Metaglossia: The Translation World

"Fourteen Mother Goose nursery rhymes at Storybook Land in Wylie Park have been translated into American Sign Language and Braille..."

By Shannon Marvel   

August 24, 2026

https://aberdeeninsider.com/storybook-land-nursery-rhymes-translated-in-braille-american-sign-language/

#metaglossia 

#metaglossia_mundus 

 

"Deaf interpreters translate hours of Netflix content into ASL because closed captioning isn’t a fix
Former San Diego and Alpine resident, Scott Keller, is one of the certified Deaf interpreters who worked on the project between SignUp Media, an entertainment company focused on accessibility for the Deaf community, and Netflix

Scott Keller, a Certified Deaf Interpreter, is seen here translating the children’s program “Llama Llama.” (Photo courtesy of SignUp Media)

Any time his children want to watch a movie, Scott Keller stands next to the television in the family room to translate what they’re watching into American Sign Language.

“I have the subtitles on for myself to understand, and I sign the content real-time. My children get the benefit of the movie’s content in American Sign Language and English, simultaneously,” he said via email. “Deaf people are naturally bilingual, and I know that what I am doing for my children, not many other children have the same opportunity.”

Keller is a Certified Deaf Interpreter through the Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf, a nationwide licensing body. He, his wife, and their three children (a fourth is on the way) are all deaf, and his kids attend the Texas School for the Deaf in Austin. His work includes translating entertainment content into ASL through SignUp Media, an entertainment company focused on accessibility for the Deaf community. They have a global network of hundreds of Deaf interpreters who translate hundreds of hours of content into multiple sign languages. Recently, Keller was among a number of interpreters involved in SignUp Media’s partnership with Netflix to do this work on dozens of the streaming platform’s original programming for kids and families, and licensed titles, available through SignUp. The ASL translations by the interpreters is overlaid directly onto the streaming content, and viewers can resize or reposition it next to the video as they wish. Titles include “Pokemon Horizons,” “The Magic School Bus Rides Again,” “Cocomelon,” and “Stranger Things: Tales from ’85,” and interpreters are all Deaf and native signers, and were matched by language, character, and lived experience—a Cuban Deaf interpreter worked on “Vivo,” while an Asian Deaf interpreter worked on “Wish Dragon,” keeping the translations culturally relevant and accurate.

Keller, who lived in San Diego and Alpine before moving to Austin, Texas, in 2023, previously worked at Deaf Community Services of San Diego. He’s currently working toward a Ph.D. from the University of San Diego in leadership and organizational management, with plans to establish a nonprofit advocacy center.

“As a disabled individual, specifically with my Deafness, I constantly have to prove myself. To represent myself and my community well, I feel that a doctoral degree in the area I have a passion for will be able to shine a light to my community,” he says. “I chose organizational management because my passion has always been helping others in my community and the nonprofit field opens doors to that.”

(This interview has been edited for length and clarity. )

Q: You’re one of the Deaf interpreters in SignUp’s partnership with Netflix to translate dozens of children’s programs to American Sign Language. Which programs did you translate and how long did it take you to complete the translations?

A: I have done “Hotel Transylvania 3,” “Train Dreams,” “Frankenstein” (Guillermo Del Toro’s version), among others. The time it takes me to translate the content is equivalent to the duration of the film. If the film is 60 minutes long, I translate 60 minutes of content in real time. Although, there are more hours invested in the project such as prep time (watching the film beforehand, especially if it’s the type of film to win an Oscar), my home studio setup and break down (I have my studio set up in the kids’ playroom, so you can imagine the extra time it takes me to clear out their mess every time). I have post-production time that includes ensuring the data I record gets transferred to the laptop and then to the cloud. I would say anywhere from 60 to 90 more minutes extra, on top of the duration of the film.

Q: Walk us through your process for this kind of ASL translation work. How did you prepare and execute this project? What were some of the challenges, or tricky spots?

A: When I am assigned a project, I can choose to take or pass on it. While I have yet to pass on a project, I will review the content and see if it’s something I need to research, perhaps specific jargon that will require more time translating. Then, I set up the studio when my kids go to bed, and I begin translating in real time with my camera recording myself, and my laptop running the content. The challenges vary; sometimes it’s the content, sometimes it’s the mess my kids leave, and sometimes I’m just really tired! I would say the challenges are in translating characters. I mean, I’m an individual translating the entire movie’s content that could range anywhere from two, to five, to maybe 10 different characters. Sometimes more than several characters are displayed on the same screen, and it gets hard to differentiate between which character is speaking a message. I address this by shifting my shoulders to the left and the right, matching the position of characters on the screen. If one character is on the left, and another character is on the right, I will translate while leaning to the left and then to the right. In a perfect world, I would like to see one interpreter for each character! That would be amazing.

Q: Are you comfortable talking a bit about your background and how you became deaf?

A: Absolutely! I was born proudly genetically Deaf! Deafness spans four generations in my family, and that equates to about 100 years. My children are the fifth in the generation, being naturally, genetically Deaf. We carry the gene Connexin 26, which is known to cause deafness. Connexin 26 is a protein produced by the GJB2 gene. Variants in GJB2 are among the most common genetic causes of congenital, nonsyndromic, sensorineural hearing loss. Although, this is not the case for many other Deaf kids; research has it that between 90% to 95% of Deaf kids are born to hearing families, which means they are the only family member that’s Deaf and, more often than not, the only person left out linguistically and culturally. My family has no issues with communication as each member is Deaf.

Q: How has your lived experience shaped your approach to this work?

A: My mother used to do this for me when I was growing up. She did not have the same educational opportunities as I did, but she made sure that her kids would get better access. She would attempt to translate what she knew when watching TV/movies, and as little kids, that was enough. While growing up, my mother would fight for our accessibility rights at school, after school, even at the doctor’s office. She would not give up until each of us had equal access. I think that played a big role in the reason why I continue to do community work, and ensuring accessibility is not an afterthought for the Deaf community.

Q: Can you talk about what’s missing from closed captioning, and why it’s not the fix that other people might assume it would be?

A: With subtitles and closed captioning, a lot of things get missed. Sometimes, it’s a technical glitch, sometimes it’s a grammar error, and most of the time it is simply a written representation of the spoken words. To accurately understand the captions, it takes understanding the spoken word, understanding the innuendos, tone, rhythm, sarcasm, and a lot of other things that are hidden in the message. Basically, captioning provides access to words, while interpreting provides access to the message’s linguistic, cultural, emotional, and contextual meaning.

Q: What’s most exciting or gratifying for you about this project, and having these programs include ASL now?

A: I’m excited and grateful that Netflix is on board, because I think each title in Netflix’s database should be accessible in American Sign Language, or at least just those titles that already offer subtitles in other languages. American Sign Language is often overlooked, missed, or simply never accounted for. To include ASL, it takes extra time in locating the right talent (interpreters, actors, performers, what have you) and it takes technical time (recording, editing, set up/break down, uploading, etc.). Although we live in a tech-paced environment in America, and it’s 2026, I think it’s time that movies and TV shows are automatically accessible..."
By Lisa Deaderick | lisa.deaderick@sduniontribune.com
PUBLISHED: August 16, 2026
https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/2026/08/16/deaf-interpreters-translate-hours-of-netflix-content-into-asl-because-closed-captioning-isnt-a-fix/
#metaglossia
#metaglossia_mundus

"Academic quest brings new, full translation of ancient classic to English-speaking world

Remco Breuker, a professor of Korean Studies at Leiden University in the Netherlands, holds his book "Vestiges of the Three Kingdoms of Ancient Korea" at Gyeongbok Palace in Jongno District, Seoul, July 28. Korea Times photo by Choi Won-suk

A few decades ago, Korean studies was often treated as an afterthought and viewed as a sub-discipline to Chinese and Japanese studies. Today, a landmark complete English translation of one of Korea’s most important medieval texts is proving how dynamic and indispensable Korean history is to the global literary landscape.

At the heart of this milestone is Remco Breuker, a professor of Korean Studies at Leiden University in the Netherlands and a leading European authority on pre-modern Korean history. He, together with two other scholars — one of whom was his own teacher — to translate "Samguk Yusa," also known in English as "Memorabilia of the Three Kingdoms."

Published by the University of Hawaii Press, his translation is titled "Vestiges of the Three Kingdoms of Ancient Korea." The 570-page work is the first complete and fully annotated English translation of the 13th-century classic.

Compiled primarily by the Buddhist monk Iryeon during the late Goryeo period, "Samguk Yusa" is a collection of forktalkes and legends of the Three Kingdoms period and before.

The newly released volume stands as the fruit of over six decades of dedication spanning three generations of Dutch scholars. The pioneering project was initiated at Leiden University decades ago by Frits Vos (1918–2000), who helped lay the groundwork for Korean studies in Europe.

It was subsequently carried forward by his student, Boudewijn Walraven, before being brought to fruition by Breuker, Walraven’s own student and academic heir.

Translating 800-year-old living classic

Unlike previous English translations, this edition was painstakingly translated in full directly from the original text, which is primarily in classical Chinese, with some elements of "hyangchal" — an archaic writing system that used Chinese characters to represent vernacular Korean. The new book has over 2,000 footnotes, reflecting modern scholarship.

"'Samguk Yusa' is written 99 percent in classical Chinese and one percent in Old Korean poems, preserved through Hanzi phonetics," Breuker, 54, said during an interview with the Korea Times at a cafe in Seoul on July 28. "Older translations were not annotated like this. More importantly, they were translations of translations. If you want to make a proper translation, it needs to be from the original."

Reflecting on his 16 years of effort to finalize and annotate the draft originally started by Vos, Professor Breuker admitted the undertaking was intricate. "Because professor Vos had translated about 90 percent of it, I initially thought we could finish in three years, but that was a miscalculation," he said. "It is personally meaningful to complete the translation, started by the mentor who opened the path for Korean studies."

Beyond its academic significance, he stressed the book remains an important work within contemporary Korean society. "It is a living text; it still matters," he observed. "Almost every year, new translations into Korean appear because people look at the text to decide what their ancestors were like and what the future should look like."

"Vestiges of the Three Kingdoms of Ancient Korea" by Remco Breuker / Korea Times by Choi Won-suk

Diversity of Goryeo and Dangun myth

Professor Breuker’s research highlights the Goryeo period's rich culture and open-mindedness.

"The interesting thing about Goryeo is that whether you talk to scholars of Buddhism, Confucianism, Daoism or geomancy, each will tell you their field is the most important," Breuker explained. "All those things coexisted together in Goryeo. In Goryeo, it was seen as different choices to look at the world."

"Samguk Yusa" is also famous for containing the earlist known record of the Dangun legend, which tells the story of the founding of the mythical first Korean kingdom of Gojoseon. Dangun was the son of a heavenly figure and a bear who turned into a human woman after living in a cave while consuming only garlic and mugwort.

According to Breuker, this myth fundamentally reshaped how Koreans viewed their lineage under foreign pressure.

"By starting with the Dangun myth, you completely rewrite Korean history," Breuker noted. "Whether people actually believed Dangun had existed doesn't matter as much as the fact that now you could refer to a common ancestor — one country as the origin of all people on the peninsula."

From ancient storytelling to hallyu

Breuker sees a direct connection between Korea’s ancient storytelling traditions and the modern global wave of Korean pop culture, films, and dramas.

"For the K-pop generation, it shows you how long before BTS or 'Squid Game,' there was a long history of literature worth knowing," Breuker said. "It shows that people are people, no matter the period."

He credited Korea's intense 20th-century history as the incubator for its creative explosion, noting that once censorship lifted, artistic expression surged. He added that Korea's history as a colonized country rather than a colonial power makes its culture non-threatening and uniquely accessible worldwide.

Reflecting on the field's evolution, Breuker celebrated the shift in European academia: "Korean studies used to be the little brother of Japanese and Chinese studies. Now, people can start directly with Korean. I hope this book quenches the long-standing thirst for a deep academic understanding of 'Samguk Yusa.'""
By Park Jin-hai
Published Aug 15, 2026 7:00 am KST
https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/lifestyle/books/20260815/dutch-scholar-completes-landmark-translation-of-samguk-yusa
#metaglossia
#metaglossia_mundus

"AI is flooding the online book market with poor translations: Here’s how to spot them
AI translations push the crafted work of real translators – with qualifications, genuine language skills, experience – to the back of a very busy marketplace.
Terry Bradford, The Conversation
Aug 16, 2026 · 05:30 pm
If you’re buying literature in translation online, buyer beware. You may unknowingly be buying low-quality AI-assisted translations presented as the work of a professional.

Certain online retailers are being used to flood the book market with AI-assisted “translations”. Amazon is one such example, though the company seems to be aware of the problem and claims to be addressing it.

I’m a published translator of French and Belgian literature and I teach literary translation to MA students. So I know from experience how much time and effort go into translation. Like many translators, I’m wary of the impact of AI on translation quality, not least because AI is not ideologically neutral. This means AI translation is more likely to reproduce outdated racial stereotypes (rife in colonial-era literature, alas) rather than handle them with sensitivity.

I first became aware of the practice when I purchased a Jules Verne novel in English online. The book presents as the work of a human translator and styles itself as “for a modern readership”. Within three minutes of opening the book, I had got my money back. Why? Style-wise, there was nothing “modern” about the “translation” – the style was as archaic as the first translation in 1877. And the presentation of the text was woeful by industry standards. It was clear AI had been used, but not disclosed.

The phenomenon seems to be expanding, and it raises serious ethical concerns regarding translation as a practice.

Why does it matter?
AI translations push the crafted work of real translators – with qualifications, genuine language skills and experience – to the back of a very busy marketplace.

What galls professional translators like me is that it might take months or even years to read, research and translate just one piece of literature. The AI-assisted pulp being churned out just cannot compete with a professional, human translator in terms of quality.

Translators can do their bit by increasing their visibility. They can offer well-researched forewords, for example, that explain their strategy, illustrate their appreciation of the text and its historical context and demonstrate the value they have added as human translators. But readers will also have to learn to be canny.

Expert interpreters evaluate AI translations.

Your guide to spotting AI translations
Technology (including machine translation), copyright laws, easy online access to published “classics” (for example through Project Gutenberg) and user-friendly self-publishing platforms mean that anyone can publish and market a text as a translation. But if you’d rather not read AI translations, here are some tips and telltale signs for spotting it:

Do judge the book by its cover. The design won’t be very sophisticated or professional – probably because AI has been used for that too

The original author is a well-known name – such as Fyodor Dostoevsky, or Niccolo Machiavelli. In any case, the author will be long dead, and their work will be in the public domain. This means the work is probably available online as a cut-and-paste text, which makes it easy to snatch and run through machine translation

The title is a familiar classic, like The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Alternatively, the title is an obscure work, but it’ll be by a famous author (see above)

The name of the “translator” is a “ghost” on the internet – meaning there’s next to nothing online (like a bio) to back up their credentials as a translator

Usually, there is no photo of the translator

Similarly, there is often no given publisher as the work has been self-published without the expert assistance of a professional editor

The author has published an inordinate number of books since the advent of AI

The range of their work would appear to point to (questionable) mastery of several languages. Most commonly, the original works are in French, Russian, German and (Medieval) Italian

Simply click on the sample. One dead giveaway is the absence of indented paragraphs – conventional formatting and presentation are jettisoned

While you’re there, just read the sample. Does it feel like a “modern translation” to you?

Terry Bradford is Lecturer in French and Translation, University of Leeds."
https://amp.scroll.in/article/1094919/ai-is-flooding-the-online-book-market-with-poor-translations-heres-how-to-spot-them
#metaglossia
#metaglossia_mundus

"The Literature Translation Institute of Korea will mark its 30th anniversary with a two-day international conference on Korean literary translation, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism said Wednesday.

The 2026 World Congress for Korean Literary Translators and Alumni Homecoming Day will take place Aug. 28-29 at the Grand Mercure Ambassador Seoul Hotel & Residences Imperial Palace in Seoul. The event will also be livestreamed for participants unable to attend in person.

The first day's World Congress will center on the theme "Moving Together: The Future of Global Korean Literature and Cultural Translation."

Anders Karlsson, a Korean studies professor at SOAS University of London who translates Korean literature into Swedish, will deliver a keynote address, followed by four panel sessions covering literary translation aesthetics, artificial intelligence's impact on the field, translator training and the publishing industry.

The rise in global interest in Korean literature — spurred in part by novelist Han Kang's 2024 Nobel Prize in Literature — has heightened attention on translators who bring Korean-language works to international readers.

The second day, a homecoming event for graduates of LTI Korea's Translation Academy, will feature a keynote by Brother Anthony of Taize, an emeritus professor at Sogang University who has translated more than 40 volumes of Korean poetry and fiction, along with alumni career panels, mentoring sessions and public readings. Registration is free.

This article was published with the assistance of generative AI and edited by The Korea Times."
By Jhoo Dong-chan
Aug 19, 2026 1:53 PM KST
https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/amp/lifestyle/people-events/20260819/koreas-literature-translation-institute-to-host-global-translators-conference
#metaglossia
#metaglossia_mundus

"Harvey taps DeepL to power legal-grade AI translation for global law firms and legal teams

DeepL supports Harvey's enterprise translation engine, powering highly secure, context-aware document translation and handling over a third of Harvey's total volume

SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 19, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- DeepL, a global leader in Language AI, today announces that Harvey, the leading AI platform for law firms and legal teams, has selected DeepL to power fast, accurate and secure document translation directly inside its platform. The integration reflects growing demand for specialized AI tools built to handle the complexity of legal work, where accuracy, speed, formatting, terminology and security matter.

"Harvey customers work with complex, high-stakes documents all the time and document translation is one of our most-used workflows" said Lauren Oh, Product Manager at Harvey. "By integrating DeepL's AI document translation capabilities directly into the Harvey platform, we're giving legal teams an even faster, more seamless and reliable way to work across languages, while also making sure content stays highly precise and accurate."

Harvey serves more than 200,000 lawyers across 2,400+ organizations in 70 countries, including many of the world's largest law firms and in-house legal teams. For many of these customers, language is not just a side issue but a daily challenge. Cross-border legal work depends on translating contracts, filings, briefs, evidence, reports, and client materials quickly, accurately and reliably even when documents are long or highly complex.

With DeepL embedded directly into the Harvey platform through its translation API, customers can now upload any document, select a target language, and receive a precise, customized translation that preserves its original structure and formatting, all without ever leaving Harvey. The integration currently supports over 100 languages, and will handle over a third of Harvey's total document translation volume.

"Working with Harvey brings our specialized Language AI capabilities to even more legal teams around the world, who work across borders every day," said Jarek Kutylowski, Founder and CEO of DeepL. "Legal work usually means dealing with a lot of documentation, whether that's contracts, filings or case documents that span hundreds of pages, in dozens of different formats and unique contexts. Our platform is built for exactly this level of complexity, and Harvey choosing us for it is clear validation of DeepL's leadership in the Language AI market."

DeepL was selected as one of Harvey's AI translation vendors for its ability to preserve the structure and formatting of complex legal documents, while also delivering context-aware translations powered by specialized language models purpose-built for translation. DeepL's custom glossaries functionality and unmatched file-format support help legal teams maintain approved terminology and document integrity across languages, no matter the topic, complexity or length. The company's strong security and compliance standards, including no permanent data retention for enterprise and paid users, GDPR compliance, SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001 certification, and more, are also central to this work and Harvey's requirements for handling confidential and high-stakes materials.

This news builds on DeepL's broader momentum worldwide as businesses increasingly embrace Language AI as a core infrastructure for global work. DeepL's platform spans written and spoken translation, from text and documents to real-time translation for virtual meetings, in-person conversations and live events, and is used today by over 200,000 business teams and millions of individuals across nearly every industry, from legal to healthcare, manufacturing, financial services and technology. It also comes as DeepL continues to expand in the US, where nearly 50% of the Fortune 500 are users."
News provided by
DeepL

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/harvey-taps-deepl-to-power-legal-grade-ai-translation-for-global-law-firms-and-legal-teams-302854446.html
#metaglossia
#metaglossia_mundus

"Library Celebrates America’s 250 Years Library of Congress
U.S. Poet Laureate Arthur Sze to Launch “Words Bridging Worlds” National Tour
Release Date: 17 Aug 2026

U.S. Poet Laureate Arthur Sze to Launch “Words Bridging Worlds” National Tour
Tour Invites Audiences to Engage More Fully with Poetry Translation

“Words Bridging Worlds,” Arthur Sze’s signature project as the nation’s 25th Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry will launch in September with a national tour encouraging Americans to engage with poetry written in foreign languages.

“Words Bridging Worlds” invites anyone who has been curious about poetry from international cultures to become poetry translators. Graduate students from New York City’s Queens College MFA program in creative writing and literary translation will partner with Sze during poetry translation workshops. Sze will also hold a public reading and conversation about his signature project in each of the four cities on his tour. Sze’s events empower readers to dissolve the boundaries between reading, writing and translating poetry.

“We live in a challenging world that is increasingly interconnected,” Sze said. “Poetry is for everyone, and it bridges our differences by showing us that our experiences of what it is to be human reach across languages..."
https://newsroom.loc.gov/news/u.s.-poet-laureate-arthur-sze-to-launch--words-bridging-worlds--national-tour/s/82695209-8f36-4714-b030-8cdeeae529f1
#metaglossia
#metaglossia_mundus

"Aug 17, 2026 Research & AcademicsStudent edition
Bridging the health gap between language and culture

Good healthcare is not only about medical knowledge, but also about human connection. Understanding patients’ needs and histories goes a long way toward providing high-quality care. A new undergraduate certificate at NAU aims to give students a unique set of tools to help them succeed in the industry by bridging the gap between language and culture in healthcare.

Juliana Suby, teaching professor, and Jersus Colmenares, associate teaching professor, both in the Department of Global Languages and Cultures, have been working together to design and implement the Spanish for the Health Professions undergraduate certificate. This program is designed for students who are pursuing careers in, or are already employed in, health-related professions. It focuses on Spanish language acquisition for cross-cultural communication and emphasizes cultural and social knowledge necessary for the better development of healthcare practices.

Suby said it all started when Colmenares designed a Spanish for the Health Professions course at the 300 level that minors and majors from their department could take. They were met with overwhelming demand from students.

“We had an explosion of interest,” Suby said. “It was amazing! Almost immediately, native speakers, heritage speakers and non-native Spanish speakers were attracted to this class. It was so popular that we had a waiting list for the course.”

Colmenares taught the class on a more regular basis, and he and Suby explored the idea of expanding the curriculum into a certificate program.

“One of the defining factors that turned the abstract idea of creating this certificate into a reality was an accident that happened on Highway 180, where a little boy from a Spanish-speaking family visiting Arizona was hit by a car crossing the highway,” Suby said. “I was told that one of the first responders said that the grief and the inability to communicate with the family broke his heart. That was the tipping point for me. By then, the class was already taking off, so I told Jersus that we needed to put this idea into action.”

Hands-on training 
Colmenares, who has worked as a medical interpreter in the past and has volunteered for the city of Flagstaff, had a personal understanding of the need for Spanish speakers in healthcare and used his experience to help design the curriculum. Both he and Suby did a deep analysis, interviewed faculty members, looked at textbooks and materials and spoke to nurses, physical therapists and other healthcare professionals to get a clear idea of what students needed to learn to be successful and help their communities.  

“When patients go to a healthcare center, a doctor’s appointment or any similar scenario and see that there is a way to communicate that is more comfortable for them, they can express themselves more freely,” Colmenares said. “Addressing this gap, which is huge right now in the United States, is crucial in programs like ours. Understanding what the needs are in the labor market today can put our students at an advantage. This is a skill that will get them ahead.”

In the final class, students are required to do nine hours of volunteer work. Colmenares said it’s a chance for students to use the medical vocabulary they are learning while gaining hands-on experience.

Kai Taras, a graduate student in speech-language pathology, said this component was the one of the most rewarding aspects of the course since she had the opportunity to volunteer at Flagstaff Medical Center as a Spanish interpreter and gained invaluable hands-on experience using medical Spanish in a real clinical setting.

Natalia Canaan, a chemistry, psychology and Spanish junior, saw firsthand the impact the class had in the community as she designed a tool that will make a difference to those who struggle with the English language.

“This certificate has had a huge impact on both my career goals and the way I already serve patients as a pharmacy technician,” Canaan said. “For my final project, I created a Spanish-language pamphlet with step-by-step guidance on how to obtain medication discount cards. More than just improving my Spanish, the class really impacted the way I think about healthcare, advocacy and serving underserved communities.”

More than just language
The Spanish for the Health Professionals undergraduate certificate consists of 19 credits and begins with the introductory 101 and 102 classes. Students then take three series of three Spanish for Health Professions courses, where they get the opportunity to interview experts in different fields and learn to work with artificial intelligence by training chatbots. Colmenares said the class not only teaches students Spanish and medical terminology, but also cultural sensitivities.

“Students learn a lot about disparities and context that comes with immigration, language and cultural barriers,” Colmenares said. “This is not only about language coding or morphology, but also about understanding who the unique person is that we have in front of us and their particular needs that go beyond language but rather entail a very complex background.”

Catherine Garrido, an interdisciplinary studies, health wellness coaching and biology student who graduated this spring, said the certificate helped her home in on her passion for breaking down barriers in health care.

“This class helped me solidify my intercultural knowledge and vocabulary,” Garrido said. “I often felt that many classes I took were separate from patient interaction, but this certificate reinforced why this is such an important certificate and topic.”

To students who are interested in the Spanish for the Health Professionals undergraduate certificate, but feel intimidated by the language learning process, Larissa Axtell, a senior studying nutrition and food with a minor in Spanish, said not to worry.

“When I first heard about the certificate, I was interested but also nervous about taking the classes, but after taking them for two semesters, I can confidently say there is no reason to be,” Axtell said. “So much is covered, yet it does not feel rushed. When I started, I could hardly understand and was struggling. After working with Juliana, I feel so much more confident in my Spanish-speaking skills and in my reading and writing. I also feel more knowledgeable about the language struggle within the medical field.”"
https://in.nau.edu/news/health-language-and-culture/
#metaglossia

"Say it in Sign Language: Hell, No
Appeal seeks to make it harder for disabled people to sue over federal discrimination.

by Mike Ervin The Latest August 17, 2026 12:00 AM

Once again, it seems that the squatter currently occupying the White House is appealing a decision in a lawsuit—and going for the jugular as he does so.

The lawsuit at issue was filed by the National Association for the Deaf and two named plaintiffs in May 2025, when the White House abruptly stopped including American Sign Language (ASL) interpreters at press briefings following the squatter’s return to office. The suit argued that his administration needs to include sign language interpretation as part of its public communications, including press briefings. Choosing to eliminate this, the complaint said, violates Section 504 of the federal Rehabilitation Act of 1973, which prohibits federal agencies discriminating on the basis of disability.

U.S. District Judge Amir Ali, an appointee by former President Joe Biden, ruled in November that the White House must provide a qualified ASL interpreter at all publicly announced press briefings conducted by the squatter or his press secretary. But in their appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, attorneys with the squatter’s Department of Justice argued that people with disabilities don’t have the right to sue federal agencies under Section 504. “The Rehabilitation Act’s text, structure, and history,” the appeal states, “does not provide a private right of action against federal agencies in their programmatic capacities.”

Several advocacy groups—including the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund, the American Association of People with Disabilities, Justice in Aging, the National Federation of the Blind, and Paralyzed Veterans of America—filed an amicus brief in the case.

“For more than four decades, disabled people have relied on the private right of action under Section 504 to hold the federal government accountable when it discriminates,” the brief states. “Those gains were not won through agency self-policing. They were won by disabled people going to court. A ruling eliminating that right as to executive agencies would close the courthouse door to the many millions of disabled people who participate in federal programs, at precisely the moment when federal enforcement of disability rights is most uncertain.”

A victory by the squatter’s administration, said Amy Robertson, an attorney who filed this brief, “would mean it would be more difficult to challenge discrimination by any federal agencies.

This is not the first time that the National Association of the Deaf has sued the squatter over the lack of ASL interpreters. It did so previously, during his first term, in an August 2020 lawsuit which said the squatter “stands alone in holding televised briefings regarding the COVID-19 pandemic without ever having provided any ASL interpretation.” In response, a federal district court ordered the White House to provide interpreters for all COVID-19-related briefings.

In that case, as in the more current one, the squatter’s administration appealed, but that appeal was dismissed in March 2021 at the urging of the new Biden Administration, which agreed to provide ASL interpreters for all public briefings.

Now, the squatter is again fighting back against a court ruling that upholds the rights of disabled people, instead of just complying with the law. He wants to make it harder for us to sue federal government scofflaws, like him."
https://progressive.org/latest/say-it-in-sign-language-hell-no-ervin-20260817/
#metaglossia
#metaglossia_mundus

"
Wednesday, August 19, 2026Japan's National Daily
Japanese version
Accuracy and cultural understanding vital as demand grows for Nagasaki police interpreters
August 17, 2026 (Mainichi Japan)

NAGASAKI -- The number of assignments handled by in-house interpreters at Nagasaki Prefectural Police in criminal cases, accidents and other incidents involving foreign nationals has roughly tripled over the past five years. Because police interpreting can have serious implications for human rights, there is no room for error. One police officer who recently qualified as an interpreter spoke about his job.

Interest sparked while working at a police box

"You need to take an interest in their country's culture and national characteristics, and try to help the foreign national in front of you open up, even a little," said a 30-year-old sergeant.

While working at a police box in a tourist area of the city of Nagasaki, he assisted foreign visitors who came seeking help. The experience sparked his interest in interpreting. He subsequently spent two years studying Vietnamese from scratch at the National Police Academy in Tokyo and qualified as a Vietnamese-language police interpreter in February this year.

He was soon assigned to interpret for a Vietnamese man arrested on suspicion of offenses including the use of a forged residence card in violation of the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act.

Vietnamese has northern, central and southern dialects, and the pronunciation of the same word can vary by region. The suspect spoke a central dialect.

Because the sergeant had mainly studied the northern variety at the police academy, he initially found the man difficult to understand.

"To interpret every word of the investigator's questions and the suspect's answers accurately, I repeatedly asked him to clarify what he had said so that I could fully understand what he meant," the sergeant recalled.

He listens to Vietnamese-language news during his commute and studies vocabulary every evening after returning home. On his days off, he visits Vietnamese restaurants and makes a point of speaking Vietnamese.

"I am a police officer, but as an interpreter I must remain neutral," he said. "I cannot afford to mistranslate anything."

Assignments nearly triple

The sergeant is one of 86 officers registered as in-house interpreters with Nagasaki Prefectural Police. Together, they provide interpreting services in seven languages: English, Chinese, Korean, Russian, Vietnamese, Indonesian and Thai.

The number of interpreting assignments rose from 110 in 2021 to 322 in 2025.

The interpreters are drawn from officers holding the rank of inspector or below. New interpreters must be trained every year to fill vacancies created when existing interpreters are promoted to chief inspector or retire.

Each year, the prefectural police select several officers and send them to the Research and Training Center for International Criminal Investigation and Police Cooperation at the National Police Academy for two years. This year, it also began sending trainees to police departments in other prefectures to gain practical experience.

"Looking to the future, we want to further develop the interpreter system and provide follow-up support to improve interpreters' skills," said Masahiro Kanda, deputy head of the organized crime control division, which coordinates interpreter assignments.

(Japanese original by Naoki Soeya, Nagasaki Bureau)"
https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20260817/p2a/00m/0na/004000c
#metaglossia
#metaglossia_mundus

"Errors in automated translation systems used by California courts are raising concerns that residents with limited English proficiency may be denied meaningful access to justice.

The issue is particularly relevant to Korean Americans, as Korean remains one of the most frequently requested languages for court interpretation in the state, underscoring the need for accurate and reliable interpretation and translation services.

Thirty-five legal and community organizations, including California Rural Legal Assistance, Inc. (CRLA), the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles (LAFLA) and the Mixteco Indígena Community Organizing Project (MICOP), recently called on the Judicial Council of California to suspend the use of automated translation in state courts and strengthen language access services through qualified interpreters and translators.

In a joint public comment submitted earlier this month to the Language Access Subcommittee of the Judicial Council’s Advisory Committee on Providing Access and Fairness, the organizations said courts have failed to fully meet language access standards, leaving many residents with limited English proficiency unable to fully understand or participate in critical legal proceedings.

At a public hearing before the subcommittee, residents also voiced repeated calls for interpretation services provided by trained human interpreters.

Korean ranks eighth in court interpretation demand
The scale of language assistance needed in California courts is substantial, according to the Judicial Council’s 2025 Language Need and Interpreter Use Study, released last year.

From fiscal year 2020-21 through fiscal year 2023-24, California’s 58 superior courts recorded a total of 2,534,207 interpretations.

Korean accounted for 14,410 interpretations during the four-year period, ranking eighth among all languages, behind Spanish, Mandarin, Vietnamese, American Sign Language, Punjabi, Cantonese and Arabic. Korean is also among the languages for which the Judicial Council maintains a certification program for professional court interpreters.

Demand for Korean-language interpretation was heavily concentrated in the Los Angeles area. According to the report, 70.8% of all Korean interpretations took place in Region 1, which includes Los Angeles, San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties.

Region 1 recorded 10,214 Korean-language interpretations during the study period, representing 1.7% of all interpretations in the region. Excluding Spanish, Korean had the second-highest number of interpretations after Mandarin.

Korean interpretation particularly significant in civil cases
The report also found relatively high demand for Korean interpretation in civil cases.

Statewide, Korean was used in 5,315 civil-case interpretations, accounting for 3.7% of all civil interpretations during the study period. Excluding Spanish, Korean ranked second only to Mandarin, which accounted for 6.0%.

Civil cases can include matters such as eviction, domestic violence and civil harassment, proceedings that can directly affect a person’s housing, safety, property and livelihood.

Language assistance needs are significant across California as a whole. As of 2022, about 16.29 million residents age 5 and older, or 43.9%, spoke a language other than English at home. About 6.36 million people, or 17.1%, were classified as limited-English-proficient, meaning they spoke English less than “very well.”

At the household level, 8.4% of California households were classified as limited-English-speaking households. In Los Angeles County, home to a large Korean American population, the share was 12.0%, well above the statewide average.

The report also noted that Korean speakers, along with Chinese and Vietnamese speakers, continue to have relatively high levels of limited English proficiency, indicating an ongoing need for targeted language assistance.

‘DUI’ translated as ‘IUD’
Despite the high demand for language services, legal advocates say courts are increasingly relying on machine translation without sufficient review by qualified translators or interpreters.

In 2015, the Judicial Council adopted the Strategic Plan for Language Access in the California Courts, establishing 75 recommendations intended to ensure equal access to court services for people with limited English proficiency.

According to the Judicial Council’s 2025 report, more than 60 of those recommendations have been completed, while several remain in progress. The report also states that the council is developing training and guidance for court staff on the appropriate use of machine translation tools.

The organizations that submitted the joint public comment, however, said key language access measures remain inadequately implemented and criticized courts for using machine translation since 2020 without sufficient oversight by qualified human translators and interpreters.

Their comments included examples of automated translation errors drawn from actual court data.

In one case, instructions from a court staff member were translated as, “Sting the judge to reduce a fever,” a phrase bearing no resemblance to the intended meaning.

In another case, “DUI,” referring to driving under the influence, was translated as “IUD,” the abbreviation for an intrauterine contraceptive device.

The organizations warned that such errors can have consequences far beyond inconvenience. Court users may miss hearings or filing deadlines, lose opportunities to reduce fines or avoid points on their driver’s licenses, or make important legal decisions without fully understanding their cases.

Joann H. Lee, the attorney overseeing language access at LAFLA, said California, as the nation’s most linguistically diverse state and home to the country’s largest court system, has a responsibility to ensure that language does not become a barrier to justice.

“For many people, court proceedings involve some of the most consequential moments of their lives,” Lee said. “Yet too often, they are left unable to fully understand or participate in decisions that affect their families, housing, safety and livelihoods.”

Aging and limited interpreter workforce
Securing enough qualified court interpreters is another growing concern.

As of March 2025, 1,856 certified and registered court interpreters were listed with the Judicial Council, covering 114 spoken languages and American Sign Language. However, 32% of interpreters on the master list were over age 65, highlighting concerns about an aging workforce.

As of 2024, there were 25 certified Korean court interpreters in California. Korean, meanwhile, remains one of the 10 most frequently interpreted spoken languages in the state court system.

Norma Ventura, Indigenous Justice Program Director at CRLA, said safeguards are essential as courts and other public agencies expand their use of machine translation and other AI technologies.

“As we see an increase in the use of machine translation tools and other AI technologies in courts and other public agencies, it is imperative that these entities implement safeguards that ensure accuracy,” Ventura said in the statement. “Safeguards such as qualified human review ensure equal access to services for all communities.”

Vanessa Terán, policy director at MICOP, said the Judicial Council’s 2015 language access plan represented important progress but has yet to fully deliver on its promise.

“More must be done to ensure that everyone, regardless of the language they speak, can fully understand and participate in proceedings that profoundly affect their lives,” Terán said.

The legal and community organizations are urging the Judicial Council to fully implement its existing language access plan before expanding automated translation and to stop using machine-generated translations that have not been reviewed by qualified professional interpreters or translators."
August 16, 2026
By Nicole Chang, originally published by American Community Media
Automated Translation Errors in California Courts Raise Concerns Over Korean Americans’ Access to Justice
https://asamnews.com/2026/08/16/translation-errors-california-courts-korean-americans-justice/
#metaglossia
#metaglossia_mundus

"Professions showing the biggest increase in job vacancies in recent weeks include authors, writers, translators and actors, according to new research.

In contrast, there was a fall in job adverts for secondary school teachers and undertakers, the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) said.

Areas of the country with the biggest increase in job adverts generally included Milton Keynes, Westminster, Solihull and the Orkney Islands, said the report.

There were a total of 1,669,203 job adverts across the UK last month, a 7.7% increase from July last year, thanks to a big rise in hospitality and tourism jobs, recruiters said."
https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/26468674.uks-top-professions-biggest-rise-job-vacancies/
#metaglossia
#metaglossia_mundus

"Jianwei Zheng
Humanities and Social Sciences Communications (2026)
Abstract
This study examines the norms governing the production of translated academic books in China, drawing on Chesterman’s distinction between product norms and process norms. Based on a case study of an English-to-Chinese publication project for translated social sciences books, the research triangulates data from statements, interviews, and proofreading manuscripts. The findings reveal that product norms operate as a hierarchical system comprising laws, regulations, provisions, standards, and rules in China. Process norms, by contrast, emerge from the ongoing collaboration between translators and editors, who not only proofread but also monitor the target text for ideological conformity. In this process, they maintain a respectful, formal, and often implicit mode of communication through revision notes and query comments on the proofreading drafts, demonstrating profound reciprocity grounded in their recognition of each other’s roles and in strong situational and cognitive resonance forged through consistent interaction rituals. Regarding relation norms, translators are typically committed to the principle of faithfulness in translation, from which editors may deviate when the target text contains factual misstatements or ideological misalignments, or when it impedes readers’ ease of understanding."

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41599-026-08717-4
#metaglossia
#metaglossia_mundus

"Over the past decade progress has been made in expanding financial access across the globe. A key driver contributing to this growth has been the adoption of digital technologies that have helped overcome longstanding geographic and infrastructure barriers, bringing financial services to communities that were once difficult to reach.

Additionally, financial institutions are increasingly using alternative data to assess creditworthiness, enabling individuals with little or no traditional credit history to qualify for financial products that were previously out of reach.

Alongside these efforts to expand access, ensuring consumers have the knowledge and confidence to make informed financial decisions has become a key priority.

Financial literacy has become a growing focus for educators, employers, policymakers, and financial institutions alike. In the U.S. alone, more states now require financial literacy education before high school graduation, while employers are increasingly recognizing financial wellness as an essential employee benefit.

These initiatives are designed to help people understand concepts that are often intimidating even for native speakers. Interest rates, credit scores, debt management, investment planning, and retirement savings all come with terminology that can be difficult to navigate.

Now, imagine trying to understand those concepts in a language that isn't your own.

For millions of consumers, language is one of the greatest barriers to financial inclusion. In an industry built on trust, transparency, and informed decision-making, the inability to fully understand financial information can prevent consumers from engaging with products and services that could improve their financial well-being.

For financial institutions, addressing this barrier is both an inclusion initiative and a business opportunity. Financial institutions that fail to communicate effectively with multilingual communities risk overlooking one of the country's fastest-growing customer segments.

According to the Claritas 2025 Hispanic Market Report, Hispanic consumers now account for more than one-fifth of the U.S. population and are projected to drive approximately 80% of the country's population growth through 2031.

Some organizations are already responding. Old National Bank, for example, expanded its longstanding financial education program with Dinero Inteligente, providing educational resources for Spanish-speaking individuals and families.

Making information available in another language is only the beginning. Successful engagement depends on more than accurate translation. Customers are far more likely to trust and act on information that feels natural, culturally relevant, and designed with their experiences in mind. A message that is linguistically correct but culturally disconnected often fails to resonate. This is where localization becomes essential.

While translation focuses on converting words from one language into another, localization adapts content to reflect the cultural expectations, communication styles, and user experiences of a specific audience. It ensures that financial information is not only understood but also meaningful and approachable.

For financial institutions, localization represents an opportunity to advance both inclusion and growth. Research shows that organizations investing in localization are 1.8 times more likely to increase revenue and 1.5 times more likely to improve profitability. By creating experiences that are genuinely accessible, institutions can strengthen customer relationships while reaching underserved markets that have historically been overlooked.

Whether it's explaining lending terms, account fees, investment options, or retirement planning, clear and culturally relevant communication helps consumers make informed decisions with confidence. That confidence is the foundation of trust, and trust is the foundation of lasting financial relationships.

The financial services industry has made important progress toward greater inclusion, but future gains will depend on removing barriers that technology alone cannot solve. Expanding access is only part of the equation. Ensuring people can fully understand and engage with financial services — in their preferred language and within their cultural context — is what ultimately elevates access into opportunity."
https://financialit.net/blog/financialinclusion/beyond-translation-missing-link-financial-inclusion
#metaglossia
#metaglossia_mundus

"Walking with a friend in Bruges' Grote Markt. Credit: Anika Austvold
When I moved from the American Midwest to Brussels for the summer, I expected to encounter cultural differences. What I didn't expect was how often conversations would begin with assumptions.

Sometimes, those assumptions appeared the moment people heard my accent. I've been stopped and asked how I feel about US President Donald Trump before even introducing myself.

More than once, I've found myself explaining that no, not every American owns a gun, and yes, many of us travel extensively. Those conversations have made me realise that Europeans often hold simplified ideas about life in the United States.

At the same time, living in Brussels has highlighted some of the assumptions Americans commonly make about Europe.

Despite sharing centuries of history and consuming each other's media every day, Americans and Europeans often understand one another through misconceptions rather than reality. After several weeks living across the Atlantic, I've found that some of the most interesting conversations happen when those assumptions are challenged.

One continent, one country
After telling people in Brussels that I'm from Minnesota, I've often found myself explaining that life there looks very different from life in New York, Los Angeles or Washington DC.

Many Europeans I have spoken with understand that the United States is vast, but American culture is often represented abroad through a handful of major cities.

In reality, food, accents, political attitudes and social norms vary dramatically across the country. A Minnesotan, a Texan and a Floridian may all identify as American, but their experiences can be vastly different.

Living in Brussels has also made me realise how often Americans make similar assumptions about Europe.

Back home, Europe is frequently discussed as if it were a single cultural entity rather than a continent of distinct countries, cultures and political systems. Yet after spending time here, it becomes clear how much can differ from one country to the next, and sometimes even within the same country.

In Belgium alone, language, politics and culture vary significantly across the country. The closer you look, the harder it becomes to treat either Europe or the United States as one uniform culture.

Americans don't travel
Of all the assumptions I've encountered since arriving in Brussels, this is probably the one I've heard most often.

Many Europeans are surprised to learn how much Americans travel within their own country. While it's true that Americans are less likely than Europeans to hold passports and often take fewer international trips, geography helps explain why.

Travelling to another country from the US is rarely as simple as hopping on a train for the weekend. A flight from New York to Los Angeles takes roughly as long as a flight from Brussels to destinations in the Middle East, such as Egypt or Jordan.

The reality is not that Americans travel less. More often, we simply travel differently.

Departure hall in Brussels Airport. Credit: Belga/Nicolas Maeterlinck

Cost is another factor. While budget airlines make international travel relatively affordable within Europe, crossing the Atlantic often requires more planning, time and money.

Living in Brussels has also challenged one of the assumptions that I, like many Americans, grew up with: that Europe is small.

While crossing borders may be easier, travelling from Stockholm to Lisbon is farther than travelling from New York to Miami. Europe may be more connected than the United States, but isn't compact.

Divided America, united Europe
One of the first things people notice about me in Brussels is my accent. More than once, that has immediately led to questions about Trump, American elections and political polarisation.

The interest is understandable. For many Europeans, their understanding of the United States comes through political headlines. Presidential elections and partisan battles often dominate international coverage, creating the impression that Americans fall neatly into two groups: red (Republicans) and blue (Democrats).

While America's political system has become increasingly polarised, many Americans themselves are harder to categorise. Someone might support abortion rights while favouring stricter immigration policies. Another might support government-funded healthcare while opposing certain taxes. The reality is often far more nuanced than the headlines suggest.

Credit: Belga / David Stockman

Living in Brussels has also made me more aware of a misconception common among Americans. Back home, the European Union can be misconstrued as a "United States of Europe": a collection of countries moving in the same political direction under a common government.

But after spending time here, I've realised that Europe is far from politically uniform. Beneath the 12 stars on the EU flag are 27 governments with their own priorities, interests and political pressures. From migration and defence spending to energy policy and economic reform, member states disagree on many major issues.

Living to work
Before moving to Brussels, one of the stereotypes I heard most often about Europe was that people barely work.

The image is familiar to many Americans: long lunches, month-long summer holidays and generous benefits. It's easy to come away with the impression that Europeans have somehow cracked the code to a stress-free life.

But after a few weeks working in Brussels, that perception feels overly simplistic. On any weekday morning, it's hard to miss the thousands of people heading to offices, meetings and institutions across the city. Work is hardly absent from daily life.

Credit: Canva

Europeans, meanwhile, often view Americans as workaholics who define themselves entirely through their careers. While Americans generally receive fewer days off and often work longer hours, that doesn't necessarily mean they value work more than family, hobbies or leisure. In many cases, those choices reflect economic realities rather than personal preference.

The difference I've noticed is often less about whether people work hard and more about how work fits into their lives. In Europe, there seems to be a stronger emphasis on protecting time outside of work, while in the US, careers are often more closely tied to personal identity.

Armed America
After several weeks in Brussels, I've noticed a pattern: conversations about America often circle back to guns.

The perception is understandable. For many people outside the US, their exposure to America comes through headlines about mass shootings, debates over gun rights and stories about firearms. Those stories can create the impression that guns are a defining feature of everyday American life.

While firearms are far more common in the US than in most European countries, the reality is more nuanced. Many Americans have never owned a gun, and experiences with firearms vary dramatically depending on where someone lives, how they were raised and the communities in which they live.

English-speaking Europe
Living in Brussels has also made me more aware of a misconception many Americans have about Europe: that everyone speaks English.

Before arriving, I knew Europe was multilingual in theory. In practice, however, it has been striking to hear conversations shift seamlessly between French, Dutch, English and countless other languages throughout this city.

In many parts of Brussels, it is entirely possible to get by in English. But that accessibility can create the false impression that English is everyone's primary language.

Credit: Belga

Like many of the assumptions Americans and Europeans make about each other, some stereotypes contain a grain of truth.

During my second week in Brussels, I was buying groceries when someone asked me whether Americans actually cook.

The question made me laugh. There's a reason people associate America with fast food and convenience culture. But standing in a Delhaize with ingredients for dinner in my basket, I couldn't help but think about how easily a country's image can overshadow the everyday lives of the people who live there.

Many of the assumptions Americans and Europeans make about one another work the same way. We often judge entire societies by the most visible things, whether that's fast food, politics, holidays or headlines.

Living abroad has reminded me that the most interesting parts of a culture are often the ones that don't make it into the stereotypes, and those are often the parts you only discover once you leave your misconceptions behind."
Tuesday, 11 August 2026
By  Anika Austvold
https://www.brusselstimes.com/belgium/2185219/lost-in-translation-what-ive-learnt-as-an-american-in-brussels
#metaglossia
#metaglossia_mundus

languages form the core of personal identity, cultural preservation, and intergenerational connection

"Surrey festival celebrates language, culture and community

Surrey’s Holland Park became a celebration of language, culture and heritage on Aug. 9 as the 12th annual Mother Language Festival brought community members together from across the Lower Mainland.

Hosted by the Mother Language Lovers of the World Society (MLLWS), the festival ran from 3:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. It featured cultural performances, music, dance, art, literature, traditional food and community activities.

The annual celebration is inspired by International Mother Language Day, which normally takes place in late February, and aims to promote linguistic diversity, cultural understanding and preservation of Mother languages.

“The festival was a wonderful success, bringing together community members and performers from diverse cultural backgrounds to showcase their unique traditions and heritage,” said Islam.

For Islam, events like the Mother Language Festival are about more than just celebrating the languages spoken in Surrey and the Lower Mainland.

“More languages form the core of personal identity, cultural preservation, and intergenerational connection,” he explained.

Islam also said the festival aims to draw attention to languages that can be defined as being at risk of disappearing, such as Indigenous mother tongues and other minority dialects.

Islam explained that he believes protecting and revitalizing endangered languages is important to safeguarding human history, traditional knowledge and linguistic diversity.

He says the festival provides communities with a platform to share their languages and traditions while encouraging dialogue and connection between people of different backgrounds.

“By providing a platform for all voices, we promote mutual respect, inclusion, and cultural unity within our community,” said Islam.

Organizers say the festival attracts participants from across the Lower Mainland and beyond, offering an opportunity for people of all ages and cultures to celebrate their heritage while learning about the traditions of others.

Learn more about the MLLWS at motherlanguagelovers.com."
Published 2:30 pm Wednesday, August 12, 2026
By Grace McLeod
https://northdeltareporter.com/2026/08/12/surrey-festival-celebrates-language-culture-and-community/
#metaglossia
#metaglossia_mundus

"Google DeepMind a lancé un modèle de traduction de la langue des signes en texte, SL2T, dans deux produits Android grand public, la première fois que la technologie de reconnaissance de la langue des signes atteint une fonctionnalité de téléphone expédiée. Le modèle alimente la dictée de la langue des signes à texte dans Gboard et Live Transcribe sur les téléphones Pixel 11, avec une mise en ligne le 12 août 2026, pour la traduction de la langue des signes américaine en anglais.

La fonctionnalité fonctionne partout où un utilisateur taperait normalement. Un signeur sourd peut dicter une recherche Web, rédiger un message ou un document, ou interroger Gemini en signant à la caméra du téléphone au lieu de taper. Dans Live Transcribe, les signeurs peuvent répondre à une conversation signée plutôt que de taper des réponses. Google indique que les testeurs ont constaté que signer en langue des signes américaine était plus rapide et plus naturel que de taper en anglais.

SL2T est le premier modèle que Google décrit comme une avancée en termes de qualité et de généralité pour la traduction de la langue des signes. Il a été formé sur plus de 100 000 heures de données de signes, couvrant plus de 50 langues des signes, dont environ un quart des données en langue des signes américaine. La formation conjointe sur plusieurs langues, dialectes et niveaux de compétence a produit un modèle qui surpasse les systèmes à une langue dans les expériences de l’entreprise, selon l’annonce.

Ce que le modèle voit et comment il traduit
Le système ne traite pas les vidéos brutes du signeur. Un modèle sur appareil, MediaPipe Holistic, suit 130 points clés sur le visage, le corps et les mains, image par image, et seuls ces coordonnées géométriques quittent l’appareil pour la traduction. Le flux de caméra d’origine est immédiatement supprimé, une conception que Google présente comme une garantie de confidentialité.

À partir de ce flux de coordonnées, SL2T génère directement du texte en anglais, en sautant la couche d’annotation intermédiaire appelée gloses sur laquelle la plupart des systèmes de traduction de la langue des signes précédents reposaient. Les gloses attribuent des étiquettes fixes à des signes individuels, ce qui limite le vocabulaire et perd les marqueurs non manuels et les constructions spatiales qui portent un sens grammatical dans les langues des signes. La suppression de ce goulet d’étranglement permet à la qualité de la traduction d’évoluer avec les données de formation plutôt qu’avec un ensemble d’étiquettes construites à la main.

Les langues des signes sont des langues naturelles indépendantes avec leurs propres grammaires, et non des versions signées de l’anglais parlé. Cela rend la tâche une traduction automatique entre deux langues, plus un problème de vision par ordinateur difficile : le modèle doit suivre le mouvement simultané des mains, des bras, du torse, de la tête et du visage à des taux de trames élevés. Les tentatives antérieures de technologie de langue des signes, telles que les gants de capteur, ne pouvaient répondre à aucune de ces exigences.

Résultats des benchmarks et modèles d’erreur restants
Sur le benchmark FLEURS-ASL, qui mesure la traduction de la langue des signes américaine en anglais de langage complexe et abstrait enregistré dans des conditions de studio par des interprètes sourds certifiés, SL2T obtient un score de 70 BLEURT zero-shot, nettement supérieur aux résultats précédemment signalés, selon Google. L’entreprise signale également un score de 74 BLEURT sur une variante de signes à une main du benchmark et de 85 BLEURT sur PRESTO-ASL, un ensemble de données de phrases d’assistant signées à une tablette amarrée. Sur FSboard, un ensemble de données de signes manuels collecté à partir de signeurs sourds sur des appareils mobiles, le modèle atteint une précision d’appariement exact de 64 pour cent. Ce sont des chiffres rapportés par le fournisseur ; aucune évaluation indépendante n’a été publiée.

Google a publié des exemples côte à côte à partir de FLEURS-ASL montrant une sortie fluente aux côtés de modes d’échec identifiables. Le modèle remplace occasionnellement des signes rares et des signes manuels rapides, supprime les constructions passives et les dépeints de classeur, et perd la tension lorsque le contexte est manquant. Un exemple traduit « Ce volatile entièrement emplumé, à sang chaud » par « Cette créature est à sang chaud, mange du gris », une erreur de signe manuel substituant « gris » à « proie ».

Le modèle présente également un comportement résiduel d’hallucination, générant du texte lorsque personne ne signe, comme lorsque une deuxième personne entre dans le cadre ou que le signeur s’arrête. Google indique que la version de sortie a considérablement réduit ces erreurs par rapport aux versions préalables testées par les évaluateurs sourds en juillet 2026, mais ne les a pas éliminées.

Où Google dit que l’outil ne doit pas être utilisé
La sortie comporte une couche inhabituelle de gouvernance. Google DeepMind a réuni un comité consultatif, le Comité consultatif AI de la langue des signes, qui rassemble des organisations sourdes, notamment l’Association nationale des sourds, la Fédération mondiale des sourds, le Réseau professionnel des arts sourds et l’Institut national technique pour les sourds de l’Institut de technologie de Rochester. Le comité a co-rédigé un rapport d’impact conjoint qui définit ce que la technologie est et où elle s’arrête.

Le rapport définit SL2T 1.0 comme un outil d’aide à la génération de brouillons pour des paramètres informels à faible enjeu : messagerie, recherche, navigation, prise de notes et conversations de personne à personne occasionnelles. Il exclut explicitement les consultations médicales, les procédures judiciaires, les interactions avec la police, l’enseignement en classe, les entretiens d’embauche et les déterminations de prestations gouvernementales. Il indique également que l’outil ne satisfait pas aux obligations légales en matière d’adaptations raisonnables en vertu de la loi sur les Américains handicapés ou de cadres équivalents, et qu’il ne doit pas être utilisé par les institutions pour se substituer à des interprètes humains certifiés.

Le signeur reste dans la boucle tout au long du processus. Les deux applications affichent une prévisualisation du texte que l’utilisateur peut examiner et modifier avant de l’envoyer, et dans Live Transcribe, l’utilisateur sourd contrôle quand le texte traduit est affiché à un partenaire de conversation. Le rapport note que cette garantie suppose une littératie fonctionnelle en anglais pour détecter les erreurs.

Comment SL2T se comporte dans les limites du modèle
Le rapport d’impact recense les limites techniques du modèle en détail. La précision se dégrade dans les conditions de faible luminosité, de contre-jour intense ou lorsque les vêtements réduisent le contraste avec les mains et le visage. Le suiveur de pose ne suit que le sujet le plus grand dans le cadre et ne peut pas gérer plusieurs signeurs. Les performances chutent à des angles de caméra extrêmes ou lorsque le signeur est allongé. Les clips d’entrée sont limités à 60 secondes, et chaque clip est traduit de manière indépendante, sans mémoire des tours de conversation précédents. Le modèle n’a pas été formé ou évalué sur des signeurs de moins de 18 ans. Il ne prend en charge aucune liste de mots personnalisés, aucun nom de signe ni aucune préférence de dialecte.

Les mises à jour à court terme déjà sur la feuille de route incluent la dictée de signes de ponctuation, de nouvelles lignes, d’émoticônes et de commandes de base d’édition, ainsi que la mémoire de conversation sur des clips séquentiels dans Live Transcribe. Les objectifs de recherche à long terme incluent une meilleure sensibilité aux marqueurs non manuels tels que les expressions faciales et la position des sourcils, une prise en charge de plusieurs signeurs et une expansion de la collecte de données sur les dialectes régionaux de la langue des signes américaine et la langue des signes noire américaine.

Le projet a été lancé par Sam Sepah, un Googler sourd, et les perspectives sourdes ont été intégrées dans la collecte de données, les études d’utilisateurs et l’évaluation. Google décrit le lancement de SL2T comme le début d’un effort plus long : des langues des signes supplémentaires, la génération de la langue des signes et des capacités de frontière plus larges sont toutes répertoriées comme travaux actifs. La fonctionnalité est livrée sur Pixel 11 sans frais supplémentaires, avec davantage d’appareils à suivre, dans la collecte de données, les études d’utilisateurs et l’évaluation. Google décrit le lancement de SL2T comme le début d’un effort plus long : des langues des signes supplémentaires, la génération de la langue des signes et des capacités de frontière plus larges sont toutes répertoriées comme travaux actifs. La fonctionnalité est livrée sur Pixel 11 sans frais supplémentaires, avec davantage d’appareils à suivre."

https://www.unite.ai/fr/google-deepmind-brings-sign-language-translation-to-phones-with-sl2t/
#metaglossia
#metaglossia_mundus

La Défense nationale nie avoir retiré le statut «bilingue» à certaines unités

Il s’agit d’une question «d’uniformisation», dit le directeur des langues officielles du ministère de la Défense.

 

« Il n’y a personne à qui on interdit de parler le français. » Changer la désignation linguistique d’une centaine d’unités et organisations de la Défense au Canada a servi à « rectifier le tir d’un système désuet », affirme en entrevue le capitaine de vaisseau Vincent Pellerin, directeur des langues officielles du ministère de la Défense nationale.

 

Le Devoir révélait au début de la semaine dernière qu’une centaine de bureaux de la Défense nationale avait changé de désignation linguistique en raison d’une « nouvelle approche en matière de langue de travail ». Résultat ? Des employés ont perdu le droit de travailler en français dans leurs unités depuis janvier 2025.

 

La décision a été prise « pour augmenter la cohérence et la standardisation », affirme en entrevue M. Pellerin. C’est le ministère de la Défense qui a contacté Le Devoir après la publication de l’article, pour expliquer son raisonnement.

 

« On avait des unités dans la même région géographique, même dans la même base, qui avaient des langues différentes. Puis on avait beaucoup d’unités, en fait, qui n’avaient aucune désignation linguistique. Donc, on avait besoin de rectifier le tir sur ce système-là. On a adopté le système du gouvernement fédéral qui existe depuis 1977. »

 

Autrement dit, le ministère de la Défense s’est appuyé sur une disposition de la Loi sur les langues officielles lui permettant de désigner la langue de travail selon la région dans laquelle l’unité se trouve.

 

Vincent Pellerin

« Ce qui est important à souligner, c’est que ça n’impacte aucunement les services qui sont offerts aux Canadiens, aux Canadiennes, les services personnels des membres militaires et de leur famille. » Effectivement, la directive s’applique à l’interne, pour les employés du ministère.

 

Retirer la désignation « bilingue » de certains bureaux est-il une perte pour ces employés ? « Non. C’est que l’anglais est le minimum, pas que le français est interdit », affirme-t-il sans détour.

 

« On a pris l’approche que le gouvernement fédéral en entier utilise à travers le pays et on encourage l’utilisation des deux langues officielles, peu importe la désignation de langue de travail, parce qu’on reconnaît que le bilinguisme est une force et une richesse au sein du ministère de la Défense nationale. »

 

Même que, ajoute-t-il, « le bilinguisme est la clé pour être promu. Quand on regarde nos officiers aux grades supérieurs dans la Défense nationale, [on voit que] les francophones sont très, très bien représentés, parce qu’ils ont tendance à être plus bilingues ».

 

Vives réactions

Le syndicat de la majorité des employés de la Défense nationale s’est dit cette semaine « préoccupé » par la nouvelle, affirmant qu’il observera de près les effets de la directive sur ses membres.

 

Différents membres de la sphère politique ont aussi vivement réagi à la nouvelle. Le Parti québécois a publié ceci sur sa page Instagram : « Le Canada ne se donne même plus la peine de faire semblant d’être un pays officiellement bilingue. On s’en doutait, mais c’est maintenant officiel. Il y a maintenant deux réalités linguistiques au Canada. Le Canada anglais, où l’anglais est la seule langue officielle, puis le Québec et l’Acadie, où l’on a… l’anglais et la traduction officielle. »

 

Le député du Bloc québécois Mario Beaulieu a quant à lui affirmé sur sa page Facebook que le gouvernement enlève « les désignations bilingues pour que les plaintes qui augmentent ne soient plus considérées comme justifiées par la commissaire aux langues officielles »."

10 août

Mathilde Beaulieu-Lépine

https://www.ledevoir.com/politique/canada/1000802/defense-nationale-nie-avoir-retire-statut-bilingue-certaines-unites

#metaglossia 

#metaglossia_mundus 

"Barcelona rolls out a real-time AI-powered automatic translation system to improve citizen services

The pilot project will be introduced at Citizen Service Offices and Social Services to help overcome language barriers during initial administrative procedures.

 

05/08/2026 - 12:59 h

Barcelona City Council has launched a project based on portable devices that provide instant, two-way translation. The initiative, powered by artificial intelligence, has been designed to facilitate communication in situations where language barriers make understanding difficult. Its aim is to deliver faster, more effective and more accessible public services, promoting equal access to municipal services while strengthening social inclusion.

 

Greater autonomy for municipal staff

 

The initiative will enable municipal staff to hold immediate, two-way conversations in multiple languages, improving both accessibility and the quality of public services. It will also enhance the collection of information during initial interactions, reducing reliance on external interpreters at the early stages of communication and increasing staff autonomy when dealing with multilingual situations, ultimately streamlining administrative procedures.

 

Barcelona City Council emphasises that the device has been designed exclusively as a support tool for non-assessable administrative procedures and will always operate under the supervision of municipal staff. It will neither automate decision-making nor replace the role of public service professionals.

 

The rollout will begin in departments with the greatest exposure to multilingual environments. Within citizen services, the devices will be introduced at Citizen Service Offices and municipal information points, where they will be used to receive enquiries and collect basic information.

 

The technology will also be deployed across the direct intervention network of the Barcelona Municipal Institute of Social Services. This includes Social Services Centres, the Office for Social and Economic Benefits, the Social Guidance and Support Service for Homeless People, and other frontline teams operating throughout the city."

https://ajuntament.barcelona.cat/institut-innovacio-tecnologia/en/latest-news/news/barcelona-rolls-out-a-realtime-aipowered-automatic-translation-system-to-improve-citizen-services-1651839

#metaglossia 

#metaglossia_mundus 

Simpson World Guidebook Overcomes Rejection, Wins Fantastic Praise Three-year effort by 14 experts translates humor, adds cultural annotations for Korean fans

 

"21,000 sheets of manuscript paper, 1,200 pages. The guidebook *Simpson World* (Wilbook), containing all 20 seasons of the Emmy Award-winning animation *Simpson Family* (37 awards), weighs 4 kg. As American cartoonist Matt Groening, who created *The Simpsons*, put it, “It’s a dangerous brick book that could threaten your life if it falls on your head.” To overcome the local copyright holder’s threat, “If you can’t properly translate the unique humor, we’ll terminate the contract,” 14 people including translators, editors, and designers worked together for three years. Recently, we met them at Wilbook’s office in Mapo-gu, Seoul, to hear about the production process.

 

The book, which excited *Simpson* fans worldwide, has been long awaited by Korean fans. The domestic retail price is 170,000 Korean won. Imported copies of the original book exceed 300,000 Korean won even in the secondhand market. Editors said they saw one sold for 1 million Korean won at the used bookstore Aladin. This book, released locally in 2010, was attempted for publication by Wilbook in 2016 but was rejected by the copyright holder with, “Who do you think you are to dare publish *The Simpsons*? This is our work that’s impossible to translate.” Then, upon hearing “intelligence” that the copyright officer had been replaced three years ago, they began production negotiations.

 

The extensive content could not be handled by just one or two people. Translator Choi Se-hee said, “‘*Simpson Family*’ uses concepts ranging from American lower-class culture to modern philosophy, leaving it to the audience to figure out.” She added, “Even Americans often don’t fully understand, making the translation quite challenging.” When trying to reference the animated series’ translations broadcast domestically, there was a lot of information missing from the subtitles due to the physical limitations of TV screens. Thus, 14 people, including seven translators, had to step in. They created a group chat room to discuss and deliberate translation terms day and night. When expressing English-style humor in Korean, everyone had to pitch in and brainstorm. For example, when Bart, the eldest son of the Simpson family, receives a report card full of ‘D’ grades and is sarcastically told, “Have a D-lightful summer,” it was translated as, “D-fully enjoyable summer.”

 

Part of the contents of 'Simpsons World' /Park Seong-won

Editing and design were also challenging. Designer Kim Joo-yeon said, “We joked among ourselves that even if we reach our 60th birthdays, we might not finish.” The publisher instructed not to alter the format, photos, or graphics in any way. Typically, translating English to Korean increases the content by about 30%. They had to fit the information into the fixed layout, but to aid readers’ understanding, there was too much context of American culture to explain. Translator Shin So-hee said, “Thus, a special ‘annotated collection’ (*Simpson Universe Footnotes*) was created exclusively for the Korean edition.” The supplementary booklet, provided separately, includes background information on American history, politics, society, and culture necessary to understand *The Simpsons*. For example, the ‘Paul McCartney tombstone’ mentioned in the story refers to the conspiracy theory that McCartney died during the Beatles’ active period. After three years of work to finally complete it, the U.S. copyright holder had local Korean translators scrutinize every detail. Then came the message: “Fantastic!”

 

The main book and supplement (left) of 'Simpsons World' /Park Seong-won

The final challenge was sales. Although many are *Simpson* fans, there were worries about whether it would sell well. A crowdfunding campaign was launched, and the initial 1,000 copies sold out within 30 minutes. During the second round, 2,000 more copies were quickly exhausted. 419.83 million Korean won was raised instantly. It also became a hot topic at the recent Seoul International Book Fair. After completing the work, the production team found that *The Simpsons*’ stories appeared differently. Editor Park Hyo-joo said, “As a child, *The Simpsons* seemed like someone else’s world, and Marge, the mother, appeared frustratingly old-fashioned.” She added, “Now, I realize it overlaps with our own mothers and our lives, which feels new.”"

https://www.chosun.com/english/travel-food-en/2026/08/05/7LZ2JYS4PVBBNMKEHJNH2V6ABY/

#metaglossia 

#metaglossia_mundus 

"Deadline: 03-Sep-2026
The Danish Arts Foundation Translation Grants support Nordic publishers translating Danish literary works into other Nordic languages. The programme aims to strengthen the circulation of high-quality Danish literature across the Nordic region by funding professional translation and publication projects across a wide range of literary genres.

Eligible publishers must secure translation rights, sign a contract with a translator, and apply before the translation project is completed. The programme prioritizes artistic quality and supports professionally produced literary translations that expand access to Danish literature across Nordic countries.

About the Danish Arts Foundation Translation Grants
The Danish Arts Foundation invites applications from Nordic publishers seeking financial support to translate Danish literary works into other Nordic languages. The programme is designed to strengthen cultural exchange across the Nordic region by making Danish literature accessible to wider audiences through high-quality translations.

The initiative encourages professional publishing projects that preserve literary quality while increasing the visibility of Danish authors and literary traditions throughout the Nordic countries.

Programme Objectives
The programme aims to:

Support the translation of Danish literary works into Nordic languages.
Promote the publication and circulation of Danish literature across the Nordic region.
Strengthen cultural exchange between Nordic countries.
Increase access to high-quality literature for Nordic readers.
Support publishers producing professionally translated literary works.
Encourage literary diversity across fiction, non-fiction, children’s literature, comics, and essays.
Support special feature issues of magazines intended for Nordic audiences.
Ensure artistic quality remains primarily human-created, with technology used only in limited supporting or experimental ways.
Funding Purpose
The Translation Grants are intended to support publishers in covering the costs associated with translating and publishing Danish literary works for readers in other Nordic countries.

The programme helps publishers invest in professional literary translation while encouraging wider distribution of Danish literature across the Nordic cultural landscape.

Eligible Literary Genres
Funding may be awarded for translations in areas including:

Fiction for adults
Children’s literature
Young adult literature
Essays
General cultural literature
Literary non-fiction
Comics
Graphic novels
Special literary magazine issues intended for Nordic readers
Funding Benefits
The programme provides financial support for eligible translation and publication projects that:

Translate Danish literary works into another Nordic language.
Support professional literary translation.
Promote publication by Nordic publishers.
Increase cross-border literary exchange.
Expand access to Danish literature throughout the Nordic region.
Applicants should refer to the official programme guidelines for the exact funding amount available for each project.

Who is Eligible?
Applicants must meet the following eligibility requirements:

Be a Nordic publisher.
Intend to publish a literary work translated from Danish into another Nordic language.
Apply in the Nordic country where the original work was first published.
For Danish works, submit the application to the Danish Arts Foundation’s Committee for Literary Project Funding.
Secure the copyright or translation rights before applying.
Have a signed contract with the translator before submitting the application.
Submit the application before the translation project has been completed.
Who is Not Eligible?
The programme does not support:

Research publications.
Educational materials.
Regional or local history publications.
Handbooks.
Hobby books.
Self-help books.
Catalogues.
Translation of an applicant’s own works.
Text revision or proofreading projects.
Danish publishers seeking support for publishing Danish works in translation under this programme.
Completed projects submitted after the application deadline.
Eligible Expenses
Funding may support costs directly related to:

Professional literary translation.
Publication of translated literary works.
Translation projects for eligible literary genres.
Publication of Nordic literary magazine special issues.
Artistic Quality Requirements
Applications should demonstrate:

High literary and artistic quality.
Professional translation standards.
Strong publishing plans.
Cultural value for Nordic audiences.
The Danish Arts Foundation emphasizes that artistic quality should remain fundamentally human-created, while artificial intelligence or other technologies may only be used in limited supporting or experimental capacities.

Why This Programme Matters
The Translation Grants play an important role in strengthening Nordic cultural cooperation by:

Increasing access to Danish literature.
Supporting professional literary translators.
Encouraging publishers to invest in literary translation.
Promoting Nordic languages and shared cultural heritage.
Building stronger literary connections across Nordic countries.
How to Apply
Applicants should follow these steps:

Confirm that the publishing house is eligible.
Select an eligible Danish literary work.
Secure translation and publishing rights.
Sign a formal contract with the translator.
Prepare the publication proposal.
Apply through the appropriate Nordic funding authority.
For Danish works, submit the application to the Danish Arts Foundation’s Committee for Literary Project Funding.
Ensure the project has not been completed before the application deadline.
Tips for Applicants
Obtain translation rights before submitting the application.
Sign the translator agreement early.
Demonstrate the literary significance of the selected work.
Explain the publication strategy and target readership.
Ensure the translation project aligns with programme objectives.
Submit the application well before publication begins.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
Applying after the project has already been completed.
Failing to secure copyright permissions.
Applying without a signed translator contract.
Proposing ineligible publication categories.
Requesting funding for text revision instead of translation.
Submitting an application through the wrong national funding body.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Can Danish publishers apply?
Generally, Danish publishers are not eligible to receive funding under this programme for publishing Danish works in translation.

Who can submit an application?
Eligible Nordic publishers planning to publish Danish literary works translated into another Nordic language.

Which literary genres are supported?
The programme supports fiction, children’s literature, young adult literature, essays, literary non-fiction, comics, graphic novels, and certain literary magazine issues.

Is a translator required before applying?
Yes. Applicants must have a signed contract with the translator before submitting the application.

Can completed projects receive funding?
No. Projects completed before the application deadline are not eligible.

Are self-help books or educational publications eligible?
No. Research publications, educational materials, self-help books, hobby books, handbooks, catalogues, and similar publications are excluded.

Where should publishers apply?
Applications for translations of Danish works should be submitted to the Danish Arts Foundation’s Committee for Literary Project Funding, while publishers in other Nordic countries should follow the relevant national submission requirements.

Conclusion
The Danish Arts Foundation Translation Grants provide valuable support for Nordic publishers committed to bringing Danish literature to readers across the Nordic region. By funding professional translation and publication projects, the programme strengthens literary exchange, promotes Nordic cultural cooperation, and increases access to outstanding Danish literary works across multiple languages."
https://www2.fundsforngos.org/individuals/nordic-translations-grants-for-publishers-denmark/amp/
#metaglossia
#metaglossia_mundus

"Considering the Many Forms a Family Can Take in Japanese Literature
Laurel Taylor on Maiko Seo’s Someone to Cook For
Via Europa Editions

Growing up, my mother and I often joked that I was a thirty-year-old in a ten-year-old’s skin. That happens when you’re an only child with a tendency toward bookishness—you spend all your time around adults, read much more than the average fourth-grader, and generally comport yourself with the same calm and poise you imagine adults have. For better or for worse, you spend a great deal of time making your own fun with an overactive imagination, taking care of yourself while your parents work, and picking up more responsibilities and self-recriminations than is probably healthy for a ten-year-old. Little do you know that adults, even the ones who seem put together, are just as messy as the children they’re raising. Or at least, this was my experience. This is why when I started translating Maiko Seo’s Someone to Cook For (Europa Editions, 2026), I recognized a kindred spirit in the protagonist, Yuko Morimiya. She too is an old soul in a teenager’s body, bearing a mantle of responsibilities and self-conscious habits like a well-worn and familiar coat.

My upbringing wasn’t quite as colorful as Yuko’s though. Unlike me, the poor girl had had five parents by the time she entered high school. Of course Yuko would balk at my calling her a “poor girl.” Throughout Seo’s novel, Yuko insists that her unusual childhood hasn’t been the tragedy everyone seems to expect—she’s loved all her parents and all her parents have done their best by her, misguided though they sometimes are. At the same time, however, Yuko is aware that because she’s moved households and changed names so often, there is an “acute sense of distance” between her and each new guardian. Where other teenagers are pulling away from their parents, chafing to become adults already, Yuko is constantly thinking about how she can cause her parents, new and old, the least amount of friction and worry.

[Yuko] is acutely aware of her own ever-shifting identity and how it is interwoven with the people who come in and out of the revolving door of her life.

Yuko’s sensitivity to her situation is partially built on the fact of blood relations, which remain a strong determining factor in family structures in Japan. As a toddler, Yuko loses her biological mother to a pedestrian hit-and-run incident, and her father, Shūhei Mito, remarries to a woman named Rika Tanaka when Yuko is in elementary school. However, at the age of ten, Shūhei announces that his company has transferred him to Brazil. Rather than follow him to the other side of the planet, Rika requests a divorce, and she and Shūhei put the question to Yuko: will you stay or will you go? For me, this is the moment Yuko goes from little girl to a little girl trying desperately to be an adult. Torn between her love for her father and her desire to remain in Japan, Yuko ultimately chooses Rika, and from that moment on, she never lives with a biological parent or relative again.

What this means legally speaking is that Yuko is removed from her father’s family registry (koseki) and placed on Rika’s—she transforms from Yuko Mita to Yuko Tanaka, and as a result, she is no longer a legal member of either of her biological parents’ family units. Until April 2026, Japan did not have any joint custody system in place; prior that change, children could not be listed on two family registries at once. Parents could, of course, negotiate visitation rights and child support in a more informal manner, but unlike many other wealthy countries, until 2026, these parental support systems were not obligatory; children could only ever legally be a member of one household, and the other household forfeited all rights and obligations to the child. For a ten-year-old like Yuko, however, the nitty gritty details of visitation and finances are less important than the very real fact of separation. It is evident in the novel that Shūhei loves Yuko very much, but his transfer to Brazil makes maintaining a strong relationship nearly impossible.

Over the course of a year, Yuko never hears from Shūhei at all and eventually gives up on their relationship. “We might have been father and daughter, but now we were apart—our time was over. My own life was right there in front of me, and I needed to focus on the people around me.” Yuko, old soul that she is, quickly learns that Rika’s ability to manage household finances is atrocious, so she takes it upon herself to make sure she and Rika have food and can make the rent on time. Though she is the child, Yuko very much grows into a parent.

Rika, through a series of remarriages and divorces, shuffles Yuko along from family registry to family registry, and with each new household, Yuko again calibrates herself to the adults around her, a process she slowly comes to realize is not the norm in other families. She is baffled by the way her friends Moe and Fumina rail against their parents, especially when Yuko is always holding back at home, forever walking on eggshells. When she and Sōsuke Morimiya, her third father, have a fight, she’s terrified of how to resolve the matter with him.

Maybe we should open up and talk about everything, explain to each other what we believed a father and daughter ought to be. The idea terrified me. I feared if we said everything we needed to say, we wouldn’t be able to stand each other anymore—neither of us actually knew what it was to be parent and child.

Though she would balk at my words, again I say “poor Yuko.” Three fathers and two mothers deep, she is only ever unsure about what a parent looks like or how they are “supposed” to act. And because Yuko is so self-sufficient and has grown up so much faster than other teenagers, she never reaches out for help, even to those who raised her before. She is convinced that to do so would be an unnecessary burden on her former parents, especially when they no longer have any obligations to her.

Though she tries her best to go it alone, ultimately she learns she can lean on the people who care for her and listen to what they have to say about her character and her choices in life.

In the process of editing this translation, one of my editors came back to me with questions about why Yuko is so reluctant to maintain contact with the parents who are no longer in her life. There is, of course, the legal argument; with each divorce, Yuko becomes part of a new family and sheds the old. More importantly, however, whether Yuko is conscious of the bureaucracy and paperwork behind all these family ties binding and unbinding, she is acutely aware of her own ever-shifting identity and how it is interwoven with the people who come in and out of the revolving door of her life. Better to go it alone than reach out for someone who might be gone in a year, right Yuko? Again, I sense a kindred spirit in her; as my friends and family can attest, I also have a hard time asking for help, even from those who would happily give it. Luckily for both Yuko and I, very often help comes even when neither of us seek it.

In translating Someone to Cook For, I can’t add an entire paragraph or even a set of little notes here and there explaining the differences between Japan’s divorce system when compared to those in the UK or the US. What I can do is concentrate on my empathy with Yuko, on the ways in which her thought processes mirror my own. I finished translating the first draft of this novel in June of 2025 and immediately burst into tears. My father had passed unexpectedly only a month prior, and the final scene of the book had touched that part of me that was still in mourning disbelief. Rika also reminded me a lot of him—a little too focused on shopping over family finances, caring but impulsive. Unlike Yuko, my parents never divorced, but still I felt her same uncertainty when faced with my new fatherless place in the world, and I could bring that uncertainty to bear when I began editing and refining the translation.

Who are we when our parents are no longer there to serve as a guidepost for us? I think the common American mythos would have us go on a journey of self-discovery; we would strike out alone, traveling or starting a new business, trying to discover ourselves via “bootstraps” style independence. In Yuko’s story however, she discovers herself not through stubborn independence, but instead through locating new family, new parental figures and mentors. Though she tries her best to go it alone, ultimately she learns she can lean on the people who care for her and listen to what they have to say about her character and her choices in life. I only hope I can be as lucky when it comes to finding new family in my future.

______________________________

Someone to Cook For by Maiko Seo, translated by Laurel Taylor, is available from Europa Editions.

Europa Editions family Japan Japanese Literature Laurel Taylor literature in translation Maiko Seo Someone to Cook For translated literature translation

Laurel Taylor
Laurel Taylor teaches Japanese at the University of Denver. She holds a PhD in the joint Japanese Literature-Comparative Literature track from Washington University, St. Louis, and an MFA in Literary Translation from the University of Iowa, where she was a recipient of the Iowa Arts Fellowship. Her translation work has appeared in Asia Literary Review and English PEN Presents. She currently at work on the translation of Maiko Seo’s All The Long Nights forthcoming from Europa Editions in 2027."
Laurel Taylor
August 6, 2026
https://lithub.com/considering-the-many-forms-a-family-can-take-in-japanese-literature/
#metaglossia
#metaglossia_mundus

"   Local large language AI models are closing the gap with cloud-based models in professional computer-assisted language translation, according to a new study from the University of Georgia that also sheds light on how large language models (LLMs) learn to translate.

The findings could give professional translators a practical alternative to cloud-based AI, particularly in fields where sensitive documents must remain offline and secure.

“There is a niche area of the translation market where translation must be done offline,” said Yuri Balashov, a professor in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences Department of Philosophy and a faculty fellow in the Institute for Artificial Intelligence, who led the project. “In security, military, and patent-related translation projects, you need to shut down your internet. You cannot work online. But you can still run local models, so we wanted to explore how well they perform.”

The research team, including three graduate students who took Balashov’s seminar on translation technologies, compared nine locally run AI language models with leading commercial machine translation systems. To test the systems, they used a set of multilingual medical translations built from professionally translated versions of the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation’s paralysis resource guide.

“It was translated into several languages, including Japanese, Chinese, Russian, German, French, Brazilian Portuguese, and Hindi,” Balashov said. “With the foundation’s permission, we aligned some of them with the English original, sentence by sentence, and that is how we created our corpus.”

The study found that the strongest local models, including Translate Gemma and Mistral, performed competitively in translation quality with larger cloud-based language models such as ChatGPT and Claude, although leading commercial machine translation engines (DeepL for English to German, Russian, and Japanese; Baidu for English to Chinese) still produced the highest-quality translations overall.

“They are still behind, but the gap is narrowing and the field is changing very rapidly,” Balashov said.

The bigger question
Why can large language models translate so well despite never being explicitly trained as translators? Balashov argues that the answer lies in how the models learn. Rather than relying on a single source of information, they develop translation abilities through two concurrent methods: by studying pairs of matched sentences in two languages, and by reading large collections of text in each language separately. Gradually, he suggests, the model builds connections between languages despite not being taught explicit translation rules.

“Both processes are integral to the development of translation abilities of LLMs,” Balashov said. “They both contribute to it but maybe to different extents.”

Rethinking translation
To reach his conclusions, Balashov referred to one of machine translation’s oldest ideas: Interlingua, which holds that translation is not just about converting words from one language into another but capturing meaning behind phrases and sentences, before expressing that same idea in a different language. Once that meaning is encoded in a language-neutral form, it can be expressed in any language without losing the message.

Some researchers believe today’s LLMs may have revived this idea, which dates to early machine translation systems in the 1950s and 60s, through internal language-independent representations. But Balashov remains skeptical.

Translation is more flexible and context-dependent than Interlingua theories suggest, he said. There is no doubt that language models learn cross-lingual representations from exposure to multilingual data during training and fine-tuning. However, they remain dependent on the particular mix of languages used in training. Real-life translation is messy, opportunistic, and much less systematic than is assumed in any interlingual account.

“Your brain almost immediately outputs an equivalent of a shorter phrase in a target language,” Balashov said. “But there’s also another way to translate for us humans. We often slow down and reflect on a more complicated sentence. We try to understand what it really says in the source language, and then we try to transfer that meaning to a target language.”

For Balashov, that same interplay between fast pattern recognition and slower, context-driven reasoning may help explain not only how humans translate but also how LLMs acquire translation abilities.

Humans in the loop
The research is intended to help professional translators and smaller translation agencies adapt to a rapidly changing profession.

“Our target audience in a recent series of papers is human translators and smaller translation agencies, not high-tech labs like Google or Anthropic,” he said. “We think our audience could benefit from what I call translation analytics.”

Balashov describes translation analytics as a combination of “automatic evaluation of translation quality, human evaluation and lightweight statistical analysis” used to assess translation performance.

While AI continues to reshape the translation profession, he added, the role of human translators is evolving rather than disappearing.

“I would like to think that there will always be a need for professional translators. There are areas where the proverbial human expert in the loop is sorely needed,” Balashov said. “But the nature of the work that translators need to perform is changing very rapidly. Those who want to continue working in this area need to adapt very fast.”"
By Moses U. Okocha
https://research.uga.edu/news/how-can-ai-translate-without-being-trained-as-a-translator/
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I'm 94 and still work five days a week. Six decades in, I still have no plans to retire
Marta Barany has been an interpreter and translator for over 60 years. There's a reason she keeps working

"I'm now 94 years old, interpreting and translating in both the private and public sectors (including Centrelink), and have no plans to retire soon.

A natural path
Becoming an interpreter was always a natural progression for me; I speak a few languages, and I love dealing with people.

I was born and raised for the first 12 years of my life in Hungary. But in 1945, near the end of World War Two, my parents and I fled as refugees to Germany after the Soviet Red Army invaded and occupied our country.

I already knew Hungarian, but I learnt German, English, Latin and French through my six years of schooling in Germany, which have been very helpful to know.

I arrived in Melbourne with my family in January 1951, after 65 days of travel, as displaced persons from the war.

I was 18 years old and still remember feeling a heat I had never experienced in my life when we were taken to Bonegilla, an ex-army camp near Albury in northern Victoria that was then used as a camp to process post-war European migrants.

Because the camp was full, we were put in an army tent — and that is how I started my life in Australia.

Finding my purpose
It wasn't until the late 1950s, when I was in my late 20s, a mother and working an admin role, that my interpreting career began.

The 1956 Hungarian Revolution brought a wave of Hungarian migrants to Australia in the years that followed. But there was no community interpreter service here at the time, and people needed help.

So I stepped forward as an interpreter. I believe it's important to be understood as a person — to say what you want to say and be able to express yourself. And if you don't speak the language of a place, that's very hard to do.

One memory that stands out in my career was working with the Department of Immigration's telephone interpreter service, when a phone call from a hospital somewhere in rural Western Australia came through late one evening.

A young woman was in labour, and I had to interpret for her and the medical team: telling her when to push, when not to push and that she was going to get through it.

Then, when she had given birth, I had to tell her husband he was a father to a "lovely baby boy".

It was a special moment, and I felt privileged that my work let me be a part of it.

As a 'clog wog', Australians didn't know I was a migrant, so they confided their racism
Across my six-decade-long career, I’ve also been involved in starting several of Australia's interpreting and translating services.

I was one of the founding members of the Telephone Community Interpreting Service and Australian Institute of Interpreters and Translators, and I helped set up the National Accreditation Authority for Translators and Interpreters — as well as the Hungarian branch of Catholic aid organisation Caritas.

It's been a privilege to help others feel understood, and I especially feel connected with the Hungarian communities both here and abroad.

Some Hungarian Australians have somewhat adopted me as their mother, which is a role I'm happy to fulfil.

I also chaired the Hungarian Olympic Committee during the 2000 Sydney Games and served as the Ethnic Affairs Commissioner of NSW. And I have been awarded the British Empire Medal, Order of Australia Medal, and this year, the Interpreters and Translators Medal.

If my mind works, I still work
At 94, I'm still working five days a week — usually three or four hours a day. I don't have any plans to stop working, but I know it'll be time to do so when my mind gives up.

I try to work as much as I can and feel energised by it.

If my mind works, I will still work.

I used to travel a lot for work as I mostly interpreted onsite. I worked in Cairns, Townsville and Brisbane in Queensland; in the courts in Adelaide; in Broken Hill and Lightning Ridge in rural NSW — all over the place.

But these days, I mostly work over the phone. I still drive, so I work onsite if I can find a parking spot — otherwise I do a lot of telephone and video call interpreting.

Although German was like a mother tongue to me, it's become rusty; so, I now only interpret in Hungarian and English Hungarian.

I get a pension and my freelance work does mean extra income — not as much as when I worked full-time, but it's still very good.

And my work keeps me busy.

In all truth, I wouldn't know what to do with my mind if I stopped working.

And I know that I'm good at my job and I'm needed."
5 August 2026
Marta Barany

https://www.sbs.com.au/news/insight/article/im-94-and-still-work-five-days-a-week-six-decades-in-i-still-have-no-plans-to-retire/s3e0ptjcb
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Rights Complaint Filed Over Lack of Interpreters for Foreign Workers at Labor Board

"A complaint has been filed alleging that regional and central labor relations commissions discriminated against a foreign worker's right to equality by conducting hearings without providing interpretation, in a case where the worker had sought relief for unfair dismissal.

Korean Lawyers for Public Interest and Human Rights, known as Duroon, said on the 4th that it submitted a complaint to the National Human Rights Commission of Korea on the 3rd of this month. The complaint requested a recommendation that "the Labor Relations Commission improve its practices and systems to provide interpretation when investigating, deliberating on, and questioning foreigners, and to take active measures such as guaranteeing the participation of a person in a relationship of trust and extending the duration of hearing sessions."

According to Duroon, two Sri Lankan foreign workers who had worked as welders at a shipyard in Ulsan filed for relief from unfair dismissal with the Ulsan Regional Labor Relations Commission in June last year after being dismissed from their jobs.

However, Duroon explained that the Ulsan commission did not provide interpretation to the workers, who were not proficient in Korean, at a hearing session held in August of the same year. As a result, a fellow worker with no professional interpreting experience served as the interpreter, making it difficult to adequately represent their positions. "The commissioners spoke in long and complex sentences without considering interpretation, used legal terms without separate explanation, and often continued speaking before interpretation was completed," Duroon said.

Duroon also claimed that it requested an extension of the hearing session time in consideration of the time required for consecutive interpretation, but the request was not accepted. As a result, in a hearing session that lasted about one hour and 20 minutes, actual questions and answers accounted for less than half of the time. According to Duroon, interpretation was likewise not provided and the hearing time was not extended during the National Labor Relations Commission's review procedure conducted in February this year.

Duroon said, "Because the Labor Relations Commission's unfair dismissal relief procedure is a preliminary procedure to administrative litigation and effectively has the character of a trial, interpretation support and time extensions that take this into account are necessary to guarantee foreign parties a substantive right to participate, just as in criminal and civil procedures.""
https://en.sedaily.com/society/2026/08/04/rights-complaint-filed-over-lack-of-interpreters-for
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