3 million grant for the pilot project, which will distribute XO laptops to some 13,200 students and 500 teachers in 60 Haitian primary schools. OLPC will contribute US$2 million to the project.
"As one of the poorest countries in the world, deployment in Haiti has always been an important goal for OLPC," said Nicholas Negroponte, founder and chairman of One Laptop per Child. "Doing it with our long standing partner, the Inter-American Development Bank, not only makes for the best team, but also a model for other countries in the Caribbean and Latin America."
Read More...
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40 years of Encouraging Success at McElroy....40 Languages Spoken at Multicultural Lee High
As McElroy Translation celebrates 40 years of service I cannot help but remember the man who touched so many lives and had faith in people. Last year we said our farewells to Ralph McElroy and it was inspiring to hear folks from around the world speak about how he changed them. He loved cultures, languages and people. He genuinely wanted to know about you and had a way of making you feel like an old friend.
The common theme I heard that day, and continue to hear, is how Ralph McElroy created opportunities for those who came into contact with him. Moreover, it was how he created these opportunities that inspired. He gave people tools and gently encouraged.
In memory of Ralph McElroy, we are once again honored to support the Second Annual Lee High School Performing Arts Community Texas College Driving Tour. This five–day trip will allow 25 11th graders to visit nine college campuses in southeast and central Texas.
Lee High School is a unique campus located within the Gulfton area of Houston, Texas. The student body consists of approximately 2000 students, most of whom are first generation immigrants from over 70 countries. Besides English, forty other languages are spoken at Lee High School, including Farsi, Swahili, Mandarin Chinese, Urdu, German, Creole, French and Spanish. On top of being culturally diverse, Lee High School has six learning communities (Applied Engineering, Business & Computer Applications, Health & Human Services, Law & Justice, Performing Arts, Visual & Media Arts) and an English Language Institute. Students choose a learning community that is themed to an area of their interest.
By supporting Lee High School Performing Arts Community we hope to fulfill the goal of its faculty: the understanding of the importance of a college education in modern America, as well as the belief that graduating from college is an option and indeed an expectation for them. We wish them success on this year's tour.
For more information on Lee High School, please visit their website http://www.leehighschool.org/
Order Your Translations Online
By Carol J Moya, Customer Service Coordinator
Did you know you can order your translations from our website? Of course you can still email, fax, or even mail documents to be translated, but the online ordering system is quick and convenient.
To order a translation online, go to our website www.mcelroytranslation.com and select Orders at the top, right – hand part of the page.
Most of the information requested on the Place Translation Order form is self – explanatory; however, the Document Information section at the bottom might need some explanation:
- The “source” language is the language your document is written in.
- The “target” language is the language you want it translated into.
- We ask about the intended use of the translation, whether the translation will be imported into another program, and who the end user is in order to better ascertain your requirements.
The Special Instructions section of the form allows you to add any additional information you think is pertinent. For example, if:
- you want the translation to be in a different format from your source file
- you have special instructions about formatting, graphics, Bates numbers
- you are sending additional documents for reference purposes
- you have special billing instructions
Select Browse at the bottom of the form and locate the document you want to have translated. You can submit up to five documents with each order.
When you have selected the document you want to have translated, select Send Form to send us the document and order form. You will receive an autoreply email message that lists all the information you entered, as well as the filename of the document you sent. This message is not a confirmation that we have begun work on your translation. That will come in another email and contains our job number and estimated delivery date. If you do not receive the confirmation email within 24 hours of submitting your order, please contact us to make sure we received your order!
Russian Translation
McElroy is continuing this series of interviews that highlight some of the characteristics of languages used in doing business globally. This month, we look at Russian.
What are some pitfalls specific to Russian to avoid that a client should be aware of when translating into this language?
Transliterations, both in "general" and in special texts. For a well-known example, "killer" should not be translated as "киллер" but rather as "убийца" (an existing Russian word). For another example, "cystic fibrosis" is not "кистозный фиброз" but rather "муковисцидоз" or "фиброзно–кистозная дегенерация." And for a third example, "mortgage" should be translated as "ипотека" (an existing Russian banking term) rather than transliterated as "мортгедж."
New Russian terms. Sometimes, there is no direct single Russian equivalent of even a well-known English term. It is advisable to explain the meaning of the English term rather than invent or use a Russian semantically different "equivalent." For example, there is a legal semantic difference between a "refugee" and an "asylum seeker," while quite often both have been translated as "беженец." For another example, "claim" (in the context of insurance or in a different context of unemployment benefits) should almost always be explained to a Russian audience.
Biblical references. Translation of Biblical references (including names) should be done cautiously and in accordance with the canonical Russian Bible.
What are characteristics of Russian that are unique or different from English and/or other languages?
Word order in Russian sentences is free, unlike in English.
Punctuation rules in Russian (especially the use of commas), however, are more rigid than in English.
Capitalization in Russian is rather limited; usually only the first word in a multi-word name should be capitalized.
The English word "you" when referring to one person may mean either a formal polite reference to this person ("вы") or a much less formal reference ("ты"). These two kinds of references are semantically very different. The translator should look at the context.
It became a bad habit to capitalize "вы" ("you") and its derivatives everywhere in Russian documents. Russian grammar permits such capitalization only in personally addressed (private) letters rather than in generic documents.
The absence of (definite as opposed to indefinite) articles in Russian requires the translator to find an appropriate way to express the relevant semantics of the English articles in Russian. As an example, consider Hayek's paper "The theory of complex phenomena" (as opposed to "A theory . . .").
How do these characteristics make it important to use properly qualified, professional translators?
A properly qualified translator should clearly understand the semantics of the source text, the source and target environments (including the target audience), and the linguistic characteristics of both languages. This cannot be automated.
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McElroy’s Vision Statement
Setting the industry standard in customer satisfaction
McElroy’s Mission Statement
McElroy Translation provides translation and localization services in all languages to business and government clientele enhancing their ability to compete in global markets.
Hindi sidelined in Internet, says study
February 12, 2008
Chennai: Hindi, despite figuring in the world's top five most widely spoken languages, has failed to find a place even in the top ten languages on the internet, according to a study by the InternetWorldStats.com.
Currently, Out of 6,000 popular languages spoken globally only 12 account for 98 per cent of the web content, with English being most prominent among them.
The digital revolution left Indians behind as most of them do not speak English, the dominant language of the web. It was recognised that the content had to be in a language that was understood by many users, a PIB release said here on Tuesday.
The findings further said dearth of content in Indian languages could limit the growth of the number of internet users in the country as growth was almost saturated among English speaking users.
Approximately the number of English speakers in India vary widely from five per cent of the population or 50 million people, all the way to more than 30 per cent or 350 million people.
Holding that Internet proliferation was difficult within the limited domain of English language content, the survey predicted that a multilingual internet would increase local interest in internet content and increase the possibilities of all language groups to share and access information in their own language.
Read more…
Anniversaries
McElroy Translation appreciates the business of the following clients and announces the anniversaries of these client relationships:
15 year
- Cytec
- LSI Corporation
10 year
- Sidley & Austin
5 year
- Actelion Clinical Research
- GLV
- Husch & Eppenberger, LLC
- Liver Center at Hawaii Medical Center
- Spinewave
McElroy Gives to Lee High School
McElroy is donating $500 to Lee High School Performing Arts Community this month as they prepare for their Second Annual Texas College Driving Tour. Students will visit nine college campuses: Prairie View A&M University, Texas A&M University, The University of Texas at Austin, Our Lady of the Lake University, Trinity University, Texas State University, The University of Texas at San Antonio, University of the Incarnate Word, and Saint Edwards University.
Students are introduced to counselors, faculty, and university life at each visit. This year students will also have an opportunity to meet with dance, choir and theater professors and students at the University of Texas at Austin.
Of the 17 students who participated last year, twelve students have already been accepted to one of the above – mentioned universities, with most students still having applications pending.
Click here to learn more about Lee High School. If you are interested in supporting the Performing Arts Community college tour you can email Patricia Kelley at PKELLEY@houstonisd.org.
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