This article was originally published in June 2017 and has been updated. Since it launched in 2008, Spotify has become a leader in the music streaming scene. Over 50 million paid subscribers use the s...
This article was originally published in August 2017 and has been updated. When the now-defunct Braniff Airlines released an ad targeting its Spanish speaking consumers in 1987, it likely couldn’t hav...
This article was originally published in June 2017 and has been updated. Brazil, once home to an economic boom, has been in a recession since 2013, and consumers have opted to hold onto their well-ear...
This article was originally published in August 2017 and has been updated. Airbnb, the home-sharing service that amassed nearly $47 billion in gross booking value in 2021, is accessible in virtually e...
This article was originally published in August 2018 and has been updated. In 2018, Facebook received strong criticism for an embarrassing translation mistake triggered by its algorithm. After a 6.9 m...
This article was originally published in October 2020 and has been updated. Terminology management is a critical and key component to ensuring optimal translation quality for all localized content. It...
It’s nearly the one-year mark for the Global Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and we’re starting to see enforcement already. Most notably, of course, is the $57 million fine to Google for violations....
Consider that 41% of adults and 55% of teens are using voice search every day and voice searches make up 20% of all mobile searches on Google. These numbers are only going to increase as voice recogni...
According to the International Data Corporation (IDC), 40% of digital transformation initiatives will use Artificial Intelligence (AI) services by 2019 and 75% of enterprise applications will use AI b...
This article was originally published in April 2018 and has been updated. How do you know when machine translation is right for a particular job or for your business? While some translation jobs are b...
May 11, 2018 With just a few months left until the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) takes effect, consumers should feel good about stricter rules for the handling and storage...
May 11, 2018 As companies expand their global reach, they encounter greater opportunities to interact with consumers from different countries, learn more about their clients’ interests, and adapt thei...
In 2017, mobile apps were downloaded by users more than 197 billion times. Over the last few years, apps and mobile marketing have represented a large percentage of the marketing mix, with companies u...
The terms “hack” and “data breach” elicit a great amount of fear in today’s ever-connected world. Hackers are a tremendous threat to any large corporation, something that major companies like Equifax ...
Executives are busy. It's difficult for them to devote time to new training. And taking an eLearning course may require them to use new technology, adding to the perception that it will be especially ...
So, you’ve identified a need for language services. Maybe you’ve got a big interpreting project that needs to be done, or an assignment that requires hundreds of pages of Mandarin to be translated int...
Having trouble learning another language? A glass of beer might help. That’s according to a study published last week in the Journal of Psychopharmacology. It found that those who had consumed alcohol...
Editor’s Note: Claudio Federico is ULG’s Managing Director of OPI Services and has worked in the interpreting industry for several years. Here he details some experiences he’s had in the industry with...
There’s a lot that goes into a successfully localized software application or website. After you’ve translated your source materials, there are steps that need to be taken to ensure your content will ...
New research indicates there is yet another reason to learn a second language. A study published in Bilingualism: Language and Cognition suggests children who grew up bilingual have an easier time lea...
On Saturday, Sept. 30, translators from all over the world will have reason to celebrate. The date marks International Translation Day, which gained official recognition from the United Nations in May...
The translation industry is seeing a boom in Machine Translation (MT), both in use and technology. As these MT technology uses and applications evolve, a standardized MT scoring method is desperately ...
Despite its size, the language industry is most likely not well known to those who aren’t directly involved in the field. Niche terms like LSP (Language Service Provider) or “Post Editing,” probably d...
The past week has been tragic for residents of Houston and the surrounding area as they look for relief in the wake of Hurricane Harvey. Meanwhile, in India, monsoon rainfall has ravaged the country a...
There are more than 3.5 billion internet users in the world, and roughly 1.2 billion websites live on the internet. In 1994, there were less than 5,000 websites up and running. When that number reache...
In many ways, the translation process is like a large, complex game of telephone. You have linguists, project managers, clients and designers all trying to effectively communicate with one another to ...
Technical translations might not be thought of as the most glamorous localization projects – IFUs, data sheets, and user manuals aren’t many people’s idea of “exciting.” But they’re important, and no ...
WHAT IS A TRANSLATION GLOSSARY? A translation glossary is an index of specific terminology with approved translations in all target languages that is used by a company and their clients. Glossaries ai...
A study shows that companies with localized apps saw 128% more downloads within just the first week of adding more languages. Global consumers want to use apps that are available in their native langu...
Machine Translation (MT) can be a daunting subject with its multiple training approaches and long list of terms. Those new to MT can easily get confused when words like Curated MT, bleu scores, corpus...
Inevitably, when a new real-time translation earpiece hits the market, media outlets gobble up the news, putting out article after article referring to the new device as the answer to breaking down la...
With the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) less than a year away, any company that does business in the EU will soon need to ensure that they’re following regulations on secure customer inform...
If you’re looking to promote your brand across the globe, creating compelling multilingual materials is just one side of the digital marketing coin. Successful international businesses effectively uti...
Over the years, Latin America has become a prime spot to conduct clinical trials. Countries within the region share several key features that give clinical researchers a lot of reasons to look to thes...
Let’s examine a hypothetical: You’re creating a global branding scheme for a new product. You need to create foreign language content in order for your materials to resonate in local markets. How do y...
Both writing and completing a Request for Proposal (RFP) can be a meticulous and time-consuming process. Regardless of the industry, ensuring you ask all the correct questions to find out as much as y...
The translation industry has seen dramatic growth lately, and it’s only expected to get bigger. GALA predicts the market will be worth more than $40 billion by 2020, and at the rate global business is...
Artificial Intelligence (AI) will be able to translate materials as well as human experts in less than 20 years, according to a recent study that surveyed specialists in the AI field for their take on...
Social media round-up for October 21, 2016 This week on the Common Sense Advisory blog, Arle Lommel asked us all if we could be missing business opportunities because we might be targeting in the wron...
Website localization has become a heated topic in Illinois government as of late. Recently, some lawmakers in the state had pushed for an amendment to HB 695, also known as the Legislative Information...
The fictionalized robot, Hal, made his debut in 2001: A Space Odyssey nearly 50 years ago. More than four decades later, it doesn’t seem like we’ve reached the level of super intelligence that was por...
Most people will walk into a popular chain restaurant and already know what’s on the menu. Restaurants stick to what works, usually focusing their menus on insanely popular, yet predictable meals for ...
There’s been a lot of talk about healthcare lately. With a new administration in the White House and “Obamacare” tenuously hanging in the balance, the future of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is uncert...
Recently, the European Union’s (EU) need for Irish interpreters has been thrown into the spotlight, as they struggle to find qualified candidates to fill those job vacancies. Although only spoken by a...
Anyone who’s completed a major translation project knows that it can be a costly, time-consuming process. But those with experience in the language world also know there are ways to streamline workflo...
This article was originally published in April 2018 and has been updated. Machine Translation (MT) and its applications continue to gain traction as one of the hottest topics in the language industry,...
One of the most prevalent mistakes made by designers of international websites is the use of country flags to represent different languages within a site’s language selector. While flags are tempting ...
Domesticated animals were one of the first “technologies” humans employed for survival -taming, training, and breeding different species for different purposes. We domesticated horses to carry us long...
In the world of global marketing, localization is king. Through a well-planned and researched localization process, brands can travel all around the world. While many think of localization as a large-...
A foreign business trip is a daunting undertaking for anyone. The fear of not understanding workflow, customs, business etiquette, and communication styles can present seemingly insurmountable challen...
Spending hours, sometimes days, at a time fine tuning the phonetics, grammar, verb tense and vocabulary of an invented language probably isn’t everyone’s idea of a good time. But for “conlangers,” thi...
Your website is designed perfectly! It’s got appealing colors, intuitive content layout, and quality content. But more than likely, your website is built for a single culture—your own. Will that same ...
Although we still have four months until the new year hits, 2018 will be here before we know it. And in less than 10 months, businesses around the globe will need to be compliant with the European Uni...
Translated content needs to be tailored to the target audience it’s meant to reach. And validation processes throughout a localization project ensure global materials are not only linguistically corre...
Need to view the White House’s website in Spanish? No problem. A global Language Service Provider (LSP) has started a campaign to add Spanish language content to the site. The translation company has ...
Yahoo. eBay. Target. Sony. Home Depot. What do these companies have in common? They are among the many organizations that have been affected by a major data breach, resulting in millions of personal r...
Acronyms and abbreviations are one of the trickiest localization items to handle. While shortening words and phrases can make life easier when writing in your local language, translating acronyms can ...
What do all successful localization projects have in common? Proper planning. One way to start your project off correctly is by defining your expectations with the help of a “localization kit” or chec...
So, you want to learn another language? We can’t blame you. There are so many benefits to becoming bilingual (or trilingual and beyond) that relate to the brain, personal development and business oppo...
Translation errors can be embarrassing – sometimes extremely so. Coke once learned this the hard way when an advertisement on its vending machine inadvertently said "Hello, Death" in Maori. Lucky for ...
Sorting through documents in a legal case is a task in itself. Finding relevant materials for trial can mean sifting through thousands of pages of records in order to find documents that are pertinent...
Learning a language is a fun and easy way to exercise your brain. Whether you’re retired, curious, or just want to practice your existing skills, it’s never been an easier endeavor to undertake than i...
Electronic Labeling (e-labeling) has the potential to be hugely beneficial to medical device companies creating Instructions For Use (IFU), labels and packaging information. But at the same time, the ...
When English speakers learn to read and write, we’re taught words and letters flow from left-to-right. That’s because we’ve learned a language and an alphabet based on Latin languages (e.g. English, F...
A new study suggests using English as the “lingua franca” in the scientific community has severely impeded the transmission of ideas. A paper published last week in the journal PLOS Biology argues tha...
It will be a highly competitive year at the 89th Academy Awards across many of the top prizes, including the award for best foreign language film. There are 85 submissions from all around the world, a...
A faulty translation can lead to embarrassing, and sometimes dire, consequences. Companies are at risk of suffering severe damage to their reputations when global content is translated incorrectly, an...
Undoubtedly, the digital age has fundamentally changed how people both buy and sell. To counteract these radical shifts, a business’s global marketing strategy has to quickly adapt to these changes. A...
Technology is beginning to keep pace with globalization to help us connect like never before. Whether you’re traveling abroad, living in a multicultural area where your primary language isn’t spoken o...
Although the United Kingdom voted itself out of the European Union in June of 2016, it’s still unclear what the effects of Brexit will be in Britain, the EU as well as the rest of the world. And that ...
There’s a lot to learn in the translation industry. Keeping up with technological trends, regulations and industry standards can be a daunting task, especially if you’re new to the business. Add to th...
In this day and age, there aren’t many excuses for companies that don’t tap into foreign markets. The Internet has made global marketing more of a necessity than an option for business. With over 3 bi...
Have the machines taken over yet? These days, sometimes it sure feels like it. And Google’s announcement last week that the company has devised a new machine translation method that’s purportedly almo...
Translators are connectors. They connect people, places and ideas with their ability to speak more than one language. They’re not only bi- or multi-lingual, but they’re also experts on the culture tha...
Silverware or cutlery? Highway or motorway? Sidewalk or pavement? If you’ve ever been an American in the United Kingdom or a Briton traveling in the United States, chances are you’ve had to learn each...
Canadian Hiring The debate over whether machines will replace humans in the translation industry has again come up in the news – this time the controversy surrounds a new vetting system for hiring fre...
This article was originally published in September 2016 and has been updated. The process of one person translating from one language into another, especially when it involves corporate and legal docu...
By Maurizio Suppo, Principal Consultant, Qarad Good old days will be gone forever – the new EU MD and IVD regulations are coming fast! The European regulatory framework for MDs and IVDs has been drive...
After recent updates, Google Translate now includes more than 100 languages, including Hawaiian and Kurdish. According to Google, this means the online translation tool, which is about to celebrate it...
