Traductanet attends Translating Europe Forum 2022
Traductanet attends Translating Europe Forum 2022
A tool for mutual understanding between cultures, translation is one of the invisible forces behind globalisation and economic growth.
That is why, from 9 to 11 November, Traductanet joined the Translating Europe Forum 2022 conference aimed at students, universities, translators and interpreters, other language industry professionals, ministries, public authorities and NGOs.
The main scope
The hybrid event, held in Brussels and online, featured a number of discussion panels, which largely demonstrated how technology, combined with the particular abilities and expertise of translation experts, is making the globe more interconnected, reachable and user-friendly.
Translation continues to assist corporations in reaching international clients. The audio-visual industry is becoming increasingly important, with new technologies such as speech-to-text and automatic speech recognition assisting individuals in overcoming language hurdles in emergency circumstances.
Please keep reading and learn about the most interesting insights we gathered over these last few days.
Translating in a crisis
We had the opportunity to attend a keynote interview with Tetyana Struk, founder and CEO of the Linguistic Centre® Translation and Localisation company. Based in Lviv, Tetyana talked about her experience of translating in a crisis, namely the one caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
“It was like waking up and being in a war movie,
but this time you’re the main character.”
She described how the language industry showed great resilience – translators and interpreters formed units and started interpreting and translating, a key activity requiring huge intellectual effort. At the same time, everyone was rightfully busy cooking and seeking shelter.
Tetyana also talked about how she maintained business continuity as the war raged. Luckily, many of her translators fled to Poland and could work from there, with customers also accepting deadline extensions.
The translation focus naturally shifted to military, humanitarian, medical and psychological information, with providers facing several challenges, such as time, poor working conditions, emotional trauma and working 24/7 in addition to the regular tasks carried out previously.
Finally, she commended the skills of the language community when it comes to self-organisation and teamwork.
AI-based Neuro-Linguistic Programming tools
We also attended a discussion with several panellists who spoke about the current state of play in audio-visual translation and, more specifically, speech-to-text in international institutions where text-to-text has traditionally been the core business and how to keep translation quality high and translators’ skills up to date.
“I´m in favour of automating everything possible,
and we have the human touch to add in the human value.”
Livia Florensa Tomasi, Committee member of ISO/TC 37/SC 5 (translation, interpreting and related technology) and Project Leader of ISO 18587 (post-editing of machine translation output), spoke about how we have seen the development of new niches thanks to AI-based language tools, with services being provided much more quickly.
When it comes to quality, the panellists were asked to define the concept on their terms. Livia, who is working on European standards in that sense, provided an insightful answer: generally, there is objective quality, which means applying quality layers in a translation process with linguistic aids to achieve a quality product. Her definition of quality? Giving the customer what they want, adapting to their specific needs and budgets.
The discussion ended by advising linguists to adapt to this new age, where translation output may increase greatly and with greater accuracy and quality assurance.
The power of words
Michael Cronin, a professor at Trinity College Dublin, delivered one of the speeches we were looking forward to most.
He explained how translation has shaped history and why the world is a better place thanks to translation and translators. He also stressed the importance of communicating precisely and in one’s natural language, highlighting the significance of form.
“Translators are particularisers
– [they] are deeply, deeply involved in the thickets of detail of language.”
In his book, Landmarks, a celebration of the language of landscape and the power of words to shape our sense of place, Robert Macfarlane argues that if we attend more closely to something, we are less likely to act more selfishly towards it.
Michael Cronin ties this theory to translating during a crisis, such as war, climate change or a pandemic, and commends the role of translators in the social sphere, who use words to mobilise people to be concerned with more than just the human world.
For him, translators should be at the heart of ecology hubs, working with professionals at primary, secondary and tertiary levels to raise awareness by immersing people in the landscapes they should be working to preserve.
Closing insights
At the European level, we aim to translate and produce meaningful content for those who need to access and use it.
Here at Traductanet, we believe this conference was another great step towards achieving this goal. We were delighted to participate in such an insightful gathering, and we welcome you to check out all of the talks to learn more about what was discussed.
And should you require a professional translation provider, please do not hesitate to contact us and request a quote!
