ULG’s Language Solutions Blog

How Technology Can Enhance Language Access

The need for clear, instant communication across languages is exploding in healthcare, education, courtrooms, and more. Compliance with relevant regulations is a key driver of this demand, but it's no...

How ULG Handles Bias in Machine Translations

AI-powered neural machine translation (NMT) has the potential to unite us across miles and languages. But there’s a dark side: it also has the potential to unwittingly reinforce societal biases by pro...

What You Need to Know about Data Breaches During Online Translation Processes

Currently, 71% of countries have data privacy laws, and those laws are becoming increasingly complex and mature as regulatory bodies and government agencies increase their understanding of the value a...

Six Myths About AI Translation

From faster turnaround times to increased content, the benefits of AI translation are real and compelling. Google Translate processes at least 146 billion words a day. According to Nimdzi Insights, Ne...

How to Boost AI Translation Quality with Post-Editing

Machine Translation (MT) and generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) are changing the multilingual content production game, helping organizations connect with more customers from different linguistic ...

Six Risks of Free Machine Translation Tools

Free machine translation (MT) tools such as Google Translate are alluring for businesses that want to optimize their translation budget or speed up their translation processes. What could be cheaper t...

18 Critical Questions to Ask Before Implementing AI-Powered Machine Translation

Machine translation (MT) powered by artificial intelligence (AI) is a tempting solution for any global organization with an eye on scaling the amount of localized content across languages. It’s imposs...

Human and Cultural Biases in AI

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is everywhere you look, transforming the way we communicate and do business. Generative AI and large language models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT are grabbing headlines for thei...

ChatGPT and the Future of Translation

Since its inception, the impact of OpenAI’s ChatGPT has been huge. This unique technology continues to grow and is not going anywhere. ChatGPT consistently dominates the news cycle; every week there’s...

ULG's Octave Has Seamless Adobe Experience Manager Localization Integration

Our team at ULG has developed a seamless and easily deployable language translation connector API between our OctaveTMS platform and the Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) Cloud. OctaveTMS offers an end-t...

Healthcare IT Today: Utilizing Technology to Expand Language Access

Original Publication: Healthcare IT Today Communication and connection are crucial in healthcare settings. To better connect with their community and ensure equitable access, healthcare organizations ...

The Spotify Localization Strategy

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...

What Is Transcreation? And When Should You Use It?

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...

Localization Strategy Guide: Cultural Dimensions of Brazil

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...

Airbnb’s Localization Strategy

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...

The Risk of Free Machine Translation Tools

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...

Why Machine Translation Terminology Management Matters in Manufacturing

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...

GDPR Enforcement: Are you prepared for an audit or a dawn raid?

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....

Is Your Marketing Content Optimized for Voice Search?

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...

Regulating Big Data: SC 42 and Artificial Intelligence

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...

5 Compelling Reasons to Use Machine Translation Tools

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...

How GDPR Helps Fight Data Corruption

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...

Three Ways A Breach Response Plan Benefits Global Companies

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...

Taking Your Apps Global: Localization for Mobile Devices

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...

Data Breaches and Security: Blockchain 101

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 ...

eLearning Solutions Executives Will Use

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 ...

Three Consulting Services Every LSP Should Offer

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...

Study Finds Moderate Alcohol Use Might Help Foreign Language Skills

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...

Stories From A 911 Call Center: Interpreting In Moments Of Crisis

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...

Software and Website Localization Testing 101

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 ...

Five Language Learning Myths Debunked

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...

International Translation Day and the Importance of Language Services

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 Language Industry’s Need For Standardized MT Testing

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 ...

Five Common Misconceptions About The Language Industry

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...

Harvey Reinforces The Need For Language Assistance During Disasters

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...

Why It Pays To Localize Your Website

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...

Four Common Mistakes To Avoid During The Translation Process

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 ...

Five Tips For Preparing Technical Documentation For Translation

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 ...

Four Steps for Creating a Translation Glossary

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...

Mobile App Localization: How to Get Started

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...

What is Machine Translation Gisting?

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...

Why Real-Time Translation Earpieces May Not Be Worth the Hype

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 GDPR, How Will a Data Breach Affect Your Company?

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...

Five Helpful Tips For Optimizing Multilingual SEO

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...

5 Reasons Why Latin America is Great for Conducting Clinical Trials

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...

Which Translation Method Should You Use? A Guide Based on Content Type

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...

What To Ask a Language Services Provider During the RFP Process

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...

Does Your Language Service Provider Keep Your Data Safe?

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...

When Will AI Exceed Human Abilities? It Won’t Be Long, According to Study

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...

Subtitle Hack Puts Millions at Risk

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 Bill Spurs Controversy in Illinois

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...

Are Translators Worried About MT Taking Their Jobs? Yes and No

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...

How 5 Global Chains Localize Fast Food

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 ...

The Affordable Care Act and Language Access

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...

The EU and the Need for Irish Translation

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...

Leveraging Translation Memories In Clinical Trial Translations

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...

When Machine Translation Works, and When It Is Likely To Need Some Help

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,...

Inside Design: A Language Selector Is No Place for Flags

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 ...

Can Animal Translation Technology Help You Chat with Cats?

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...

Localizing Images for Marketing

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-...

Three Steps to Acing Foreign Business Etiquette

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...

Constructed Languages: Reinventing Babel

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...

3 Tips for Website Localization

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 ...

Are You Ready For GDPR? Preparing For The EU’s New Data Protection Rules

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...

Tips for a Successful In-Country Review

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...

LSP Starts Crowdfunding Campaign to Translate White House Website

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 ...

Breach Response: Having a Plan When Data is Compromised

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...

Localizing Acronyms

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 ...

The 7 Things You Need in Your Localization Toolkit

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...

3 Creative Strategies For Language Learners

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...

Writing Content For Machine Translation: Keep it Simple, Recycle, Repeat

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 ...

E-Discovery Best Practices for Multilingual Investigations

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...

A Buyer’s Guide to Language Learning Applications

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...

Navigating E.U. E-Labeling Regulations

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 ...

The Challenge of Bidirectional Languages

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...

Language Barrier a Problem for Scientific Research, Study Says

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...

10 Foreign Language Films To Watch This Oscar Season

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...

ISO and the Language Industry

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...

The Cold Call And Your Global Marketing Strategy

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...

The Latest Language Translation Technology

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...

How to Make Your Multinational Business Ready for Brexit

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 ...

Twitter and the Translation Industry: Who to Follow

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...

Web Localization Done Right

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...

Google Translate's New AI a Step Forward, But Not Perfect

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...

Are You a Strong Translator? See If These Traits Describe You

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...

"Bob's Your Uncle?" The Difficulty Posed by Idiomatic Translation

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 Controversy Highlights Larger Machine Translation Debate

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...

Using MT and Human Translation within eDiscovery

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...

2016 EU IVD and MD Regulations at a Glance

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...

Three Reasons Why Google Translate Might Not Be the Right Solution for You

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...