Opinion & features

Translation has consistently been a central focus at London Book Fairs. Translators’ and scouts’ perspectives shape publishing decisions for translations. Nonetheless, their impact on the UK publishing market is limited to 3-6% of the market, which mostly belongs to anglophone writers. Over the last two years, Japanese manga made it clear: the foreign literature segment is poised for growth.

In 2023, the UK witnessed a surge in popularity for manga and cozy novels, with Japanese writers leading the market for translated titles. Seventeen of the top 30 translated authors in Britain hailed from Japan, contributing to nine out of the 20 bestsellers being originally written in Japanese. Kentaro Miura, the manga creator who tragically passed away in 2021 at the age of 54, led the pack of translators. An overwhelming 95% of manga sales came from titles originally published in Japan. Among the top 10 authors in translation who generated over £1 million in sales last year, seven were Japanese, with five of them being manga creators. The only non-Japanese names in the top 10 were Thomas Erikson (3rd) and Andrzej Sapkowski (10th).

The top 20 lists featured familiar names such as Elena Ferrante, Jo Nesbo, Paulo Coelho, and Haruki Murakami. Additionally, new faces emerged in the charts, including Bulgarian author Georgi Gospodinov.

Source: https://chytomo.com/en/

Full article: https://chytomo.com/en/translation-trends-at-the-london-book-fair-japanese-are-overtaking-the-uk-market-translations-from-ukrainian-are-increase/

While AI tools have been used by some translators to support their work, three-quarters of those surveyed believe the emerging technology will negatively impact their future income

More than a third of translators have lost work due to generative AI, a survey by the Society of Authors (SoA) has found. More than four in 10 translators said that their income has decreased because of generative AI, while more than three-quarters believe the emerging technology will negatively affect their future income.

The SoA, the UK’s largest trade union for writers, illustrators and translators, ran the survey in January. It found that 37% of translators had used generative AI to support their work, and 8% used it because they were asked by their publisher or commissioning organisation.

Thomas Bunstead, whose translations from Spanish include The Book of All Loves by Agustín Fernández Mallo, said it is important to draw a distinction between literary translators and “commercial” translators. “Though a third of translators have responded to the SoA survey saying they think they’ve lost work to AI already, literary translation remains in the hands of humans,” he said. “The work that has presumably been handed over to AI will be the kind of uncomplicated bread-and-butter stuff which doesn’t require so much nuance,” such as instruction manuals.

Source: https://www.theguardian.com/

Full article: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2024/apr/16/survey-finds-generative-ai-proving-major-threat-to-the-work-of-translators

Imagine your mother has cancer. You just heard about a promising new experimental treatment and want to enroll her in the study. However, your mother immigrated to the U.S. as an adult and speaks limited English. When you reach out to the research team, they tell you she is ineligible because they are recruiting only English speakers.

Unfortunately, this is an all too likely outcome of a scenario like this, because non-English speakers are frequently excluded from clinical trials and research studies in the U.S.

Despite efforts to increase research participation, racial and ethnic minorities remain underrepresented in results. A review of 5,008 papers in three pediatric journals from 2012 to 2021 revealed that only 9% of these studies included non-English speaking volunteers.

Language is a key barrier to participation, as even those with some English proficiency are less likely to participate in studies when recruitment materials aren’t in their native language. Language barriers also hinder a person’s ability to provide informed consent to participate.

Source: https://theconversation.com/global

Full article: https://theconversation.com/when-research-study-materials-dont-speak-their-participants-language-data-can-get-lost-in-translation-215942

Latin American literature scholar Suzanne Jill Levine receives PEN America award for translation

When you read Latin American literature in English, there’s a good chance you’re reading a translation by Suzanne Jill Levine, who has been plying her craft since the early 1970s. Her versions of books by Guillermo Cabrera Infante, Julio Cortazar and Manuel Puig (to name but a few) have enriched the lives of English-speaking readers, and her work has had an impact comparable to that of C. K. Scott Moncrieff’s Proust or Constance Garnett’s Dostoevsky — not only literary but cultural. Levine has had the vision and bravado to become a protagonist in the story of Latin American literature in English translation, and to change it in the process, not only publishing a biography and translations, but also creating a mashup of autobiography and scholarship that’s totally original.   

Levine has been named the recipient of the 2024 PEN/Ralph Manheim Award for Translation, which recognizes the translator’s lifetime achievements.

“My book ‘The Subversive Scribe: Translating Latin American Fiction’ (Graywolf Press, 1991, Dalkey Archive, 2009) by tracing the process of translating, explicitly shows readers how translation is a creative act and defines what a translator is, and why a translator needs to be linguist, literary critic and poet or novelist all in one,” said Levine, UC Santa Barbara distinguished professor emerita of Latin American literature. “Basically, our concepts of authorship and originality are inadequate to grasp what a translator does.” 

Source: https://news.ucsb.edu/

Full article: https://news.ucsb.edu/2024/021436/pioneering-translations-artistry

Islamabad : Former Federal Secretary and a well-known man of letters, Muhammad Saleem Sethi has come up with a genuinely-crafted literary landmark, the Urdu translation and illustration of the famous Persian poet Fariduddin Attar’s long poem ‘Musibat Nama.’

The book gives a deep insight into the Sufis’ school of ‘Ishq’ which is commonly known as ‘Mysticism.’ It takes the readers to the less-trodden paths of human sufferings and man’s resilience in the face of ordeals. An undertone of curiosity always keeps the flame of spiritualism burning, says a press release.

In the interior parts of old Peshawar city, the Persian ‘kalam’ of Sheikh Saadi and Attar of Nishapur was read out and the family members used to sit silently and listen to the resonating Persian verses of great Iranian poets. It was that rich literary background that made Saleem Sethi undertake the gigantic task of translating Attar.

Source: https://www.thenews.com.pk/

Full article: https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/1178091-literati-welcomes-urdu-translation-of-musibat-nama

• Bipartisan group supports addressing ‘strategic disadvantage’ and understanding adversaries who pose ‘serious threat to American national security’
• Open Translation Centre tasked with training analysts and linguists comes amid challenges getting accurate information out of China

A bipartisan group of US lawmakers introduced a bill on Thursday that would establish a research centre charged with creating publicly accessible English translations of open-source materials from China.

The initiative, to be known as the Open Translation Centre, would also train analysts and linguists to specialise in China and other countries, a full list of which will be determined later.

“The United States can’t afford to be in a position where our competitors know more about us than we know about them,” said Democratic congressman Joaquin Castro of Texas, the bill’s sponsor.

“For generations, Congress supported open-source translation programmes that helped Americans understand both our allies and our adversaries. As our investment in those programmes [has] declined, countries like China and Russia have accelerated their own – putting us at a strategic disadvantage,” he continued.

Source: https://www.scmp.com/?module=masthead&pgtype=article

Full article: https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/3258714/us-lawmakers-unveil-bill-set-research-centre-translating-open-source-materials-china

For the first time in history, a single language dominates global scientific communication. But the actual production of knowledge continues to be a multilingual enterprise.

The use of English as the norm poses challenges for scholars from regions where English is not widely spoken. They must decide whether to publish in English for global visibility, or publish in their native language to make their work accessible to local communities. And when they work in English, they end up expending more time and effort writing and revising papers than their native English-speaking peers.

As gatekeepers of scientific knowledge, academic publishers play a key role in helping or hindering the participation of a multilingual scientific community. So how are they doing?

Source: https://theconversation.com/global

Full article: https://theconversation.com/prestigious-journals-make-it-hard-for-scientists-who-dont-speak-english-to-get-published-and-we-all-lose-out-226225

As previously reported, “Machine translation (MT) and adjacent language technologies are driving industry-wide demand for natural language processing (NLP) engineers and machine learning researchers.”

However, as the same article pointed out, more traditional roles at various companies also need to be filled. So what skills are perceived to be the most important for these language-related positions?

Read on Slator.com

Paquet began his subtitle translation career by proofreading English translations and also sometimes co-translating with a Korean friend. “It was about ten years ago that I felt my Korean was at a level where I could do first drafts,” he said. “And even today I have a lot of people review my work.”

Translating subtitles is unlike any other kind of translation, says Pacquet. “The audience can hear the actors speaking, they can get a lot of emotion from the screen. The translation has to compliment that. I watch the performances really closely as I’m translating. It often feels like I’m translating a performance rather than text. You also have to be aware of issues like timing.”

Paquet is the author of New Korean cinema : breaking the waves, which covers the industry from the 1980s to 2000s. He wrote the book in 2009 and notes that one of the obvious ways the industry has changed since then is the increasing level of international interest.

But the biggest change might be the growing number of independent films now being produced in Korea. To celebrate those indie films Paquet founded the Wildflower Film Awards, an independent film festival.

“The independent sector is very dynamic,” he said. “Producing at least 100 features a year with some incredible acting performances. Exciting new talent comes out every year, but inevitably they get somewhat overlooked. This is a time each year when we can celebrate the achievements of these filmmakers.”

“Living in Korea I got to know a lot of directors,” he said. “Both through subtitle work but also as a journalist and at film festivals. Eventually, I came across a director who needed a foreign actor quite urgently, so I stepped into the part. So, when other directors saw that, they said, oh, Darcy. Whenever anyone needs an undemanding not-too-expensive foreign actor, they give me a call.”

https://www.forbes.com/sites/joanmacdonald/2022/11/05/from-subtitles-to-indies-darcy-paquet-captures-the-best-of-korean-cinema/?sh=43970dd94c72

Beginning of July, Meta AI published an outstanding work: No Language Left Behind (NLLB). It presents a new translation model and datasets for 200 languages. This is a wonderful initiative that will definitely benefit many on the planet.

It is also a scientifically dubious work. In this article, I demonstrate that many of Meta AI claims made in NLLB are: unfounded, misleading, and the result of a deeply flawed evaluation. I will also show that, following Meta AI evaluation methodology, it is very easy to obtain even higher numbers than what they have reported.

Continue reading.

“Stranger Things evoked a lot of emotions this season — especially if you flipped on your subtitles setting. Those subtitles became a sensation among fans: [Tentacles undulating moistly], [wet footsteps squelch], [tense music intensifies] are as memorable as Vecna himself.

While Netflix’s recent efforts have enabled its creative writers to let as loose as they can on a 42-word-count line, all credit of the phonetic mastery of Stranger Things 4 goes to the show’s subtitle author Jeff T. (he preferred we not share his full last name) and his subtitle QA editor Karli Witkowska.”

https://www.vulture.com/2022/07/stranger-things-subtitles-captions-team-interview.html

As Deaf representation in film grows, we must ensure these movies are within reach.

https://www.34st.com/article/2022/04/sign-up-deaf-accessibility-mariella-satow-asl-sign-language-open-closed-captions-coda

Localization career development requires a strategic approach. The key to this approach for those who want to advance their careers, build teams, and work better cross-functionally is to be conscious and proactive in the way they demonstrate knowledge within their organizations.

At a recent workshop accompanying the launch of Smartling’s new e-book Pro Guide: How to Unleash Success in Your Localization Career, Localization Coach, Hristina Racheva outlined a career development strategy that all localization professionals will find useful.

Keep reading on Slator

I had wished to interview Robin Myers for a while now, particularly after reading her bilingual book Tener/Having and finding out that she had translated into English some of my favorite contemporary writers, including Isabel Zapata, Andrés Neuman, and Ave Barrera. My interest in meeting her only grew stronger when I discovered that she lived in Mexico City, where I grew up. Though we live in quite distant parts of the city, I feel like sharing the experience of living in this chaotic yet exceptionally effervescent place immediately made us neighbors, peers, and even accomplices.

Read the interview on Asymptote Journal

The enormous economic potential that emerging African markets represent for investors is often overlooked. The African economy in 2021 was around $2.7 trillion in nominal terms ⁠— $296 billion more than 2020 ⁠— calculated by taking figures from the IMF. This is $246b less than France’s GDP, the 7th largest economy in the world. Further, using Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as a yardstick, a February article in Business Insider Africa listed the 10 largest African economies to invest in as of 2022. Those economies come with their own array of important African languages.

Continue reading on Multilingual

Researchers at Mass General Brigham, a hospital in Massachusetts, found that patients with limited English proficiency (LEP) admitted with Covid-19 had worse clinical outcomes during the first wave of the pandemic. However, outcomes improved during the second wave, demonstrating that efforts to minimize language-based healthcare disparities may have been effective.

Keep reading on Slator

Toppan Digital Language is among the most recent companies to expand with the acquisition of TranslateMedia, announced this Tuesday. For Christophe Djaouani, Toppan president, the company was an early standout as a great complement to their existing business. But no matter how good a fit, it’s no easy task to bring an acquisition to the finish line. Djaouani took some time this week to reflect on the journey with MultiLingual.

Keep reading on Multilingual

“Readers of My Hero Academia have been dying to know what Dabi actually thinks of Shoto Todoroki’s Half-Hot Half-Cold quirk, since it was what led to his father Endeavor abandoning him. While the fan-made translation includes a crucial metaphor that helps shine light on the truth, Viz‘s official translation completely ignored it and instead chooses a far less potent insult.”

https://screenrant.com/mha-351-my-hero-academia-dabi-translation-shoto/