While much of 2023 was spent talking about the future of artificial intelligence, we saw the year end with a remarkably human controversy. The publication of Endgame, Omid Scobie’s gossipy book about the British royal family, turned into a veritable whodunit over a simple “translation error.” Wait, What Happened? The Dutch translation of the book […]

2021 results are in: Responsive Translation earned a perfect NPS score of 100, the highest rating among language service providers globally. Many translation companies claim to provide quality work. Yet how many of them can prove it? Well, we can! Responsive Translation uses the Net Promoter Score methodology as part of our publicly audited ISO […]

An update on the Afghan interpreters. It began in 2001 when US and allied forces battled the Taliban for control of Afghanistan. Thousands of local Afghan interpreters and guides played a key role in supporting the US military’s operations in the War in Afghanistan. Interpreters helped US personnel to navigate unfamiliar communities and terrain, all […]

The fight against COVID-19 depends on all of us, but bad translation is setting up unnecessary roadblocks. Here’s how to fix it. It’s year two of the COVID-19 pandemic and we’re still watching in horror as deaths pile up, illnesses and hospitalizations persist, more jobs are lost and more businesses close. Meanwhile, the current health […]

Reports on English being the death of other languages have been greatly exaggerated. Yet, English words keep on popping up. In 2010, China banned the use of foreign words, and the use of English in particular, in all Chinese-language media—print, broadcast and online. The government cited the “damage” foreign words were doing to the “purity” […]

Have you seen any cringe-worthy translation lately? In the ongoing series Translators’ Hall of Shame, we highlight examples of translation gone wrong around the world. When translation is great, it’s efficient, effective and trouble-free. People focus on the message itself and get the information they need. But when translation is crummy, it’s embarrassing, dangerous and […]

Shopping online is the new normal as growing numbers of people make more of their essential and not-so-essential purchases on the Internet. And that was before the pandemic. In 2019, ecommerce retailers worldwide brought in more than $3.5 trillion. Ecommerce offers shoppers greater convenience and now Covid quarantine security. Yet, that’s often not enough to […]

Viral barrier, yes. Language barrier, no. Is it just me shouting behind my face mask? At any rate, I can’t hear a thing other people are saying behind their muffling masks. So some Japanese robot guide makers switched automation gears to fabricate mask-mounted speakers to amplify and translate whatever lies behind your mask. How Does […]

The University of California plans to drop the SAT and ACT, and develop its own admissions test. Some supporters say the move will increase diversity, though UC’s own research reveals otherwise, while other supporters hope the decision will lead to no testing at all. As COVID-19 continues to wreak havoc in the United States, standardized […]

Users of the discontinued Google Translator Toolkit had the option to download their data. But instead of doing exactly what it said on the box, Google actually sent users’ translation data to other users—and won’t reveal what got sent where. Oops! There’s no such thing as a free lunch, even though we like to pretend […]