KUDO on Interpreting: A Reassuring Message
Cloud-based interpreting (a.k.a. RSI) is the biggest technological innovation in interpreting since the Nuremberg Trials. Granted, audio quality, microphone design and headset ergonomics have all improved markedly since World War II. But despite the modern technology, a microphone is still a microphone. And the headsets used in Nuremberg don’t look drastically different from the ones […]
Challenge Results are In. And They are Telling
Wondering about the results of the NTIF Interpreting Technology Challenge? Wonder no more! As it turns out, the weather was a bit too cold for ice-cream anywhere else in Helsinki, on November 24, 2017. But the temperature at Scandic Paasi Hotel was mounting fast as contestants and voters gathered for NTIF’s first Interpreting Technology Challenge. Six of the most […]
Interpreting Technology Tasting (for ice-cream lovers!)
The field of interpreting is undergoing some ground-shaking changes. Ubiquitous broadband has made multilingual streaming a reality. Neural machine translation is flirting with voice recognition. And Google has just introduced its first version of a babel fish that you can literally stick in your ear. Pretty exciting news for users who believe they can now […]
Mind your language, you @#x!$%* !
A few weeks ago, I was interviewed by the BBC in connection with an incident involving the interpreter who watered down parts of President Trump’s speech at the UN General Assembly that were critical of the Iranian regime. Detailed transcriptions of both the original and the interpretation can be easily found online. The interpreter was […]