Lingo24 Company Blog

Unless a competent or qualified translator has been available, until now, being able to see a GP has been somewhat of an ordeal for many deaf people and all but impossible for some. The problem is that there are only around 400 fully qualified interpreters of British Sign Language (BSL) in England to deal with the needs of approximately 70,000 registered deaf people whose primary language of communication is BSL. Often, family members fulfil the role of interpreter when a qualified person is not easily available; however, this is often disruptive for the accompanying relative.

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News stories featuring scenarios where there is some hold up in, or some pending miscarriage of justice due to the lack of suitable interpreters, seem to be all too common these days: in fact, although not strictly justice related, the recent case of several deaf students from Concord, Massachusetts, who were forced to relocate to new schools some distance away because their current schools were unable to locate sign language interpreters, highlights this general theme perfectly.

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According to recent reports from the EU, the standard of British translators who apply for European Union translating positions is generally so poor that they have been forced to look elsewhere; notably to linguists from Greece and Spain in order to combat the dearth of home grown talent.

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Maybe it would have been more appropriate to entitle this blog “Microsoft marches onwards toward world domination”, for with news of the release of Microsoft’s live translation tool and it’s incorporation as a standard utility within Microsoft Office, there can surely be nothing that Microsoft cannot or does not eventually wish to take up and incorporate into its ubiquitous operating system and programs.

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As linguists we all know that languages change over time and adapt themselves to modern requirements; and so it is with the Hungarian language. Linguists of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences are about to implement changes to the rules of Hungarian spelling; rules that were last changed in 1984.

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A study recently carried out in the Indian City of Chandigarh (the joint Capital of the States of Punjab and Haryana), has uncovered what seems to be a rapid and worrying decline in the demand for books in both the Punjabi and Hindi languages in the City and its environs.

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Whenever we think of Maoris, images of fierce, face painted warriors and all but unstoppable rugby players instantly spring to mind; now though, the Maori presence has spread to the Internet in the latest move by Google to accommodate as many different languages as possible.

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Six terrorist suspects from Algeria who have been detained without charge for the past six years in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba have just won the right to petition for release according to the US law representing them on a Pro Bono basis. Pro Bono, or to quote the term fully; Pro Bono Publico (“for the public good”) denotes professional work undertaken without payment, as a public service.

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Simulators and more recently Virtual Reality (VR) simulators have been widely used for many years; probably their best known usage has been as an aid to student Commercial Pilots who regularly use flight simulators during their training; student drivers now increasingly have the opportunity to use this technology to improve their skills. The full force of VR simulator technology though, is now being brought to bear by the US Military in a bid to save the lives of their military interpreters.

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Well, that is virtually what Classical Comics have achieved via their latest deal with Ittosha Incorporated of Japan. The deal that they have signed is to sell their unique brand of graphical novel adaptations to the Japanese for translation and publication in Japan; aficionados of comic culture will immediately see the irony here, as there has been an almost one way traffic of Manga comics, programs and art to the UK for a number of years.

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