Robots to Aid 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea

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Winter Olympics who watches that you may ask? It may be a surprise to many but the Winter Olympics may be more popular than you would imagine them to be. The first winter Olympics were held in Chamonix, France in 1924 and have since grown to be a popular global event in the sporting world. In truth the Winter Olympics attracts viewer numbers in excess of 20 million across multiple platforms.

Winter Olympics traditionally includes sports that are practiced on snow and ice, sports such as ice hockey and snowboarding. Over the years the Winter Olympic Games have included events such as free skiing on a skip also known as Freestyle Mongul Skiing attracting more countries to participate and as a result increased interest in the sport from a wider audience.

The forthcoming winter Olympics due to be held in PyeongChang, South Korea between 9-25th Feb 2018 are expected to include 2500 competing athletes from 90 competing nations. Usually during these types of events a need for professional translation services or interpreting services are higly valuable to aid good communication for participants and the audience to help avoid embarrassing situations similar to what transpired during the 2015 Women’s FIFA World Cup where a twitter hashtag suggesting “Gonorrhoea for Sweden” was misinterpreted.

Now we know the Japanese are ahead when it comes to technology advancement and this latest reveal does not seem to be slowing them down. Hancom a Seoul based computer software company is set to reveal a new “artificial intelligence (AI) powered robot interpreter” for use at the 2018 Winter Oympic Games according to Korea Times. This human like robot is designed to emulate human-like facial expressions and is to be initially developed to translate 9 languages supporting Chinese translation services, Spanish translation services and French translation services to name a few with plans to expand in the future.

Will this development reduce the need for human translations? Now that is something to debate. Let us know your thoughts?

Image by: YOHNAP NEWS

Blame it on the Translation?

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A rather amusing story has emerged from Australia in recent times, which for once is nothing to do with dodgy retail translation services. For the first time we are actually bringing you a story of a translation fail without any help from a less than accurate translation service at all. No instead this story involves a Uruguayan footballer, an Australian team’s cup glory, an ‘alleged’ and very odd translation fail and a rather rude word. We will leave it up to you to make up your mind.

It all started on Wednesday 30th November in a Westfield FFA cup final that was contested between two Australian teams Melbourne City FC and Sydney FC at AAMI Park. The tightly fought cup final was eventually decided in the second half when Australian footballing legend Tim Cahill scored with one of his trademark headers on the 53rd minute to secure Melbourne City FC the win and their first ever trophy in the clubs history.

As you can imagine emotions were most likely running high after such a historic game for the club and this is where the controversial and comedic moment happened. Melbourne City’s Uruguayan captain Bruno Fornaroli was giving a speech to the fans in the stadium on his side’s extraordinary win, bearing in mind his mother tongue is Spanish and his English has been described as ‘broken’ so he was reading his speech from cue cards; when after he ended his speech he threw the cards into the air and screamed out ‘And f..k off!’ Perhaps better localisation services are needed here?

But in all seriousness Bruno came out the next morning to explain this odd expletive. According to the skipper himself, he apparently was meant to say ‘vamos’ which has a Spanish to English translation of ‘let’s go’ to cheer on his team refer to his excitement and overjoy as the reason why another word came out instead, he also apologised to anyone it might have offended.

We are not sure how true that explanation is or that anyone has been offended but one thing is for sure it is definitely hilarious. Let us know what you think about him blaming translations, see the footage below and tell us your conclusion.

Image Screenshot: The Tight Five Football YouTube

How to support England in ‘French’ at Euro 2016

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Heading to France this summer to see The Euros? Well you are going to have to hunt down your old French to English dictionary and you have got to brush up on your GSCE level French or if you have the budget, invest in some professional translation services because you will have to know how to get about the country and look out for yourself but most importantly you are going to have to know what the French are saying about their national football team and how to counter back in French from an English point of view.

Luckily for you we are here to help and have put together just some of the current trending French lingo surrounding the UEFA European Championships 2016. Here is a list of French to English translations of some of the most trending general French footballing terms.

Let’s start with an obvious one ‘Les Bleus’ or ‘Allez les Bleus’ which is the most popular chant or saying when it comes to roaring on the French national team. The English translation is ‘The Blues’ or ‘Come on the Blues’, so England fans should use the term ‘Allez les Anglais/Angleterre’ which in French would be ‘Come on the English/England’ but in all honesty you are better off getting Italian translation services and backing Italy this tournament but, we still believe!

Another catchphrase the French are using in support of the national team is ‘fiers d’être bleu’ which means ‘proud to be Blue’ something that immediately sends out positive French patriotic signals. Now how can a proud Englishman respond to this? Shout back ‘Allez les trois lions!’ or ‘Come the three lions!’

Now one thing that has been so successful about these Euros, other than the late drama and intense matches has been the fanzone or ‘le fanzone’. Fairly simple to remember you just put ‘le’ instead of ‘the’ and your best but none the less dodgy French accent and that’s how you say the fanzone. The most popular fanzone is based in the French capital Paris which is free of charge and open to the public. With the commercial success of this tournament resulting in a very positive financial translation so far, these free-to-use fanzones have been a major success.

Last but not least the French use the term ‘Le 12ème homme’ or the English translation, ‘The 12th man’ something that we use already to liken the fans to an extra player on the pitch. There are many more footballing terms but these should see you up to England’s usual final stage, the quarter finals. But you never know with Jamie Vardy on the team.

Who do you think will win the Euros?

Image: Patrice CALATAYU

How translation services failed Roy Hodgson ahead of Euro 2016 clash

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Translation services play a major role in football as football is played all over the globe by many different players from different countries and therefore is translated into numerous languages.

Translations in football is no more evident than at a major tournament, be it the biggest stage in football which is The World cup; the pinnacle of European national football, the European championships which features a plethora of languages across Europe; the Copa America which consists of mostly Spanish countries from South America as well as Brazilian Portuguese and English (If USA and Jamaica are invited); the African cup of Nations which includes diverse nations from the whole African continent; the AFC Asia Cup which includes Asia and Australia and the European Champions League final which is probably the world’s biggest club football final. 

So with football being such a global event, the need for language to language translations is prevalent and essential. It would have not been possible to stage The FIFA World Cup 2006 in Germany without some form of German translation services.

The same goes for The European Championships of 2004 which was hosted by the nation of Portugal so therefore good Portuguese translation services were needed in order to make the event run smoothly for everyone involved. Of course without these services how would fans know how to get around from place to place if the language is not familiar to them?

So with translation services being utilised so much in these big events it is bound to produce a fail now and again. This is exactly what happened to England manager Roy Hodgson ahead of England’s Euro 2016 first group stage clash against Russia. After comments from the Russian manager Leonid Slutsky about Wayne Rooney not being the same player he once was, the Manchester United striker and England captain was answering some tense questions alongside Hodgson at a pre-game press conference.

A Russian journalist started to direct a question at the pair in his native Russian tongue. It was at this point Hodgson reached for his headphones in order to get a Russian to English translation only to be bamboozled by the headphones in which he then claimed didn’t cover his ears. Rooney then began to laugh at his manager’s misfortune which cut the tension at the conference. Hodgson managed to get himself sorted whilst looking a bit embarrassed by the whole commotion.

When Football gets lost in translation

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Football, fútbol, fussball, fotbal, futebol, voetbal, whatever you call it; football is a game that is played worldwide by many different cultures and people from all corners of the globe. Football is often referred to as a universal language of which a need for translation services is not required. All you need is a football and some goalposts! So with this seemingly massive worldwide appeal and the many different nationalities plying their trades in the top European leagues, there is bound to be some sort of miscommunication within the game right? Here are some examples when football has got lost in translation.

Soccer?

The name football has many variations as to how it is pronounced or even what it is called around the world. In Germany it is ‘Fussball’ (Fußball ), in the Netherlands ‘Voetbal’, and you don’t need Romanian translation services to tell you what ‘Fotbal’ means. Nearly everywhere the term football has translated well except one place, the USA. The US refers to the beautiful game as ‘soccer’ much to the annoyance of the rest of the world. The reason for this was because America caught on to football relatively late and had already created their own game called American football, which in fact is mostly played through carrying the ball so they had to distinguish between the two games. The term soccer actually comes from Britain but usage of the word declined after the Americans caught on to it.

Lee Chung gone?

A recent story involving Premier League side Crystal Palace and their South Korean left-back Lee Chung-yong. Lee was quoted in the Korean media stating that Palace boss Alan Pardew was too ‘hot tempered’ during a match that he would forget how many substitutes he had made. Although Lee pleaded his innocence that his comments had been misinterpreted and lost in translation, Alan Pardew did not accept that as an excuse and fined him a week’s wages, reportedly £30k. Now you don’t need a professional translation agency to tell you Lee’s thoughts on that.

Rafa the Gaffer

Also recently former Liverpool, Valencia, Real Madrid and Napoli manager Rafa Benitez was given the task to keep Newcastle United in the Premier League. He narrowly failed in doing so but was also given little time to achieve his goals. Spaniard Benitez who is tri-lingual in English, Italian and Spanish admitted that he had to brush up on his French language as a vast majority of United’s players are French speakers and that instances such as half-time team talks proved somewhat of a challenge as he could not get his message across even in English due to some players not being able to understand the language very well. This just highlights how important the language barrier is in football where a manager might not be able to get his message across properly. The fact that Benitez had little time and not being able to get a fast translation across to his French players could have contributed towards their downfalls, thus leading to his tactics somewhat getting lost in translation.

Image Source: joshjdss

 

What’s the Italian translation for ‘Haka’?

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A rather bizarre showing last week in a Serie A league match on Thursday night which saw Italian giants AC Milan host Carpi. They say the home team should always try and put on a show for their fans but Milan managed to take it to a whole other level. A video taken from the pre-match preparations depicted both the Milan and Carpi team run out on to the pitch with the Carpi team lining up opposite the Milan team who had stood in a choreographed formation and what followed will surely go down in football fails history. The Milan players then started to perform a very dodgy and awkward version of the ‘Haka’ dubbed the “Tekitanka” and you don’t need Italian translation services to tell you this did not go down well.

It turns out that the Tekitanka was performed not by the actual Milan players but rather actors which were made to look like the players and that this was in fact all a big publicity stunt by the clubs sponsor the skincare company Nivea. The words “uomini questo e il vostro ritual” was seen across the stadiums advertisement boards, the English translation is “Men, this is your ritual” with the players acting out washing their faces and applying the cream instead of the actual battle cry. The Haka is a traditional war cry or dance performed by the Maori’s of New Zealand. The dance was usually performed by warriors before battle and has been used and made famous worldwide by the New Zealand national rugby team the All Blacks who perform it before a match to strike fear into their opponents.

Here’s how the AC Milan ‘actors’ performed:

Image: YouTube

Image: YouTube

 

Image: YouTube

Image: YouTube

As you could imagine there has been a major backlash to both Nivea and AC Milan which has seen people on social media declare the stunt as a ‘cheap rip-off’, ‘fake’ and ‘culturally insensitive’ amongst others which has led Nivea to issue an apology. A statement from Nivea’s parent company Beiersdorf sent to Mashable Australia read “NIVEA Men has organized a one off activity before the match AC Milan – Carpi on April 21. Actors were wearing the shirts of AC Milan and have performed a dance – inspired by the HAKA Maori dance. It was never our intention to offend anyone. We are truly sorry if this has happened.”

Maybe they should have sought professional localisation services first or maybe not done it at all.

Here’s how the ‘real’ Haka is done performed by the All Blacks.

What unexpected language has got a German translation?

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Languages, translations and globalisation are truly wonderful things because without these key factors we would not be able to communicate with the rest of the world, we would not be able to know the things we know now or learn new things from different cultures. Professional translation services are great in aiding this as it has allowed even the most obscure language to be understood all over the world.

A language such as the Ho-Chunk language of the Winnebago tribe of Wisconsin and Nebraska which is only spoken by a total of 11 people in the world or the Tinigua language of Colombia which is said to derive from no other language and is only fluently spoken by 2 people! Yes only 2 people left are known to speak Tinigua. Although these languages are translatable I highly doubt you would require a service such as Tinigua financial translation services, but you get the point.

Now one other obscure language has finally been given a translation, this time a German translation service. Is it a rare Amazonian tribal language from a tribe that has only just made contact with the modern world; a lost African language only spoken by the elders; or something with an exotic back-story along those lines? Nope! Not even close.

The language in question is none other than the Merseyside dialect of the Scouse community. Yes that’s right you can now finally get a Scouse to German translation service. All our prayers have been answered! We could thank God but it was German football team FC Augsburg who rather comically provided their traveling fans with a German translation of known Scouse sayings ahead of their trip to Anfield for the first leg of the Europa League’s last 32 round. The Scouse phrases included “Lad” (Boy/Man) which translated into “Alter” and “Mi head’s chocka” (???) in German “Ich kann nicht klar denken”. FC Augsburg eventually lost 1-0 to Liverpool over two legs to end their cup run, but at least the Germans can now feel comfortable knowing what a “Bevvie” is.

See the full list of translations below.

Why Messi and Neymar owe Ronaldo

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Football fanatics will understand what the FIFA Ballon d’Or is about. For those that don’t it is almost what the Oscars are to the movie industry or what the Grammys are to the music industry. The annual event honours the best men’s football players of a particular year as voted by international media delegates, national team coaches and captains. The award itself initially was The Ballon d’Or awards which awarded the best European football players and it wasn’t until during the 2010 world cup held in South Africa did the award merge with FIFA World Player of the Year therefore awarding the Ballon d’Or to the recipient of the FIFA award and now called the FIFA Ballon d’Or.

Since the two awards merged they have been dominated by no other than Argentinian Lionel Messi and Portuguese Cristiano Ronaldo with Messi winning four of the six awards including the latest award (2015 best player in the world) whilst Ronaldo has won two FIFA Ballon d’Or awards in 2013 and 2014 respectively. 

This year saw something interesting happen well as Cristiano put it he feels as though Messi and Neymar owe him money and you’ll never guess what for? For his translation services! Yes Ronaldo who speaks Portuguese, Spanish and English acted as the interpreter for the duo who do not have a very good command of the English language. As the players took to the stage to accept their awards, he acted as an English to Spanish translator for Messi and an English to Portuguese translator for Neymar whilst they posed for pictures and talked to the press. Ronaldo who came in second place said “When we were up there on the stage neither Messi nor Neymar speaks English, and I was their translator,” as he laughed.

Ronaldo went on to say “I spoke with them later and told them not to forget to pay me later for the translation!”

It will be interesting to see what Messi and Neymar have to say as this friendly rivalry.

Let’s see whether Ronaldo will receive his payment for his translation services at the Ballon d’Or awards. Wonder if he has sent them an invoice?

Share your thoughts below.

A Major shakeup in Baseball and how translations has helped

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Big news coming from the world of sport today involving one of America’s favourite pastimes baseball. All 30 teams of the Major League Baseball (MLB) are now being required to employ an all year round full time translator for their players from Latin American countries. This new proposal has been championed by current New York Yankees player Carlos Beltran, who himself hails from Puerto Rico wanted to see the implementation of these translation fast!

The translation and interpreters will be partially supplemented by the MLB with $65,000 given to each team to help with costs. The money will come from the penalties incurred by the teams that had preceded the international signing bonus limit, according to documents acquired by The New York Times and ESPN.

It comes after an incident which took place in April 2014 when Beltran’s teammate, New York Yankees pitcher Michael Pineda’s game was cut short as he was ejected for having pine tar on his neck as it helps the pitcher manipulate the flight of the ball. Once the game was over Pineda was grilled by the press but due to his limited English he was not able to communicate properly. Beltran was unhappy with this event, as he said at the time “It’s a problem, of course, because he can’t express himself the way he wants to.”

Beltran wants fast transaltions

Pineda (Left) and Beltran (Right)

Beltran had pushed and with the aid of the Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA) the new policy has been introduced by the MLB.

Translators and interpreters have long been offered by MLB to Japanese and Asian players but has not been the same for the Latin American Spanish speaking players who make up nearly 25 percent of the MLB roster. It makes sense for these services to be offered pre and post games to help the Spanish speaking players communicate with the press as there are far more from Hispanics than there are Asians in the league.

“I am very happy about this, this is MLB we have a large Spanish-speaking contingent of players and coaches, and we need to be as professional as possible in everything we do.” Beltran told the Times after the decision had been agreed.

What are your thoughts on this?

http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/sports/2016/01/14/no-longer-lost-in-translation-mlb-now-requires-translators-for-latino/