TAUS RE VIEW

of language business and technology

The Quest for the

Translation Unicorn

Review of Language Business and

Technology in Africa. Columns by
Nicholas Ostler, Lane Greene,
Luigi Muzii and John Moran.

First edition
of our Translators Profile

PLUS an Interview with Guylaine Tritton (Alpha CRC)

April 2016 - No. VII

1
 memoQ.com

memoQ is a very intuitive,

user-friendly, easy to learn,
and easy to integrate
translation tool. In addition,
the level of support provided
by their team
is excellent.

Birgitte Bohnstedt
FLSmidth A/S

2
Magazine with a Mission

How do we communicate in an ever more globalizing world? Will we all learn to speak the same
language? A lingua franca, English, Chinese, Spanish? Or will we rely on translators to help us
bridge the language divides?

Language business and technology are core to the world economy and to the prevailing trend of
globalization of business and governance. And yet, the language sector, its actors and innovations
do not get much visibility in the media. Since 2005 TAUS has published numerous articles on
translation automation and language business innovation on its web site. Now we are bundling
them in TAUS Review, an online quarterly magazine.

TAUS Review is a magazine with a mission. We believe that a vibrant language and translation
industry helps the world communicate better, become more prosperous and more peaceful.
Communicating across hundreds if not thousands of languages requires adoption of
technology. In the age of the Internet of Things and the internet of you, translation in every
language becomes embedded in every app, on every screen, on every web site, in every thing.

In TAUS Review reporters and columnists worldwide monitor how machines and humans work
together to help the world communicate better. We tell the stories about the successes and
the excitements, but also about the frustrations, the failures and shortcomings of technologies
and innovative models. We are conscious of the pressure on the profession, but convinced that
language and translation technologies lead to greater opportunities.

TAUS Review follows a simple and straightforward structure. In every issue we publish reports
from four different continents Africa, Americas, Asia and Europe on new technologies, use
cases and developments in language business and technology from these regions. In every issue
we also publish perspectives from four different personas researcher, journalist, translator and
language by well-known writers from the language sector. This is complemented by features
and conversations that are different in each issue.

The knowledge we share in TAUS Review is part of the shared commons that TAUS develops
as a foundation for the global language and translation market to lift itself to a high-tech sector.
TAUS is a think tank and resource center for the global translation industry, offering access to
best practices, shared translation data, metrics and tools for quality evaluation, training and
research.

TAUS Review is a free online magazine, published Disclaimer

four times per year. We invite TAUS members and
nonmembers to distribute the magazine through
The views or opinions expressed by the various
their websites and online media. Please write to
authors in the TAUS review do not necessarily re-
editor@taus.net for the embed code. TAUS Review
flect the views or opinions of TAUS. While we try
currently has about 8,000 readers globally.
to ensure that the information provided is correct,
we cannot guarantee the accuracy of the material.
Publisher & Managing Editor: Jaap van der Meer
If you do notice any mistakes then please let us
Editor & Content Manager: Mick Rooney
know.
Design, Distribution & Advertisements: Anne-Maj
van der Meer

Enquiries about distribution and advertisements:

review@taus.net

Editorial contributions and feedback can be TAUS BV. All rights reserved. Reproduction
sent to: editor@taus.net without permission is prohibited. For reprints and
Submission Guidelines e-prints, please email editor@taus.net.

3
 Content

Leader Features

5. Leader by Mick Rooney 32. An Interview with Guylaine Tritton

by Anne-Maj van der Meer
8. News
38. Translators Profile by Johanna
Reviews of language business & Lindroth
technologies

10. The Quest for the Translation 40. Directory of Distributors

Unicorn by Isabella Massardo
43. Events Calendar
14. In Africa by Serge Awono

Columns

18. The Linguists Perspective by

Nicholas Ostler

21. The Journalists Perspective by Lane

Greene

25. The Translators Perspective by John

Moran

27. The Research Perspective by Luigi

Muzii

4
Leader
by Mick Rooney

We decided on a theme for TAUS Review #7, technology and user theme, Lane asks an im-
keeping a link with our TAUS World Tour and portant question.
innovation and game changers 2016, we wanted
to examine technology and the user and cus- Why would a journalist not be a natural
tomer experience in the translation industry. user of translation? In an ever more glo-
balized world, whatever your beat, be it
Serge Awono, from Yaound in Cameroon, politics, business, finance or culture, and
joins TAUS Review for the first time as a guest no matter what your first language, much
reporter. In his global review, he examines the of what is important to most journalists
power of the Internet for the localization indus- will be happening in another language.
try and the potential market in sub-Saharan
Africa. For a long time this region has suffered Certainly a journalist, like anyone, can use
a technology lag in the fields of telecommu- a free online machine translation engine like
nications and reliable access to the internet Google or Bing. But the user must decide if the
through fixed networks. A digital boom in re- translation is good enough for the purpose it
cent years has led to more than 160 mobile is needed for. A rough translation may not be
networks on the continent of Africa. Half of all good enough to indicate the value and rele-
mobile users are now accessing the Internet vance of the source material. Lane suggests
using their phones. However, Internet penetra- that millions of customers, including journal-
tion in some areas still remains relatively low ists, could constitute an underserved market
and this has presented particular challenges for small translations that would fill in the gaps
for emerging professionals and startups in the in the workload for freelance translators.
localization industry.
Nicholas Ostler also asks the question what
John Moran reports from Dublin on the value is good enough? and concludes that it is
of sharing ideas in the translation industry by crucially de-
recounting a personal frustration he has deal- pendent on the
Every year
users thirst
ing with tags in CAT tools.
for the con-
TAUS brings
It is one thing to have frustrations as a trans- tent, and that the translation
lator, another to find workarounds, but even in turn comes industry together
better to come up with an idea that leads to a from its desir- not just to discuss
solution. Sharing those frustrations is as im- ability, possibly and celebrate
portant as sharing innovative ideas in an effort magnified by its innovation and
to find a solution. Sharing that idea is what is inaccessibility.
the great game
In his persona
important, not whether you intend turning it
perspective col-
changers, but to
into a product or service.
umn entitled brainstorm and
Every year TAUS brings the translation indus- Trusty Words find a roadmap
try together in a series of forums, summits and are Not Fine, to solutions and
roundtables, not just to discuss and celebrate Ostler notes an enhanced user
innovation and the great game changers, but that children experience.
to brainstorm and find a roadmap to solutions watching for-
and an enhanced user experience. eign language
cartoons may hardly realise they are not
In his regular persona perspective column, comprehending the dialogue, to the point of
journalist Lane Greene looks at an underserved beginning a passive acquaintance with the lan-
market for small translations. Pondering on our guage. He then takes us on a journey back to

5
Leader
by Mick Rooney

one of the first mass markets of translation.
Something similar to this unconscious
uptake seems to have characterized one
of the earliest markets in mass transla-
tion the growing availability of Buddhist
texts in Chinese over the first seven cen-
turies of the Common Era.
has witnessed nearly 200 startups over the last
decade, and that includes nearly $40m in fund-
ing in just the last nine months. Smartlings
founder and CEO Jack Welde took to Twitter
during February to reminds us that Everybody
wants to be a translation marketplace, how-
ever well-prepared or long that new startup
lasts.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly is a well-known TAUS Review #7 introduces a new feature for
spaghetti western from the 1960s. Its also the this edition, Translation Profile, where we in-
framework translator and consultant Luigi Muzii vite language and service professionals to
uses in his persona perspective to examine answer a series of questions about their career
innovation and user experience. Yet again in and views on the industry and technology. We
this issue, we are pleased to say that Senior Translator and
TAUS Review are reminded Language Lead Johanna Lindroth at Sandberg
#7 introduces that progress Translation Partners Ltd (STP) is first onto the
in any indus- TAUS stage.
a new feature try requires
for this edition, more than just We finish off this quarters issue with the TAUS
Translation a platform of Review interview. Anne-Maj van der Meer
Profile, where we discussion or caught up with Guylaine Tritton, a Solutions
invite language innovation Architect at localization provider Alpha CRC for
and service alone, but also a detailed interview about the working life of a
professionals to the sharing of Solutions Architect (and what exactly that is),
ideas and data, the bridge that still exists between academia
answer a series collaboration, and the translation industry, interoperability
of questions and a willing- and the XLIFF standard.
about their career ness to learn
and views on from diverse
the industry and user experi-
technology. ences and
needs.

Luigi begins The Good, the Bad and the Ugly Send your comments or questions to
with some lessons he has learned after thir- review@taus.net
ty-four years in the language services and
technology industry. No two clients are ever
the same and disruptive innovation often
Mick Rooney
comes from new external influencers, rather
than from established industry players, and
Mick joined the TAUS team in 2015.
innovation is customer-driven. However, de-
He is a content strategist and in
bating innovation alone is not enough.
charge of TAUS localization projects.
Micks career has spanned three
If this was enough, the translation industry
decades, from working in various
would be second to none, but its players have
roles in the entertainment industry, retail, warehousing
always been lagging behind their customers.
and logistics; to journalism and consultancy work in the
publishing industry.
The language services and technology industry

6
7
 News
Google Will Fully Integrate AI Deep Learn-
ing into Google Translate
Some may not realise that Google Translate al-
ready harnesses deep learning technology. Its
used to power immediate visual translations
when you use smartphone camera to trans-
late words. Artificial intelligence deep learning
technology is not used with Googles standard
text translator.
However, that is set to change. Google Sen-
ior Fellow, Jeff Dean, revealed in an interview
as part of the Structure Data conference held
in San Francisco during March that the Google
Brain team has been working directly with the
Google Translate team to scale out experi-
ments with translation based on deep learn-
ing. The work is based on technology that was
the subject of a 2014 paper Sequence to
Sequence Learning with Neural Networks. You
can find out more on what Dean had to say at
the Structure Data conference here.
European Union Awards Translation Ser-
vices Contracts to 31 Vendors
At the end of January, the European Union
awarded contracts to 31 language service pro-
viders with a total value of EUR 67.5m. The
contracts were originally tendered out by the
Directorate-General for Translation of the Eu-
ropean Parliament on behalf of the European
Court of Auditors, the Committee of Regions,
and the European Economic and Social Com-
mittee.
The contracts covered the supply of translation
services of documents relating to the interests
and activities of the European Union. Luxem-
bourg-based Amplexor was awarded nine sep-
arate job with a value of EUR 33.7 million. The
original contract notices included a maximum
duration of four years and will be awarded for
an initial period of one year, to be renewed tac-
itly on a yearly basis.
8
Why Dont Companies Invest in
Translation?
Portuguese translator Teresa Sousa has been
looking at studies of a different kind in one
of her latest blog posts. In one study, carried
out by Alexandra Albuquerque, a professor at
ISCAP, she learned that a strategy used by
companies is to hire staff with foreign language
skills to deal with multilingual communica-
tion situations, where ad hoc mediation skills
(translation or interpretation) are expected.
And while companies dont always invest a
great deal in translation, they are still aware
of how important it is to speak the clients lan-
guage. This leads Sousa to the killer question:
... if companies understand its impor-
tance, why do so few of them invest in
translation services?
However, Albuquerques study concluded that
it was down to two main reasons, cost re-
duction and confidentiality. Sousa sourced
further and read another study by Jukka-
Pekka Peltonen. The conclusions in this study
were that in-house employees undertake a
lot of translation work for their companies,
which is not always included as part of their
workload. The same employees are sometimes
not always skilled enough or best resourced to
carry out translation work and this ultimately
impacts on their other work. All of this has its
own emotional impact on employees, leaving
them feeling anxious about the time and quali-
ty of the work produced, and taken for granted.
Sousa herself draws the conclusion that the
onus is on companies to make decisions and
implement a language management strategy
with the best benefit-cost ratio.
You can read more on her blog post.

Translated Selected as One of Europes
Fastest Growing Technology Businesses
There is no doubt that the translation sector is
now one of the leading growth industries for
technology and innovation. Another sign of this
is the announcement that Translated, a com-
pany founded to bring innovation to translation
services, has been selected as one of the 50
fastest growing European technology busi-
nesses, alongside companies such as Alfresco,
SoundCloud, and Elasticsearch, by Tech Tour.
Tech Tour is a platform which brings together
investors, corporate strategic partners, and
high-tech entrepreneurs.
The companies on the Tech Tour Growth 50 list
were selected based on quantitative parame-
ters such as revenue, growth, economic value,
and qualitative measures. They were judged
by a committee of leading investors and ad-
visors from Good Energies, Almaz Capital,
Endeavour Vision, Gimv, Amadeus Capital,
Bank of America, Accel Partners, DN Capital,
Earlybird, Silverpeak, International Venture
Club and the World Economic Forum.
Translated was founded in 1999 and CEO Marco
Trombetti commented:
With Translated we have always aimed
to revolutionize the translation indus-
try, leveraging big data and artificial
intelligence to provide efficient, quality
translation services. This award is a fur-
ther incentive to continue on this path.
News
Microsoft Neural Network Translation
Goes Offline for Android
Neural networks are systems of computers
capable of thinking and understanding like hu-
mans. While neural networks have been around
for a long time, it is only in recent years that
scientists are fully harnessing them for practi-
cal applications.
For a long time Microsoft has been research-
ing ways to best use these neural networks for
language translation. However, it is only since
2013 that Microsoft has focussed on language
and translation as its first commercial imple-
mentation of neural networks.
Microsofts translate engine is powered by
neural networks and it is of course part of
the Bing search engine. In our roundup last
month, TAUS reported that Skypes real-time
translator tool had been rolled out to desktop
users and dedicated apps for iOS and Android.
This month further features are rolled out,
one of which allows users of the Android and
iOS translate apps to get real-world transla-
tions, wherever they are, including offline.
Users are required to download free offline
packs for the specific language they want
translation for. The online version of the
Android translator app was released in 2015,
and this new offline version provides near on-
line-quality translations.
9
 The Quest for the Translation Unicorn
by Isabella Massardo

In February 2015, TAUS CEO Jaap van der

Meer published a blog post entitled The Brains
but not the Guts. In this opinion post, Jaap van
der Meer lamented the European Commissions
lack of courage regarding technology.

The Quest for Funding

What prompted the post: in a swift and un-
predictable move, the European Commission
decided to put the kibosh on the funding al-
located for research in translation technology.
Only some of the projects that had been de-
veloped over two decades (Moses, Eurotra and
Verbmobil, to name just a few) had found a fol-
lowing among a small number of startups. As a
result of the European Commissions decision, How to Spot a Unicorn
Google and Microsoft had the translation-tech- In startup lingo, a unicorn is a private company
nology field all to themselves: The New Worlds valued at over $1 billion, although it doesnt
innocence and gutsiness had defeated the Old generate any profit, at least not in the begin-
Worlds traditionalist mentality. ning. According to VentureBeat, one of Mark
Zuckerbergs favorite technology websites, as
In more recent news, the European Union is- of January 2016, 229 unicorns exist in the wild.
sued a tender worth EUR 5.8 million. This This includes AirBnB and Uber. (Facebook, by
represents the EUs intention to select trans- the way, is considered a super-unicorn, even
lation tools and services, as well as test of a though its not a startup anymore.) The high-
number of machine translation systems for est concentration of unicorns is in the Silicon
eventual purchase. Valley, although some have been spotted
in China (Xiaomi, for example) and India
This raises the question: Which translation (Flipkart) as well.
organization(s) will have the necessary re-
sources to win this tender? Will it be a unicorn The impressive
translation company or a more traditional one? amount of capital
is one of the two In a swift and
main characteris- unpredictable
tics of a unicorn, move, the
the second being
European
a new genera-
tion of disruptive
Commission
technology. But decided to put
consider the the kibosh on
abovementioned the funding
companies more allocated for
closely: Is the research in
disruption really
translation
technologicalor
is it more related
technology.
to new business
models?

10
 The Quest for the Translation Unicorn
by Isabella Massardo

The Convergence Era Versus the Unicorn a text translated or not is entirely yours. Did
Era you know that most of the translated words
Lets flash back to 2013, when TAUS predicted is machine-generated and delivered to you in
the future of the translation industry. You can real time?
see the graphic here above.
Now, with the advent of the Internet of Things,
That prediction is now a reality: We are ap- whereby billions of objects (enchanted ob-
proaching the year 2020 and swiftly entering jects, as David Rose from the MIT Media Lab
the Convergence Era, where translation is so calls them: objects that make the fabric of our
embedded in eve- daily life and that, through technology, can
rything we do that meet our needs for information, directions
We are its becoming al- etc.) are connected to one another, trans-
approaching the most invisible. lation is fulfilling its potential: becoming an
year 2020 and omnipresent, yet invisible bridge between peo-
swiftly entering Take a closer look ple and cultures.
the Convergence at your mobile
Era, where phone, tablet or Unfortunately, the European translation indus-
what have you: try hasnt really entered the Convergence Era
translation is You will find a yet. It is still at the integration phase (around
so embedded translation func- 2010 in our graphic). At the moment we see
in everything tionality on every technological partnerships being forged in the
we do that device, on every cloud, through numerous API integrations,
its becoming screen, in eve- which bring, in turn, a good number of benefits
almost invisible. ry app. And the - new customer acquisitions, increased reve-
choice to have nue, new service offerings and, in some cases,

11
The Quest for the Translation Unicorn
by Isabella Massardo

resource sharing - none of which has to do with Among them, only one belongs to the transla-
the much coveted technological disruption. tion industry. Its Translated SRL, the Italian
company that has given the translation indus-
Unicorns in the Translation Industry? try technologies like MyMemory and MateCat
In the translation industry, the first wave of (developed with EU financial contribution) and
technological disruption took place some time the same company that in 2015 was listed
ago with the development of statistical machine on 4033th place by Inc. 5000 Europes list of
translation - notably, Moses. Google Translate, fastest-grow-
entering the translation stage in 2007, was ing technology The question that
the original disruptor that opened the doors companies. A
is on everybodys
to cheap translation available anytime, crowd- baby EUnicorn,
sourcing and the sharing economy. according to
mind is: Who are
VentureBeat. the unicorns of
The question that is on everybodys mind is: the translation
Who are the unicorns of the translation indus- But the next fo- industry?
try? Can Gengo or Unbabel bear this moniker? cus shift is on
Text United, a somewhat older player promis- the European
ing a new, chaos-free way to get translations horizon: Business Insider UK warns us that
for your whole business? Maybe Say-Hello, investors are becoming weary of the unicorn
a platform where you can order and receive bubble and are more interested now in what
translations from Caterina Fake, co-founder of Flickr, called the
Google Translate native speak- cockroaches, companies that grow slowly
was the original ers around the and steadily, build interesting products, keep
world? Localize, an eye on costs and add fewer but smarter
disruptor that boasting cli- people to their teams.
opened the ents of note like
doors to cheap Uber? Or, again, We look forward to seeing cockroaches spring
translation the Chinese up in the translation industry.
available Stepes, billing it-
anytime, self as the Uber
crowdsourcing of translation
services?
and the sharing
economy. In reality, the
admired Uber
business model
is a more modern replica of the same old end Send your comments or questions to
client-intermediary-service provider chain europe@taus.net
that has been applied for years now in the
translation industry.

Unicorn or Cockroach?
Tech Tour is an organization whose goal is to
champion innovation in the European region
and to gather funding and support for the most
Isabella Massardo
innovative companies.
Isabella Massardo is a localization
In March 2016, Tech Tour presented a list of the
professional.
50 fastest-growing European companies se-
lected among a long list of 151 organizations.

12
13
 Review of language business & technologies in Africa
by Serge Awono

The Power Of The Internet For The Localization

Industry In Sub-Saharan Africa
Africa represents an undisputed digital
potential. It has 167 million internet users
and about 70% of the population are using a
mobile phone. Africa has also a GDP take of 18
billion USD for information and communication
technologies. Potential is increasingly tapped
by state institutions, multinationals, business
people and developers; better, this tool has
gone beyond its initial target and now provides
increasing population access to certain services.
Digital technology promoted innovation in
Africa: from the mobile phone which facilitates
bank transactions and payment of bills, to the
Internet which makes the purchase of the latest
goods much easier. Whether buying stuff online,
in development of telecommunications and
exchanging, working... the ordinary citizen can
a change in mobile operators monopoly has
now enjoy reserved privileges.
been observed in many countries.
Digital Technology Trends and Scenarios
Sub-Saharan Africa, which has long been lag- To date, 160 mobile network operators occupy
ging behind technology-wise, is gradually the telecommunications landscape of the con-
catching up in the fields of telecommunications tinent of Africa, which is an average of three
and the Internet. According to the Cameroonian operators per country. The continent has wit-
Institut Universitaire de Technologie (IUT), nessed a boom in mobile telephony. In 2013,
the telecommunications market in Africa is 66% of mobile telephone subscribers were re-
expressed mainly through the mobile due to corded (617,279,080 people) and half of these
difficulties in accessing fixed networks. A boom mobile phone users were accessing the Internet
through their mobile
networks (USB, internet
data, Wi-Fi connectors).

We should nevertheless
note that despite this
strong development of
the telecommunications
landscape in Africa, the
mobile broadband pen-
etration rate is still very
low.

In the context of this

very slow development
of the digital economy in
Africa, several ICT pro-
Source: Development of telecommunications companies in emerging countries, fessions and practices
Bearing Point 2013 have difficulties emerg-

14
 Review of language business & technologies in Africa
by Serge Awono

ing. This has This map highlights most of the regions that
been the are not connected. According to the study pub-
According to the case with lished on the website of the GEONET2 project,
Cameroonian localization, the core of this low penetration rate is sub-
Institut which refers Saharan Africa.
Universitaire to content
de Technologie adaptation These facts help us realise how difficult the de-
(IUT), the to accommo- velopment and localization of software is in an
date various environment where people have almost no real
telecommunications cultures and access to the Internet. It has been reported
market in Africa is cultural pref- that more than 20 billion devices in the world
expressed mainly erences. It use apps and software that are localized in
through the mobile also includes several languages and cultures and connected
due to difficulties language through the Internet.
in accessing fixed translation
networks. and adjust- African governments should invest in a fast
ing content and reliable Internet connection if they are
to capture concerned with the evolvement of the software
the meaning of the message, as well as con- industry, more, they should strive to make it ac-
sideration of various web design features such cessible to anybody. The growth of the Internet
as the use of appropriate colours, navigation has a huge impact on the software industry,
tools, preferences etc. from the ease of creating new businesses to
the processes that companies use to develop,
Development And Localization of Software distribute and support their products. Software
in an Environment where the Internet architec-
Penetration Rate Remains Very Low tures and
Parts of the African continent have the lowest platforms for We should
internet penetration rate in the world, accord- web-based nevertheless
ing to a map presented by two researchers at applications note that despite
the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. differ signifi-
this strong
cantly from
Ralph Straumann and Mark Graham summa- traditional
development of the
rised on a world map all the countries with the desktop and telecommunications
lowest Internet penetration rates thanks to client-server landscape in
data obtained from 2013 World Bank develop- applications, Africa, the mobile
ment indicators and those of Natural Earth1. and require broadband
a new gen- penetration rate is
The researchers who highlight that there is eration of
still very low.
no threshold that can enable us to call Internet programming
penetration adequate confess to have done language
this job to identify those who have Internet ac- and development tools. Developers make
cess and those who dont. extensive use of open source software, par-
1 Natural Earth is a public domain map dataset 2 The GEONET project at the Oxford Internet
available at 1:10 million (1 cm = 100 km), 1:50 million, and Institute investigates the geographies, drivers, and
1:110 million map scales. Featuring closely integrated effects of Sub-Saharan Africas emerging information
vector and raster data, with Natural Earth one can make economies. It asks whether these economies represent
a variety of maps with all commonly used cartography a new era of development, and how information and
and GIS software. Natural Earth is designed to meet the communication technologies impact on older processes
needs of experienced cartographers using a variety of of dependence, underdevelopment, and economic
software applications extraversion.

15
Review of language business & technologies in Africa
by Serge Awono

ticularly at the infrastructure level of their societies. Nevertheless, African Governments

applications. Translation and localization teams should endeavour to improve infrastructure
can easily collaborate online, either on free col- and build competencies for the construction of
laborative translation platforms like Pootle3 or a sustainable ICT industry and the promotion
paid ones like Smartling, using translation and of research, development and innovation in the
localization management tools. Development digital sector to have a competitive advantage
teams can easily use web-based tools for collab- over other regions in the world. This develop-
oration. Product ment will pave the way for better localization
m a r ke t i n g opportunities and use of software applications,
It is now now empha- giving more chances to translators and local-
clear that the sizes attracting izers to collaborate, use online tools, meet,
proliferation of prospective cus- share experiences, and more importantly, im-
mobiles on the tomers to the prove their skills.
continent and companys web-
increased access site. Companies
can release
to the Internet products over
network are the Internet,
testimony to the which seems to
great economic be the more ef-
and social ficient and less
transformation in expensive way
Send your comments or questions to
African societies. to sell their
africa@taus.net
products.

With these facts in mind, there is no more

doubt about how useful a fast and reliable
Internet connection could be to the localiza-
tion and translation industry in sub-Saharan
Africa. The impact of the Internet in the cur-
rent localization industry is incalculable. It has
revolutionized the way software developers
and localizers work and communicate, made it Serge Awono
possible for millions of people to use software
and applications translated into their native Serge holds a Diploma in
languages, and enabled the expansion of hun- translation from the Higher
dreds of other language related professions. Institute of Translation and
Interpretation (Cameroon)
African Governments Should Take Action and a Certificate in software
It is now clear that the proliferation of mobiles localization from the University of Washington
on the continent and increased access to the (USA). He has been working as a Senior Translator
Internet network are testimony to the great & Interpreter at the Ministry of Social Affairs
economic and social transformation in African - Cameroon for the past 5 years and started
working as a localization consultant for Africa in
3 Pootle is an online translation management December 2011. Currently he is the founder Quezil,
tool with translation interface. Pootle is intended for a Cameroon-based language services company
use by free software translators, but it is usable in other where services like Translation, Interpretation,
situations. Its main focus is on localization of applica- Localization and Proofreading are offered. Most
tions graphical user interfaces as opposed to document major European and African languages are handled.
translation.

16
17
 The Linguists Perspective
by Nicholas Ostler

Trusty Words are Not Fine

Let us step back a pace or two from users ex-
perience of machine translation. Judging the
quality, or even the acceptability, of MT output
is very far from the application of an absolute
scale. What is good enough is crucially de-
pendent on the users thirst for the content,
and that in turn comes from its desirability,
possibly magnified by its inaccessibility.

Children watching cartoon films with dialogue

in foreign languages may hardly notice that
they are not comprehending the soundtrack,
though they may gradually become at ease
with it, to the extent of beginning a passive
acquaintance with the language. I cant claim
personal experience of this, because in my
childhood, even in the early days of televi- telling similes: an earnest pilgrim, for exam-
sion, animations were always dubbed but ple, is like a log in a river, inevitably progress-
Czech films, exotic as they were in England, ing if he avoids entanglements.
were sufficiently common to make it clear that
KONEC meant The End. After this, Buddhist monasteries started to ap-
pear across China. Knowledge of Buddhism grew
Something similar to this unconscious uptake in an environment where the Way (though
seems to have characterized one of the earli- a less active and resistive one than the Bud-
est markets in mass translation the growing dhas) had
availability of Buddhist texts in Chinese over been pre-
the first seven centuries of the Common Era. pared by Lokakema
Taoism, and translated several
The transmission of Buddhism to Chinese- the Law advanced level
speakers began ca. 68 AD with two Indian of righteous texts from Sanskrit
sages Kyapa Matanga and Dharmaratna. behaviour to Chinese. He
Accommodated in the White Horse Monas- had
wise
like-
been
wasnt a native-
tery in the then
laid out by
speaker of either
capital Luoyang,
language. The
Did bilingual they somehow the domi-
translations were
nant official
conversation produced a Chi-
p h i l o s o p hy imperfect but
inspire an original nese text, the of Legalism. accepted by the
Chinese guide Sutra in 42 Sec-
tions. There is B u d d h i s t Chinese converts as
written by early no known Indian texts did not
the best available.
converts? original. Did bi- scruple to
lingual conver- avoid these
sation inspire an central terms (Dawh and Puap in early Mid-
original Chinese guide written by early con- dle Chinese), but took them over and tried to
verts? Although it contains some basic tech- give them new content. Although the Buddha
nical details of the Four Noble Truths and the and nirvana remained as borrowed terms, by
Noble Eightfold Path, it is mostly made up of and large the attempt was made to cloak the

18
 The Linguists Perspective
by Nicholas Ostler

new teaching in Chinese words. Buddhism was ered and issued the 27 chapters of Lotus
characterized as the Dark Learning on the Sutra , conferring it upon the lay Bud-
edge of Chinese wisdom. Between 178 and 189 dhists [4 named Chinese] who together
AD, the Kua scholar Lokakema translated took it down in writing.
several advanced level texts from Sanskrit to
Chinese. He wasnt a native-speaker of either There were also another seven Chinese who
language. The translations were imperfect but took pleasure in assisting and more Indi-
accepted by the Chinese converts as the best ans, Kucheans and an Indian who collated the
available: the troubling times of disorder at the translation.
end of the Three Kingdoms period would have
made the Buddhas serenity highly desirable. Yet despite all this gathered expertise, the
resulting text is full of mistakenly recognized
Where we words (attributable to inexact learning of San-
have both the skrit phonology), and gaps in knowledge of
Yet despite all this Sanskrit orig- Sanskrit morphology. Even bhta (being) is
gathered expertise, inals, and the mixed up with buddha (buddha), and jna
the resulting text Chinese ver- (knowledge) with dhyna (concentration, zen)
is full of mistakenly sions, we can and dna (donation). The present participle
recognized words anatomize for Atmanepada voice, ending in mna-, (or
(attributable to the transla- Prakrit mina-) is often confused with manas
inexact learning tion process, (mind); and the Indians much-beloved ab-
identifying straction ending tva is taken as a reduced
of Sanskrit the mistakes form of stpa (burial mound). Chinese Bud-
phonology), and that were dhist had to learn from some heavily garbled
gaps in knowledge made, and texts, which could talk of w zhu t the
of Sanskrit hence the no-attachment stupa where the original was
morphology. limitations arhatva (being enlightened).
on even the
most learned To an extent, the errors are mitigated by
foreigners knowledge of Sanskrit in this period. Dharmarakas spread-betting: he doubly
Seishi Karashima has analysed Lokakemas
version of the Lotus Sutra, and Daniel Bouch-
er Dharmarakas version of the same, made
some 100 years later at the close of the third
century. The work was typically undertaken
at cities such as Kucha on the Silk Road, not
then in China, where multilingual help could
perhaps be more easily found.

It is particularly instructive to look at

Dharmarakas work, because we are told
that it was the product of a regulated pro-
duction system, led by the chief translator as
presiding sage:

On [15 September 286] the Tokharian

bodhisattva from Dunhuang (a outpost
of China), Dharmaraka, holding the for-
eign scriptures in his hand, orally deliv-

19
The Linguists Perspective
by Nicholas Ostler

translates words where his vague grasp of pho-
nology makes them consciously ambiguous to
him: so, e.g. lokavidu (world knower) is trans-
lated as (worlds sage father), since it
might just possibly have been lokapitu (world-
father). This could be a useful, if humbling, ad-
dition to strategy for machine translation!
own sutras, and gave up refreshing their under-
standing from foreign texts altogether. Transla-
tion is an intermediary skill, which invites its
audience to step outside their comfort zone,
and recognize truths of foreign origin. It must
live dangerously, and (to complete the Taoist
dictum in our title) fine words are not trusty.

Yet despite this

noisy channel of See further in my recent book Passwords
Translation is communication, to Paradise how languages have re-in-
an intermediary Buddhist transla- vented world religions (New York and Lon-
skill, which tions continued don: Bloomsbury 2016).
invites its to inspire Chinese More details of the Chinese translators
audience to converts. (It did struggles to convert texts in Indian lan-
step outside not hurt that the guages can be found at
their comfort Tabgach Turks who Boucher, Daniel, 1998, Gndhr and
conquered China the earliest Chinese Buddhist trans-
zone, and in the 450s made lations reconsidered: the case of the
recognize Buddhism their of- Saddharmapuarkastra, Journal of the
truths of ficial religion.) And American Oriental Society 118.4, pp. 471-
foreign origin. with the sustained 90
contacts between Karashima, Seishi, 1992, The Textu-
Indians and Chi- al Study of the Chinese Versions of the
nese (and many others) along the Silk Road, Saddharmapuarkastra in the Light of
the reliability of bilingual translators im- the Sanskrit and Tibetan Versions. Biblio-
proved markedly. In the 300 years between theca Indologica et Buddhologica 3. Tokyo:
Kumrajva, also from Kucha, (402) and the Sankibo Press
Chinese pilgrims Xuanzang (ca. 650) and Yi-
jing (703), the Diamond Sutra, always a fa-
vourite, was translated six times, apparently
with full understanding and especially in
Kumrajvas case with considerable style in
the target language.

But in a way translation was the victim of its Send your comments or questions to
own improvement. Thereafter, the Chinese linguist@taus.net
reverted to their long-term norm, wrote their

Nicholas Ostler

Nicholas Ostler is author of three books on language history, Empires of the Word (2005), Ad
Infinitum (on Latin - 2007), and The Last Lingua Franca (2010). He is also Chairman of the
Foundation for Endangered Languages, a global charitable organization registered in England
and Wales. A research associate at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of
London, he has also been a visiting professor at Hitotsubashi University in Tokyo, and L.N.
Gumilev University in Astana, Kazakhstan. He holds an M.A. from Oxford University in Latin, Greek, philosophy and
economics, and a 1979 Ph.D. in linguistics from M.I.T. He is an academician in the Russian Academy of Linguistics.

20
The Journalists Perspective
by Lane Greene

Underserved Market for Small Translations

Customer experience of translation servic-
es the theme of this edition of TAUS Re-
view is not an easy topic for a journalist
to write about. But this itself could be con-
sidered strange. Why would a journalist not
be a natural user of translation? In an ever
more globalized world, whatever your beat, be
it politics, business, finance or culture, and no
matter what your first language, much of what
is important to most journalists will be happen-
ing in another language.

The average reporter in my position has a few

options. Imagine discovering a piece of back-
ground research or a primary source written in
another language. It could be useful, it might
not. The options for finding out are a mixed
not look for documents in another language, or
bag. Putting the source into a free online trans-
upon finding them, will simply look elsewhere
lator, like those offered by Google or Bing, will
for something easier to use. Needless to say,
almost certainly result in a usable gist and
most English-speaking journalists with the
nothing more.
exception of experienced foreign correspond-
ents will not be fluent in another language.
At this point, we have
And many non-English-speaking ones will
determined nothing
Why would a more than that the
speak English as their only foreign language,
journalist not source might be use-
and nothing else.

be a natural ful. (It still might not.)

So most of the worlds reporters, though they
user of At this point, our re-
would eagerly acknowledge the importance of
translation? porter might get truly
globalization to their jobs, accept silently that
creative, and call in a
there is much of the worlds thinking that they
favor with a friend who
will never have access to.
speaks the source language. Could you take
a look at this and tell me if you see anything
Why do more
about?
journalists not Needless to say,
But the problems here are obvious. If the doc-
think to do what most English-
ument is long, the friend may not have time to
many readers speaking
scan properly. But more importantly, the friend
here would do? journalists with
will not really have an exact feel for what the
If you need a
problem solved,
the exception
reporter is looking for. The specialist knowl-
you call a spe-
of experienced
edge is locked in the journalists head, while a
cialist: mechan- foreign
half-decent knowledge of the language (but no
professional translation skills) is all the friend
ic for the car, correspondents
can provide.
plumber for the will not be
drain, Genius fluent in another
Even all this, it should be said, is a rare sce-
Bar for the Mac, language.
translator for
nario. Many people in my profession will simply

21
The Journalists Perspective
by Lane Greene

the foreign text. Yet I literally do not know of less an example of

a single journalist who has ever told me that what publications
they have paid for the help of a professional do right when they
translator to understand a source text. take advantage
of their role in a
Budgets could be of course one reason: perks, global and multilin-
entertainment and gual world. Even if
even salaries are only bigger publica-
So most of all under pressure. tions like mine and
the worlds But news-gather- the Times have the
reporters, ing requires some needed money, they
though they expenses be paid, can show the way
would eagerly and headquarters and act as a lode-
acknowledge still pays for travel, star for the industry.
internet connec-
the importance tivity, offices and Why, then, do I nev-
of globalization the like, the basic er hear of colleagues
to their jobs, tools of the trade. taking advantage of
accept silently In fact, news or- translation in the
that there is ganizations make it other direction? Part
much of the clear that they con- of the blame, surely,
worlds thinking sider translation lies with journalists
important in anoth- themselves. We do
that they will er sense when not think of availing
never have they translate out ourselves of sources
access to. of their source lan- in other languages
guages. because of that big-
gest of mental bar-
My own employer, The Economist, has high- riers: habit.
quality translations of a selection of articles
into Chinese (simplified and traditional, even) But some of the re-
for a new digital publication, the Global Busi- sponsibility must
ness Review. A controversial Economist essay surely lie with the
on the uses and abuses of the history of the lack of an acces-
Second World War was translated into Korean, sible, well-known,
Chinese and Japanese, with quality rigorously well-advertised
checked to make sure that the original was not service for small
skewed in any sensitive ways. and medium-sized
translation jobs.
We are not alone in such endeavors: a high- Amazon got us
profile investigation by the New York Times used to buying
into the hazards of workers in Americas nail books (and eventu-
salons was translated into Korean, Chinese ally, anything they
and Spanish, complete with a social-media ef- could ship) online.
fort (tweets and such in all three languages) to AirBnB has gotten
reach the people most affected. many spare rooms
and vacation-apart-
The series has been attacked on the credibility ments rented, cre-
of its underlying facts, but it remains nonethe- ating a market for

22
 The Journalists Perspective
by Lane Greene

many small merchants where hardly any ex- ly fund a project. Each would pay only a small
isted before. Uber has gotten millions of peo- amount for the translation; the total would
ple into strangers cars. Yet nobody has quite give the winning bidder on the translation a
figured out the model for getting the worlds nonetheless decent income. I found it a good
armies of freelance translators together with a idea, and told friends and Tweeted about it.
world of potential clients.
Sadly, my contacts project got just 2% of its re-
The business- quested funding on a Brazilian version of Kick-
translation in- starter. I dont know who exactly is to blame:
Yet nobody has dustry that people in professions like mine for insufficient
quite figured readers of TAUS demand, or more professional backers for lack
out the model Review will of vision, or my acquaintance for not getting
for getting the know so well the pitch quite right. But whats clear is that
could be just the more good ideas are needed to reach a poten-
worlds armies tip of the ice- tial world of translation customers who like
of freelance berg; millions my colleagues in journalism just dont know
translators of customers, what theyre missing yet.
together with a journalists and
world of potential so many others,
clients. could constitute
a market for
small transla-
tions that would fill in the gaps in the workload
for freelance translators.

A translator I met in Brazil asked for my sup-

Send your comments or questions to
port for his idea to get a startup off the ground;
journalist@taus.net
it would pool several potential clients looking
for a translation together until they could joint-

Lane Greene

Lane Greene is a
business and finance
correspondent for The
Economist based in
Berlin, and he also writes
frequently about language for the newspaper
and online. His book on the politics of language
around the world, You Are What You Speak,
was published by Random House in Spring
2011. He contributed a chapter on culture
to the Economist book Megachange, and
his writing has also appeared in many other
publications. He is an outside advisor to
Freedom House, and from 2005 to 2009 was
an adjunct assistant professor in the Center for
Global Affairs at New York University.

23
 The ribbon, particularly for new users and others who are not
aware of all the settings in the old menu structure
Much more accurate Concordance search results
Speed improvements
Virtual merge and autosave
Improved display filter
Easier access to the various help resources
New TM fields and field values are immediately available
Very stable
Nora Diaz
Freelance Translator - Mexico
Join the conversation
noradiaz.blogspot.co.uk
@NoraDiazB
#Studio2014

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www.translationzone.com/studio2014 SDL Trados Studio 2014 today

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24 SDL Studio GroupShare
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/sdltrados
The Translators Perspective
by John Moran
Bill Gates once said that intellectual property
has the shelf life of a banana. This might not be
true in life sciences where molecules for use-
ful drugs are patented and in disciplines where
the fruit of an engineers labour can be held in
the hand, but in software development patents
provide only limited protection. This is because
as every programmer knows there are many
ways of writing code to do the same thing. For
example, the simplified text editor called Omm
I am using to write this piece on my Macbook
could be recoded any number of times to produce
software with exactly the same features.
Im not completely against patents (even soft-
ware ones) because I understand that R&D
requires investment. The problem is that they
are expensive to defend so their advantage to
a small business with a limited legal budget
is itself limited. Using a strategy called patent
crowding a large company can easily register
several similar software patents. If the little
guy tries to defend his patent, the corporate
with deeper pockets can threaten spurious
counter-claims that the little guys software in-
fringes one of their patents.
Is it even possible to steal a software idea?
I had my passport stolen once on a train in
Barcelona about 15 years ago. I only had one
passport prior to the theft and afterwards I had
none. Presumably the thief was not the kind
of person you hope will marry into your fam-
ily. He stole the
item safe in the
If the little guy knowledge that
tries to defend his gain would
his patent, the be my loss and
corporate with we can only
deeper pockets speculate that
can threaten this did not
cost him sleep.
spurious counter-
claims that Software
the little guys not like this. If
software infringes someone looks
one of their at a new fea-
patents. ture in a CAT
tool and thinks
oh, thats a good idea, it would save our us-
ers time too I think well put that on our
roadmap, has the originator of the idea lost
anything other than a Unique Selling Point? I
would argue not and USPs are nebulous con-
cepts at the best of times.
This is what makes software development
in the translation industry so much fun. It is
a small industry relative to say oil and gas,
aeronautics or the automotive industries. The
number of desktop-based CAT tools used by
more than a few thousand translators can be
counted on the fingers of one hand. The web-
based CAT tools that are often used for shorter
texts like marketing materials are more nu-
merous, but the community of people behind
them is still pretty small relative to say
Enterprise Resource Planning or Customer
Relationship Management systems like SAP
and SalesForce. If there is a new useful fea-
ture or plugin for Trados, we translators dont
have to wait too long to see it in memoQ and
vice versa. Everyone has to stay on their toes.
As a translator, I hate tags. Really. There is
nothing good I can say about them. They get
is in the way of my productivity and rarely, if
ever, provide me with useful information to do
my job. I have any number of ways to deal
with them. Sometimes I copy to the target
segment and overtype the German or delete
the German between the tags and insert my
translation. Sometimes I use the next tag
25
The Translators Perspective
by John Moran

function in OmegaT. In some CAT tools I just asm for the idea on
copy and paste the damn things, one by one, behalf of Smartling
from the source into the target segment after shortened the time-
Did I lose
I have typed or dictated the target sentence. line. You can test it anything by
Just thinking about that lost time makes me for yourself on Lilt. discussing the
angry. I could be using the time to climb moun- com. idea with Jack?
tains or binge on Netflix. No. I shared
Did I lose anything it in exchange
Thanks to MT because there is a solution to
this problem, though. In the Centre for Next
by discussing the
idea with Jack?
for a delicious
Generation Localisation, a while ago, we ap- No. I shared it in
bowl of Kimchi
plied for a grant to develop a version of OmegaT exchange for a deli- in my favourite
that uses word alignment data to implement a cious bowl of Kimchi restaurant
feature to project tags from the source into the in my favourite res- (Ukiyo in
target segment once the target segment has taurant (Ukiyo in Dublin)!
been typed (or dictated). We called it dynamic Dublin)! Translators
segment-level tag projection. The idea is to share ideas all the
use word alignment information between the time when they request new features in CAT
source and target sentences to guess where to tools. Now I and the translators who work for
put tags. Unfortunately, the grant was turned Transpiral can use the Lilt.com editor to trans-
down and I never got to test the theory. That late with state-of-the-art interactive machine
happens sometimes. translation without having to muck about with
tags. Score!
Some time later, I had a private dinner in
Dublin with Jack Welde, the CEO of Smartling.
I explained the idea and told him to do what-
ever he wanted with
it as I had decided to
The idea is focus my attention on
to use word Transpiral (my trans- Send your comments or questions to
alignment lation agency) and a translator@taus.net

information translator productiv-

between ity analytics product
rather than an editor.
the source Jack understood the
and target benefit to translators
sentences to immediately and was
guess where enthusiastic as it fit
to put tags. in with his world view
that MT has much to John Moran
offer translators be-
yond just post-editing. He in turn shared it with John Moran is a translator,
a computational linguist called Spence Green software engineer and the
who was working on a new kind of translation owner of Transpiral, a technical
editor that uses interactive MT. I have no doubt translation agency based in
that Spence would have implemented a tag Dublin, Ireland. He is also a published researcher and
projection feature in Lilt without my involve- conference speaker on how computational linguistic
ment. It is an obvious thing to do once you technologies impact on words per hour productivity.
have word-alignment data, but Jacks enthusi-

26
The Research Perspective
by Luigi Muzii

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

After thirty-four years in the language services
and technology industry, I think Ive learned a
thing or two.

First, no two identical clients exist, the

experience of one is never the same as the other.
Second, no disruptive innovation has ever come
from industry players, with all innovations being
customer-driven.

Innovation is actually a much debated topic at

trade events. If this was enough, the translation
industry would be second to none, but its
players have always been lagging behind their
customers.
So, customer feedback could be as nave to
The Good foolishness as insightful to hampering.
Theres no evidence that Henry Ford ever ut-
tered, If I had asked people what they wanted, The Bad
they would have said faster horses. Yet, this Perception is everything. Perceived quality is so
is often used to support the idea of innovations critical and pivotal that products are increas-
coming from prophetic visionaries. ingly engineered around features that could
convey the perception of well-done items. In
Indeed, one of the five dangerous lessons to fact, French carmaker PSA publicly acknowl-
learn from Steve Jobs says, People dont know edged that the benchmark for perceived quality
what they want until you show it to them. And, in development
as Evgeny Morozov observed, Apples most in- and produc-
credible trick, accomplished by marketing as tion processes More than
much as by philosophy, is to allow its custom- was the market prediction
ers to feel as if they are personally making
history that they are a sort of spiritual-his-
leader for its
or factual
quality-evoking
torical elite, even if there are many millions of features.
knowledge, Alec
them. Rosss article is
Seven years wishful thinking.
Another blow to the customer feedback myth after President
recently came from the toy industry, when Obamas com-
Mattel unveiled curvy, petite and tall versions mitment to automatic, highly accurate and
of its Barbie doll, to be sold also in an assort- real-time translation, in an article for the WSJ,
ment of skin tones, eye colors and hairstyles. a seemingly forgetful Alec Ross, former senior
adviser for innovation to the U.S. Secretary of
After decades of criticism for Barbies unre- State Hillary Clinton, wrote that the language
alistic shape, Mattel is wriggling to curb the barrier is about to fall and that, within 10
double-digit declining of sales through a wider years, earpieces will whisper nearly simulta-
demographic and keep the doll relevant to little neous translations and help knit the world
girls who do not look like it and play with other closer together. More than prediction or fac-
toys, maybe making their own with 3D printers tual knowledge, Alec Rosss article is wishful
and design apps. thinking. Maybe he read the WSJ interview to

27
The Research Perspective
by Luigi Muzii

new technology that translates Bibles into any

language.

What about IBMs Watson for POTUS, then, im-

plementing transhumanism?

At a 1971 meeting of PARC, American comput-

er scientist Alan Kay said, Dont worry about
what anybody else is going to do. The best way
to predict the future is to invent it. Although
largely attributed also to a wide array of per-
sonalities, this is a conceited lie. Predicting the
future consists in seeing something that is al-
ready there and most people cannot see yet or
possibly dont want to see.

So, Ray Kurzweils prediction of machines

reaching human levels of translation quality by
the year 2029 is definitely more trustworthy.

The Ugly
Innovation is the birth of time, it is only
an interpretation of the new, almost always
in continuity with the past, a matter of path
Barbara Beskind soliciting a device where you dependence. This is why innovation does not
speak into it in one language and it comes out amount to new technology; indeed, in many
in another to help immigrants caring for the cases, technology is only a part of the innova-
elderly speak better English. Or maybe he read tion process, not even the most important.
of ili. Bitcoin was supposed to transform the global
currency system, but, in the words of former
However, Mr. Ross is right when writing that core developer Mike Hearn, it has failed, and
the research and commercialization for these from being a solution to the opaqueness, in-
breakthroughs are coming from the intersec- efficiency and
tion of the private sector and the defense and expensiveness
intelligence communities, since most of to- of currency Most of todays
days technologies are heirs of publicly funded and transac- technologies are
mainly defense projects. Yet, user experi- tion systems,
heirs of publicly
it has become
ence is not a primary interest for the military.
a resource for
funded mainly
criminals. defense
Also, he is not alone in envisioning a de-
vice to instantaneously communicate with
projects. Yet, user
people in the farthest reaches of the world What has this experience is not
without breaking a sweat and even a sin- to do with a primary interest
gle credit hour of exploratory language class. customer ex- for the military.
Indeed, the excitement for gadgets crumbling perience and
down language barriers is real, if the UKs translation?
Independent relaunched on Mr. Rosss enthu-
siasm and financial service entrepreneur Tony To paraphrase a largely disputed statement
Amaradio declared his profound admiration for attributed to Albert Einstein, Bitcoin was de-

28
 The Research Perspective
by Luigi Muzii

vised using the same kind of logic used to packages to provide subtitles and narration in
shape those systems, and this is close to what different languages, although strictly post-edit-
happened with translation, especially with ed by bilingual journalists before broadcasting.
translation quality assessment. The driver? Facing cuts.

Also, for decades, This is consistent with the stream of nearly 200
Dont worry machine translation startups entering the language services and
about what should have been technology industry in the last decade, with
anybody solved in a few years nearly USD 40m in funding flowing in the last
else is going riding technology nine months alone. As Smartlings founder and
advances. Indeed, CEO Jack Welde pointed out, Everybody wants
to do. The despite the admira- to be a translation marketplace.
best way to ble progress, it is only
predict the seen to allow people Ending
future is to abroad to order a beer The best example of user-driven innovation
invent it. or find the bathroom. is the AK-47 assault rifle: simple by design,
Ultimately, users are convenient, sustainable, easy to use, fast,
getting increasingly accurate, efficient, and, most importantly,
more tolerant of inaccuracies, to the point of reliable.
no return in technological naturalization.
Consulting
According to TAUS Director Jaap van der Meer, with cus-
singularity in translation could gradually hap- tomers and The best example
pen in the next ten to twenty years and will be gathering of user-driven
a big accelerator for global trade. Universally feedback is innovation is the
available FAUT a Frenchie pun for Fully convention- AK-47 assault
Automated Useful Translation is already
here and it is expected to lead to an increase
al industry
wisdom, but
rifle: simple by
in demand for really creative translations, wip- seldom con-
design, convenient,
ing away the boring tasks. ducive to sustainable, easy to
innovation. use, fast, accurate,
It comes as no surprise, then, that the BBC In fact, in efficient, and,
is piloting machine translation for short news most cases, most importantly,
customers reliable.
are not the
best source
for innova-
tion, and can make a consultants job dreadful,
but a salesman a fortune.

All innovations in translation have been seek-

ing to make it easier and faster, cutting out
middlemen, shortening the gap between cli-
ents and vendors. Eventually, though, they end
up looking all the same.

Indeed, the translation industry has never dis-

tinguished itself for pushing boundaries and
doing the unexpected. Innovation is good for

29
The Research Perspective
by Luigi Muzii

presenting and blustering at events, reality

is another kettle of fish. For example, agile is Send your comments or questions to
good for marketing, but everybody knows that research@taus.net
no agile methodology can be applied with the
current industry-wide modus operandi.

Also, according to business analyst Seth

Grimes, Calculating the contribution of NLP,
within the value or revenue of a larger product
Luigi Muzii
or service that applies NLP... is a challenge. In
Luigi Muzii has
other words, when dealing with the language
been working in the
services and technology industry, the best ef-
language industry
fort is an educated guess.
for more than 30
years as a translator,
Innovators are not intimidated by their limits.
localizer, technical writer, author, trainer,
They dare and are not afraid of failing, nor do
university teacher of terminology and
they take into account the opinions of others.
localization, and consultant. He has
So, there will still be room for innovators in the
authored books on technical writing and
language services and technology industry.
translation quality systems, and is a regular
speaker at conferences.

Check out the TAUS Quality Dashboard

30 and sign up for a free subscription
Machine Translation System

Boost the value

of your TMs!
Lower costs 
Increased productivity 
Shorter delivery time 

Powered by @globalesem
MorphoLogic Localisation www.globalese-mt.co
31
 An Interview with Guylaine Tritton
by Anne-Maj van der Meer

Ever since we launched the TAUS Review, The applied side

I feel it has been dominated by male authors of translation
and male voices. I thought it was time for a was never real-
new female voice. So this quarter I sat down ly touched upon,
with Guylaine Tritton for the TAUS Review even at univer-
Interview. Guylaine is a Solutions Architect at sity at that stage.
localization provider Alpha CRC and has been I remember that
in the localization industry her whole working we offered to take
life.We talked about the bridge that still exists part in a practical
between academia and the translation industry, of two sessions to
interoperability and the XLIFF standard and learn about Trados
she explained to me what a Solutions Architect Workbench.
actually does.
But that was it. That was as close as we got
Guylaine, can you please take a moment to localization. Mostly we were just translat-
to introduce yourself? ing interesting newspaper articles. Everything
My name is Guylaine Tritton and I work for was still very much paper-based. I know that
Alpha CRC. I first started working at Alpha students now have to use computers when
a long time ago, in 2002. I now work as a submitting translations, but when I was study-
Solutions Architect, but I have held several ing for an MA, we relied on paper, handwriting
roles at Alpha. I first joined as a Senior Project and printed dictionaries.
Manager and after that I became head of
the Project Management team. I then moved So you had your first job in translation?
away from project management to operations Yes, I was very lucky. I was basically in the right
and set up the Operations Group with Steen place at the right time. When I was studying
Kesmodel, then a senior linguist at Alpha. my MA at the University of Surrey in Guildford,
a localization agency got in touch with the de-
I am based in France, but work with clients partment because they needed native French
across the world, as well as the Alpha Sales speakers. The department secretary got in
team, which is spread across several local of- touch with me to ask if I was interested, I
fices. I have dual French/British nationality. I went for the interview and got the job. I was
was born in France, so French is my mother extremely lucky. I loved it, although I didnt
tongue, but English is my main working lan- know any-
guage. I use a little bit of German and I also thing! Well,
studied Russian at university. that is, I knew Everything was still
how to use a very much paper-
Was the language and translation indus- computer, but based. I know that
try always an area you wanted to work in? it was a huge students now have
I actually first got a job in localization straight learning curve
after my masters degree. Its funny, because for me.
to use computers
even when I was doing my masters degree in
when submitting
translation in 97, I had never actually heard of It was very translations,
the word localization. I didnt know there was exciting for but when I was
such a thing as a localization industry. We were me to learn so studying for an
all studying translation, so we knew of course much about MA, we relied on
that there were translators out there, but we an industry I paper, handwriting
always thought that they were just freelance never knew
translators, either translating novels or legal existed. I was
and printed
paperwork. working with
dictionaries.
people who

32
 An Interview with Guylaine Tritton
by Anne-Maj van der Meer

were very good at teaching me various skills We dont just provide translation services. In
and techniques. I learned a lot in a very short some cases, we obtain material for translation
space of time. directly from content developers and apply
engineering, DTP, audio work and QA until we
I never really considered leaving the localiza- have a fully localized product.
tion industry, just because my experience at
the beginning was so good. I was learning lots You mentioned youre a Solutions
of different things by working on different pro- Architect, but what does that mean
jects. I was able to use my language skills and exactly?
I really enjoyed that. In my previous role within the Operations
Group I was more of an inward looking person,
Can you tell us a bit more about Alpha CRC but as a Solutions Architect I now work with cli-
and how it serves the industry? ents and with Alphas Sales team. Clients come
Alpha is one of the top ten localization provid- to Alpha with a set of requirements, asking for
ers for the IT industry globally. We serve over a solution that best fits those requirements.
a third of the global top 100 IT companies. We Obviously they want a solution that is most ef-
have about 500 employees in 18 offices across fective and affordable. Sometimes the answer
14 countries, in the Americas, Europe and Asia. is very simple, but other times you might have
The company was founded in 1987, so its been to develop software to respond to their needs,
around for a customize Translation Management Systems,
long time in use connectors and APIs and so on.
Everything was still localization
very much paper- terms. My role is really to obtain information, analyse
based. I know that the information and suggest a solution that
students now have It was meets all expectations, both for the Client and
f o u n d e d for Alpha.
to use computers by Isabella
when submitting Weiss, who I am also part of an on-boarding team for stra-
translations, is still very tegic accounts. Once a solution is in place, I
but when I was much active detach myself from the account and focus on
studying for an MA, as one of our new business again. Fifty percent of my work
we relied on paper, Directors. involves working solely with the Sales team.
handwriting and She was a
translator at Alpha is a tools-agnostic company, meaning
printed dictionaries. the time, but that we do not impose tools or technologies on
recognized Clients. We do not tell them that they must use
the need for a specific Translation Management System,
translators to work together under one roof, CAT tool or MT system. We have many tech-
which was a fairly new concept back then. nologies available to us, and we really take on
board the Clients needs and try to come up
Alpha offers a very broad range of services. with the best solution for them.
We do still manage what you would call really
small projects (less than 1000 words), but at Because of our open philosophy, I need to be
the other end of the spectrum we also offer aware of what is out there in terms of technol-
end-to-end solutions for top companies around ogy and pass on this information to the Sales
the world. Some of our clients have outsourced team. They need to be able to go out and
their entire localization needs to us, and in ef- speak to existing or new clients armed with the
fect, we act as a localization department within correct and latest information and be aware of
that clients company. the latest technological developments in the

33
An Interview with Guylaine Tritton
by Anne-Maj van der Meer

industry. I do a lot of knowledge gathering and you still cannot move seamlessly from one tool
summarise the key parts before passing it onto to the other. It is true that you can export files
the sales team. as XLIFF from one tool and import them in
another tool, but youre always going to have
Can you share something about the chal- problems with metadata and the way word
lenges and rewards of that position? counts are calculated. One translation memory
I suppose the challenge is that sometimes you in one tool will not be working as well in an-
come across companies, especially large en- other tool and so on.
terprises, that already have a solution in place
and have no reason to adapt to your best-case Although XLIFF was supposed to get rid of
scenario, and rightly so. You are the one pro- all those problems, theyre still out there and
viding a service, and you therefore need to theyre probably going to get worse. There are
tailor yourself to the clients needs. This can be more and more companies who develop locali-
quite difficult, but is fully expected. zation applications, and each one uses its own
metadata and applies their own way of inter-
At the other end of the spectrum, there are preting that data. On the plus side, what is great
companies who have never really heard of lo- is that there
calization. You need to educate them, always are so many
remembering that you are talking to people more ways
You have to
who are very new to the industry and do not of connecting keep things very
need to be overwhelmed by technical concepts tools and sys- straightforward,
or localization lingo. You have to keep things tems together. move step by
very straightforward, move step by step, and We can now step, and realise
realise that what you consider to be obvious rely on APIs that what you
may require some explaining. This can also be and connectors
consider to be
challenging, but it is not a problem. Its just to make tools
part of the job and it can be very rewarding talk to each
obvious may
when what you suggested takes off and you other, which we require some
end up with a happy customer. certainly didnt explaining.
have five years
Obviously you know a lot about the tech- ago.
nologies that are out there, with that in
mind, what do you think our industry Another challenge that is probably more ap-
lacks? Where do we need to innovate or parent to anyone working at Alpha, because
change? of our in-house model, is that we as localiza-
Something thats been on the table for a long tion providers are still trying to win the hearts
time now is interoperability and the XLIFF and minds of translators who have to work
standard. XLIFF was supposed to be the so- with machine translation. I dont think they re-
lution to our interoperability headaches, but gard it as a threat anymore, but the fact is that
there are now so many flavours of XLIFF that it is harder for them to work with MT than it
is for them to let their minds be
creative.

I think that if you work for a LSP

that outsources work, you know
that the supplier has to make a
living. The fact of the matter is
if they want to make a living or
hold on to you as a customer, they

34
 An Interview with Guylaine Tritton
by Anne-Maj van der Meer

have to adopt MT because thats whats being on when I became a project manager. Before
sent to them. that, I worked as a localization engineer and
had fairly structured tasks to do. People would
Obviously Alphas in-house teams do not have assign work to me and told me what to priori-
a choice either, but because we work and inter- tise, so I didnt really have to think too much
act with our translators so much more closely, about time management other than getting
we can see (and understand) that post-edit- things done on time.
ing and translating are very different tasks
that involve very different cerebral gymnas- When I be-
tics. Nevertheless, machine translation can came a project
be very useful depending on specific projects manager eve-
Another challenge
and represent huge gains in time and costs. rything started
that is probably
The message we try to convey is that just like happening more apparent to
a translation memory or a glossary, machine at once and anyone working
translation should be regarded as an aid. The everything at Alpha, because
key is knowing how much time should be spent was urgent, of our in-house
on deciding whether an MTed sentence can be or at least it model, is that we
used or not. felt that way.
Very quickly
as localization
Before we started the interview, you men- I needed to
providers are still
tioned that youre not really the person work out a trying to win the
within Alpha who attends events or at way to avoid hearts and minds
least the TAUS events. Do you attend any getting over- of translators
other events perhaps? whelmed by who have to work
Well, Im not sure if you would count them everything. with machine
as events, but I do religiously take part in
the TAUS webinars. I find them really useful. Thats why I
translation.
Theyre quite short and you get 2 or 3 speak- try to be as
ers doing a quick demo of their solution or tool, structured as possible in the way I work, and
followed by a Q&A session. These sessions re- that in turns helps me keep as calm as pos-
ally help me focus on what is out there in terms sible. When you know that you have 10 or 15
of latest technology and they also help me cat- things to do in one day, why worry about all of
egorize solutions. them at the same time? Just take it one step
at the time. Do the quick and easy things first
In one glance, I can find out whats out there in so that theyre out of the way. Only then focus
the field of machine translation, QA or crowd- on the more time-consuming or more mentally
sourcing, for example. So I always listen to the demanding tasks.
webinars and save the link to the recording so
I can go back to them. I rely on the webinars Theres one thing I always tried to do as a PM,
when sharing knowledge with the sales team and that was to have so few emails in my inbox
and I do refer back to them quite a lot. I can that there would be no scrollbar there. I would
also use them as a starting point before visit- move emails into specific folders as soon as I
ing these companies websites and maybe take had dealt with them and used what was left in
part in or request demos from them. my inbox as my to do list. Keeping a clean
inbox prevented me from being overwhelmed
Do you have a personal motto or mantra and helped me focus. I think the way that I
that you use in your daily work? work now is still pretty much based on this.
I wouldnt say it was a one-off experience that
triggered the way I work, but it started early In terms of mantra, it is not something I ever

35
An Interview with Guylaine Tritton
by Anne-Maj van der Meer

really thought of, but perhaps I would say: lis- eral translators. The deadline would be missed
ten, understand and learn. and all I could do was apologise. In this case
the client was actually very understanding, but
One of the reasons I love this job is because I never enjoyed those heart-sinking moments.
I am still learning. I may be responsible for
providing solutions, but I cannot do that effec- Lets finish with your best working
tively if I do not keep up with what is going on experience.
in the industry. You also need to be aware of I dont really have a yeeha moment, but I
what is being asked just get a lot of satisfaction from moving things
of you and you can along in the right direction. As a project man-
In terms of only do that if you ager, you do that without thinking. You receive
mantra, it is listen and under- something, you process it and you deliver it.
not something stand. This applies When I was in the Operations Group, my col-
I ever really to working with cli- leagues and I implemented a lot of internal
thought of, ents, but also with systems at Alpha, and these saved people a lot
but perhaps people you work of time and a lot of headaches. My role is now
with on a day-to- to do the same thing with clients. Knowing that
I would day basis. the time you invested on a specific account has
say: listen, paid off or that you helped a salesperson close
understand and Whats been the a deal is extremely satisfying.
learn. worst experience
in your working
life?
Its quite trivial, but Im sure its happened to
everybody, or anybody who has been a pro-
ject manager... Picking up a phone to call up
a client and announce bad news. Thankfully it
didnt happen to me that often, but I hated it.
I had one experience where I was working with Send your comments or questions to
a vendor whose PC died, never to be resurrect- review@taus.net
ed. The PC took 30,000 words of translation
down with it.

All I could do was call the client as soon as I

found out and spread those words across sev-

Anne-Maj van der Meer

Guylaine Tritton
Anne-Maj has been with TAUS
Guylaine began her career as a
since 2007 and transformed
Localization Engineer in 1998 and joined
from bookkeeper and accounts
Alpha CRC in 2002 as a Senior Project
receivable into manager of
Manager. Guylaine has held the positions
web content, events and
of Head of Project Management and
member services. As of April 2016 she is the
Operations Manager at Alpha CRC.
Events Director of TAUS. She is also the editor
As a Solutions Architect, Guylaines role is to work as a
of TAUS Review and responsible for its layout.
consultant to strategic accounts. She is also part of Alpha
She has studied English Language and Literature
CRCs on-boarding team and advises on best practices,
at the University of Amsterdam and Creative
workflows and technology.
Writing at Harvard University.

36
 An artificial intelligence approach touotranslation
y mrofni lliw I
oitalsnart otwill
hcaorevolutionize
rppa ecnegilletni laicbusiness.
your itra nA gnikcehc ret fa

.kcots ruo

To realize a society in which everyone can interact freely

across language barriers with the use of machine
translation technology, and thereby contribute to
invigoration and innovation in businesses.

https://miraitranslate.com/en/

A thousand different workflows. One Solution.

The Business Management System for the Translation Industry

www.plunet.com
37
 Translators Profile
by Johanna Lindroth

A new segment this quarter is the Translators Profile. In this segment

we ask a translator in our industry to give us some more insights on
their work. How did they get into the translation industry? Are they us-
ing technologies? Do they regard technologies as enemies of their jobs
or as helpful tools? What do they think are the current game changers
of the industry? Find out this and more in our first edition of this feature
below.
My name is Johanna Lindroth and Im a senior a translator from the start. During my last year
Swedish translator and language lead at STP. at university, a translation company offered me
Our company specialises in professional trans- extra work translating the Windows operating
lation work from English, French and German system. I said yes, and I continued to work for
into the Nor- the same company after I graduated. At the
dic languages, beginning of my career I did mostly technical,
The widespread and from most IT and software-related jobs, because this was
use of translation source languag- my main area of expertise.
tools is the main es into English.
change Ive Do you use translation technology and
seen over the Working remote- in what ways has your role in general
ly from Gothen- changed over the years?
years. There burg, Sweden, I use several different translation tools in my
were few, if any, I translate and daily work, including memoQ, Trados Stu-
commercially revise all kinds dio and Across. This makes my job easier, as
available tools of texts, from it means I can draw on previous translations
when I was first commercial bro- and have instant access to glossaries and term
starting out. chures and prod- lists. Many clients also have their own tools
uct manuals to that they ask us
computer soft- to learn and use.
ware and medical leaflets. I mainly translate
There is a risk
from English into my mother tongue, Swedish. The widespread in becoming
use of translation too dependent
How did you get into the translation in- tools is the main on technology,
dustry? change Ive seen however. If I
I have always been interested in languages over the years. lose my internet
and linguistics, and I have a Master of Arts in There were few,
connection,
Computational Linguistics from the University if any, commer-
of Gothenburg. However, I did not set out to be cially available
for instance, I
tools when I was cannot work.
first starting out.
The company I
worked for back then did have some propri-
etary tools, but I think that was fairly unusual
at the time. It was a great advantage for the
company, though.

Another big change, of course, has been the

rise of the internet, which has transformed the
way translators do their research, communicate
and transfer files, among many other things.
Our technical environment has also gradually

38
 A Day In The Life
by Johanna Lindroth

changed over the years, with a shift from local tainly beneficial to our clients.
to global. I used to have everything installed
locally on my own computer. Now I use on- Who or what do you think are the game
line tools and server applications that someone changers in the industry?
else in the company installs and updates. This The use of self-service automatic translation
has enabled me tools will probably grow in the future and they
to focus more are indeed changing the industry landscape.
I once heard a on the act of However, professional translators will always
translator say translating, and be able to offer quality as a competitive edge.
that MT was has reduced the A good translation can be very valuable to a
as threatening amount of time company or a brand. Hopefully clients will con-
to him as a I need to spend tinue to recognise this, and set aside the time
on the technical and money to do things properly.
translator as the side.
scissors are to a What advice would you give to someone
hairdresser. We There is a risk starting out in the industry?
all know how to in becoming Working as a translator has its pros and cons.
use scissors, yet too dependent The pay is not always great, and there is no
we continue to go on technology, obvious career path. It can also be a lonely
to hair salons. however. If I trade, but nowadays you can work from any-
lose my internet where in the world, as many translators do. If
connection, for I were starting out today, I think I would try to
instance, I cannot work. I also use the internet specialise in a particular area, like medical or
a lot for researching terms and concepts in a scientific texts, because Id be able to charge
way that was simply not possible before. These more for my expertise. Id also recommend
days it is hard to believe how we ever managed developing skills such as creative translation
without it! and copywriting, because these services are in
growing demand. Above all, enjoy your work
In recent years, STP has received an increasing because translation should be fun!
number of requests involving machine transla-
tion, and weve seen raw MT output from vari-
ous sources and of varying quality. This type of
work is a growing trend, so we have invested
a great deal of time and money in training our Send your comments or questions to
staff to handle it. MT is here to stay, whether review@taus.net
we like it or not, and I try to keep an open
mind. I once heard a translator say that MT
was as threatening to him as a translator as Johanna Lindroth
the scissors are to a hairdresser. We all know
Johanna has been working as
how to use scissors, yet we continue to go to
a language professional since
hair salons. I try to see MT as just another tool
1992, both as a translator and
of the trade, creating a base to start from.
technical writer. She has also
worked in a number of project-
What are the important things you value
management roles within the language services
in your role for you and for clients?
industry. She joined Sandberg Translation
I take pride in my work and always strive to
Partners Ltd (STP), the worlds largest translation
deliver quality translations. Caring about every
company specialising in Nordic languages, as a
little detail makes my job more interesting and
Swedish in-house translator in 2004.
challenging, and its an approach thats cer-

39
 Directory of Distributors
Appen
Appen is an award-winning, global leader in language,
search and social technology. Appen helps leading
technology companies expand into new global markets.
BrauerTraining
Training a new generation of translators & interpreters for
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style modular workshops.
Capita TI
Capita TI offers translation and interpreting services in
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Cloudwords
Cloudwords accelerates content globalization at
scale, dramatically reducing the cost, complexity and
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Concorde
Concorde is the largest LSP in the Netherlands. We be-
lieve in the empowering benefits of technology in multilin-
gual services.
CPSL
Multilingual language provider for global strategies:
translation, localization, interpreting, transcription, voice
over & subtitling.
Crestec Europe B.V.
We provide complete technical documentation services
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Whatever your needs are, we have the solution for you!
Global Textware
Expertise in many disciplines. From small quick turn-
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HCR
HCR works in conjunction with language partners to
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Hunnect Ltd.
Hunnect Ltd. is an MLV with innovative thinking and a
clear approach to translation automation and training
post-editors. www.hunnect.hu
Iconic Translation Machines
Machine Translation with Subject Matter Expertise. We
help companies adopt MT technology.
iDisc
Established in 1987, iDISC is an ISO-9001 and EN-15038
certified language and software company based in Spain,
Argentina, Mexico and Brazil.
40
InterTranslations
Intertranslations LLC is based in Athens, London and
Nicosia offering translation and localization services in all
languages.
IOLAR
Founded in 1998, Iolar employs 40 highly-skilled
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Jensen Localisation
Localization services for the IT, Health Care, Tourism and
Automotive industries in European languages (mostly
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KantanMT.com
KantanMT.com is a leading SaaS based statistical machine
translation platform that enables users to develop and
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Kawamura International
Based in Tokyo, KI provides language services to compa-
nies around the world including MT and PE solutions to
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KHAABBA International Training and Language
Services
KHAABBA is an LSP company for African languages based
in Ethiopia.
Larsen Globalization Ltd
Larsen Globalization Ltd is a recruitment company dedi-
cated to the localization industry since 2000 with offices
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Lingo24
Lingo24 delivers a range of professional language
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Linguistic Systems
LSI provides foreign language translation services in over
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Lionbridge
Lionbridge is the largest translation company and #1
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MateCat
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Memsource Cloud
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Mirai Translate
Mirai Translate will custom-build a translation A.I.
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Moravia
Flexible thinking. Reliable delivery. Under this motto,
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Morningside Translation
Were a leading translation services company partnering
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MorphoLogic Localisation
MorphoLogic Localisation is the developer of Globalese, an
SMT system that helps increase translation productivity,
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Pactera
Pactera is a leading Globalization Services provider,
partnering with our clients to offer localization, in-market
solutions and speech recognition services.
Plunet
Plunet GmbH develops and markets the business and
translation management solution Plunet BusinessManager
for professional LSPs and translation departments.
Rockant Consulting & Training
We provide consulting, training and managed services
that transform your career from localization guy/girl, to
a strategic adviser to management.
Safaba Translation Solutions, Inc.
A technology leader providing automated translation
solutions that deliver superior quality and simplify the
path to global presence unlike any other solution.
SeproTec
SeproTec is a 25 years experience Multilingual Service
Provider ranked among the Top 40 Language Service
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Sovee
Sovee is a premier provider of translation and video
solutions. The Sovee Smart Engine learns translation
preferences in 6800 languages.
sQuid
sQuid help companies integrate and exploit translation
technologies in their workflows and maximize their use of
their language data.
Directory of Distributors
STP Nordic Translation
STP is a technology-focused Regional Language Vendor
specialising in English, French, German and the Nordic
languages. See www.stptrans.com.
SYSTRAN
SYSTRAN is the market historic provider of language
translation softwaresolutions for global corporations,
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tauyou language technology
Machine translation and natural language processing solu-
tions for the translation industry
text&form
text&form is an LSP with expertise in software &
multimedia localization, technical translation, terminology
management and SAP consulting.
Tilde
Tilde develops custom MT systems and online terminology
services, with special expertise in the Nordic, Baltic,
Russian, and CEE languages.
TraductaNET
Traductanet is a linguistic service company specialising in
translation, software and website localisation, terminology
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Trusted Translations
Internationally recognized leader in multilingual
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UTH International
UTH International is an innovative professional provider of
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Welocalize
Welocalize offers innovative translation & localization
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Win & Winnow
Provider of translation, multimedia and desktop
publishing services founded in 2004. We are one of the
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XTRF
XTRF is a platform for project management, quoting,
invoicing, sales and quality management, integrated with
CAT, accounting and CRM tools.
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 Get your insights, tools, metrics, data,
benchmarking, contacts and knowledge from a
neutral and independent industry organization.
Join TAUS!

TAUS is a think tank and resource center for the global

translation industry.
Open to all translation buyers and providers, from individual
translators, language service providers & buyers to
governments and NGOs.

taus.net
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 Events Calendar

Upcoming TAUS Events Upcoming TAUS Webinars

TAUS Executive Forum TAUS Translation Technology Showcase

19-20 April, 2016 Easyling & Localize
Tokyo (Japan) 1 June, 2016, 5 PM CET

TAUS Executive Forum KantanMT & PangeaMT

25-26 April, 2016 7 September, 2016, 5 PM CET
Beijing (China)
Translation Automation Users Call
TAUS Roundtable Lilt
12 May, 2016 5 May, 2016, 5 PM CET
Barcelona (Spain)
Altlang & Seprotec
TAUS Roundtable 29 September, 2016, 5 PM CET
1 June, 2016
Riga (Latvia) Translation Quality Webinar
Translation efficiency and business intelligence
TAUS Industry Leaders Forum 20 April, 2016, 5 PM CET
6-7 June, 2016
Dublin (Ireland) Localization challenges at Start-ups
22 June, 2016, 5 PM CET
check out the rest of the 2016 agenda!
Machine Translation Quality: are we there yet?
21 September, 2016, 5 PM CET

Industry Events

LocWorld30
13-15 April, 2016
Tokyo (Japan)

EAMT
30 May - 1 June, 2016
Riga (Latvia)

LocWorld31
8-10 June, 2016
Dublin (Ireland)

Do you want to have your event listed here? Write to editor@taus.net for information.

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Our platform, designed for speed, quality and high
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the Gengo API.

Experience how fast for free at gengo.com/taus

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