Instant messaging — a new language?

OMG! LOL. TTYL. For many adults over the age of 30, the former groupings of letters would seem incoherent, but for a newer generation of technologically-savvy young adults it can say a lot.
“Instant messaging, or IM, is not just bad grammar or a bunch of mistakes,” says Dr. Pamela Takayoshi, Kent State University associate professor [...]

Read Full Post »

Siberian, Native American Languages Linked — A First

A fast-dying language in remote central Siberia shares a mother tongue with dozens of Native American languages spoken thousands of miles away, new research confirms. The finding may allow linguists to weigh in on how the Americas were first settled, according to Edward Vajda, director of the Center for East Asian Studies at Western Washington [...]

Read Full Post »

El inglés, ¿en quiebra?

Saber idiomas en el mundo laboral es cada vez más necesario. En muchos puestos de trabajo de nada sirven las titulaciones, los masters y la experiencia laboral previa si el empleado no puede desenvolverse en ambientes internacionales. En concreto, el inglés ha sido durante muchos años el idioma más demandado, pero la tendencia quizá esté [...]

Read Full Post »

Tel Aviv University finds connection between mental fitness and multi-lingualism

Children who speak a second or third language may have an unexpected advantage later in life, a new Tel Aviv University study has found. Knowing and speaking many languages may protect the brain against the effects of aging. Dr. Gitit Kavé, a clinical neuro-psychologist from the Herczeg Institute on Aging at Tel Aviv University, together [...]

Read Full Post »

Judge critical of Polish interpreter’s lack of interpreting

A Polish interpreter was criticised at Galway District Court this week by Judge Mary Fahy who complained the woman was not interpreting evidence being given in a drink driving case involving a Polish defendant.Judge Fahy told the 28-years-old interpreter from Lionbridge, the language company employed by the Courts Service to provide interpreters for foreign people [...]

Read Full Post »

Microsoft launches Language Portal

Microsoft’s newly launched Language Portal contains information for language professionals such as an IT terminology search tool and a localization download site.

The Language Portal “is designed to enable individuals and communities around the world to interact with each other and with Microsoft’s language specialists on matters related to computer terminology” according to their site. Even [...]

Read Full Post »

New worlds, new translators, new translations

Translation offers a multiplicity of complex worlds, all waiting to be interpreted, understood and absorbed.
Nearly 10 years ago, when the faculty and students of a university in Chicago attended an exhibition of Indian art expecting to see paintings of gods and goddesses, they were stunned to see the colour, variety, power and style [...]

Read Full Post »

Hospital breaks down language barriers

The guy reaches the triage area and shouts: “Tengo una golpeando la migrana. Estoy viendo destellos de lux plateada. Puedo oir la electricidad en la pared. Y creo que voy a vomitar ahora!”Assume a patient races into a hospital emergency room in the dead of night, moaning, sweating with his hands shielding his eyes.
Or maybe [...]

Read Full Post »

Localization World to feature sessions hosted by Globalization and Localization Association Members

The Globalization and Localization Association (GALA), an international non-profit association that encourages local communication as an indispensable component to a global strategy, will host its annual meeting and its ever-popular GALA Speed Networking event at the upcoming Localization World conference in Berlin.
For more information, please visit:
www.localizationworld.com

Read Full Post »

Missionary who interpreted Kenyatta’s words at Mau Mau trial

THE Reverend Robert Philp, a Church of Scotland missionary in Kenya who acted as interpreter during the trial of Jomo Kenyatta in 1952, has died, aged 95. Kenyatta, who later became his nation’s president, was charged with “managing and being a member” of Mau Mau, the bloody insurgency against British rule in Kenya. The trial [...]

Read Full Post »