Watch your tongue – critical safety guidelines for translators and editors

 

[leopard sleeping in a tree*]

Translators and editors are often called upon not only to correct texts but to make judgments about their writers. They even sometimes do so on their own volition. These assessments can potentially expose these linguists to a charge of defamation in certain circumstances. As I learned at an excellent webinar presented by Galit Golan , advocate, of the law firm of Firon and Associates, in Israel professional critiques enjoy significant projection from the charges of defamation but involve some care when choosing the actual words. This issue is relevant when performing professional services  and also when “entertaining” colleagues with awful examples and warning them of potential dangers from perspective customers. The key is careful consideration of any such comments.

In Israel, defamation involves several elements, primarily the sharing of information with another party that could objectively humiliate or harm the third party. Israeli law does protect certain circumstances, most notably when the receiving party has the authority or obligation to receive that information. Most interestingly, once defamation is established, the court can award up to 79,000 NIS, almost 22,000 USD, (as of this year) to the damaged party without the latter having to prove damages. Clearly, given the complexity of the matter, in the case of doubt, it is advisable to consult an attorney.

As relevant to translators and editors, the issue can arise when completing QA and translation test assessment forms. To demonstrate, in a case involving a chef sending the management a picture of a member of the kitchen staff taking a nice nap under a tree, the court found the hotel and chef guilty of defamation not because of the picture since the chef had an obligation to inform the employer. Instead, the court found cause in the sarcastic caption under the picture, which mentioned the need to purchase a mattress for the employee. Likewise, it is the clear duty and obligation of the linguists to note all linguistic errors, whether objective or style, as well as answer any specific question regarding the overall level. Thus, it would be appropriate to write “The translators lacks sufficient knowledge in the subject matter to properly translate such texts” if the facts back up this conclusion. However, it may be dangerous to write “the translator has no understanding of the source language” as the provided sample does not justify that conclusion and may harm the career of the translator. When so requested by relevant parties, only relevant criticism advisable.

Considering the same case, linguists should be careful when sharing “funny” examples of poor translations or awful writing. Many translators share photos of amusing menu items and tourist site signs. In their basic form, these posts are merely publicizing public information, objective truths. However, if the posting party adds a comment such as “I hope the restaurant pays its chefs more than it paid its translators”, defamation may become an issue as the post goes beyond the linguistic disaster in the restaurant menu to question the quality of its food. Again, think before you post.

Of critical importance to freelancers, including translators and editors, is the sharing of information on problematic customers. The legimitate purpose here is prevent others from having the same unpleasant experience. In this regard, one of the cases brought up in the webinar is illuminating. A teacher received compensation after the letter to the parents specified conviction as the reason for dismissal instead of police investigation, which was the actual case. When colleagues request feedback on a specific agency or translator, whether privately or publicly, it would be advisable to stick the facts and avoid making general conclusions. For example, it would be apparently be acceptable to state the agency only paid after four months but riskier to write” the agency is a poor payer”, as the writer cannot justify the comment without checking with most if not all the translators working with it. Without the ability to prove a statement that may harm the third party, the warning party may be exposed to a defamation complain in Israel.

Clearly, every country has its own rules for defamation. Moreover, only legal experts can properly analyze any specific set of facts. However, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of care. Translators and editors should be very careful in how they write their critiques, however justified they may be, and avoid overreaching. As linguists have sharp pens, we need to watch our tongues.

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Hitting the light switch – the 12th Annual Braude College Academia-Industry Conference

 

[two birds using satellite to find food*]

In 1880, Thomas Edison took out his patent for his lightbulb, which engineers (probably) found exciting. In 1882, he brought electricity to New York city, which impacted everybody (at least in New York). The first event would only have been a curiosity without the second but the second event was only relevant because of the first. When working together, science and industry change people’s lives then and now. Last week, I had the pleasure of attending the Academy-Industry Conference at the Braude School of Engineering in Karmiel in northern Israel. This conference brought out the advantages of close cooperation between the two sectors and showed its benefits not only in industry but in processes directly impacting the general public. The relation between ivory tower and company headquarters is clearly symbiotic.

The number of parties interested in cooperation between the two worlds was striking. On the one hand, the Braude College of Engineering, through its student placement, sponsorship of the Institute for Advanced Manufacturing and student projects, places great importance on linking student activity to actual situations in the field. The Israel government Innovation Authority and Chief Scientist Office provide financial support for relevant activities, including implementation of new technology. On the other hand, a significant percentage of the attendees were from industry, indicating practical interest in collaboration. The Zoom presentations from the United States and Singapore show that this model is widespread and successful. Objectively, the number of projects involving implementation of Industry 4.0 technology in established factories and the presentations documenting their success demonstrated that is the academy-industry connection is alive and well.

Many of the developments were specific to the industrial setting. For example, Prof. Dr. ir. Joost R. Deflou from KU Leuven, Belgium, provided a detailed description of the current process of waste metal recycling and ideas to improve it so as to significantly reduce both processing and energy costs as well as increase actual reuse. Eric Wespi from Boston Science noted the progress and challenges involved in using automated visual means to conduct the final quality check. Several beneficiaries of the implementation of smart production technology emphasized the importance of unified start-to-finish data access to management to minimize resource waste and rejected products. All of the improvements help factories of all sizes not only to survive but thrive in an increasingly competitive and dynamic market.

The conference also highlighted developments that will directly change people’s life. Prof. Paulo Bartolo discussed 3D bioprinting and mentioned the amazing possibility of directly “printing” skin on a person during surgery. Ms. Hagit Snir-Salinger discussed ongoing efforts to collect, sort, recycle and reuse the plastic agricultural waste, including sheets and pipes, collecting on the edge of fields in Israel and elsewhere. Mr. Motty Arnon discussed progress in creating AI based diagnoses systems, including for cancer, that would service populations located far from advanced medical facilities. These applications may soon directly improve the lives of millions.

Technology changes lives as the cartoon above demonstrate. By integrating the intellectual resources of academic institutions and the practical needs of industry, “miracles” no less amazing than electricity can occur. The conference was eye-opening and raised hope for a better future.

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Picture credit: Cartoon shared in Facebook

Word confusion – much ado about something

 

[viaduct*]

The structure of languages invites confusion. Spelling systems can be inconsistent, complicated, redundant or any combination of these. Word pronunciation is affected by local patterns, silent letters and inconsistent sounds, to name just a few factors. The resulting confusion is a rich source of material for comedians and song writers but can be a source of problems for professionals whose work is based on these words. It is my pleasure to give some examples of word blending in English, French and Hebrew entertainment as well as its potentially less charming impact on linguists.

The best routines involving simple word confusion were Gilda Radner’s editorial replies to the wrong issues using the name of Emily Latella. In her classic discussion of the Jackson-Vanik Amendment of 1974 punishing countries that discriminating against Jews, notably the Soviet Union, she goes a wild rant about why the United States should not save Soviet jewelry until Chevy Chase explains that the law is about Soviet Jewry, leading to her iconic "never mind". She also discussed school busting and violins on television, to name a few other topics. The comic premise, two completely different words that sound similar because the distinguishing syllable is generally swallowed, is so simple. Yet, with its perfect delivery, the clips are still funny 50 years later.

In French, not only is word play a part of comedy but also of song. In his classic Une valse á mille temps, Jacques Brel plays with the fact that identical sounds can be written numerous ways with different meanings. Note that the phrases in each of the columns are pronounced the same:

Words	Translation	Words	Translation
Une valse à cent temps	100 times	Une valse à mille temps	100 times
Une valse à cent ans	100 years	Une valse a mis le temps	Took the time
Une valse ça s'entend	Is heard

 

As the text is heard, not read, the listener must interpret the words by context. For years, I “heard” a son temps, meaning has its time. This ambiguity adds to the depth of this wonderful classic.

Hebrew is marked not only by the absence of vowel signs in standard written language, e.g., newspapers and signs, but also sometimes affected by similar sounds having different letters and different pronunciation of the same consonant depending on syllable accent, formally called spriantization. In practice, it is possible to confuse words, with amusing results. This last week, the comedy group Ze u’ze played on this confusion. The word for a dubber in Hebrew is מדבב [me-da-bev] while the word for a person introduced into a jail cell in order to get the person to admit his guilt is a מדובב [me-do-vev]. In a wonderful scene involving dubbing of a children’s cartoon with three artists invited, two dubbers imitate animal voices while the third one looks and talks like a criminal and doesn’t understand why the director is upset. The truth is that many native speakers would not distinguish the two words, which makes the scene even more amusing.

Unfortunately, real people, especially non-native speakers, can confuse similar-sounding words. For example, there is a wonderful song, written by Haim Israel and sung by Avihu Medina, called נעלה [na’ale] often heard in Israeli folk dancing. For many years, I thought, apparently not deeply, that it was about shoes as in נעלי ספסרט [na’ale sport]. Alas, I was quite wrong. It is about going up to Jerusalem not only topographically but also spiritually as the meaning of the title is “Let us go up”. I am still  a bit embarrassed by that.

Even Hebrew native speakers can fall into a trap. My ex-wife, a retired teacher, once went for a job interview at a rather small school. After 10 minutes, the interviewer mentioned that she had no qualifications. The source of the problem was that the notice in the paper was for a teacher of  ספרות, which can be pronounced [sifrut], literature, or [saparut], hairdressing. The school was not looking for a literature teacher, much to her embarrassment.

As a translator, I have days where I read thousands of words of text. Alas, occasionally I skip over or reverse a letter and insert a perfectly logical translation, one that makes sense to me. Unfortunately, the writer intended a different message, also logical. Usually, proper QA identifies such errors before they reach the customer. However, from time to time, translators and editors do not catch them in time, creating a bit of confusion and unpleasantness.

To err is human. With languages, it is also easy, amusing and sometimes embarrassing. Whether to create humor or rhyme or due to lack of knowledge or attention, word confusion makes an impression for better or worse. All in all, a little linguistic chaos enriches the world as Groucho Marx demonstrated with his classic question about a Roman viaduct in the movie Cocoanuts: why a duck?

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Staring at the technological future and present in the eyes – lessons from the 2023 conference of the Israel Translators Association

 

[owl*]

Nothing is more frightening than change and the unknown. This past week, the Israel Translators Association hosted several industry and technological leaders, who addressed the future of translation in the face of fast-developing technology. The participants in the conference gained an understanding of the impact of new developments in the field and practical approaches to future growth. The level of the presentations, both in terms of content and delivery, was extremely high without any significant overlapping, thus providing a perspicuous and broad view of the situation. The lecturers included Keith Brooks (To Grow, or Not to Grow, That is No longer the Question, But the Imperative), Zvi Gordon (Technology in the translation industry: current picture and a look at the future),  Katia Jimenez (Understanding the progress of artificial intelligence in language), Kirti Vashee (The changing translation technology landscape), Nora Díaz (Translation and Interpretation Technology: The Basics and Beyond) and Rafa Lombardino (Language Professionals: Technology is On Our Side), to name just a few. My conclusion from these lectures was that not only was technology already here and a part of the industry, it does not actually threaten translation or translators, nor does the new wonderchild, ChatGPT. Just as importantly, translators can and should study the emerging technology and harness it to their specific needs.

The dominant message was that the various forms of machine translation had already established a strong presence in the industry but not necessarily at the expense of human translators. Specifically, certain domains have fully adopted every-improving version of machine translation and use them almost exclusively. Interestingly, these domains are places where human translation could not tread, i.e., where the sheer volume, potential cost and limited context made machine translation the ideal tool. For example, companies such as Airbnb, Ali Express and Amazon need to localize thousands of words on a daily basis. By contrast, in areas where context, accuracy and style count, such as in law, medicine and marketing, the worldwide volume of human translation keeps on expanding. Referring to the human element, Ellen Elias-Bursać said in her lecture on interpreting and translating during the Hague War Crimes trials that the translators had to stand in court and justify their translation. Where ever there is that potential, whether in court or in front of any person, human translation and interpretation is the best option.

As for the latest craze, reaching 1 million users in only four months, ChatGPT is very interesting but not actually a threat to translation. Specifically, the speakers noted that the machine compiled text from existing corpus without discrimination of accuracy, bias or style of content. In other words, it was a random generator of text, somewhat regulated by the limitations imposed by the party entering the request. It can be valuable for identifying grammar mistakes or improving style or vocabulary, especially for non-native writers. However, as its output is not specific or accurate enough for most translating assignments, its value as a translator is quite limited.

In practice, the speakers consistently spoke of the need for translator to investigate any technology that may improve their work content or process. Clearly, it is possible to be successful without applying most if not all of the technological tools, but future success will probably depend on selective use of modern methods as well as understanding their advantages and limitations. The message for translators was that the future involved not only selectively adopting new technology but also changing the attitude towards it from complete fear to measured understanding.

As a demonstration of that approach, one of the speakers mentioned fully automated cars, noting that some major companies have stopped investing money on their development but are actively using them for moving goods from one building to another on a clearly defined route. The moral here is that not that the technology is not valuable but its effective use is limited by its lack of ability to make complex judgments. Likewise, where judgment is vital, human translators will have work. Yet, those that better leverage existing and emerging technology will have an efficiency advantage. To identify the appropriate tools, more than ever, translators need to keep an open mind in regards to technology. It is far less frightening than it would seem and may be quite benevolent. The future is in our hands as we learned at the ITA 2023 conference.

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