Facebook is causing quite a stir with its announcement to have its members perform free translations of its website. Using “crowdsourcing” to perform translations certainly saves a company lots of money–its free afterall–but at what costs?
Right now Spanish, French, and German are up an running, and other langauges such as Catalan, Dutch, Polish, Turkish, Danish, [...]
Erik Camayd-Freixas, one of the interpreters for a group of 400 undocumented workers recently arrested by federal agents in Pottsville, Iowa, recently blew the whistle on the hearings which sent hundreds of the workers to jail without due process.
In an essay titled “Interpreting after the Largest ICE Raid in US History” published in the Monthly [...]
On June 3, 2008, the President signed a new law authorizing the Department of State to raise the number special immigrant visas (SIVs) to Iraqi and Afgan translators and interpreters, allowing handlers to exceed the 500 visas earlier allotted. Applicants may also qualify for resettlement benefits. For more information, see the Dept of [...]
Common Sense Advisory, an independent research firm, has just published their list of the top 25 translation companies in the world, something they have been doing since 2005. As expected, the numbers show significant growth in the field of translation and localization. Indeed, the market is growing faster than ever.
It is good time to enter [...]
In Scotland, The Sunday Herald (June 9, 2008) is reporting that the delivery of justice in many immigration cases is being compromised because of the use of unqualified interpreters for immigrants in the courts. In many cases, including assaults, custody disputes, and even a rape case, students are being used instead of professional interpreters.
To read [...]
With the beginning of the new year, Facebook launched its new crowdsourcing application for translations, allowing its users to provide free translations for its webpage. While this approach to translation will no doubt save the company millions of dollars, it will also no doubt introduce many errors, bugs, and questionable solutions, also at a considerable [...]