Courting disaster – Why poor quality and use of machine translation are serious legal issues

 

[Gavel*]

A post in JurTrans shared an article by John Shea entitled A cautionary tale about machine translation: a recent Polish court ruling. As a longtime professional translator, I was pleased to see a legal bottom being laid in the rather deep hole of cheap translations, in both meanings of the word cheap. The case itself is rather extreme and involves a single language service provider (LSP), but is relevant to all parties in the translation chain: translators, agencies and end customers. The bottom line is that there is a financial price for ignoring quality to achieve a low price.

The incident, which occurred in 2013, involves a company that ordered the translation of a technical booklet (IT) from Polish to English from an agency, which contracted a supposedly professional translator to carry out the project. Interestingly enough, the company itself approved the specific translator after viewing a sample of his writing. The individual had excellent high school English and was studying IT in college but had no translation experience nor was an expert it in the field. He produced a translation that, by his own admission, besides being delivered late, was 92% machine translated using Google Translate with insufficient post machine translation editing with the remaining 8% MT not receiving any editing at all. The company did not find the result satisfactory and requested and received review and amendment but ultimately was forced  to pay a real professional translator to do the job properly. The agency, rather full of chutzpah (gall), then demanded payment from the company for the job not so well done. The Polish court rejected its request and required it to pay legal fees.

The court discussed several issues but I would like to mention three aspects relevant to all in the translation business. First, while the term “professional translator” may lack a single coherent definition, it can be defined, albeit by elimination, and is of legal importance. With the exception of a few countries, translators are not licensed by any authority. A few professional associations, notably the American Translators Association, certify translators using tests or other objective criteria but technically speaking, anybody can hang a shingle claiming that they are professional translators. In practice, most translators have degrees in a language or a professional area and significant experience in translation and/or a technical field. In other words, they have knowledge of how to transmit specific information accurately from one language to another. This skill is not shared by the vast majority of high school or even college students, no matter how intelligent, hard working or well-read they may be as the knowledge and skill required to produce a proper translation takes many years to acquire. People, even long-term translators, that are unable to properly express the content of specific source document into target documents may be considered unprofessional in the specific circumstances. Thus, any false representation as such in regards to a specific document may be a breach of contract with its attendant consequences.

On a related issue, the relative cost of a translation does not cancel the implied warranty of merchantability. In simple terms, even if the payment is very low, the translator and agency are responsible for producing a usable product. There may be an emotional attraction to the expression “you get what you pay for” but legally and practically it does not hold up. If employees working for minimum wage (or less even) fail to do their job properly, they are fired. Likewise, regardless of the bottom barrel rates being paid by some agencies, a translator that has accepted them must provide at minimum an adequate product or risk truly working for nothing or worse. On a more serious level, as the rates offered by the mega LSPs keep on declining, they may find themselves in the situation faced by the agency in this case. The court specifically stated the agency has the legal duty to supervise the quality of a translation to ensure its usefulness. Both translators and agencies need to keep this requirement to produce a useful product in mind.

Finally, according to the court ruling, use of public machine translation sites can be a breach of the confidentiality condition of a contract. The issue here is not the quality of machine translation, which has radically improved in the 9 years since the decision. However, the mere act of a translator placing text in a public machine translation service such as but not limited to Google Translate has the effect of putting the content in the public domain, a breach of contract in many cases. Even more so today, it is very tempting to insert problematic section into machine translation for reasons of amusement, curiosity or need. According to the court decision, the translator must be aware of the legal ramifications especially if identifying data has not been removed. Clearly, for general expressions, public online help of all kinds is common and acceptable. The issues arise when exact specifications are entered. Ignorance of the law is not a defense. Translators must think before they insert.

I have presented a brief summary of the original longer article by John O’Shea, a bit like concentrated broth. As in all matters legal and medical, for a complete picture, it is always advisable to read the whole article. In my understanding from both the article and my legal studies, translators and LSPs need to fully understand the express and implied warranties they provide to the customers and comply with them, including in regards to professional status, translation quality and confidentiality. A word to the wise is sufficient.

*The blind need captions to full access your content. 

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Transatlantic transformation - French and American music in translation

 

[Twins in a wagon*]

The flight from New York to Paris is a few hours long but upon arriving, you feel in a different world whether because of the architecture or the jet lag. The French and Americans, who have had a lengthy love affair since Lafayette and Alexis de Tocqueville, often expressed an appreciation of each other’s music. In some cases, the songs have been imported as is,  such as the songs of Elvis Presley in French and Edith Piaf in English. In other cases, while the music remained the same, the words took on a completely different meaning, even texture, a bit like physically identical twins with different personalities. As a small sampling, I will look at two well-known songs, My Way, Frank Sinatra’s signature song, and the Little Drummer Boy, the classic Christmas classic, known as Comme D’habitude and l’Enfant de Tambour in France.

Claude François and Jacques Revaux wrote a song entitled “Comme D’habitude”, meaning As I always do, in 1967, which was then originally transformed and sang in English by Paul Anka but made famous by Frank Sinatra. While the melodies are identical, the words express entirely different situations and feelings:

Comme D’habitude [link]	My Way [link]
Je me lève	And now the end is here
Et je te bouscule	And so I face that final curtain
Tu ne te réveilles pas	My friend I'll make it clear
Comme d'habitude	I'll state my case, of which I'm certain
Sur toi je remonte le drap	I've lived a life that's full
J'ai peur que tu aies froid	I traveled each and every highway
Comme d'habitude	And more, much more
Ma main caresse tes cheveux	I did it, I did it my way
Presque malgré moi
Comme d'habitude	Regrets, I've had a few
Mais toi tu me tournes le dos	But then again too few to mention
Comme d'habitude	I did what I had to do
Et puis je m'habille très vite	I saw it through without exemption
Je sors de la chambre	I planned each charted course
Comme d'habitude	Each careful step along the byway
Tout seul je bois mon café	And more, much, much more
Je suis en retard	I did it, I did it my way
Comme d'habitude
Sans bruit je quitte la maison	Yes, there were times I'm sure you knew
Tout est gris dehors	When I bit off more than I could chew
Comme d'habitude	But through it all, when there was doubt
J'ai froid, je relève mon col	I ate it up and spit it out…
Comme d'habitude…

 

The French original is a very sad story of a loveless marriage in which everything is done ritually without feeling, even making love. The husband gets up in the morning, pulls up the cover to make sure the wife is warm and caresses her cheek with no reaction besides her turning her back to him. He gets up, drinks his coffee alone and leaves for work. When he returns, she has left for the evening. She returns later after he goes to bed. They have sex. The day begins anew. Yet, he still keeps on functioning “as I always do”. By contrast, the American version is the proud statement and restatement of independence of an older man who takes responsibility for his choices and voices no regrets. He declares that he made his own decisions and willingly paid the price for them. The contrast between the lyrics and emotional feeling they elicit is rather extreme.

In other direction, the American classis Christmas song, The Little Drummer Boy, is credited to Katherine Davis in 1941 but was made famous by the Trapp Singers in 1951. It was transformed into French by Georges Coulonge in 1960 and interpreted by Les Barclay but made famous by Nana Mouskouri. Again, while the melodies are identical, the messages are not the same:

Little Drummer Boy [link]	L’enfant de tambour [link]
Come they told me	Sur la route parapapampam
Pa rum pum pum pum	Petit tambour s'en va parapapampam
A new born king to see	Il sent son coeur qui bat parapapampam
Pa rum pum pum pum	Au rythme de ses pas parapapampam
Our finest gifts we bring	Rapapampam rapapampam
Pa rum pum pum pum	Ô petit enfant parapapampam
To lay before the king	Où vas-tu tarampapampam
Pa rum pum pum pum,	Rapapampam
Rum pum pum pum,	Hier mon père parapapampam
Rum pum pum pum,	A suivi le tambour parapapampam
So to honor him	Le tambour des soldats parapapampam
Pa rum pum pum pum	Alors je vais au ciel parapapampam
When we come	Rapapampam rapapampam
[chorus]	Là je veux donner pour son retour
Little baby	Mon tambour tarampapampam
Pa rum pum pum pum	Rapapampam
I am a poor boy too	Tous les anges parapapampam
That's fit to give our king….	Ont pris leur beau tambour parapapampam
	Et ont dit à l'enfant parapapampam
	Ton père est de retour parapapampam
	Rapapampam rapapampam
	Et l'enfant s'éveille parapapampam
	Sur son tambour

 

Again, the original American version is cheery and inspiring, relating the story of the birth of Jesus, a spiritual. By contrast, the French interpretation tells the sad story of a child playing his drum after his father marched off to war and dreaming of going to heaven where the angels tell him that his father is returning. Sadly, the child wakes up contrast from the dream with his head on the drum. The music is the same but the aftertaste is not.

Each of the versions has its own merits. It is objectively impossible to say if the interpretation was better or worse than the original. However, as these examples how, it is clear that the transatlantic voyage, or any voyage for that matter, can transform music.

* Pictures are important for the blind to access the Internet. Picture: Image by <a href="https://pixabay.com/users/greyerbaby-2323/?utm_source=link-attribution&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=image&amp;utm_content=757404">lisa runnels</a> from <a href="https://pixabay.com/?utm_source=link-attribution&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=image&amp;utm_content=757404">Pixabay</a>

Celebrating 60

 

[Swan*]

I recently enjoyed my 60^th birthday. While many people find this milestone discouraging or even depressing it, I have relished it. Like Hans Christian Andersen’s ugly duckling, I finally looked in the reflection in the mirror and saw a swan. As a child I was full of curly hair, lacking confidence, very shy and felt socially incompetent. I now recognize that none of that is true although I wish the first one was still relevant. I admit that the current body has a tendency to kvetch (complain) much more often than in the past. Still, I see this age as a wonderful time in terms of how I view myself, how others view me, and how I interact the with world.

The wonderful aspect of time is that provides the opportunity to gain skill and acceptance. By this age, people are very experienced at whatever task they have done for many decades. Their methods may not be the most modern or efficient, but the results speak for themselves. It is possible to state without any pretension that you are good at what you do.  I would even say that I am much skillful now that I was 20 or even 10 years ago. I stand with confidence and act as a leader without effort. The major loss is the ability to properly take on too many tasks as the energy reserve drops. In my case, this is mainly to my advantage as I have always suffered from the inability to sit for long period of time. Therefore, as the Chinese and Japanese know so well, age is a blessing in terms of skill and should be viewed as such.  These facts were probably true in the past but I have finally recognized them.

I also enjoy the entrance in the age of respect.  It is matter of both small and great matters. I find it convenient, even charming, when a “young person” helps me put my valise in the upper rack on the train, as occurred in Poland. or people are more polite with me. Of more importance, my voice seems to have more weight than it did when I was younger and always the youngest in the group. As an aside, I suppose that is why it is annoying to still be treated as the youngest sibling. Furthermore, I am expected to be wise or at least wiser due to my age, a heavy but flattering duty. On the other hand, if I cannot figure some function on my phone, it is not because I am stupid but merely not technologically native, a forgivable crime. I am enjoying my stay in the throne of active, contributing citizen worthy of special consideration.

This decade also releases people from the competition game if they allow themselves to do, of course. Most of our lives, we try to match people’s expectations of our behavior and compare our achievements. The opinions of others are important as it signals what we should be doing to advance ourselves and provides feedback whether we have succeeded in life. At 60, unless through an inheritance, very few people will become significantly wealthier or change their family status. To a large extent, we have attached our highest status in terms of job title, income and children. Therefore, we no longer have to please bosses, potential partners or even not-so-close friends. To a large extent, we can finally be who we are, warts and all. In other words, we are free to interact the world without feeling without fear of hurting our interests, within reason of course.

Thus, as I looked at the reflection in the mirror-like water this January, I saw a contented and successful person that has done well with the cards he was given. Clearly, others have been more successful in one area or another but that comparison was and is irrelevant. In regards to 60, As Frank Sinatra sang, with a small change, it is a very good year.

* Captions are important for blind people. 

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Zoom lessons

 

[Faces*}

The first semester of the 2020-2021 is thankfully over. I, like most teachers worldwide, used Zoom from the first day to the last day and never actually met my students. After the shock and confusion of the previous semester, both teachers and students began this semester with awareness of the situation and the understanding of the technology. Thus, an intuitive analysis of this Zoom semester has merit in terms of grasping the impact of Zoom on material selection, student-teacher interaction and student performance.

As a matter of background, I teach advanced English (Levels B2 and C1) to engineering students at the Braude College of Engineering in Karmiel, Israel. I taught two groups of 30 students from all departments. I am thoroughly familiar with the material as I have taught the course for more than a decade. Most of my students are in their first year, with their ages ranging from 19-27. A few of them are even married with one soon becoming a father. They come from all sectors in Israel, including Jewish, Muslim and Muslim as well as native-born and immigrants. Consequently, the background English level is very heterogenous. Despite falling into certain level categories, they have varying degrees of proficiency in specific language skills, with writing generally being the weakest and reading the strongest. Thus, my two groups collectively are a fairly representative.

The limitations of Zoom required an adjustment of the course tasks. First, online teaching does not allow the teacher to see whether students are truly paying attention or learning. For the most part, all see a series of gravestones (names in the grey background) or unclear headshots without facial expressions. Thus, online teaching is like throwing a line in the river and hoping the fish will bite (often with the same success rate). Therefore, explanations were minimized and breakroom session maximized to allow students to actively learn and teachers to better assess actually understanding. Furthermore, it is effectively impossible to prevent students from sharing knowledge during quizzes and tests, especially in regards to objective answers. Consequently, the grading emphasis switched from a statistically important final with an unseen to a minor element involving a seen text with interpretive questions and a writing task. During the semester, more time was invested in writing and, curiously, speaking as they involve individual student activity as compared to general learning. The result for the teachers of the staff was significantly more time work.

Student-teacher interaction on Zoom is defined by the technical limitations that only one person can speak at a time and the time required to get from one break room to another. In a normal classroom, the teacher can ascertain which students wish to participate and encourage others to join them. In Zoom, the first to speak controls the microphone. In practice, I heard very few students while I was in the general group mode, an unacceptable situation in normal times. Moreover, even when I broke them up into small groups, the time and effort required to switch from one room to another is significantly greater than that of moving around a room, where it is also possible to monitor which groups are on task, unlike in Zoom. Given the lack of communication with the vast majority of my students, I invested more time outside the lesson. First, I always opened the session 15 minutes before the start of the lesson and stayed online until the last student left, giving them a chance to ask questions. I also provided much specific feedback on their writing assignments and initiated email where I felt that the students were “out of it” based on their performance. Timely, detailed written feedback partially replaced the personal contact typical of effective teacher-student interaction.

That said, albeit the academic results reflect only one semester, performance was noticeably below the level of previous years. The number of failures was higher but that may be just a statistical anomaly. More seriously, the number of students whose final paragraph reflected a complete or significant lack of comprehension of the course material was unusually high and very distressing to both parties. I had the impression that I truly had been too often teaching to gravestones. Granted it may be one of the causes is my explanations. Also, these students were clearly less advanced having lost most of the previous year. However, it is highly probable that the most important cause is that the 30+ hours that students spend on Zoom, not including their HW, reduces their capacity to absorb, especially given most have none enjoy the reinforcing effect that actual social interaction with their fellow students provide. Not only that, the home environment poses much more threats to their concentration. Clearly, the attention issue must be addressed in some way.

As said, these conclusions are entirely intuitive. Yet, as Zoom will continue to serve as the medium of teaching for the next semester if not longer, it is vital to analyze and strive to overcome the limitations of the tool. These are my Zoom lessons from the previous semester.

* Give access to the blind by providing captions to pictures.

Picture: Image by <a href="https://pixabay.com/users/geralt-9301/?utm_source=link-attribution&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=image&amp;utm_content=995558">Gerd Altmann</a> from <a href="https://pixabay.com/?utm_source=link-attribution&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=image&amp;utm_content=995558">Pixabay</a>