Metaglossia: The Translation World

"CHENNAI:  To popularise Tamil language, literature, and the work of Tamil scholars across the globe, the University of Madras has chalked out a slew of measures, from translating eminent Tamil literary works into different languages, to organising annual events.

As part of this, the university has translated saint-poet Avvaiyar’s Aathichudi into Arabic, and made a video on it in Arabic and Tamil with English subtitles, said vice-chancellor S Gowri. “Earlier, Thiruvalluvar’s Tirukkural were translated into Arabic, and the response was just amazing. Encouraged by it, we have made a video on Aathichudi to make it more interesting. Translation of selective works of Bharathiyar is also in the pipeline,” Gowri added.

“Aathichudi provides amazing life lessons that are relevant today, and this great literary work should be spread beyond Tamil Nadu,” he said. Gowri recently presented the video to the chief minister and Governor. The video was made by the Department of Arabic, Persian and Urdu, which now plans to present it in different forums. Assistant professor A Jahir Husain worked on the project.

“After translating Tirukkural to Arabic, I narrated it in Arabic seminars and conferences in countries such as Saudi Arabia, UAE, Dubai, Oman, Kuwait, Malaysia, and Singapore, and the response was overwhelming,” said Husain."

#metaglossia mundus

"« À quoi sert de parler une langue régionale en 2022 ? ». Un thème qui sera abordé lors d’une initiative du Collectif Pour Que Vivent Nos Langues et Euskal Konfederazioa. Ce collectif organise un webinaire qui sera animé par le rédacteur en chef de L’Express, Michel Feltin-Palas, le jeudi 19 mai prochain à 18h30.
Le propos du webinaire portera sur le risque de disparition des langues territoriales. En cette période électorale des législatives, la question du maintien des langues territoriales est d’actualité et ce sera l’occasion pour les candidats de montrer leurs engagements dans ce domaine. Les organisateurs estiment que la situation d’une langue menacée, de nos jours, peut être améliorée grâce à des mesures et des politiques linguistiques appropriées."

#metaglossia mundus

""Anew study at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and the Robert Butler Columbia Aging Center, and Université Paris-Dauphine – PSL, found that having three or more versus two children has a negative effect on late-life cognition. The results further indicated that this effect was strongest in Northern Europe, where higher fertility decreases financial resources but does not improve social resources in this region. This is the first to study the causal effect of high fertility on late-life cognition.

Until now fertility has not received much attention as a potential predictor of late-life cognition compared with other factors, such as education or occupation. The findings are published in the journal Demography.
“Understanding the factors that contribute to optimal late-life cognition is essential for ensuring successful aging at the individual and societal levels—particularly in Europe, where family sizes have shrunk and populations are aging rapidly,” said Vegard Skirbekk, PhD, professor of population and Family health at Columbia Mailman School. “For individuals, late life cognitive health is essential for maintaining independence and being socially active and productive in late life. For societies, ensuring the cognitive health of the older population is essential for extending work lives and reducing health care costs and care needs,” said Eric Bonsang, PhD, professor of economics at the Université Paris-Dauphine – PSL.
The researchers analyzed data from the Survey of Health, Aging and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) to examine the extent to which having three or more children versus two children causally affects late-life cognition. SHARE surveys representative samples of the older populations in 20 European countries and Israel including Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland. Participants were aged 65 or older who had at least two biological children.
Based on advanced econometric methods able disentangle causality from simple associations, the evidence suggests that that having three or more versus two children is related to worse late-life cognition. They also found that this effect is similar for both men and women."

"The series Language and Text Studies publishes works of a broad range of research on aspects of language and text, including English, French, German, Slavonic and Baltic studies. Although its central perspective is linguistic in nature, publications also encompass literary and cultural studies. The series comprises monographs as well as anthologies.
The editors Alexander Brock and Daniela Pietrini are linguists at the English and French + Italian Departments of Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg."

#metaglossia mundus

"There are 235 million students enrolled in higher education worldwide, a number that has more than doubled in the last 20 years and will likely double again over the coming decade.

Faced with such growing demand, how can we ensure quality higher education that is adapted to contemporary challenges such as sustainable development? How can international academic mobility be supported? What lessons can be learned from the COVID-19 pandemic? These questions will be at the heart of the World Conference.

More than 1,500 participants are expected to attend the event coming from universities, governments, multilateral agencies, the private sector and civil society to share their experiences and ideas with a view to drawing a common global roadmap for the coming decade.

...

The COVID-19 pandemic challenged higher education systems resulting in learning losses and increased inequalities. It has also shown that higher education systems with significant public funding are more resilient in the face of a global crisis, better able to ensure continuity of provision and inclusion of the largest number of students. The Conference will draw lessons from the past two years to design systems that are both stronger and more resilient.

In order to develop the roadmap for higher education to 2030, the Conference will focus on the following themes: (1) Impact of COVID-19 on Higher Education; (2) Higher Education and the Sustainable Development Goals; (3) Inclusion; (4) Quality and Relevance of Programmes; (5) Academic Mobility; (6) Governance; (7) Financing; (8) Data and Knowledge Production; (9) International Cooperation and (10) The Futures of Higher Education.

The International Council for Science (ICS), the International Association of Universities (IAU) are among the conference partners, as well as the Global Universities Network for Innovation (GUNi/ACUP) and the Catalan Association of Public Universities.

Journalists wishing to attend the conference at the Barcelona Montjuïc Conference Centre are requested to register here

Media contact: Lucía Iglesias Kuntz

+33 (0) 6 80 24 07 29

UNESCO World Conference website"

#metaglossia mundus

"“I have full appreciation for the fact that Mandarin is not an easy language. I didn’t want to make it into a big political thing. I just wanted to make fun of it because the sound that came out of that man’s mouth did not resemble Mandarin in any way, shape or form.”

In the interview, Liu spoke out about social media as a whole, warning of the ability for forums to exacerbate “the mob mentality” and even become more of a “liability” instead of an agent for change. Instead, Liu hopes to utilize his platform as an MCU star to create a “lexicon” for those looking to discuss their AAPI identities.

“[Shang-Chi allowed] me to be in the driver’s seat of projects that wouldn’t otherwise exist,” Liu said. “For example, this book, or movies that I’m really excited to help get made. Not necessarily just jumping on to the next studio movie, but there are stories out there that I genuinely feel like without my hand pushing them forward, would never get told. Third-culture kids grew up so starved for that kind of content. I just want the next generation to not experience that.”"

#metaglossia mundus

"Universities and colleges are intent on returning to “normal” as we emerge from the pandemic. They do not recognise that “normal” is officially outdated. An education system that was designed for the 20th century has yet to adapt in real and demonstrable ways to the needs and wants of the 21st century. Teaching methods have not changed substantially for more than 100 years. We line our students up in a row and we talk down to them. Many of our teachers are disillusioned and disempowered.

Does this sound familiar?

At University College Dublin’s Innovation Academy, we work with educators to bring creativity and innovation into education. We believe it is essential to transform the education system in the Republic of Ireland, and globally – an education system that remains focused on the consumption of knowledge, even though, in today’s world, knowledge is ubiquitous. We need to recognise this and instead design education to focus on what we do with knowledge.

[...]

An entrepreneurial mindset draws from entrepreneurship principles, but it is not being an entrepreneur and it is not about starting businesses. It’s a way of thinking that enables you to overcome challenges, be decisive and accept responsibility for the outcomes of your decisions. It’s about constantly looking for ways to improve, by learning from your mistakes and failures. There are many competencies within an entrepreneurial mindset, but the key ones we focus on are creativity and innovation, comfort with risk, opportunity recognition, flexibility and adaptability, future orientation, initiative, resilience and self-direction."

#metaglossia mundus

"Philippe Ouzounian, de la compagnie de théâtre L’Échappée belle, a interprété, vendredi 13 mai, un texte de Jean-Claude Bonnaud, Le Vieux qui aimait les fautes d’orthographe. L’histoire d’un homme qui revisite sa vie au travers de la langue française et s’amuse des mots empruntés à des langues étrangères. Un spectacle pour petits et grands qui a rassemblé une petite cinquantaine de personnes dans les jardins de la médiathèque Raymonde-Vincent."

#metaglossia mundus

"Selon les régions de l’Empire, selon les quartiers des grandes villes, selon même des branches professionnelles, les Ottomans parlaient le turc, le grec, l’arménien, l’assyrien, le kurde, l’arabe, le persan, le français, l’italien, l’espagnol, l’albanais, le serbo-croate et beaucoup d’autres langues vernaculaires. Mais il est vrai aussi qu’à partir du 15e siècle est apparue une langue propre à l’administration, qui se transforma peu à peu en langue littéraire. Notée avec des caractères arabes, cette langue "ottomane", dynamique par ailleurs dans le temps (l’ottoman du 16e siècle n’est pas l’ottoman du 19e siècle) avait une structure syntaxique majoritairement turque mais son vocabulaire était dominé par un vocabulaire majoritairement arabe, minoritairement persan et turc et enrichi, selon le secteur d’activité, des mots venant du grec (et à partir du 18e siècle, du français et italien). Ainsi l’ottoman est une langue difficilement accessible dont la maîtrise était une question de classe sociale. Dès la période des Tanzimat*, avec le succès des pensées nationalistes, l’idée de la "purification" de cette langue était évoquée. Cela sera chose faite à partir des années 1930 à travers une "révolution linguistique".

Celle-ci a plusieurs volets dont le plus important est le changement d’alphabet. Tout au long de son histoire, la langue turque a été notée de plusieurs manières. Si les inscriptions d’Orkhon (sur le territoire actuel de Mongolie), qui sont considérées comme les premiers textes en turc (environ 200 textes datés du 8e-10e siècles de notre ère) sont rédigées avec une écriture runique, la langue turque a suivi la vie nomade de ses locuteurs et s’est adaptée à plusieurs notations. Ainsi, il existe des textes en turc rédigés avec l’alphabet tibétain, brahmi, arménien, grec, syriaque, hébraïque... Et donc, la langue ottomane mentionnée ci-dessus fut rédigée en alphabet arabe. A la fin du 19e siècle et au début du 20e siècle, plusieurs dialectes du turc comme le Iakoute ou l’Azéri ont commencé à adopter l’alphabet latin. En Turquie, les débats sur le changement d’alphabet ont commencé avec les Tanzimat, mais c’est après la proclamation de la République, dans le cadre de cette révolution linguistique, que l’alphabet latin fut officiellement adopté en 1928."

#metaglossia mundus

"...Dans l’Hexagone, le mot de fédéralisme est tabou. Depuis la Révolution française, le terme a été totalement banni de l’univers républicain. De manière consciente ou non, la notion de fédéralisme est perçue comme une négation de l’État, du contrat social, de la nation, ce qui est bien évidemment faux. La plupart de nos voisins européens sont parfaitement unis et possèdent pourtant une forme fédérale. Dans l’Hexagone en revanche, le terme de décentralisation est présent dans le débat public et une décentralisation très poussée reviendrait à une forme de fédération…

Une des caractéristiques d’un État fédéral est l’importance accordée aux langues locales. En France, la tradition consiste globalement à les faire taire…

Là encore, il s’agit d’une tradition historique qui remonte à l’Abbé Grégoire mais aussi aux hussards noirs de la République qui ont voulu créer une nation linguistiquement homogène. Cela s’explique par une peur de la liberté et une idée saugrenue : si les langues régionales se développent, le français va disparaître. Cette crainte est infondée puisque, dans tous les pays qui favorisent l’usage des langues régionales, l’idiome national reste vivace. De manière sous-jacente, cela traduit parfaitement la peur que les dirigeants de l’État central ont des citoyens. Dans notre pays, le pouvoir ne cherche pas à déléguer mais à tout centraliser. Et les personnes formées à l’ENA ou à Polytechnique sont très attachées à cette vision des choses. S’il est impensable de supprimer les grands corps, il est vital de mieux encadrer la haute administration, de la limiter à quelques missions dans lesquelles elle excelle.

Quels sont les défauts d’un régime trop centralisé comme le nôtre ?

Une structure si lourde qui intervient dans tant de domaines ne peut être efficace, manque d’agilité, et de capacité à prendre les décisions au plus près du terrain. C’est factuel et observable : une organisation de grande taille qui intervient dans de multiples domaines ne peut pas être fonctionnelle. Nous nous retrouvons dans une situation où ceux qui se chargent de faire respecter les règles n’en comprennent parfois pas plus le sens que ceux qui y sont soumis.

Mais il existe un autre problème encore plus grave. Je suis persuadé que l’ultracentralisation est la raison principale qui explique la rupture si nette entre les citoyens et leurs gouvernants. Le rejet dont souffrent la haute administration et la technocratie ne peut se guérir qu’à une seule condition : rapprocher la décision politique du citoyen.

"L'ultracentralisation est la raison principale qui explique la rupture entre les citoyens et leurs gouvernants"

En quoi une France fédérale permettrait-elle de renforcer le lien entre citoyens et dirigeants ?

La proximité entre le citoyen et les dirigeants devrait permettre de restaurer la confiance. Les décisions seront comprises, les Français se sentiront davantage associés à leurs dirigeants, participeront davantage à la vie civile. Le projet que je défends instaure une grande liberté de décision au plus près des territoires, c’est fondamental."

#metaglossia mundus

"Conference interpreter Barry Slaughter Olsen explains what it’s really like to be a professional interpreter. Barry goes behind the scenes of his vocation, breaking down the many real-life scenarios he faces on a day-to-day basis. From simultaneous and consecutive interpretation to chuchotage and décalage, take a peek behind what it really takes to be a professional interpreter.

Barry Slaughter Olsen is the Professor of Translation and Interpretation at Middlebury Institute of International Studies.

NOTE: The techniques employed in this video are not all applicable to interpreting in a courtroom setting, where expectations regarding accuracy and completeness can be quite different. In this sense, legal interpreting is unique. More information on standards "

#metaglossia mundus

"A man who pleaded to possession of an illegal substance, cocaine, but who lacks English skills, used an interpreter here in Stanislaus County Superior Court this week—but the interpreter left before the defense attorney finished explaining the terms of the man’s sentence.

Charly Garcia Lopez awaited his sentencing, pleading to Count 1 on offenses of illegal drug possession with intent to sell. Lopez was accompanied by private attorney Julissa Echevarria.

Brief pauses took place throughout the sentencing to allow Cruz time to interpret, from English to Spanish. Garcia Lopez was sentenced to 60 days in Stanislaus County Jail after the deputy district attorney stated the accused was “found in possession of more than one ounce of cocaine, along with $3,000 in the bag, and $50,000 more in the truck” on April 30, 2020."

#metaglossia mundus

"The Translation Centre for the Bodies of the European Union, hereinafter referred to as the Translation Centre, is launching a call for tenders for the conclusion of multiple framework contracts for translation and post-editing services regarding texts in the legal field relating to the work of the various bodies and institutions of the European Union for which the Translation Centre provides translation services, from German, Spanish French and Italian into English.

The notice of the call for tenders has been published in the Official Journal of the European Union, supplement S 065 dated 01/04/2022 under the reference 2022/S 065-167468.

Only this text is authentic. The Official Journal mentioned is available at the usual sales points of the Publications Office of the European Union. It can also be consulted on the website of the Publications Office at http://ted.europa.eu"

#metaglossia mundus

"The Icelandic Literature Center has announced its 2022 publishing grants as well as its biannual translation grants.

Every year, the Icelandic Literature Center allocates publishing grants to local publishers to support the publication of new works in Icelandic. These grants are awarded with the intention of supporting works that have particular cultural and epistemological value.

This year, the Center funded 54 works, for a total of ISK 28 million [$208,986; €200,856] in funding. A total of 72 applications were received, requesting ISK 75 million [$559,743; €537,806] in grant funding. The topics of this year’s grantees range significantly, from an 18th century murder case, architecture, the history of communism in Iceland, the kings of Iceland, contemporary LGBTQIA+ art and more.

Growing Interest in Icelandic Literature Abroad

The Icelandic Literature Center also allocates funding to foreign publishers to support the translation of Icelandic literature into other languages. Allocations for these grants are made twice a year, in February and September. In February, the Center allocated 54 grants for translations into 22 languages. Translated works included contemporary novels, poetry, children’s books, biographies, and medieval sagas."

#metaglossia mundus

"L. W.: I have translator friends and I know that there is no frustration at all from authors because they defend the authors they like but they are victims of a certain contempt and they are used and totally underpaid. It's horrible how poorly paid they are. These are hours and months of meticulous work. At the hourly price, it can be ten times below the hourly salary of a person who takes care of the household. It's extravagant. I think we have a mission as a reader. We have to make a small effort to concentrate on these translators to try to spot them all the same. Not to take it for granted."

#metaglossia mundus

"Translator and author, Nicolas Richard had the opportunity to answer Régis Roinsard's questions when he was preparing his new film The Translators. He agreed to answer our questions about what he thought of the film and its description of the profession. When preparing to write his new film, The Translators, Régis Roinsard wanted to get as close as possible to the profession he was going to describe. He therefore met many translation professionals. Among them, Nicolas Richard answered his questions. A French translator and writer, he has translated a hundred books from Anglo-Saxon literature, including the novels of Thomas Pynchon, a mysterious author who keeps a veil of secrecy about his identity. From his discussions with Nicolas Richard, Régis Roinsard most certainly drew part of the personality of Oscar Brach, a successful author who wishes at all costs to remain hidden in his film The Translators. During a telephone interview, Nicolas Richard sheds light on the profession of translator and the way it is portrayed in Régis Roinsard's film. He was interested in the fact that I had translated Thomas Pynchon, a rather mysterious, still living American author of whom almost nothing is known; Pynchon never gave a single interview in his life, never appeared in public, only one photo of him circulating, very old; some even doubted its existence!"

#metaglossia mundus

"Sometimes you have to be clever.

Players have been discussing all things good, bad, and ugly about the process of translating character names. While some interesting insights have been shared, there have also been some pretty brutal criticisms.

The conversation can be traced back to a user on Resetera going by the name of SolVanderlyn who started a popular thread on the topic. “One of my favorite things to talk about is translation in video games. Back in the day, this stemmed from the fact that Japanese to English translations usually ranged from bad to abysmal,” SolVanderlyn began. “Upon discovery that the original scripts were much more cohesive, I fell in love with translating on the spot. It's its own way of uncovering the truth. What's really being said? What's the author's intent?”"

#metaglossia mundus

"...as 80 writers from around the world filed into the stately Trusteeship Council Chamber at the United Nations on Friday, some may have flashed back to the heyday of high-stakes cultural diplomacy — or at least the climax of the 2005 Nicole Kidman thriller “The Interpreter.”

The occasion was an Emergency World Voices Congress of Writers, convened by the writers organization PEN America. But after the pounding of the opening gavel, the group’s chief executive, Suzanne Nossel, laid to rest any notion that the grand setting meant that a solution to the “cascading crises” of the moment was at hand."

#metaglossia mundus

"To address the issue of language in education, we first need to abandon the elite concept of a ‘pure and standard’ language. All languages are equally systematic and fluid, and we should be able to talk of Sanskrit and Santali in the same breath and with the same respect."

#metaglossia mundus

"A decade after the debut of Google Glass, a nubby, sci-fi-looking pair of specs that filmed what wearers saw but raised concerns about privacy and received low marks for design, the Alphabet Inc GOOGL.O unit on Wednesday previewed a yet-unnamed pair of standard-looking glasses that display translations of conversations in real time and showed no hint of a camera.

The new augmented-reality pair of glasses was just one of several longer-term products Google unveiled at its annual Google I/O developer conference aimed at bridging the real world and the company’s digital universe of search, Maps and other services using the latest advances in artificial intelligence.

“What we’re working on is technology that enables us to break down language barriers, taking years of research in Google Translate and bringing that to glasses,” said Eddie Chung, a director of product management at Google, calling the capability “subtitles for the world.”"

#metaglossia mundus

"The Foreign Affairs Committee at the House of Representatives recommended on Monday that faculties of African studies be opened in Egyptian universities as well as departments of African languages at the faculties of arts and education.

The committee also recommended that the Arab African Forum is continued in the same strength as its first edition, all to enhance Egyptian leadership, according to a statement by the Coordination of Party Youth and Politicians (CPYP).

MP Amr Ezzat said in the meeting that Egypt needs to reinforce its communication with African nations to strengthen African cooperation and development amongst the countries of the continent."

#metaglossia mundus

"Apple today announced new accessibility features that will be included in its physical devices (such as the iPhone and iPad) and OS releases throughout 2022.

Among the novelties: a door detection system for people who are blind or visually impaired and the reproduction of the original sound for people with a hearing impairment.

...

Other features coming throughout the year

• VoiceOver: The brand also announced the expansion of VoiceOver languages. With it, the device describes everything that is happening on the screen of the device – it has been working in Portuguese for a while. To date, there are more than 20 languages ​​- the new ones are Bengali, Bulgarian, Catalan, Ukrainian and Vietnamese.
• buddy console: Resources where a person can ask a health professional or friends to help him play a game;
• Siri downtime: Users will be able to adjust the response time of Siri’s personal assistant before it responds to the request;
• Voice recognition: The feature can be customized to recognize specific sounds from the environment in which the person is located, such as an alarm, a house bell, or sounds made by devices.
• Gestures on Apple Watch: The company explains that hand gestures can be used to control the Apple Watch, such as the dual dial gesture to answer or end a call, dismiss a notification, take a photo, and play or pause media."

#metaglossia mundus

"With primary elections well underway across the country, voting rights and immigrant advocates are raising the alarm about a lack of language assistance for voters who aren’t fluent in English.
While federal law requires counties with a certain percentage of non-English-speaking citizens to provide ballots in a limited number of languages, advocates contend the federal threshold is too high and does not cover enough languages, leaving voters in many immigrant communities unable to fully understand election materials.
This struggle is on display in Hall County, Georgia, a community that is 29 percent Latino but doesn't have to provide ballots in Spanish because it doesn't meet the federal lack of English proficiency criteria. Local officials also have refused to voluntarily provide Spanish ballots for voters, which has been frustrating for Jerry Gonzalez, CEO of the Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials, a nonprofit based just outside of Atlanta that advances civil engagement in the Latino community.
“There’s no reason why counties can’t better serve their changing demographics with the tools they need for a better voting process,” he said. “We all stand to benefit when those who are not fluent in English have meaningful access to cast their ballot in an informed way.”

[...]

In Cook County, Illinois, home of Chicago and where 35 percent of residents speak a language other than English at home, local officials enacted an ordinance that expanded, beginning in 2020, the criteria by which the county offers ballots and election materials in other languages.

While the county is required by the federal government to provide ballots in Chinese, Hindi and Spanish, the county voluntarily added eight more languages to its list: Arabic, Gujarati, Korean, Polish, Russian, Tagalog, Ukrainian and Urdu. The statute requires the county to provide a native-language ballot if there are more than 13,000 speakers in the area.

In California, the second-most racially diverse state in the country behind Hawaii, nearly 45 percent of residents speak a language other than English at home, among them more than 200 languages and dialects. The secretary of state mandates counties add additional language assistance that goes beyond federal requirements.

Los Angeles County already is required by the feds to offer translated election materials in Cambodian, Chinese, Korean, Spanish, Tagalog and Vietnamese. The state, however, requires that the county also provides ballots in Armenian, Bengali, Burmese, Farsi, Gujarati, Hindi, Indonesian, Japanese, Mongolian, Russian, Telugu and Thai.

Many local election officials feel obligated to assist voters whose English comprehension might not be high enough to fully understand their ballots, even if their non-English-speaking population does not meet the federal threshold.

It’s the right thing to do, said Heather Carmen, the assistant registrar of voters for Washoe County, Nevada, the only community in the state that voluntarily offers ballots and voter guides in English and Spanish. Voters also can bring someone to help translate their ballot at a polling place, as long as the assistant is not part of the voter’s labor union.

“We try to provide as much as we can,” Carmen said. “I want everybody to have an equal opportunity to learn about the candidates on the ballot and make an educated decision on who they’re voting for.”

Clark County, Nevada, which includes Las Vegas, is federally mandated to provide ballots in Spanish and Tagalog, while Nye County is required to offer ballots in Shoshone.

Other Nevada communities should follow Washoe County’s example, said Mary Janet Ramos, the Nevada campaign manager for All Voting Is Local, a national voting rights organization that released a report last month calling on the state to provide better language assistance in elections.

In the third-most racially diverse state in the country, where nearly a half-million adults speak a language other than English, counties should be offering election materials in Amharic, Chinese, Korean, Spanish, Tagalog, Thai and Vietnamese to voters, she said. This fight is personal for Ramos: Growing up, she was asked by Spanish-speaking relatives to translate ballots for them."

#metaglossia mundus

"Cities are finding ways to make the most of their digital tools to help people access public services more smoothly, participate in local decisions, and propose ideas. Until now, their work has passed under the radar. This is about to change, as the UserCentriCities project is getting ready to crown the first winner of the award for best user-centric service in European cities and regions.

The award aims to raise awareness and recognise the outstanding achievements made by European cities and regions in developing user-centric services for their citizens. A high-level group of experts from international institutions, the public sector and academia had the difficult task of looking at 32 submitted projects. Their evaluation was based on the user-centricity principles for the design and the delivery of digital public services as outlined in the Tallinn Ministerial Declaration on eGovernment. Three finalists stood out.

The culture sector has taken one of the biggest hits during the Covid-19 pandemic, yet it has also been one of the most reactive, bringing culture to the people through online services. Espoo’s libraries had gone digital well before the health crisis. Since 2012, the city has involved its citizens in ideating, designing, beta-testing, and giving continuous feedback on their dreams’ electronic library (e-library).

The result is a joint e-library service catering to over a million residents in Espoo, Helsinki, Kauniainen and Vantaa. The service is available in multiple languages, such as English, Finnish, and Swedish, and can be accessed through the Taskukirjasto-application, which means Pocket library in Finnish.

From e-books to e-magazines to music and training courses, the over three million items catalogue is free and open to everyone. Users can browse and renew their loans through their account, reserve library materials, save their reading histories and checklists, rate library materials, save search phrases, and update contact information."

#metaglossia mundus

"An intensive care consultant in Hull has translated an organ donation video into 18 languages to help people from all cultures consider the gift of life.

Dr Harish Lad, Clinical Lead in Organ Donation at Hull University Teaching Hospitals (HUTH), has produced a series of videos in different languages to promote organ donation.

The NHS Organ Donation video is used by NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) in television and social media advertising to support their “Leave Them Certain” message, asking people to ensure their families are aware of their decision to donate organs in the event of their deaths.

Dr Lad, who works in intensive care at Hull Royal Infirmary and Castle Hill Hospital, said: “We want to reach out to all communities to make them aware of the importance of organ donation.

“These videos share key messages in people’s own languages, allowing them to reflect and relate to the issue and to help them begin to have those vital conversations with their loved ones.”

Each year, hundreds of opportunities for transplants are missed because families aren’t sure what their loved one would have wanted.

The “Leave Them Certain” video shows a son sharing memories of his father, with the man laughing and dancing at family parties and having fun on family holidays.

The son says: “I remember Dad’s dance moves, his killer ‘tache. Dad was just a really happy character. I remember his smile.”

The video cuts to the son standing in a hospital corridor. “But I also remember when they asked if he wanted to be an organ donor – and I just didn’t know.”

It ends with the message: “Talk to your loved ones about organ donation.”

Dr Lad has arranged for the video to be translated into Arabic, Bengali, Urdu, Gujarati, Hindi, Punjabi, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Polish, Latvian, Lithuanian, Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, Russian, Romanian, and Greek."

#metaglossia mundus