Localization Today

Caloã   and Marjolein talk about the difference between Ukrainian and Russian, how adopting a second language can affect your personality, and he shares a funny anecdote about a Texan bus driver.

With more foreign language content coming to popular streaming platforms like Netflix, the art of subtitle translation continues to be front and center. Have you also noticed how, sometimes, localization is an impossible task?

The ambitious aim is to create real-time translation technologies that include everyone in the world by teaching AI to translate hundreds of spoken and written languages.

SUBTLE, an association of audiovisual translators (AVT) founded in the United Kingdom, recently re-launched its website and updated its membership benefits, a move which it announced last week on Twitter. The association’s website redesign and updated benefits come at a particularly interesting crossroads for the AVT and subtitling profession.

A reporter for the Associated Press (AP) has received a lot of attention for his multilingual coverage of the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. In just a little more than 24 hours, a montage of his coverage for different outlets received more than 14 million views and 114,000 likes on Twitter.

Lanfrica, an online catalog of African language resources specialized for linguists and natural language processing (NLP) specialists, has launched after months of development.

The University of Aberdeen in Scotland decided to run a £1.2 million upgrade to their MRI scanner. Supporting 17 languages including Spanish, Arabic, Mandarin, Russian, and French, the language offerings now also includes Doric, or Northeast Scots. 

Earlier this week, the Think Global Awards announced their shortlist of individuals and companies for the awards ceremony’s fifth year.

A study which is currently in press in the journal Language Development Research found that, among the babies and toddlers studied, children made greater gains in vocabulary size during the early lockdowns than individuals pre-lockdown.

Deepdub, a Tel Aviv-based startup focused on leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) for the localization of film and television series, announced last week that it had raised $20 million in Series A funding.

Customer experience has long been touted as the ultimate barometer for the health of companies, but isn’t the employee experience just as foundational to business performance? Improving your brand or product and building a strong customer experience certainly requires the support of your employees.

Because Nastalīq has been so challenging to adapt to a digital format, many Urdu speakers have taken to using Naskh, which is written along straight horizontal lines, or even using a non-standardized form of the language that uses Latin script.

Source NM reports that non-English-speaking New Mexico residents are struggling to navigate housing, food, and healthcare systems in the state, resulting in delays for obtaining state aid. Following a lawsuit by the Center for Law and Poverty, public officials are working on potential solutions. 

EVERY WEEK WE LOOK BACK ON THE NEWS FROM MULTILINGUAL.COM WITH A LANGUAGE INDUSTRY SPECIALIST. WHAT STOOD OUT? WHAT ARE NOTABLE TRENDS? HOW CAN WE PREDICT WHAT IS GOING HAPPEN NEXT?  

A paper recently published in the American Journal of Medical Care is shedding light on the importance of providing language access services in the healthcare setting — even before a patient makes their appointment.

Language I/O, the Cheyenne-based language technology company that recently received $6.5 million in Series A funding, announced some significant growth for the company earlier this week — including the appointment of two new executives.

The company announced its new name today following the completion of its merger with Acolad in 2021. With a unified name and a unified vision, company leaders look forward to a 2022 of expanded global reach and capabilities.

A court case focused on the British grocery chain Tesco’s food label translations has reached the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), the highest court in the EU.

Data journalists at The Economist used information from Spotify to identify several trends in how local communities across the world listen to music — while English-language music remains quite popular worldwide, its popularity appears to be declining, as local audiences begin to turn more to music performed in their native language.

House Bill (HB) 60 would essentially allow fluent speakers of Native American languages the opportunity to receive a teacher’s salary without needing a teaching credential.

If you have a message you want to test drive, social media is a great way to gauge public perception. Feedback about how your message is perceived will be instant.  

At this year’s CES, Waverly Labs introduced a suite of new services and hardware designed to provide near-instantaneous communication among multiple languages and dialects.

EVERY WEEK WE LOOK BACK ON THE NEWS FROM MULTILINGUAL.COM WITH A LANGUAGE INDUSTRY SPECIALIST. WHAT STOOD OUT? WHAT ARE NOTABLE TRENDS? HOW CAN WE PREDICT WHAT IS GOING HAPPEN NEXT?  

Microsoft Translator now offers Inuinnaqtun and a romanized version of Inuktitut, which were developed with the support of the government of Nunavut, Canada, and other community groups. Inuktitut, which is the most widely known and spoken dialect of the Inuktut language, was first added to Microsoft Translator in Jan. 2021. When it was first added to the platform, Microsoft Translator could only t...

The most bilingual city in the United States is El Paso, Texas, according to recently released research conducted by e-learning company Preply. Using census data to identify cities with large populations of bilingual individuals, Preply found that about one in five residents of the country’s largest cities is bilingual.