Post on 24-Jun-2015
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Welcome everyone to this celebra2on of our 2014 translators and interpreters day in the ProZ.com pla>orm. My talk is about becoming a tech-‐savvy translator and interpreter in the Digital Age
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Presentation delivered atPROZ.COM event:
2014 International Translation & Interpreting Day
My name is Claudia Brauer and I am a ProZ.com professional trainer and I am the owner of Brauertraining, a web-based school for translators and interpreters!
Please write any questions on the Q&A panel and if I do not answer them immediately we will try to answer them during the Q&A session!
Please close any other programs as they consume bandwidth and interfere with your sound and video recep2on.
Today we are going to talk about the Language Services Model, the Interpre2ng and transla2on process in the 21st Century, specific electronic and digital tools and a large amount of resources we will provide for your future reference.,
At the end of this presenta2on you will receive several links. One to a Wikispace page I have created as a companion to this talk which contains all the links you need so that you are not scrambling during the talk to be joOng down websites and names. Likewise, I have created a Forum so that aQer today we can con2nue the discussion on this important topic. And for your reference, you will receive access to a video recording of this presenta2on as well as the en2re deck of PowerPoint slides.
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Lets start
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Last year I coined and published the new term Transinterpreter, a union of a translator and an interpreter. I believe that the technology revolu2on in our profession will also drive both arms of this one body to work in unison and in a couple of decades there will be no differen2a2on as to the role of the translator or the role of the interpreter but rather, both roles will complement each other in a professional called the TRANSINTERPRETER.
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Un2l the end of the 20th Century we as professionals were Translators or interpreters as each requires different skill sets.
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Translators must first and foremost have command of two languages, have the ability to exercise judgment and apply a transla2on methodology, be familiar with the cultural context of both languages, have knowledge of terminology in specialized fields, and have the ability to finalize the product within 2me constraints and according to specifica2ons.
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Interpreters must have command of two languages in spoken and wri]en format (if the language has a script) and must be able to choose expressions in the target language that fully convey and best matches the meaning of the source language, faithfully and accurately convey that meaning, reflec2ng the style, register, and cultural context of the source message, without omissions, addi2ons or embellishments.
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I believe that in the 21st Century translators will need to also have some of the skills reserved for interpreters and interpreters will have to develop some of the skills normally associated with translators
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Recently, Barry Olsen and Katharine Allen of InterpretAmerica stated that the old service delivery models are losing relevancy as the internet has become ever more omnipresent and technological pla>orms now allow communica2on scaled to thousands of millions of people
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They state that transla2on and interpre2ng are struggling to respond to clients who want instant and on-‐demand communica2on that requires a mix of tradi2onal transla2on and interpre2ng with new hybrid communica2on models that blend technology, automa2on, and large scale access to live language professionals.
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In the 21st Century we will be Transinterpreters, working as a translator and interpreter at the same 2me.
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I also believe that learning technology is equivalent to learning another language. Technology in itself is a whole separate language that we need to learn in order to perform in the digital age.
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Lets suppose we are language interpreters in the language combina2on English to French.
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If we were going to become ASL interpreters in that language combina2on, we would first have to fully learn American sign language
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But that is not enough because we would need to learn the differences with the French Sign Language
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Same with technology. We need to learn the skills as if we were learning American Sign Language PLUS French Sign language techniques
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We need not only learn about the technology but more important than that, we need to prac2ce with it to acquire the skill needed to work with the technology. That takes 2me and money and we need to be ready and available to make that investment. Technology is no longer a op2on, it is a requirement of the Digital Age, at least in the world of business.
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Lets talk then about Transla2on Tools. These are tools that are involved in the actual transla2on process, Specifically designed to work with at least one source text and one target text at the same 2me and establish rela2onships between both texts on a segment level or on the whole text level. In some cases they are combined with another type of soQware that belongs to another category, such as word processors or terminology databases or machine transla2on programs.
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A paper en2tled Transla2on Technologies Scope Tools and resources quotes the Hutchins and Somers’ scale for measuring transla2on automa2on in terms of human involvement
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Tradi2onal human transla2on refers to transla2on without any kind of automa2on, as it is has been carried out for centuries.
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Machine-‐aided human transla2on includes any degree of automa2on in the transla2on process where a mechanical interven2on provides some kind of linguis2c support.
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This category includes what we know as the translator’s worksta2on, which covers tools like spelling, grammar and style checkers, dic2onaries, thesauri, encyclopedias and other sources of informa2on or consult online or other computer-‐readable support, as well as the storage and retrieval of documents and informa2on.
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We then have the category of Human-‐aided machine transla2on (HAMT) refers to systems in which the transla2on is essen2ally carried out by the program itself, but requires aid from humans to resolve specific language problems arising from the source text, or to correct the resul2ng target text. This is what we now call Post Edi2ng Machine Transla2on.
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At the other end of the scale from tradi2onal human transla2on we have fully automa2c high quality transla2on (FAHQT), which is transla2on performed en2rely by the computer without any kind of human involvement and that is of “high quality”. It is believed that such high quality will be achieved in the coming decades.
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In this context, the 21st century language services industry is completely and radically different than it was in the 20th century where three of the four categories were almost nonexistent in terms of commercial access to those technologies, which we have only started using on a global scale in the past one or two decades.
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If we look at Looking at some of the requirements that are posed on translators and interpreters for jobs and assignments, we can easily recognize some requirements that did not exist for me when I started working in the 1970’s. Collaboration, communication, Global Awareness, Information and Technology Literacy for example, were not part of the requirements that were demanded of us
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Lets talk about one of the biggest changes that I perceive in our workplace. Collabora2on. In the Digital Age, most translators and interpreters are required to work for or with Language Service Providers and large interna2onal or corporate clients in new modali2es of large collabora2ve projects not only with other translators and interpreters but with the many other stakeholders that are now part of the language services industry.
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As men2oned previously, today translators oQen work in virtual teams, revising each others' work or sharing big projects. Project managers have to manage big teams of translators. Freelancers have to meet and a]ract clients. People skills and playing well with others are a must! Marke2ng and adver2sing your work is also going to be very important when working as a freelancer. .
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Let me make a pause here to tell you the story of my history because it illustrates the changes in the profession in the past 40 years/
Let me make a pause here to tell you the story of my history as a translator and interpreter because it illustrates so well the changes in the en2re profession and it will give you a perspec2ve of the changes that have been in the past 40 years and so you can think about the exponen2al changes that can occur in the next 40. So this is a quick story of my story and I am telling it to you so that you can gain some perspec2ve of the progressive nature of the changes in the transla2on and interpre2ng profession.
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So I start transla2ng and interpre2ng in the 1970’s in South America. For transla2on we used typewriters and printed books and for research we only had the library and the universi2es. We lived a totally isolated life and our only compe2tors were the few translators who were physically located near us. By the 1980’s we started working with desktop computers, which increased efficiency drama2cally. We experienced the development of soQware and saw the first laptops come into the market and by the same token the profession started becoming a thriving business for agencies and language service providers. In the 1990’s the internet changed the world and in our profession CAT tools and the concept of localiza2on took roots. By the turn of the millennium, the use of mobile technologies along with digital technologies and the advent of social media has totally transformed not only the way we work in our digital marketplace but more importantly, it has transformed the way we communicate as human beings.
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In terms of interpre2ng, the only interpre2ng venues were large congress with simultaneous interpre2ng and high-‐end business mee2ngs with consecu2ve. There was not much interpre2ng for the general popula2on and we, the interpreters, were highly regarded as intellectuals. It was a sophis2cated profession delivered only in person and almost exclusively for large corpora2ons. In the 1980, over-‐the-‐phone interpre2ng start penetra2ng the market as do services rendered at the community level, in legal and healthcare seOngs. In the 90’s we start seeing the first government policies in several countries and in the USA we had the CLAS standards for Culturally and Linguis2cally Appropriate Services. At the turn of the millennium we start seeing remote video interpre2ng for languages and more recently the use of digital and web-‐based technologies for the delivery of transinterpre2ng services. As happened with transla2on, the profession has changed radically, the modali2es and the venues have changed, the type of people who enter the profession changed and and the advent of social media has totally transformed not only the way we work in our digital marketplace but more importantly, I stress it again, it has transformed the way we communicate as human beings.
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The idea behind crowdsourcing is that ‘the many’ are smarter and make be]er choices than ‘the few’, and that the ‘crowd’ has a huge poten2al for which they oQen find no outlet. In previous years, Crowdsourcing meant by defini2on unpaid services but recently it has become a paid collabora2on, although I may say that s2pends by their own nature are very low.
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In accordance with the European Commission: Quote The changes brought about by this new and highly innova2ve way of working concern all facets of transla2on. Crowdsourcing does not affect merely the prac2ce of transla2on, but has an impact also on the theories of transla2on and on the way this ac2vity is perceived. In par2cular, since it involves a large number of people in an ac2vity usually regarded as quite invisible, it may help promote its recogni2on and visibility, and raise interest about it and about the importance of mul2lingualism in general. Last but not least, as is happening in other fields where crowdsourcing is taking ground, by transforming the way in which work is performed, it will inevitably affect the professional prospects of translators. However, this does not necessarily mean that it will jeopardise the very survival of this category, as some fear, but obliges translators to face the challenge and take on board the posi2ve aspects of these changes in order to improve the effec2veness and efficiency of their work and of the services they offer to their customers. Unquote h"p://graspe.eu/document/EU_mul7lingual.pdf
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The European Commission's Directorate-‐General for Transla2on states that there is large agreement at all levels — amateurs, non profit, businesses and also ins2tu2onal organiza2ons — that crowdsourcing is not a transient phenomenon; it is a reality we have to come to terms with. The EU is learning lessons from crowdsourcing and using them to make its own workflow more efficient and to be]er involve its staff, promo2ng collabora2on and s2mula2ng exchanges among translators.
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Fansubbing is the sub2tling of popular TV series by fans. It is very popular because it makes sub2tling available very rapidly and allows viewers in other countries to follow the latest episodes of their favorite series immediately aQer their first release in the United States, while they would have to wait months or even years for the commercial release. In the case of the Bing Bang Theory, for example, full episodes have been released with high quality Fansubbing in as li]le as 6 hours aQer they are first aired.
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The American Bureau of Professional Translators has a very telling image of what is going on in a large por2on of the language services industry today. We, the translators and interpreters, are but one phase of the en2re process and as individuals are but one of the individuals involved in the phase of transla2on, interpre2ng and edi2ng. We may discuss our vital and essen2al role but this graph is a true representa2on of the process in the 21st Century. .
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Moreover, if we look at the different tasks involved, where each of the above circles may involve one or more individuals, you can clearly see that there is a conglomerate of people in today’s transla2on process that require collabora2on and coordina2on. And the interpre2ng cycle is not that different because you have scheduling issues and a]endance issues, and transporta2on and logis2cs, confiden2ality and mul2ple actors to deal with. .
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If we look at the process for interpre2ng it becomes even more complicated, where the interpreter’s task is just one of many others to manage.
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Most of the work now and increasingly so in the near future goes through an intermediary called the language service provider or agency. So if you have your direct clients, you have one less step to deal with.
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Efficiencies in Transla2on Workflow Process today is key to the delivery of transla2on outputs. The quality of the process is as important of the quality of the transla2on itself.
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Today, language service providers and corpora2ons use a transla2on management server or a transla2on workbench to manage their transla2on workflow and to ensure that the adequate resources, terminology and transla2on memories are used, that the handover of work from user to user is completed quickly and without mistakes introduced by the process itself.
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As a result of this technifica2on, new professions have been created. One of them is the Transla2on Project Manager, whose responsibili2es include for example: Understand projects scopes and communicate effec2vely with clients; Provide es2mates according to contracts requirements; Manage a team of linguists, vendors and in-‐house resources; Create vendors work orders and maintain produc2on matrices; Assign tasks and responsibili2es to projects related team members; Deliver projects and assignments to clients on 2me; Perform projects closeouts and invoice properly and Maintain a high level of clients’ sa2sfac2on.
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Another professional that has evolved from this technifica2on is the Language Quality Assurance Specialist, who is defined to be responsible for maintaining linguis2c resources for specific domains and languages; provide insight to solve linguis2c challenges in linguis2c technology; iden2fy linguis2c pa]erns and proposes improvements to exis2ng solu2ons or work on new processes and workflows.
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The new descrip2on of terminologist requires the proficient use of terminology management tools, manage user interface and controls, deals with data models to select or reject terms, uses web-‐based and proprietary tools that foster collabora2on among the terminology stakeholders of an organiza2on, and ensures compliance with industry standards while upda2ng the terminology database and integra2ng it into transla2on memory tools and content management systems. .
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There is an increased demand for translators with skills in informa2on technology to work in language engineering, which is a whole field of compu2ng that uses specialized tools to process natural languages for applica2ons such as speech synthesis and machine transla2on.
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We have tradi2onally associated literacy with the ability to read and write. But in the 21st Century we are seeing an equal need to have visual global and digital literacy.
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We now need to develop the ability to communicate digitally with an expanding community; we need to be able to read, interpret, respond and contextualize messages from a global perspec2ve; we need to have the ability to use computers and other technology to improve our produc2vity and performance; and we need to develop the ability to understand, produce and communicate through visual images; plus the ability to find, evaluate and synthesize informa2on.
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In accordance with the Transla2on Directorate of the European Union, The demand for transla2on and language services is exploding and the resources available cannot keep up with such demand. This evolu2on adds to the radical changes that are affec2ng the way the profession is perceived, and even more, the way it will be performed in the future.
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…new tools, together with the other changes and developments connected to the new Internet culture, therefore, appear as the only viable op2on to help translators cope with the pressure they have to work under…
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The new developments will not sweep away translators, but it is a fact that they will impose far-‐reaching adapta2ons in the way the profession is conceived and performed. Industrial companies use sophis2cated soQware and tools in all areas of document produc2on including transla2on. All kinds of text produc2on whether monolingual, or mul2lingual are highly computerized.
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Lets now talk about Interpreters of the 21st Century. Keep in mind what we talked about the transinterpreter, this is, if you are a translator do not simply discard this sec2on because you are not an interpreter at present. You might soon find yourself in need of these skills.
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Today, Interpreters work in person, over the phone, remotely by video, or using web based technologies.!
I believe that Face to Face interpreting will progressively be replaced by remote interpreting except for some few niches like surgeries, complex litigation or high stake political meetings, and other very specific and sporadic assignments. Most interpreting will be done over the phone, or using computer video or the web. So in person or face to face interpreting will slowly become the real of specialization for a few.!!!
Over the phone interpreting is now being used in the United States and other Western Countries by most large hospitals, social service and government agencies, major retailers, the financial sector and even the courts. To become a phone interpreter you need special skills to work without the visual cues of a face to face encounter and you need to learn to deal with a large amount of interferences that do not exist in the personal encounter.!
Video remote interpreting is quickly becoming one of the tools of choice used by hospitals, the court system and retailers. Additionally, the availability of video remote interpreting using mobile technologies has expanded this service to the common citizen all over the world. Again, special skills are required to handle the static video transmission along with a high understanding of technology to be able to solve the many technical issues that may arise during each call.!
Web-based interpreting is also gaining ground as one of the futuristic options for large corporations and government agencies, and here Transinterpreters will be the norm.!
Web-based interpreting is also gaining ground as one of the futuristic options that allow large corporations and government agencies, including the military, to access the services of Transinterpreters for many different types of service scenarios.!,
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Predicted to transform IT over the next decade, cloud compu2ng is an emerging trend that provides rapid access to dynamically scalable and virtualized IT resources from any loca2on, using virtually any device. Cloud compu2ng is a smart acquisi2on and a service delivery model that is highly scalable. .
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For thousands of years, the consecu2ve mode of interpre2ng was the norm, as it requires no technology at all. AQer World War II, innova2ons in technology allowed for the appearance of a new modality, called Simultaneous. Let me tell you now about a new modality for interpreters in addi2on to simultaneous and consecu2ve
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But now a new modality has emerged, called Sim-‐Consec. Ester Navarro and others have developed and are ac2vely teaching it. It is a combina2on of simultaneous and consecu2ve plus portable technology and it is quickly becoming the technique of choice in many seOngs, including the courts. I found it listed in two of the California Courts list of courses, so you can be sure that it will soon become mainstream.
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So this digital pen and dot-‐paper technology is already here and it will be used not only by interpreters but also by translators working in the field or crea2ng interac2ve transla2ons or interac2ve terminology bases
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In accordance with Ester Navarro, the technique is making its mark as a tool of choice also in conferences and community interpre2ng. The interpreter basically records the original rendi2on by the speaker and does a simultaneous interpreta2on immediately aQerwards, while s2ll having the consecu2ve notes as a backup.
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Michele Ferrar also talks about the simultaneous consecu2ve as an unobtrusive tool that associates what you write with what is being said; so you record the speaker and play it back to yourself and perform a simultaneous interpreta2on, which allows you to accelerate or slow down playback in real 2me.
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Let me now tell you about another thing.
Dragon naturally speaking soQware is changing how we work because many translators are no longer typing their transla2ons but interpre2ng them and speaking them out to the computer and then edi2ng them in wri2ng. This is the perfect example of voice to text technologies that are becoming very common in our world.
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As we men2oned earlier when talking about the big bang theory, sub2tling is one of the voice-‐to-‐text op2ons that has made transinterpre2ng popular in communi2es that do not speak English or other of the dominant languages. Many of the films that come out of Hollywood are seen in other countries with sub2tles for non-‐English speakers.
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Audiovisual Transla2on or Sub2tling requires skills in a variety of registers and styles by transla2ng texts and programs of an audiovisual nature. These pose challenges to the translator because it is necessary to be very crea2ve to leave the audience enough 2me to read the sub2tles. Sub2tling soQware like VisualSubSync, Sabbu, Aegisub and SSATool are easy to use.
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Transla2ng audiovisual material for voiceover and dubbing pose other challenges to the transinterpreter, because it is necessary to be very crea2ve to synchronize the lip movements with the transla2on Audiovisuals come from various sources (films, corporate videos, documentaries, series, anima2on) and covering a broad range of specialized genres and media issues. You need to produce your own transla2ons with appropriate soQware and equipment.
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Other innova2ve technologies now made available to interpreters are those that provide rela2vely easy access to larger global market by offering interpreters a pla>orm to work remotely from their homes.
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Duolingo is another disruptor in the market. This graphic shows the 28 different language pair combina2ons that Duolingo is currently offering at any given 2me. This goes to the heart of why technology in the form of video, phone and web-‐based technologies is growing at an exponen2al pace. It is really impossible in terms of the economics for any organiza2on to have 28 or more interpreters in different language pair combina2ons available to respond immediately to the growing mul2lingual demands placed on the organiza2on.
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Parallel to this, David Frankel of ZipDX talked about bringing simultaneous interpre2ng to virtual mee2ngs and the unique requirements of a virtual or remote mul2lingual interac2on with technology as the cornerstone to successful communica2on. David states that making the magic of simultaneous interpre2ng available to the much broader interna2onal audience through teleconferencing and videoconferencing and webcasts can avoid the 2me and expense of travel and the need for specialized equipment.
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Transinterpreters are also being called to work as translators and interpreters in real 2me in all sort of chaOng environments. \
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The other big change here is related to new cloud intranets that are communica2ng thousands of workers around the world. An intranet is a private network that is contained within an enterprise. It may consist of many interlinked local area networks and also use leased lines in the wide area network. Typically, an intranet includes connec2ons through one or more gateway computers to the outside Internet. The main purpose of an intranet is to share company informa2on and compu2ng resources among employees. An intranet can also be used to facilitate working in groups and for teleconferences. Transinterpreters are now being called to ac2vely par2cipate in the everyday interac2ons that are taking place within intranets all over the world between workers of a same company who speak a mul2tude of other languages.
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Transinterpreters now not only par2cipate in mul2lingual webcasts but addi2onally those webcasts may be sharing documents among a]endees and several of the interpreters might be be requested to interpret the content of documents that are being shared.
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There is also a whole new segment of interpre2ng that is dedicated to instant interpre2ng of wri]en texts over the internet, for example emails, so the person calls you, shares their screen, shows you the email and you read it to them in the target language; just as you would for example with a document presented in court or a pa2ent consent during an interpre2ng in a hospital
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Transla2on Apps are being sponsored even by the United Na2ons. This shows you how these technologies are quickly becoming mainstream
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A recent ar2cle in Transla2on Automa2on wri]en by Kevin Henzdel talks specifically about this, and I recommend that you read it. He states that voice recogni2on may well be the most disrup2ve transla2on technology you have never heard of. So, now you have and hopefully you go out there and do your homework.
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Voice recogni2on technologies are becoming more sophis2cated and able of receiving voice messages in a source language, transferring it to text automa2cally, performing some machine transla2on to the target language, and returning that text to voice.
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The other huge trend that I see coming is that machine transla2on paired with voice recogni2on technologies edited by a transinterpreter.
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Let me give some real life examples of what is going on. As a ma]er of policy, the U.S. na2onal center on immigrant integra2on is promo2ng the use of technology to service limited English proficient individuals. This is a ma]er of policy.
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This chart shows the organiza2on of interpre2ng technologies, star2ng with interpreter based, which includes remote consecu2ve, remote simultaneous and remote audiovisual as well as mul2ple listener and the interpreter network. It also covers automated interpre2ng technology, including one way and two way interpre2ng. .
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The appendices clearly define each of these possible uses, what it does, what the benefits and the drawbacks are and the example of users.
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Likewise for the automated technologies it explains what one way or two pay stands for and what it does as well as it drawbacks and then clearly shows the users of such technologies. This chart in par2cular is extremely telling because if you see this column, it is not one user or two users, it is mul2ple organiza2ons at the government and military levels who are already using the technology.
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Another real life example is the Florida Trial Courts system, which has also published a document to become policy on the standards of opera2on in the use of remote interpre2ng technology.
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This document addresses some of the key drawbacks in terms of technology barriers and how to address them, which to me indicates they are moving forward and expect the users to be aware of the barriers and plan on solving them before they become a problem.
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Even the United Na2ons is sponsoring simultaneous transla2on apps for adobe connect. This just to show you that these technologies are very close to becoming mainstream
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Where is the future? There are more than 20 million SERVICE robots which are robot that operate semi-‐autonomously or fully autonomously in the world performing jobs that are considered dull, distant, dangerous or repe22ve. The number of service robots is increasing exponen2ally throughout the world and they are equipped with mul2lingual and interac2ve capabili2es. .
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We are going to watch a 3 minute video by Intel that talks about a service robot that is customized to your needs and that YOU will print with YOUR 3D printer in YOUR home or office.
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Intel has created an open source robot that can be printed on a 3D printer and programmed to do whatever you might like. Every 2me you hear a ques2on about the future in the video, think about how it does apply to the future of transla2on. It does take years to train yourselves to prepare for what the future will require of each of you.
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You need to start thinking of yourself in more technical terms than you might up to now. It is impera2ve that you take the training that you need, that you really look at this issue very carefully, and that you set aside large amounts of 2me to prac2ce and become acquainted with the different tools for translators that are popping up all over the place.
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I want to make sure that you understand that you have a steep learning curve ahead of you and that you should take it seriously as part of an essen2al part of your professional development if you want to keep up with the 2mes and be able to offer your current and future clients the services that they will need, when and how they need them. I will give you a trick here, the only way to accelerate a learning curve is by intensifying the amount of 2me that you dedicate to prac2ce whatever skill you are trying to master.
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So it is in the doing that you master a skill and the more you do it the be]er you get at doing it, but if you only do it here and there, you will loose momentum and your brain and muscles will forget what they were learning and then every 2me you come back you will have forgo]en something of what you were learning.
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One of the other issues that has changed drama2cally for translators and interpreters in the last 15 years is the abundance of resources available to us thanks to the internet. You must become very proficient in the use of the internet so that you really find and use all resources available to you. You have to become proficient in internet search opera2ons, for example, to be able to quickly find all that you may not even know that you need. I even teach two courses specifically on this topic but there are many others out there.
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To give you an example, there are many other electronic job boards and pla>orms that cater specifically to the language services industry and allow you to find sources of jobs by country or language they serve, by specializa2on or many other characteris2cs. The ones on the screen are just some of the most common from the many available in the internet. You need to learn to search and find the informa2on, analyze it and discard or use it and do it quickly and efficiently. .
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One of the common pla>orms to find and engage collabora2on are TranslatorsCafe and ProZ.com. TranslatorsCafe has a very good job board and once you register you can receive periodic no2fica2ons for any assignments that come up for your language pair and specializa2on. You can also research agencies and par2cipate in the discussion .forums.
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And obviously my favorite one is ProZ. I promise you I am not being paid by ProZ to tell you this, but if anything today I really urge you to spend a lot of 2me looking at all the different opportuni2es for growth that the site is designed to offer you. It is a marketplace and a workspace where collabora2on is at the core of the business.
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Probably as many of you, I came to know of ProZ because of its wonderful online glossaries and live term transla2on discussions. I have ProZ on the top of my list of glossaries I consult and it is a fantas2c tool.
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In terms of technical informa2on and help, be sure to check out the technical forums at ProZ and other transla2on and interpre2ng sites. ProZ is designed as a marketplace and a workspace where collabora2on is at the core of the business and offers you comprehensive lists of transla2on companies and language job outsources
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There are lots of ques2ons about all the modern tools that we must start using to con2nue being part of the profession in the 21st Century. Many of your ques2ons will be answered in the technical forums and support groups and if they are not, then you can start the conversa2on and have expert users or representa2ves from the soQware companies help you solve our issues. Make sure to use these and many other similar resources that are available to you via the internet.
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You may also par2cipate in online as well as offline events, which are called Powwows. This is a fantas2c cross over between technology and good old face to face connec2ons. And if you are a professional, you can get yourself cer2fied in the PRO network. I am highligh2ng all this because all the op2ons that I have addressed are the types of resources and tools that you find, not only in ProZ but in many other sites of the internet and that really can help you in your work. You will find that the community of colleagues has really embraced the discussion of down to earth topics and every day issues and problems faced by translators and interpreters all over the world.
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Lets now talk about translators.
I believe that in a couple of years or more there will be no translations done from scratch as we have been doing for thousands of years. In this respect, this will be the single most important concept for many translators to understand. That translation as we know it, where you sit down with a document in a source language and a blank screen or piece of paper, that in itself will be no more.!
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Computer-‐assisted transla2on, computer-‐aided transla2on, or CAT is a form of transla2on wherein a human translator translates texts using computer soQware designed to support and facilitate the transla2on process. CAT tools speed up the transla2on process either with the help of transla2on memories when working with very repe22ve texts or using transla2on soQware for texts wri]en using controlled language
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CAT tools are seldom sufficient for obtaining a final product. They do help translators in their task, but do not create, from scratch, the specific format the client asks for. Common CAT tools speed up the transla2on process and improve the quality of transla2ons.
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A CAT tool segments the text to be translated in segments or sentences and presents the segments in a convenient way, to make transla2ng easier and faster. The segments are presented in a way that you can enter the transla2on right below the source text. This enables a translator to compare source and transla2on directly without having to look at two different places.
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A basic func2on of a CAT tool is to store the transla2on units in a transla2on memory (TM) and to automa2cally look up the TM when a new segment has to be translated. Any result of the TM search is presented in a convenient way so that it can be re-‐used by the translator.
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Another basic func2on of a CAT tool is the automa2c look-‐up in terminology databases, and the automa2c display and inser2on of the search results. Terminological consistency should be of utmost importance when transla2ng in group and/or dealing with a big transla2on project and terminology management tools help improve accuracy during the transla2on process.
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To enable the translator to save these texts in a TM, many CAT tools offer a special tool called an "alignment program”. So these tools align a source text and its transla2on which can then be analyzed.
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Concordances, are programs that retrieve instances of a word or an expression and their respec2ve context in a monolingual, bilingual or mul2lingual corpus, such as a bitext or a transla2on memory
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Full-‐text search tools (or indexers), allow the user to query already translated texts or reference documents of various kinds
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Quality checking through automa2c watch list checking, or through applying formal rules
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A client portal is an electronic gateway to a collec2on of digital files, services, and informa2on, accessible over the Internet through a web browser. The term is most oQen applied to a sharing mechanism where the organiza2on provides a secure entry point that lets its clients log into an area where they can view, download, and upload private informa2on.
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Let me first introduce you to two terms. Wisiwig means what you see is what you get. Hypertext Markup Language is a standardized system for tagging text files to achieve font, color, graphic, and hyperlink effects on World Wide Web pages. Translators are well advised to become familiar with the HTML syntax although, as men2oned previously, some of today’s HTML editors allow you to work on web pages with powerful WYSIWYG
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Modern CAT tools for web localiza2on help the translator by preserving HTML tags and presen2ng previews of the transla2on in a browser. Having a mul2lingual website is the reason why web localiza2on has gradually become a sought aQer service in today's market. Today there are CAT tools that help the translator by preserving HTML tags, allow the use of glossaries or transla2on memories, and present previews of the transla2on in a browser.
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In order to translate soQware, it is necessary to deal with localiza2on tools to either extract all menu, window and message strings in a single resource file or to edit such content with a WYSIWYG localiza2on toolkit. For those who wish to localize videogames, it is important to note that many companies place all text strings into spreadsheets. Consequently, a good command of spreadsheet editors such as MicrosoQ Excel is necessary
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Translators and interpreters are expected to have the relevant skills to use soQware that is based on the cloud. Two of the most dominant cloud based Solu2ons are XTM Cloud and Memsource Cloud which allow transla2on, update and localiza2on of large volumes of content and may be used by large organiza2ons or individual freelancers; they facilitate collabora2on in a secure pla>orm and work in partnerships with several transla2on tools along with project management capabili2es.
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Machine Transla2on technology has been improved over 2me to produce results of acceptable quality.
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For example, MicrosoQ translator is designed to be part of the workflow of translators by plugging in your cat tool to the translator which is an automa2c transla2on tool, What the translator does is help with transla2on sugges2ons or collec2on of phrases. .
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Interac2ve machine transla2on is a paradigm in which the automa2c system a]empts to predict the transla2on the human translator is going to produce by sugges2ng transla2on hypotheses. Like tradi2onal TM tools, the value of a language search engine rests heavily on the Transla2on Memory repository it searches against.
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Automa2c machine transla2on refers to Transla2on carried out by a machine, with no human involvement. These systems can be rules-‐based or sta2s2cal machine transla2on and it can be integrated into the transla2on environment to deliver new content faster.
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An example is Moses, an open source solu2on, that is already out and available in the market and there is a great amount of effort to quickly improve on its quality. You have to be aware that in Machine Transla2on, the quality of machine translated output varies, and it depends on many things, including: the Quality and level of standardiza2on of the source material, the transla2on memories available, the quality and size used to train the engine, and the language pair, amongst others.
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Post edi2ng machine transla2on is one of the next steps that I would recommend you look into very close as part of your learning curve because in my opinion this is where most of the work will be for translators in the coming decades. So, to learn how to do post edi2ng, you first have to understand machine transla2on. Now post edi2ng machine transla2on is a li]le like our edi2ng process in regular transla2on, only that is is very bumpy and it requires a different approach because you will be edi2ng segment rather than en2re text and that takes some 2me to get used to.
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A very good recent blog post by Moravia talks about the difference between Light and Full MT Post-‐Edi2ng. It is crucial to know what is the desired level of output quality that the client wants and we oQen talk about two main levels light post edi2ng or full post edi2ng
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Light post-‐edi2ng involves taking the raw MT output and performing as few modifica2ons as possible to the text in order to make the transla2on understandable, factually accurate, and gramma2cally correct. Light post-‐edi2ng tasks include: correc2ng only the most obvious typos, word, and gramma2cal errors rewri2ng confusing sentences par2ally or completely fixing machine-‐induced mistakes, dele2ng unnecessary or extra transla2on alterna2ves generated by the machine making key terminology consistent, but with no in-‐depth term checking.
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Full post-‐edi2ng is a slower and more in-‐depth pass to produce absolutely accurate transla2ons that consistently use correct and approved terminology, have the appropriate tone and style, have no stylis2c inconsistencies and varia2ons, and are free from any gramma2cal mistakes. AQer this edit, the transla2on should read as if wri]en in the target language. Full post-‐edi2ng tasks include all of the light post-‐edi2ng tasks plus all other edi2ng and revision tasks to ensure perfect faithfulness between the source and the target text. The expecta2on is high: full post-‐edited content that must be equal to human transla2on in all aspects.
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Lets now take a li]le mental break
Lets now take a li]le mental break and read some mistransla2ons produced by both humans and machines. I hope you laugh as much as I have with these.
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Very well, so now we will go back to the serious ma]ers of transla2on and interpre2ng.
Part of your reference materials include a paper by ABRAPT more than 10 years ago that talks about the changes that technology is bringing to the life of the translator and iden2fies the change from working in isola2on to now working in teams and collabora2on. Reading this document was very interes2ng because it hits right on the nail of all the developments that have taken place during the last 10 years but it also shows how many of the tools seen as essen2al 10 years ago are already obsolete.
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Another document by Amparo Alcina on Transla2on Technologies talks about the technologies circles proposed by Traduma2ca. It iden2fies the transla2on programs, transla2on aid soQware, programs for sending and receiving documents, accessory transla2on soQware and general programs. We must add now new layers of programs and applica2ons developed for the digital age which are impac2ng our world and the profession.
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Doing my research for this presenta2on one of the most interes2ng ar2cles I read is a blog post under Transla2on journal by Pablo Munoz Sanchez, published in October 2006 2tled Electronic Tools for Translators in the 21st Century. Pablo does such a good job at organizing and describing the tools that I have piggy backed on his paper to present some of the other electronic tools that I believe you need to really become technologically savvy in addi2on to the tools we have already men2oned.
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Some2mes we need to state the obvious to make sure that we do not miss the mark of our next step. So I love Pablo’s statement that translators have switched from pencil and paper to more effec2ve and sophis2cated electronic tools. This is the premise that we must keep in mind because we are now in the middle of transi2oning from those very sophis2cated electronic tools to the age of digital and nanotechnology, to give you but one of the many other future possibili2es.
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So, lets look quickly at the translator’s hardware.
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We have desktops which are now 10 2mes more sophis2cated than 5 years ago and have processing capabili2es that are even beyond our wildest dreams. This is one area where we do not spend enough 2me and that is exploring our hardware and all we can do with it.
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The same happens with the new genera2on of laptops many of which are radically different from the ones we had 5 years ago. They can help us perform hundreds of tasks and can store, manage and process loads of soQware and informa2on we can’t even fathom in our minds. Here again, it is our fault not to dedicate the 2me and energy to learn about all these new tools that are available to us.
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Next we have the iPad and tablets, which have more processing capacity than the en2re NASA computers that landed a man on the moon. I believe that these li]le devices will become the new tools in our lives, just as desktop computers and laptops have for the past 30 years.
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Virtual keyboards are already a reality and commercially available so that typing in the air is no longer a ma]er of science fic2on.
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Let me make a parenthesis here. Wi-‐Fi allows computers and other devices to connect to the Internet or communicate with one another wirelessly within a par2cular area. Today many computers, laptops and almost all mobile devices have wife integrated. What this means is that the internet is literally accessible anywhere at any 2me.
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Almost 40% of the global workforce and almost 80% of the American workforce is considered MOBILE. This means that the concept of being mobile is not only personal but professional. The world has become digital, instant, mobile and global.
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The world is fully mobile. The iPhone and the smartphone, which now rule the world of a large por2on of the popula2on. Just for your informa2on, there are currently almost 6 THOUSAND MILLION people in the world using cellphone technology, which is rapidly expanding in underserved communi2es of the developing countries.
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We men2oned before the digital pen and dot paper technology which is again becoming increasingly popular with interpreters as well as with translators in the field.
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And the latest gadgets are wearable technologies such as the apple iwatch that is synchronized with the iPhone and contains mul2lingual capabili2es and the apple iglass for augmented reality, which will have access to machine transla2on technologies.
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Finally, apps rule. Our world is progressively becoming a world of applica2ons. But what are apps? An app is a type of soQware that allows you to perform specific tasks. When you open an applica7on, it runs inside the opera2ng system of your hardware un2l you close it.
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I also found this excellent ar2cle published by Inbox Transla2on which provides a list of 15 free tools for translators. Because most of these are tools I have used in the past or my colleagues use, and because they are indeed very important, we are going to review them one by one.
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One of the things that I really liked about this ar2cle is how the author divides the tools into four dis2nct categories. It is very interes2ng to no2ce that the four categories have developed as tools for us in the past 20 years. This shows you how much the profession has changed that we now consider these tools valuable to our existence in the conglomerate of the language services providers.
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Google cloud is a storage service can be used for different purposes, including organiza2onal capabili2es and as a collabora2on tool. Several people can work on the same document, at the same 2me, without having the file crash. There is also a handy chat func2on integrated
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I prefer dropbox over the others because not only does it allow me to backup my files very easy with drag and drop, but also because it allows me to share folders and files with others and therefore serves as an email and sharing system for large files such as heavy pictures or videos.
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Similar to dropbox, many other systems allow you to share files by sending emails without a]achments and also allow you to work anywhere as you have permanent access to all your informa2on and files.
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Evernote is note taking and produc2vity tool that can store and index informa2on we must remember on a daily basis and then makes it searchable across a single pla>orm.
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Podio is the ul2mate tool for managing 2me and organizing stuff; it allows customizable project management for teams, content sharing and feedback workflows for clients, email and web forms integra2on, sales tracking and file-‐sharing among others.
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Extension lets you grab and share screenshots directly from your Chrome browser
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Gmail offers aggressive spam reduc2on tools, extensive mail storage space and fast opera2on plus con2nuously growing storage,
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File Compressors and Decompressors are a must when sending and receiving files on the Internet, as the file size can be reduced considerably depending on the file type.
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VoIP technology is a further step in today’s communica2on scene. It stands for Voice Over Internet Protocol, or in more common terms phone service over the Internet
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Skype is an excellent tool for communica2ng with clients and other freelancers in real 2me, wherever they are. You can share your screen, send files, chat in wri2ng or invite several people to organize a conference. Skype is primarily a VoIP service but is also offers a VoIP App.
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Social media is known as websites and applica2ons that enable users to create and share content or to par2cipate in social networking.
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The blogosphere means that every person who owns a computer can publish their thoughts with just a few clicks.
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Word press is the most widely used free and easy to use blogging service. It is Understood that blogging should be part of a freelancer’s online collabora2on and marke2ng strategy.
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HootSuite is a social media dashboard and You can also share links,
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LinkedIn is a social networking site for the business community. If you do not have your LinkedIn profile, you should complete it today.
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Facebook Pages provides a hub to connect with customers and reach large groups of people frequently with messages tailored to their needs and interests.
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Twi]er can be used as a professional online social networking service that enables you to send and read short messages with professional and targeted content
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Use Google Hangouts for HD video conferencing and mee2ngs, text chats and voice calls. Share screens, join from anywhere and bring everyone together
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Youtube may be used to post your professional content in video format
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Vimeo, like youtube, is a video sharing website on which users can upload, share and view videos
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Instagram is an online mobile photo-‐sharing, video-‐sharing and social networking service that enables its users to take pictures and videos, and share them on a variety of social networking pla>orms, such as Facebook, Twi]er, Tumblr and Flickr.
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Canva allows you to easily create designs for Web or print
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Pixabay is a community for sharing quality public domain images.
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JoinMe is a pla>orm for free, simple and online mee2ngs.
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Easy conferencing and online mee2ng tools and it is one of the pla>orms I use to deliver training.
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Wix allows you to create your own website for free and easily.
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SlideShare is a slide hos2ng service where you can upload files privately or publicly in many formats; slide decks can be viewed on the site itself, on hand held devices or embedded on other sites.
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SoundCloud is an online audio distribu2on pla>orm that enables users to upload, record, promote and share their originally created sounds.
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Security of our soQware and content of course is vital and we discussed this topic earlier on.
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You can use lastpass to generate and store passwords and automa2cally log into any site once you have saved your details.
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Malware is Malicious soQware designed to infiltrate or damage a computer.
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It is important to remember that a good an2virus is capable not only to detect viruses, but also to eliminate them. On the other hand, an2virus soQware may consume lots of resources, so one has to remember to configure it appropriately in order not to work with a computer that suddenly slows down.
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Spyware is a type of malware that is installed in a way invisible to the user in order to gather informa2on about what the user does on the computer and send it to companies that will probably send you spam later. Moreover, spyware may slow down the Internet connec2on or consume computer resources in the background
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A firewall is a piece of soQware that tracks every a]empt to access a computer and asks its user to grant permission to execute something when soQware receives data from the Internet. It is the perfect partner together with an2virus soQware to block online viruses.
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One of the latest technologies to hit the markets of the US is the electronic wallet. What this means is that you will no longer carry credit cards or checks at all but you will carry out all your money related transac2ons directly from your digital or cellular device. This is already in use and I have seen people pay in Starbucks by just flashing their cell phone on top of the corresponding electronic device at the local cashier. .
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So, lets talk about the billing soQware that you should have to manage transla2on invoices. There is a wide variety of billing soQware with applica2ons that are highly customizable, so that you can create a suitable template according to your needs.
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Now, like all things ProZ, I also found an invoicing pla>orm for ProZ users, which you may want to look into.
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And increasingly you will have to have a way of receiving payments electronically and interna2onally as well as to make payments for future group collabora2ons you may engage. Just start thinking about it if you have not already. Don’t forget that you will have to deal with a lot of legali2es and tax ma]ers depending on the country and even the state where you live or work.
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So, we are on the last leg of our brief encounter and now we will very briefly address some issues that for some of your are obvious but may not be so obvious for others in different countries and circumstances.
I want to make a very special point in reminding you to always back up your computer and all your portable devices every so oQen but at least once per week. You can use external hard drives or USBs or cloud solu2ons like Dropbox.
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Let talk now about the many free stuff that is available in the internet
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Lets talk now about freeware, which is copyrighted computer soQware made available for use free of charge and for an unlimited 2me. There is a very good ProZ wiki that provides some very good defini2ons and links to free resources. Also, you can do a search in Google with the term freeware in quota2on plus translators and you will get a very nice list of resources.
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Regarding email, the most popular free webmail email services such as Hotmail, Yahoo!, Gmail, or Aol or email applica2ons like MicrosoQ Outlook
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In the case of Outlook, if you have not used tried it before, you may want to spend some 2me seeing if it could be beneficial to you.
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Wikipedia has a very interes2ng comparison of webmail providers if you want to visit that page.
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The File Transfer Protocol (FTP) is a standard network protocol used to transfer computer files from one host to another host over a network, such as the Internet. FTP is built on a client-‐server architecture and uses separate control and data connec2ons between the client and the server.
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Please make sure that you look at all the new features in your Word program and that you prac2ce with them. MicrosoQ Word is an essen2al tool for any individual in today’s digital age. Whether you are a working professional, a diligent student or an ac2ve re2ree, proficiency in MicrosoQ Word is a vital skill that is useful for both complex business requirements as well as basic day-‐to-‐day purposes Most translators are using their soQware at less than 10% of what they could. You should spend some 2me learning all the fantas2c tricks your Word Processor can do for you.
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More and more we are seeing presenta2ons in PowerPoint sent for transla2on, so this is a program that you should become really familiar with.
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Excel is another program that is now star2ng to appear more and more as source text for transla2on because strings can easily be copied to excel documents. You should be at least familiar on how excel works.
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PDF or Portable Document Format is the closest to a final printed document. One of its advantages is that what you see is what you get, i.e. it is not necessary to run the risk of losing the format when using different versions of the same soQware. Therefore, PDF files are considered by many as the the best solu2on for prin2ng purposes. PDF Editors allow you to edit the document directly on PDF without having to first convert it to Word. PDF is the de facto standard to exchange documents with other people and therefore you should know how to produce PDF files from your word processor.
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The PDF Reader par excellence is Acrobat Reader although Foxit has the same display quality but loads significantly faster.
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Adobe crea2ve cloud has not only all the digital publishing tools you need but also addi2onal marke2ng and crea2ve tools. This suite of adobe products is really a very good buy as you will be able to manipulate pdf documents with freedom plus it includes all the image edi2ng tool that you could need.
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One of the other pieces of equipment you should always have at hand are Scanners, which are vital in todays working environment as they streamline paper-‐based processes by digi2zing documents that you can then manipulate in the computer. .
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Printers have changed drama2cally in the last couple of years and now they are much more user friendly, wireless and mobile, and they can undertake almost any job that in the past would require the services of a professional printer. Make sure that your printer is wireless and that the consump2on of ink is efficient. Otherwise you will end up paying more for ink than for the printer.
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Not only that, now you can meet your prin2ng needs anywhere and any2me using the cloud and interconnected networks of printers. For example, you may finish an 80 page transla2on that needs to be printed and distributed at a mee2ng tomorrow 10,000 miles from where you are; in today’s world, you can send it tonight using cloud or network connec2vity to a service such as Kinkos where they will print and bind it overnight and your party may pick it up in the morning at their loca2on.
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The other great revolu2on that has taken place in prin2ng devices is the 3D printer that now allows individuals to print full objects in 3 dimensions which are later customized or manipulated at will.
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Text may be the only element that composes a short fic2on story, but that is not the case of websites, magazines or textbooks to cite some examples. Therefore, translators should know how to edit the images that cons2tute a full product, so translators are expected to have some basic image edi2ng skills in order to undertake a transla2on job which deals with graphics.
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In closing I want to men2on the Desktop Publishers or DTP tools, which are FrameMaker, InDesign, QuarkXPress and Scribus. It is worth your while to familiarize yourself with these in prepara2on for the future.
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Lastly, I want to men2on internet fax services because although nowadays email has largely superseded the facsimile, there is no harm in having a fax applica2on to send and even receive fax. There are s2ll many countries in the world where you have to send or receive faxes and even in the most technologically advanced countries, fax is s2ll in use for many business purposes.
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So becoming a tech savvy transinterpreter in the digital age entails much more than simply having some CAT tools or a computer with video camera. It is a totally new frame of mind and the skills to work in a completely new world that func2ons under new rules.
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Make a selec2on of what you think you need to learn based on what you think you would want and your budget and 2me constraints and set yourself on that journey.
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We have talked a lot about a great number of things. I want to stress that YOU DO NOT NEED TO KNOW IT ALL BUT YOU DO NEED TO DEVELOP PRACTICAL SKILLS IN A FEW OF THEM THAT ARE ESSENTIAL.
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It is in the DOING that you master a skill. the more you do it the be]er you get at doing it,
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To acquire the new skills, the new language of technology, you have to be willing to invest the 2me, the effort and the finances that will take you there.
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In my opinion, the only way to accelerate the learning curve is by increasing the intensity of the prac2ce.
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BECAUSE THE ONLY WAY TO DEVELOP A SKIL IS BY PRACTICING IT OVER AND OVER AND OVER AGAIN.
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So, we have arrived at the end of this presenta2on.
Lets talk about the resources that I have provided via BrauerTraining Wikispaces. You will have the link in your ques2ons & answer box.
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I created a specific BrauerTraining Wikispaces for this presenta2on and it has dozens of links to all the different materials I referenced during my talk.
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Now lets talk about the Forum that I opened for us to be able to con2nue the discussion on this topic even aQer today. The link again is on your screen but it will be provided via the Q&A tab.
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A video recording of this presenta2on will be made available at the same loca2on you connected to the presenta2on
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A copy of the PowerPoint presenta2on will be posted to SlideShare (this one!)
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Also you will con2nue to have access to video recordings of all the free tools for translators that were made available to you yesterday and today
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Another resource that I would like to invite you to visit is my web-‐based school for translators and interpreters where I offer 10 different tracks of learning with more than 70 workshops and skills acquisi2on gyms that are precisely designed to afford you the spaces to prac2ce new skills. My tracks 8 and 9 are specifically oriented to CAT tools and Machine Transla2on.
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I want to highlight to you that ProZ has a fantas2c resource where they compare and explain many of the most popular CAT tool, alignment tools and machine transla2on tools.
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Similarly, the site has very specific CAT support forums compu2ng support forums, soQware and internet applica2ons and general technical support forums that you may want to check out.
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If you did not have a chance to a]end it, I would recommend that you take the 2me to check out the video recordings on Machine Transla2on 201
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It is Very important to review the on-‐demand sessions that ProZ is making available on Post edited machine transla2on and cat tools for the new users
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There are other very interes2ng on-‐demand session on Digital Social media to grow your business and the other one on the Professional Reviewer in the Spotlight.
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Similarly, PROZ offers a lot of resources on SDL and similar soQware
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Like Wordfast, MT, Atril and déjà vu, Across, Fluency as well as The New WordFinderSolu2on
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Before we start the questions and answer session, I want to wish you the best in your path to become a tech savvy transinterpreter in our digital age!
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Please feel free to contact me in the future via email claudia@brauertrainig.com or my website http://brauertraining.com!