Blog
Translation IS Marketing
14th October 2016
Companies should consider translation as part of their marketing strategy. Not only does it make sense to translate documentation for foreign territories, in order to reach new markets, quality translation helps to convey the company’s unique brand guidelines and identity. A large part of any organisation’s budget is spent on marketing and many companies have… Read more »
A Neural Network for Machine Translation
30th September 2016
It would seem that not a week goes by without Google announcing yet another breakthrough in machine translation. A breakthrough that will, this time for sure, put human translators out of business. The announcement, this week, is Google’s Neural Network for Machine Translation, which states that “Google Neural Machine Translation system (GNMT), […] utilizes state-of-the-art… Read more »
Google Translate strikes again
16th September 2016
“Google Translate cannot be used as a complete translation tool. That expectation is misguided.” While the above quote might be something you would expect a translation company, such as Foreign Tongues, to say, it might come as a surprise to learn that it was actually spoken by Te Taka Keegan – a Waikato University senior… Read more »
Working for free
2nd September 2016
Translation services have become the latest sector to fall victim to the ‘work for free’ model, thanks to Google Crowdsource. Google Crowdsource is an app that asks users to perform brief tasks that will help improve the quality of Google services like Maps, translation, image transcription, and more. Google Crowdsource asks what languages people are… Read more »
A Game of Sounds
19th August 2016
If you’re looking to binge watch Game of Thrones over your summer holiday, be warned, this blog post contains some spoilers! If you’re still here and have seen the latest season, then you’ll know how one of the more intriguing characters got their name, as well as the events that led up to the creation… Read more »
Is my password still the best password?
5th August 2016
At Foreign Tongues Translation we take security very seriously. NDAs, data security, including translation project files, client translation glossaries, linguist details, as well as the physical security of our translation file servers are paramount – as it should be! But security is only as strong as its weakest link, so what about user passwords and… Read more »
Market Research Back Translation
22nd July 2016
What is ‘back translation’, and does it really improve quality assurance? Back translation describes the process of translating a document into the target language, e.g. translating an English survey into French, and then translating this French text back into English. This is often seen as a way of making sure that the original translation, into… Read more »
The Translation Services Market 2016
8th July 2016
A recent report from Common Sense Advisory has determined that the global language services market should grow to exceed $40 billion by the end of 2016. The driving factor behind this growth is explained in the very first sentence of the report summary – “People around the world prefer communicating in their native tongue”. While… Read more »
The Language of Love
24th June 2016
You may have heard about a new device that is set to launch in Spring 2017 called the ‘Pilot’. The Pilot, if it delivers on its promises, appears to be a real life version of the Babel fish from the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. Described thus: – “The Babel fish is small, yellow, leech-like,… Read more »
The Value of Languages
27th May 2016
A recent report published by Cambridge University, entitled The Value of Languages, has urged the UK Government to adopt a new, comprehensive, language strategy if it is to keep pace with its international competitors and reduce a skills deficit that effects the country’s economic, political, and military capabilities. The five major concerns highlighted by the… Read more »
