Tag Archive for 'bilingual'

Facebook’s Newest Machine Translation Tool Falls Flat

Published on November 15, 2011 in English Language, News, Spanish Translation and Translation Buyers. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , .

Just in case you need more proof that most machine translation tools don’t quite cut the mustard, the latest attempt by social media giant Facebook to incorporate machine translation (MT) into its platform fails miserably with most languages.

In an effort to help pages connect better with their fan base—often found scattered across the globe—Facebook recently introduced machine translation, powered by Bing. With just one click, users can get an automatic translation of status updates and comments. Facebook plans to roll out this feature to all profiles (not just pages) in the near future.

There’s just one problem: most of the translations are unintelligible. Posts on social media sites like Twitter and Facebook are rife with slang, and Bing’s machine translation tool simply isn’t up to task. An analysis of Bing’s performance by the site Lexiophiles shows that Bing only gets it right about 50% of the time, leaving users confused and, at worst, possibly misled by faulty translations. Interestingly, out of the ten languages tested, posts translated from Spanish to English fared worst of all, with less than 10% of the rendered text considered intelligible.

For greater accuracy, Facebook will also be implementing a feature that allows bilingual users to offer an alternative translation. If other users endorse the accuracy of the crowdsourced translation, it will take the place of Bing’s original translation the next time the “Translate” option is clicked. Page administrators will be able to manage crowdsourced translations through a “manage translations” link below the posts on pages they control.

One of the great arguments in favor of MT has always been that it can at least offer users a gist of the conversation when no other means of translation is available. It seems that, at least for now, Bing’s tool doesn’t even offer that to Facebook’s users.

Translations for Nonprofits in a Bad Economy

Published on December 31, 2008 in Translation Buyers. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

If you work for a nonprofit, you’ve seen the funding from both private and public sources diminish as the demand for the services you provide increased in recent years.  Your constituents may be mostly Spanish speakers or you could serve people with a wide range of linguistic backgrounds.  Any good nonprofit will have bilingual or multilingual people on staff to serve their non-English speaking clients.  But when your development staff or grant writer solicits new funding, do they build in a line item for translation costs?

If this doesn’t happen, your organization should evaluate why not.  Do either of the following reasons for not having translation as a built-in cost sound familiar?

We have bilingual people on staff who can also translate documents.

In many cases, your bilingual employees may be able to produce a fairly good translation from English into Spanish.  But as funding dollars decrease, your already committed employees may be stretched too thin taking on other tasks to keep the agency running.  Asking them to translate something because they speak two languages may be pushing their skill set and stressing an already busy employee.  And while they may be fluent in Spanish, if they don’t have a background in translation, they will not give you the high quality documents that the people you serve deserve.

We’re trimming the fat from our budget to deal with the bad economy.

Of course keeping the lights on and programs running is a priority to any nonprofit.  But if those you serve speak any language other than English, outreach and education in the language they understand best should be critical to your agency’s vision.  If you need documents in Spanish to be able to reach out to clients, then providing the highest quality translations should be central to your approach.  If Spanish speakers can’t understand the services you provide or information you share, then you are ultimately undermining your agency’s mission.  By keeping translation services as a line item, you will ensure that you are connecting with your target population.

Many translation agencies want to assist nonprofits in continuing the important work they do and support agencies with discounts.  While outsourcing English to Spanish translations may seem like an avoidable cost, your agency will see the fruits of this investment in your improved ability to connect with those you are charged with serving.

Transpanish offers discounts for Nonprofit Organizations.

Certifying Spanish Language Proficiency

Published on September 17, 2008 in Spanish Language. 1 Comment Tags: , , , , , , , , , , .

If you take a look at job postings, you’ll see that speaking Spanish is a huge asset to many companies and organizations.  In fact, companies hiring for certain positions will require that applicants be bilingual English/Spanish speakers.  But if you are a non-native speaker of Spanish, how do you prove that you speak the language?  This is an especially important question when you realize that people with all different levels of Spanish claim to be fluent in the language on their resume, even if they only took a few semesters in college. 

When looking for positions that require that you speak Spanish, make sure that you include the following in your resume if they are applicable:

Extensive travel experience in Spanish-speaking countries

  • Periods of time living abroad
  • Periods of time working or volunteering abroad
  • Previous positions in which you worked directly with Spanish-speakers and in what capacity
  • Any formal language instruction that you received

You might be familiar with the TOEFL exam (Test of English as a Foreign Language), which is a standardized exam for English proficiency.  Employers and schools look for scores that certify a certain level of English.  The closest equivalent to this exam for Spanish speakers is the Diploma de Español como Lengua Extranjera (D.E.L.E.), which offers official accreditation of mastery of the Spanish language from Spain’s Ministry of Education.

The DELEs are given throughout the world in various major cities.  While it may be logistically difficult to take the exam, the accreditation is broadly recognized.  If you are committed to finding a job that’ll utilize your language skills and feel more comfortable touting your Spanish-language skills with an accreditation to back you up, look into getting a D.E.L.E. 

Keep in mind that having a diploma is no substitute for real life experience.  While you may score at an advanced level on a proficiency exam, you also must be confident in your ability to communicate with Spanish speakers as they speak in real life.  This is where you can use your previous work experience, time as an expat, or travel experience to highlight your language skills for an employer.

Bilingual Education in the U.S.

Published on August 6, 2008 in English Language and Spanish Language. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , .

If your goal is to become fluent in another language, many times total immersion is the best practice. However, this is not the case for young recent immigrants in public schools because they also must become proficient in the subject matter of instruction. This is where bilingual education comes in.

Bilingual education and its alternatives have been up for political and moral debate. Its proponents posit that mastering English, literacy, and subject matter simultaneously is too overwhelming for most students and that a combination of instruction in one’s native language and in English is necessary for success. Its detractors state that bilingual education retards the mastery of English which in turn retards students’ acquisition of knowledge in all areas.

There are varying levels and approaches to bilingual education, roughly broken into the following strategies:

  • Transitional: the goal is to transition English language learners into English-only classrooms as quickly as possible and provides content instruction in the student’s native language while they learn English.
  • Two-Way or Dual Language: these programs are designed to teach both native English and non-native English speaking students to be bilingual and biliterate.
  • Specialized Dual Language: subjects are taught in the students’ second language with bilingual teachers who can field students’ questions when they need assistance in their native language. Literacy instruction in students’ native language is also provided separately.
  • Late-Exit or Developmental: Students are educated in their native language for an extended period of time, complemented by education in English.

The debate over bilingual education takes place within a larger political and social context, which may be to the detriment of students’ acquisition of knowledge of both English and material in content areas. Furthermore, while bilingual education might be effective practice in areas of the country where there are fewer native languages spoken, the system becomes unwieldy and impossible in areas where immigrants come from all over the world.

For more resources on bilingual education, both for and against, follow these links:

National Association for Bilingual Education

Twisted Tongues: The Failure of Bilingual Education

The Case Against Bilingual Education

California Association for Bilingual Education

Spanglish in the United States

Published on July 30, 2008 in Spanish Language, Tips for Translators and Translation Buyers. 3 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , .

There’s language as it appears in grammar books and there’s language as it’s truly spoken every day. The way that bilingual Spanish and English speakers in the United States combine the two languages is a perfect example of this phenomenon. In every day vernacular, people use the term Spanglish to describe the mixing of the two languages. But from a linguistic perspective, the term Spanglish lumps together several different ways of using the two languages under this umbrella.

Below are brief descriptions of a few terms linguists use to describe the linguistic phenomena many understand to be hallmarks of Spanglish:

1. Code-switching: when bilinguals use elements of both languages in conversation, either between sentences or within a single sentence.
2. Loanword: a word directly taken from another language with little or no translation.
3. Language contact: borrowing vocabulary and other language features from another language.

While Spanglish is not yet considered a separate language as Haitian Creole or Cape Verdean Creole is, scholars are beginning to take its use more seriously as the number of bilingual Latinos in the U.S. grows. Many continue to distrust Spanglish because of its status of not quite English and not quite Spanish.

But Ilan Stevens, author of Spanglish: The Making of a New American Language, speaks to the value of Spanglish:

“Latinos are learning English,” he says. “That doesn’t mean that they should sacrifice their original language or that they should give up this in-betweeness that is Spanglish. Spanglish is a creative way also of saying, ‘I am an American and I have my own style, my own taste, my own tongue.’”
(from: Spanglish, A New American Language : NPR)

For more online resources about Spanglish:

• Don Quixote de La Mancha: Spanglish version
• Wikipedia entry
• NPR interview with Ilan Stevens

Examples of Spanglish

Spanglish Spanish English
breaka frenos brakes
carpeta alfombra carpet
chequear verificar to check
glasso vaso glass
ganga pandilla gang
likear gotear to leak
mailear enviar coreo to mail
marketa mercado market
norsa enfermera nurse
puchar empujar to push
ruffo techo roof
signear firmar to sign

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