Category: Blog
Translation platforms cannot replace humans
28th April 2017
We recently wrote about how translation platforms cannot replace humans, in an article entitled The Great A.I. snoozing, and highlighted the fact that despite all of the promises and media hype, free translation platforms and services still can’t compete with human translators. It seem that The Economist has picked up on this with their own… Read more »
How global English hurts business
14th April 2017
Recent articles in the media have highlighted the need to teach children another language in order to prepare them for life after Brexit. One of the more familiar points they raise is that native English speakers have relied on the principle that as English is the international business language, there is no need to learn… Read more »
Brexit Gold Rush
31st March 2017
The term Brexit Gold Rush might seem a little optimistic, to say the least, given the pessimistic fear-mongering put out by the majority of the UK media at the moment, but there is a real possibility of a Brexit gold rush occurring, and we shouldn’t wait for negotiations to conclude before making a claim. The… Read more »
Slide in on a shrimp sandwich
17th March 2017
Did you slide in on a shrimp sandwich? The term ‘slide in on a shrimp sandwich’ or ‘sliding in on a shrimp sandwich’ comes from a Swedish phrase meaning ‘when someone hasn’t had to work to get where they are’. One supposes this could be for all sorts of reasons; from nepotism, to being very… Read more »
Real time translation gadgets – do they really work?
3rd March 2017
Real time translation gadgets have been getting a lot of press recently, due, in part, to the Pilot wearable language translator being launched by Waverly Labs. The Pilot was something we covered last year, in our post The Language of Love, and with the release date of the Pilot just around the corner, has technology… Read more »
The Murray Gell-Mann Amnesia effect and translation
23rd February 2017
The connection between the Murray Gell-Mann Amnesia effect and translation may not seem obvious to begin with but ‘forgetting what you know’ is something that can sometimes happen during a project. ‘Fake news’ and crystal balls There has been a lot of talk recently about ‘fake news’ and how various news networks have been guilty… Read more »
Arrival, Translation and the Sapir–Whorf hypothesis
3rd February 2017
Arrival, if you haven’t already seen it, is a science fiction film based on a short story by Ted Chiang entitled “Story of Your Life”. The plot centres on a linguist, tasked with communicating with the extra-terrestrial visitors but in order to do so, must first translate their native language into something that humans are… Read more »
Translating the single market
20th January 2017
On the 17th of January 2017, Theresa May gave a speech outlining her plan for the UK to leave the European single market. Some suggest that this is the final nail in a Brexit coffin and will be catastrophic for the UK, while others are more optimistic and argue that these changes will strengthen the… Read more »
The Great A.I. Snoozing
6th January 2017
2016 was the year that you couldn’t read the news without seeing yet another puff piece article claiming that Google Translate had, or was about to achieve ‘the singularity’, allowing it to translate in to and out of the world’s languages, with a native speaker degree of accuracy, thanks to huge improvements in their artificial… Read more »
MRS Awards 2016 – The Winners Photos
16th December 2016
Foreign Tongues would like to congratulate everyone that took part in the 2016 MRS Awards, with special congratulations to all of the winners. And here are the pics – with the delightful Holly Walsh and Brendan Reaney (MD of Foreign Tongues Market Research Translation): Best Agency with a turnover below £20million – Sponsored by Foreign… Read more »
