Please go to this Wikipedia discussion page (English) if you think the entry on computer-assisted translation gives a deceptive impression of the market.

Lisa John has an article on her blog – in German – Hilfe, ein Wikipedia-Prinzipienreiter ärgert mich! The gist is this:

The list of proprietary CAT programs in the English Wikipedia (and the German Wikipedia) is woefully short. When she tries to expand it to what it originally was, a person called Smalljim edits out her additions, with the argument that Wikipedia is not an encyclopedia.

Wer sich einen Überblick über CAT-Tools verschaffen möchte, wird vielleicht zuerst bei Wikipedia nachschlagen, in dem Glauben, dort unparteiisch informiert zu werden. So wird unser Informationssucher zum Beispiel auf den Artikel Computerunterstützte Übersetzung stoßen, hier aber eine tabellarische Übersicht über die unterstützten Dateiformate und Betriebssystemvoraussetzungen der verschiedenen Übersetzungswerkzeuge vermissen. Also flugs den entsprechenden englischsprachigen Artikel (Computer-assisted translation) aufgerufen, und siehe da, dieser Artikel bietet eine recht ausführliche Auflistung von Übersetzungssoftwareprodukten. Unser Informationssucher freut sich.

Doch leider zu früh gefreut, denn diese Auflistung ist bei weitem nicht vollständig.

The list of proprietary software in the Wikipedia entry comprises AnyMem, SDL Trados, Web Translate It and Wordfast Classic. At the beginning of December other programs had been added, but Smalljim has now removed them.These were: CafeTran, Fluency, memoQ, MetaTexis for Word, NeuroTran, STAR Transit NXT, Swordfish, Worbee and Crowdin.

You can see the page with additions in early December in Lisa’s article.

I think Lisa has done a great job in replacing the list and hope it can be restored.

(This post has been corrected since I originally thought Lisa had added the longer list – in fact she replaced it).

Translators write and interpreters speak. This simple difference is often ignored in the press – usually by calling interpreters translators.

An amicus brief to the U.S. Supreme Court goes into the distinction in detail. Its main subject is that interpreting costs are easier for courts to administer than are interpreting costs. The case is Louichi Taniguchi v. Kan Pacific Saipan, Ltd. and the brief is by NAJIT, the National Association of Judiciary Interpreters and Translators as Amicus Curiae in Support of Petitioner. A PDF can be downloaded from NAJIT’s website as amicusbrief.pdf (36 pages).

At its most basic level, the distinction between interpreters and translators is simple: Interpreters speak, while translators write. As a result, interpreters must possess different skills from those of translators. Interpreters must have the “analytical skills, mental dexterity” and “exceptional memory” necessary to interpret spoken words from one language into another in real time. The act of translating a document from one language to another, however, is a more research-oriented, meticulous process.

There is more – a lot – including descriptions of what interpreting and translation involve.

Translators must know how to discover and convey a communication’s nuance. And whereas interpreters render communications from one language to another almost instantaneously, “[t]ranslators have time to reflect and craft their output.” Gonzalez, et al., at 295; see Liu, 6 Interpreting at 9–20. Indeed, a common saying among language professionals is that a translation is never finished, it is merely abandoned.

Another document online relates to interprets in Austrlian courts.

Interpreter Policies, Practices and Protocols in Australian Courts and Tribunals. A National Survey, by Professor Sandra Hale, University of New South Wales. It can be downloaded from Professor Hale’s web page (97 pages).

A good impression of interpreting in Germany, between French and German, is given by Caroline Elias’s Dolmetscher-Weblog (in German – here is a related site in French). In the post Schriftliches she shows two examples of her consecutive interpreting notes. These are in French, because she’s interpreting into French here. More information in the following entry, Zu den Notizen… and in the earlier entry Notizentechnik.

When Germans talk in German about Body Mass Index, they always pronounce it Mahss, like the German word for measure or litre of beer. I have found this odd, but it occurred to me that they aren’t actually saying the English word (mass like German Masse), but have converted it into a new German term with a slightly different origin.

Wesbite under construction.

Appropriate for the date, but I think I’ve seen a better one of these in Barcelona.

Meanwhile, the Rathaus is lit up for Christmas. I wonder about the very bright window surround – did they run out of the new dim EU bulbs, or did they forget?

I was excited to see this green public transport ticket machine. The last one was carefully painted bronze by restorers. One hopes the city council haven’t got enough money to desecrate this one. For the restoring, see this earlier photo. The peculiar oval rubbish bins have been rebronzed.

This is a new machine, of course. They now accept credit cards, where previously they were trying to get people to have a particular kind of paycard called Geldkarte.

I am intrigued by the possibility of using headphones when using it. But it’s probably for the people using braille.

My excitement waned slightly when I read a brochure explaining the new ticket fare system. I put it aside to read another time. I am dreading its being translated into English. The VGN website has not updated the English page (which gives the impression that you have to be unmarried to use a TagesTicket Solo:

Getting around on your own

Singles will find the “TagesTicket Solo” indispensable. For only 4,20 € you can enjoy whole-day travel in Nürnberg-Fürth-Stein.

Purchase of a ticket on Saturday qualifies you for free Sunday-travel as well. This means that you enjoy additional free travel on Sunday without paying one cent extra.