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The Eurobarometer surveyed language trends among EU citizens, focusing on how the use of languages and attitudes towards language learning evolve over time. One of the most notable findings of the latest EU barometer was the prominence of English spoken as a foreign language.
The survey found that almost half of Europeans (47%) speak English as a foreign or second language – up 5% since 2012. A substantial 70% of young Europeans (15-24) can have a conversation in English (+9% since 2012).
Credit: European Union
There has been a considerable drop in the other most widely spoken languages after English: just 11% speak French, 10% speak German and 7% speak Spanish as a foreign language. The growing gap begs the question: is multilingualism on the way out?
In the last 18 months, large language models (LLMs) have fueled a raft of startups and been rapidly injected into language technology platforms. But how have professional linguists responded to this pivotal moment in AI?
A survey of more than 750 translators — conducted in April 2024 for the 2024 Slator Language Industry Market Report — found that AI adoption by professional linguists is now widespread. Two-thirds of translators have used AI in their translation work in the past 12 months.
Whether via AI models (e.g., ChatGPT, Gemini), translation management systems, or standalone AI platforms, linguists are actively leveraging AI in new and creative ways to enhance quality and efficiency.
Here, we present the top 10 applications of AI by translators, based on results from Slator’s 2024 linguist survey.
Language is one the greatest gifts our world has ever received. Through language we’re able to communicate with each other and also express our uniqueness.
Languages are a way of seeing things. The way we explain different concepts – or whether the concepts exist in our language at all – provides a vital window to our culture. As Microsoft President Brad Smith put it: “When a community loses a language, it loses its connection to the past – and part of its present. It loses a piece of its identity.”
Te reo Māori is part of Aotearoa’s identity. When Kiwis travel, we communicate with others in English, the international language of business. But when we share what makes us unique, what do we talk about? Thanks to the success of the All Blacks, people know us for the haka. We’re also known for being “Kiwi”, for our celebrities such as Taika Waititi and places like Rotorua, Kaikoura and Waiheke. What all of these people, places and things have in common is a language – te reo Māori.
Growing up, I wasn’t able to express myself in the language of my people, something that’s helped shape who I am and what I do as the founder of a translation technology company today. Not only do we have to be open to using te reo Māori, we have to get smarter about harnessing technology to ensure more New Zealanders have an opportunity to engage with it as they go about their day.
The World Economic Forum is predicting that within the next 100 years, around 1,500 languages could disappear forever. The research found that regionally dominant languages taught in class often overshadow indigenous tongues. Unless they’re used regularly and encouraged to become a part of people’s daily lives, these foundations of our culture get lost. Without them, we lose so much more than just words – we lose what makes us uniquely us.
Are language service providers (LSPs) seizing the benefits offered by generative AI and large language models? An April 2024 Slator study has found that the answer is a resounding “yes”.
The survey of AI adoption across 223 companies found that one in three LSPs have implemented large language models into their workflows. Furthermore, close to 20% of companies have now tested use cases or beta versions.
Just 3% of LSPs told Slator that they have no plans to implement LLMs.
Beyond performing the core machine translation task, LLMs — such as Meta’s Llama 3 and OpenAI’s GPT 4 and 4o — have significant potential to augment and enable language AI services. Key applications include quality estimation, dynamic translation adaptation, and multilingual text generation, among others.
Gabriel Fairman, CEO of Bureau Works, speaking at the opening of SlatorCon London on Wednesday 21 May, emphasized that LLMs represent nothing less than “a new way for humans to relate to machines”.
Mark Harman on Learning to Understand Both the Surfaces and “Subterranean Passages” of Kafka
Kafka claims in a letter to Milena Jesenská, his girlfriend and first translator, that the emotional cohesion of “The Judgment” is evident in “every sentence, every word, every—if I may say so—music.” Kafka could hear that “music” in Jesenská’s Czech translation, although he would have initially preferred to hear the voice of his beloved: “I wanted to hear from you and not the voice from the old grave, the voice I know all too well.”
His high praise of Jesenská’s translation could only have come from a polyglot writer, who spoke Czech in addition to his native German, had a sophisticated understanding of the translator’s task, and whose writing straddles linguistic and cultural boundaries.
Anyone who attempts a new translation of Kafka owes a great debt to the work of Willa and Edwin Muir, who created the remarkably elegant, and, for the better part of the twentieth-century, canonical English-language translations of Kafka. As first translators, the Muirs needed to introduce their unsettling author to English-speaking readers and creatively adapted some of Kafka’s stylistic idiosyncrasies.
A Quebec court judge has declared inoperable a portion of the province’s language law that requires English-language court decisions to be immediately translated into French.
Dennis Galiatsatos wrote in a May 17 decision the requirement for courts to simultaneously provide a French translation of a written decision rendered in English will slow down the legal process for anglophone Quebecers accused of a crime.
A modification to the Quebec language charter scheduled to come into effect on June 1 states that a French translation must be provided “immediately and without delay.”
Galiatsatos says translations can take weeks or months to produce and approve, a process he adds will delay verdicts and force people who opt to be tried in English to wait longer to learn their fate than those who are tried in French.
Erpenbeck is the first German writer and Michael Hofmann the first male translator to win the £50,000 prize for novel which tells the story of a relationship set against the collapse of East Germany
Jenny Erpenbeck and Michael Hofmann have won the 2024 International Booker prize for Erpenbeck’s “personal and political” novel Kairos, translated by Hofmann from German.
Erpenbeck is the first German writer to win, while Hofmann is the first male translator to win. The £50,000 prize money will be split equally between the pair.
Kairos by Jenny Erpenbeck, translated by Michael Hofmann. Photograph: PR
Erpenbeck and Hofmann were announced as the winners at a ceremony held at the Tate Modern in London, sponsored by the Italian luxury fashion house Maison Valentino.
Kairos tells the story of a relationship set against the collapse of East Germany. The novel is a “richly textured evocation of a tormented love affair, the entanglement of personal and national transformations”, said judging chair and broadcaster Eleanor Wachtel.
Hofmann’s translation “captures the eloquence and eccentricities of Erpenbeck’s writing, the rhythm of its run-on sentences, the expanse of her emotional vocabulary”, she added.
In addition to being bilingual, “she has a super sensitive ear for the texts she translates, and she strives to find the right English words and the right register for each book.”
Anyone who has read any books or essays by contemporary Israeli writers has probably encountered the words of Jessica Cohen.
That’s because Cohen is the most in-demand Hebrew-to-English translator working today. In the past year alone, four of her translations have been published: “Professor Schiff’s Guilt,” a novel by Agur Schiff; “Stockholm: A Novel,” by Noa Yedlin; “Every Wrinkle Has a Story,” a children’s book by David Grossman; and “The Hebrew Teacher,” a collection of novellas by Maya Arad. Cohen also translated Grossman’s op-ed on the Israel-Hamas war, titled “Israel is Falling Into an Abyss,” that was published in the New York Times in March.
Over the past 25 years, she has translated more than 30 books and dozens of shorter works by some of the most renowned Israeli writers, including Amos Oz, Etgar Keret, Dorit Rabinyan, Ronit Matalon and Nir Baram. In 2017, she shared the Man Booker International Prize with Grossman for “A Horse Walks Into a Bar,” and four years later, she was awarded a Guggenheim fellowship.
Post-editing of machine translations is the second-most sought-after skill among language service providers
UOC researchers propose a new method for assessing AI tools to improve the work of translators
Machine translation systems are widely used in the translation industry, although the end results are always reviewed by people (foto: Adobe)
Juan F. Samaniego
ChatGPT and its ability to hold conversations and produce written content have been the focus of a lot of attention in the last year in the field of technology and artificial intelligence. However, AI has been around for some time, helping us in all sorts of everyday tasks, from navigation systems to social network algorithms, not to mention machine translation. Ever since neural machine translation (NMT) systems began to be used on a widespread basis a few years ago, AI has seen exponential growth in its uptake in the translation industry. This has led to new challenges in the relationship between human and machine translators.
Today, the post-editing of machine translations is the second-most sought-after skill among language service providers and is the task with the greatest growth potential, according to the European Language Industry Survey. Translators edit unprocessed machine translations, correcting texts produced by artificial intelligence. This brings with it many advantages for human translators, but also significant problems if the quality of the machine translation is poor. This is why the ability to objectively assess the quality of machine translation tools is essential for the sector.
Non-English speakers can face big communication challenges in medical settings: being unable to convey personal information, understand medical jargon and follow treatment instructions. These challenges can result in misunderstandings, or worse, in misdiagnoses. Phoenix hospitals work at preventing problems like this by providing interpretation and translation services in many different languages.
About 2 million Arizonans speak a language other than English, according to U.S. Census Bureau data, although it is not clear how many would be considered non-English speakers. Over 1.3 million speak Spanish; more than 130,000 speak another Indo-European language; 150,000 speak an Asian or Pacific Island language; and 160,000 speak other languages.
Phoenix hospitals, including the Mayo Clinic, Valleywise Health, Abrazo Health and Banner Health, have established services for interpretation that can cover dozens of different languages. When a hospital’s language department is unable to directly provide interpretation and translation services, third-party providers will step in.
Two medical professionals shared their experiences on how language services change health care accessibility for many underserved people who could fall through the cracks.
Movies have long been a cherished entertainment pastime in global audiences, captivating audiences across language barriers. Amidst this culture, the art of Vjing emerged, allowing viewers to immerse themselves in cinematic wonders, regardless of linguistic differences.
On a recent episode of Home of Our Stars, Flavia Tumusiime delves into the world of Vjing with Kaija Ukasha, renowned as VJ Shaolin Khan Lee. Reflecting on his cinematic upbringing, Ukasha recalls how translated movies shaped his early film experiences.
His journey began in the video halls (bibanda) of Kawempe, where amidst a family obsessed with football, he found comfort in the magic of cinema.
In his early days, Ukasha honed his skills by immersing himself in his surroundings at home, laying the groundwork for his future career.
“The appeal of translations captivated me, and together with a like-minded brother, we delved into the world of Vjing,” he recounts. Making connections at a local video hall proved pivotal, as generous acquaintances shared their equipment, paving the way for Ukasha’s learning journey.
Detailing the essence of Vjing, Ukasha stresses its reliance on talent beyond mere translation.
“Vjing transcends language; it tests the breadth of your knowledge. You might excel in medicine but be clueless about law. However, with Vjing, you must possess a wide-ranging understanding of general knowledge,” he elucidates. “Beyond translation, you must offer insights and interpret the situations of the films you work with.”
As Vjing transitions from traditional video halls to multiple TV platforms, Ukasha sheds light on the origins of movie translations. “The practice of translating movies precedes the arrival of Western films in Africa,” he explains.
There are many translations of the Bible ranging from the most literal translations to quite paraphrased versions. There is a necessity for them all.
When going to church on Sundays, it is extremely common for the pastor to read a Bible verse in one specific translation — such as the New International Version or The Message — then use a different Bible translation, such as King James Version or American Standard Version for a different verse. This can lead to some confusion for the congregation because there are so many different versions of the same book. This is a common issue that scholars have dealt with for many years. The differences boil down to whether the translation of the Bible is a literal word-for-word translation or a paraphrased thought-for-thought translation.
Why Isn’t There Just One Translation of the Bible?
Brandon Farris is a content creator who has a YouTube series in which he searches for a random recipe online and uses Google Translate to translate it into a different language. Then he takes that new translation and brings it back to English. He continues this process five or six times and then tries to follow the new recipe, which, as you may suspect, results in a complete mess of a dish. One time, he ended up sautéing water.
Although this is a silly explanation, it illustrates the point perfectly: Translating from one language to another is a VERY difficult process and can result in contextual errors.
Acting Minister of Culture Nayden Todorov expressed concerns regarding certain streamingplatforms operating in Bulgaria without providing Bulgarian translations, stating, “We have problems with some of the content streamingplatforms that work in Bulgaria, but without Bulgarian translation.” He conveyed this to journalists during his attendance at the Education, Youth, Culture, and Sports Council in Brussels.
Discussions within the EU are ongoing regarding the proliferation of these platforms. Suggestions have been made to amend European regulations, potentially requiring a portion of the revenue generated to be allocated towards the production of European content. Some ministers have emphasized the importance of including local content tailored to the regions where these platforms are active.
An English-language translation featured on 17 giant hoardings promoting an Amsterdam referendum is so off-message that city officials have decided to have them remade.
The referendum on the council’s plans to determine what parts of the city should be considered key green infrastructure will take place on June 6, on the same day as the European elections.
The hoardings are there to drum up support for the vote, but, according to Anke Bakker, of the local branch of pro-animal party PvdD, the English-language text is both misleading and biased.
The Canadian Bureau of Public Services and Procurement (PSPC) is the government agency that oversees the Translation Bureau, which is in turn in charge of supplying linguistic services to Parliament and federal departments. In April 2024, PSPC published a statement announcing the approval and implementation of additional health protection measures for interpreters.
As the use of remote meetings for official government business increased in the 2010s, interpreters began experiencing and reporting issues related to working conditions in these scenarios, all exacerbated during pandemic-related virtual interpreting. At that time, the Translation Bureau provided what it deemed were “firm recommendations” on interpreter protection during virtual Parliament sessions, but no measures were actually implemented until much later.
Classicist Emily Wilson illuminated the intricacies of translation in her lecture “Re-translating Homer: Why and How” held Thursday. The event delved into the challenges and significance of reinterpreting ancient texts for modern audiences.
The lecture was divided into four main topics: defining translation, explaining Wilson’s background and priorities in translation, demonstrating a case study and answering the question of why Homer is still relevant today. Julia Marvin, the chair of the department of the program of liberal studies, introduced the talk.
“The past is a foreign country,” Marvin said. “They do things differently there, and the past is never dead. It’s not even past.”
‘Shōgun’is a refreshing reminder that in a time where the power of the ‘one-inch tall barrier’ still seems distastefully under contention, sometimes you need to revive the literal Tokugawa Shōgunate to bridge the cumbersome gap between worlds
In its grand finale, FX’s captivating rendition of James Clavell’s historical epic Shōgun gracefully bows out with a rendezvous with mortality.
“Please split your belly open by sunset,” and “Have a good death” echo some of what we hear with the casualness of a tea sip. Yet, to truly grasp the weight of seppuku’s socio-historical significance, honour the richness of its source material, and deftly navigate the intricacies of translation, the series stands alone in its unparalleled achievement. Shōgun employs a three-pronged approach, replete with cross-cultural exchanges, verbal fencing, and the delicate dance of understanding in an era poised on the precipice of profound change.
In early January 2024, when many in the language industry were likely pondering how to eventually incorporate AI into their offerings or processes, OpenAI announced its GPT Store. Back then, a few translation GPTs could be found, including one built by Phrase called “Phrase Expert.”
By the time OpenAI launched the store to the general public, there were already more than three million GPTs done by pre-release testers. After the kind of hype seen in late 2022 with ChatGPT and all the drama surrounding the company’s CEO and Board in 2023, the store launch was also a popular subject in the news and on social media.
Then, the announcement of the company’s text-to-video generator, Sora, arrived in February 2024, lest people get OpenAI out of their minds for too long.
In March 2024, we asked readers if they had ever used Custom GPTs since the store was launched, and over two-thirds of respondents (64.6%) said No. Over a combined quarter of readers said they tested GPTs a bit after launch (14.6%) or from time to time (12.5%), and a very small percentage said they have been using them daily (8.3%).
Dr Hilary Brown will be leading a project over 2024-25 which will explore what feminist translation means in practice in the twenty-first century.
Dr Brown has been awarded an AHRC Networking grant, together with her co-investigator Dr Olga Castro (University of Warwick/Barcelona), and will be establishing a “Feminist Translation Network” which will bring together researchers, practitioners and educators to discuss feminist approaches to contemporary literary translation in English. The Network will ask questions such as: What is feminist translation (e.g. how does it differ – or not – from translations by women/of women or from queer translation/gender-inclusive translation)? Is feminist translation a matter of identity or a matter of practice? What are the goals of feminist translation and whom is it for?
The Network will address these themes at a series of free public events held over 2024-25, beginning with a translation ‘slam’ and roundtable discussion at the Birmingham Literature Festival in October 2024.
The Network’s activities will be overseen by a steering group which includes former DoML staff member Dr Gaby Saldanha.
In a March 21, 2024 paper, Fan Zhou and Vincent Vandeghinste from KU Leuven demonstrated that language models can predict the most suitable translation techniques for translation and post-editing tasks.
The researchers highlighted a set of persistent issues that remain in MT such as word-for-word translation, false friends, ambiguity, information omission or addition, and cultural insensitivity, leading to low-quality translations that may lack clarity and accuracy. These issues arise from the system using incorrect translation techniques, something a translator wouldn’t do. “The human-generated translation process relies on diverse translation techniques, which proves essential to ensuring both linguistic adequacy and fluency,” they emphasized.
Additionally, they highlighted that “utilizing translation techniques is crucial for addressing translation problems, improving translation quality, and ensuring contextually appropriate translations.”
Zhou and Vandeghinste suggested that automatically identifying translation techniques before can effectively guide and improve the machine translation (MT) process. Additionally, these techniques can serve as prompts for large language models (LLMs) to generate high-quality translations.
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