This site uses cookies.
Some of these cookies are essential to the operation of the site,
while others help to improve your experience by providing insights into how the site is being used.
For more information, please see the ProZ.com privacy policy.
Movies have long been a cherished entertainment pastime in global audiences, captivating audiences across language barriers. Amidst this culture, the art of Vjing emerged, allowing viewers to immerse themselves in cinematic wonders, regardless of linguistic differences.
On a recent episode of Home of Our Stars, Flavia Tumusiime delves into the world of Vjing with Kaija Ukasha, renowned as VJ Shaolin Khan Lee. Reflecting on his cinematic upbringing, Ukasha recalls how translated movies shaped his early film experiences.
His journey began in the video halls (bibanda) of Kawempe, where amidst a family obsessed with football, he found comfort in the magic of cinema.
In his early days, Ukasha honed his skills by immersing himself in his surroundings at home, laying the groundwork for his future career.
“The appeal of translations captivated me, and together with a like-minded brother, we delved into the world of Vjing,” he recounts. Making connections at a local video hall proved pivotal, as generous acquaintances shared their equipment, paving the way for Ukasha’s learning journey.
Detailing the essence of Vjing, Ukasha stresses its reliance on talent beyond mere translation.
“Vjing transcends language; it tests the breadth of your knowledge. You might excel in medicine but be clueless about law. However, with Vjing, you must possess a wide-ranging understanding of general knowledge,” he elucidates. “Beyond translation, you must offer insights and interpret the situations of the films you work with.”
As Vjing transitions from traditional video halls to multiple TV platforms, Ukasha sheds light on the origins of movie translations. “The practice of translating movies precedes the arrival of Western films in Africa,” he explains.
There are many translations of the Bible ranging from the most literal translations to quite paraphrased versions. There is a necessity for them all.
When going to church on Sundays, it is extremely common for the pastor to read a Bible verse in one specific translation — such as the New International Version or The Message — then use a different Bible translation, such as King James Version or American Standard Version for a different verse. This can lead to some confusion for the congregation because there are so many different versions of the same book. This is a common issue that scholars have dealt with for many years. The differences boil down to whether the translation of the Bible is a literal word-for-word translation or a paraphrased thought-for-thought translation.
Why Isn’t There Just One Translation of the Bible?
Brandon Farris is a content creator who has a YouTube series in which he searches for a random recipe online and uses Google Translate to translate it into a different language. Then he takes that new translation and brings it back to English. He continues this process five or six times and then tries to follow the new recipe, which, as you may suspect, results in a complete mess of a dish. One time, he ended up sautéing water.
Although this is a silly explanation, it illustrates the point perfectly: Translating from one language to another is a VERY difficult process and can result in contextual errors.
Acting Minister of Culture Nayden Todorov expressed concerns regarding certain streamingplatforms operating in Bulgaria without providing Bulgarian translations, stating, “We have problems with some of the content streamingplatforms that work in Bulgaria, but without Bulgarian translation.” He conveyed this to journalists during his attendance at the Education, Youth, Culture, and Sports Council in Brussels.
Discussions within the EU are ongoing regarding the proliferation of these platforms. Suggestions have been made to amend European regulations, potentially requiring a portion of the revenue generated to be allocated towards the production of European content. Some ministers have emphasized the importance of including local content tailored to the regions where these platforms are active.
Interprefy, a provider of remote simultaneous interpretation for events, has launched a new product that provides instant, AI-powered live translation for in-person meetings using a mobile phone.
The aim of the software, Interprefy Now, is to remove the need for AV equipment for live translation and make meetings of up to 30 people multilingual.
Once companies subscribe, meeting attendees can jump into multilingual conversations using a smartphone without any pre-meeting booking or technical setup of specialist equipment.
Existing solutions for small meetings are typically tied to specific meeting and conference rooms through the use of specialist AV equipment. Consecutive interpretation software for use on the go is typically only suitable for two-way conversations, and not for multi-person professional meetings.
Oddmund Braaten (pictured), CEO at Interprefy, said: “For large multi-lingual events, we have our flagship mobile app. This is ideal for large, pre-planned events or conferences with a high number of attendees. With Interprefy Now we are providing the capability for instant access to live translation for smaller, more personal meetings, through the mobile app and subscription plans.
Exponential Growth Expected for Video Game Translation Services Market With Complete SWOT Analysis by Forecast From 2024 to 2031 | Alconost, Stepes, Tomedes, TranslationPartner
The latest competent intelligence report published by WMR with the title “An Increase in Demand and Opportunities for Global Video Game Translation Services Market 2024” provides a sorted image of the Video Game Translation Services industry by analysis of research and information collected from various sources that have the ability to help the decision-makers in the worldwide market to play a significant role in making a gradual impact on the global economy. The report presents and showcases a dynamic vision of the global scenario in terms of market size, market statistics, and competitive situation.
At present, the Video Game Translation Services market is possessing a presence over the globe. The Research report presents a complete judgment of the market which consists of future trends, growth factors, consumption, production volume, CAGR value, attentive opinions, profit margin, price, and industry-validated market data. This report helps individuals and market competitors to predict future profitability and to make critical decisions for business growth.
The obligatory checkbox on OpenAI’s website, which requires visitors to verify that they are human, seems almost tongue-in-cheek following the company’s latest release, GPT-4o. (The “o” stands for “omni.”)
In a May 13, 2024 announcement, OpenAI described the newest version of its large language model as a “step towards much more natural human-computer interaction,” citing a range of new or improved capabilities, such as human-like response time in conversations and the interpretation of emotions through facial expressions.
“With GPT-4o, we trained a single new model end-to-end across text, vision, and audio, meaning that all inputs and outputs are processed by the same neural network,” the press release explained.
TechCrunch reported that ChatGPT-4o is now “more multilingual,” with OpenAI claiming “enhanced performance in around 50 languages.”
An international conference on the translation of the Quran has been launched in Tripoli, the capital of Libya, Abna news agency reported yesterday.
The three-day event, organized by the Libya Quran Assembly and sponsored by the Islamic World Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ISESCO), focuses on the theme “Precise translation of the Quran’s concepts, a means for promotion of Islam.”
Scholars, researchers, and religious figures from various countries are participating to discuss existing Quran translations, translation challenges, and ways to produce accurate and easily understandable renderings of the holy book in different languages.
Founder Jaroslaw Kutylowski talks about Arabic, the UAE and future clients
DeepL chief executive Jaroslaw ‘Jarek’ Kutylowski wants the company’s translation service to strengthen its presence and usage in the Middle East. Photo: DeepL
DeepL, the AI-fuelled language translation company based in Germany, is keen to strengthen its presence in the Middle East and is making efforts at improving its Arabic translation services while courting potential clients in the region, its chief executive has said.
The company’s AI neural translation technology has set the pace for much of the language-translation sector in recent years, chief executive Jaroslaw “Jarek” Kutylowski, 41, told The National in an interview in Dubai.
The technology translation unicorn’s efforts to increase its presence in the region come amid a global race from various companies like Google, Microsoft and Grammarly, who are vying for a slice of the lucrative language translation sector.
Mr Kutylowski said DeepL offers plenty of VC funding and hundreds of millions of users and is trying to stay ahead of the competition.
Its translation offering for business customers, DeepL Pro, is used by 20,000 companies, according to DeepL.
An English-language translation featured on 17 giant hoardings promoting an Amsterdam referendum is so off-message that city officials have decided to have them remade.
The referendum on the council’s plans to determine what parts of the city should be considered key green infrastructure will take place on June 6, on the same day as the European elections.
The hoardings are there to drum up support for the vote, but, according to Anke Bakker, of the local branch of pro-animal party PvdD, the English-language text is both misleading and biased.
A Japanese startup said Tuesday it aims to use artificial intelligence to help translate manga comics into English five times faster and 90% cheaper than at present.
Manga series such as “One Piece” and “Dragon Ball” are a huge success story for Japan, with the market projected to be worth $42.2 billion by 2030, according to the startup, Orange.
But it said only about 2% of Japan’s annual output of 700,000 manga volumes are released in English, “partly due to the difficult and lengthy translation process and the limited number of translators.”
But with its technology, Orange aims to produce 500 English-language manga per month, five times more than the industry’s current capacity, and 50,000 volumes in five years. Other languages will come later.
“Compared to translation of a book, translating Japanese used in manga, which uses very short sentences of conversational language often full of slang, is extremely difficult,” said Orange’s marketing vice president Tatsuhiro Sato.
The capability should be generally available in the following weeks.
There is no doubt that Microsoft Edge has some good translation capabilities: from the live translation of its PDF reader to the more advanced video translation enhancements that effectively allow users to translate audio or subtitles while watching videos in the browser, Microsoft wants to make sure no one feels left behind.
This is most likely why the Redmond-based tech giant is bringing AI-generated voice dub translations to videos, according to the latest post from software enthusiast @Leopeva64.
In other words, you’ll be able to listen to video translations rather than reading them on Microsoft Edge, all due to a new enhancement that uses AI to generate that audio translation.
“After many attempts and multiple crashes I was finally able to make a short recording of Edge’s video translation feature, in the first video you can hear the original audio and in the second you can hear Edge’s AI-powered translation:https://t.co/FIcnSbSZjTpic.twitter.com/ozilW5YMOc— Leopeva64 (@Leopeva64) May 6, 2024“
According to the enthusiast, Microsoft Edge will have AI generate different voices for dubbing the translation based on who’s speaking. For instance, if a man is speaking in the video, AI will generate a male voice, and if a woman is speaking, then a female voice will be generated.
Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University will host a conference on May 15 titled “Translating the Saudi identity through other languages and cultures”. (SPA)
RIYADH: The College of Languages at Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University in Riyadh will host a conference titled “Translating the Saudi identity through other languages and cultures” on May 15.
The event, carrying the slogan “We translate our identity,” will take place at the Department of Conferences and Seminars, and is sponsored by Saudi Minister of Education Yousef Al-Benyan.
It will focus on sharing the Kingdom’s cultural, historical, literary and intellectual heritage with a global audience, the Saudi Press Agency reported.
The role of translation in promoting a positive image of the Kingdom will also be discussed, as well as fostering international recognition and underscoring the Kingdom’s cultural impact.
The conference aims to contribute to a key objective of the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 in promoting Islamic values and national identity, by encouraging Saudis to translate these concepts into other languages and cultures.
A competitive environment will be established among university students to introduce them to their identity through other languages and cultures.
The Canadian Bureau of Public Services and Procurement (PSPC) is the government agency that oversees the Translation Bureau, which is in turn in charge of supplying linguistic services to Parliament and federal departments. In April 2024, PSPC published a statement announcing the approval and implementation of additional health protection measures for interpreters.
As the use of remote meetings for official government business increased in the 2010s, interpreters began experiencing and reporting issues related to working conditions in these scenarios, all exacerbated during pandemic-related virtual interpreting. At that time, the Translation Bureau provided what it deemed were “firm recommendations” on interpreter protection during virtual Parliament sessions, but no measures were actually implemented until much later.
The ProZ.com Outsourcer Assistance Team is searching for Canada-based interpreters in a variety of languages to field remote interpreting calls. The initial languages sought are:
Afar
Korean
Amharic
Kurdish
Cantonese
Mandarin
Farsi
Mongolian
Georgian
Portuguese (BR)
Hungarian
Romanian
Italian
Russian
Japanese
Tamil
Karen
Vietnamese
Khmer
Interested interpreters should submit an application to the ProZ.com Interpreter Pool by clicking on the “Apply” button at https://www.proz.com/pools/interpreters
ProZ.com members will have first access to this work, and if needed will also be provided with free interpreter training designed to get you compliant and start taking interpreting work through a variety of platforms.
Classicist Emily Wilson illuminated the intricacies of translation in her lecture “Re-translating Homer: Why and How” held Thursday. The event delved into the challenges and significance of reinterpreting ancient texts for modern audiences.
The lecture was divided into four main topics: defining translation, explaining Wilson’s background and priorities in translation, demonstrating a case study and answering the question of why Homer is still relevant today. Julia Marvin, the chair of the department of the program of liberal studies, introduced the talk.
“The past is a foreign country,” Marvin said. “They do things differently there, and the past is never dead. It’s not even past.”
COLOGNE: Online translation platform DeepL says it launching an AI assistant that, unlike ChatGPT and other rival AI chatbots, is designed to support the writing process with real-time suggestions on word choice, phrasing, style and tone.
The German software company says its new assistant allows users to optimise their texts regardless of their language skills and find the right words for any situation and any reader.
DeepL Write Pro is the company’s first product to be based on its own large AI language model (LLM). LLMs are machine learning models that are trained to understand and generate human language. Well-known LLMs include GPT from OpenAI, Gemini from Google and Llama from the Facebook group Meta.
The new AI writing assistant is primarily aimed at business users and is designed to support teams in companies when writing business content.
DeepL says the assistant, which currently works in English and German, can help companies ensure precise communication from internal content to external customer communications and contracts.
Google has been quiet as Chrome still doesn’t have this functionality. As for Firefox, users will no longer have to use third-party extensions as the Close Duplicate Tabs option is now available in the context menu.
Simply right-click the page that you assume is a duplicate and choose Close Duplicate Tabs from the context menu. This feature is currently available for testing in Firefox 127 Nightly and enabled by default.
While this feature is useful, it only appears if you right-click a duplicated tab, so you’ll need to manually find the tab before closing all of its instances.
German startup DeepL, known for its AI-powered machine translation, is making a foray into the realm of writing where it adjusts the style of the sentences according to user preference with an emphasis on business application.
The startup launched the service, powered by its own large language model (LLM), in Korea on Friday. It is available in English and German with a plan to expand the number of languages supported.
The style of the sentence can be selected from four style options — business, academic, simple and casual — and four tone options — friendly, diplomatic, confident and enthusiastic.
“Words matter, and language can be the competitive edge that moves the needle for global businesses,” said Jarek Kutylowski, the company’s founder and CEO.
“DeepL Write Pro is our first product powered by our own LLMs, and is the culmination of years of research and innovation that has set us apart from other tech giants.”
‘Shōgun’is a refreshing reminder that in a time where the power of the ‘one-inch tall barrier’ still seems distastefully under contention, sometimes you need to revive the literal Tokugawa Shōgunate to bridge the cumbersome gap between worlds
In its grand finale, FX’s captivating rendition of James Clavell’s historical epic Shōgun gracefully bows out with a rendezvous with mortality.
“Please split your belly open by sunset,” and “Have a good death” echo some of what we hear with the casualness of a tea sip. Yet, to truly grasp the weight of seppuku’s socio-historical significance, honour the richness of its source material, and deftly navigate the intricacies of translation, the series stands alone in its unparalleled achievement. Shōgun employs a three-pronged approach, replete with cross-cultural exchanges, verbal fencing, and the delicate dance of understanding in an era poised on the precipice of profound change.
In early January 2024, when many in the language industry were likely pondering how to eventually incorporate AI into their offerings or processes, OpenAI announced its GPT Store. Back then, a few translation GPTs could be found, including one built by Phrase called “Phrase Expert.”
By the time OpenAI launched the store to the general public, there were already more than three million GPTs done by pre-release testers. After the kind of hype seen in late 2022 with ChatGPT and all the drama surrounding the company’s CEO and Board in 2023, the store launch was also a popular subject in the news and on social media.
Then, the announcement of the company’s text-to-video generator, Sora, arrived in February 2024, lest people get OpenAI out of their minds for too long.
In March 2024, we asked readers if they had ever used Custom GPTs since the store was launched, and over two-thirds of respondents (64.6%) said No. Over a combined quarter of readers said they tested GPTs a bit after launch (14.6%) or from time to time (12.5%), and a very small percentage said they have been using them daily (8.3%).
Comments about this article 
Share an article »
ProZ.com blog »
