Last week, Google added another language to its popular Google Translate service, and Latin students everywhere breathed a sigh of relief. Yes, Google Translate now decodes Latin. The announcement came via a blog post written entirely in Latin by engineer Jakob Uszkoreit. Show-offs!

Google expects the Latin version of Google Translate to be quite popular with students who are studying the language, as well as for people studying philosophical and other texts originally written in Latin.

The fact that Latin is a dead language should make Google’s machine translation more accurate, as the company explained in its blog (Latin translation from the Telegraph):

“Unlike any of the other languages Google Translate supports, Latin offers a unique advantage: most of the text that will ever be written in Latin has already been written, and a comparatively large part of it has been translated in to other languages. We use these translations, found in books and on the web, to train our system.”

Why, you may ask, am I using the translation provided by the Telegraph and not just using Google Translate? Well, as the San Francisco Chronicle noted, Google Translate is not precise enough to deliver an accurate translation that sounds good. Here’s how the paragraph above comes out:

“The Latin is unmatched because most of them Latin books have already been written and only a few of the new shall be hereafter. Many have been translated into other languages and these translations we use to train our translation system.”

This is the difference between machine translation and human translation in a nutshell. If you just need to get the gist of a foreign passage, Google Translate will probably suffice. But if communicating your message clearly and fluently is at all important, you need a human!

Orginal Article on K International's Language Blog | Google Translate Now Translates Latin Ad Libitum

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Here is a list of translations for Happy Birthday.

Happy Birthday in Afrikaans: Gelukkige Verjaarsdag

Happy Birthday in Albanian: Gëzuar ditëlindjen

Happy Birthday in Aleut: Raazdinyaam Ugutaa

Happy Birthday in Arabic: عيد ميلاد سعيد

Happy Birthday in Armenian: Ծնունդդ շնորհավոր

Happy Birthday in Azerbaijani: Ad günün mübarək

Happy Birthday in Basque: Zorionak zuri

Happy Birthday in Belarusian: З днём нараджэння

Happy Birthday in Bosnian: Srećan rođendan

Happy Birthday in Bulgarian: Честит рожден ден (Čestit rožden den)

Happy Birthday in Catalan: Bon Aniversari

Happy Birthday in Chechen: Deeqhal xyyl vinde

Happy Birthday in Chinese (Cantonese): 生日快樂 (sàangyaht faailohk)

Happy Birthday in Chinese (Mandarin): 生日快樂 (Traditional). 生日快乐 (Simplified) (shēngrì kuàilè).

Happy Birthday in Cornish: Penn-bloedh Lowen

Happy Birthday in Croatian: Sretan rođendan

Happy Birthday in Czech: Všechno nejlepší k narozeninám!

Happy Birthday in Danish: Tillykke med fødselsdagen

Happy Birthday in Dutch: Gefeliciteerd met je verjaardag

Happy Birthday in Esperanto: Feliĉan naskiĝtagon

Happy Birthday in Estonian: Palju õnne sünnipäevaks

Happy Birthday in Faroese: Tillukku við føðingardegnum

Happy Birthday in Finnish: Hyvää syntymäpäivää

Happy Birthday in Flemish: Gelukkige verjaardag

Happy Birthday in French: Joyeux anniversaire

Happy Birthday in German: Alles Gute zum Geburtstag

Happy Birthday in Greek: Χρόνια πολλά

Happy Birthday in Hawaiian: Hauʻoli Lā Hānau

Happy Birthday in Hungarian: Boldog születésnapot kívánok

Happy Birthday in Icelandic: Til hamingju með afmælið

Happy Birthday in Indonesian: Selamat ulang tahun

Happy Birthday in Irish (Gaelic): lá Breithe shona dhuit

Happy Birthday in Italian: Buon compleanno

Happy Birthday in Japanese: お誕生日おめでとうございます

Happy Birthday in Korean: 생일축하합니다

Happy Birthday in Latvian: Apsveicu dzimšanas dienā

Happy Birthday in Lithuanian: Su gimtadieniu

Happy Birthday in Lingala: Mokolo na Mbotama Malamu

Happy Birthday in Macedonian: Среќен роденден

Happy Birthday in Malay: Selamat hari jadi

Happy Birthday in Māori: Rā whānau koa

Happy Birthday in Mexican: Feliz cumpleaños

Happy Birthday in Norwegian: Gratulerer med dagen

Happy Birthday in Persian: تولدت مبارک

Happy Birthday in Polish: Wszystkiego najlepszego z okazji urodzin

Happy Birthday in Portuguese: Feliz aniversário

Happy Birthday in Romanian: La mulţi ani

Happy Birthday in Russian: С днем рождения

Happy Birthday in Serbian: Срећан рођендан

Happy Birthday in Slovak: Všetko najlepšie

Happy Birthday in Somali: Dhalasho Farxad leh

Happy Birthday in Spanish: Feliz cumpleaños

Happy Birthday in Thai: สุขสันต์วันเกิด

Happy Birthday in Vietnamese: Chúc mừng sinh nhật

Happy Birthday in Welsh: Penblwydd Hapus

Orginal Article on K International's Language Blog | Free Translations of Happy Birthday

Copyright © 2010 K International the #1 choice of business and government for language translation services.

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You may not realise it, but the internet sites you see when you surf the web are limited by the language you are surfing in. So, there’s always a part of the internet that you are shut out of.

Possibly, according to this article on CNN.com, not for long, both IBM and Google are currently working on ambitious translation projects. If successful, they will be able to create accurate, instantaneous translations of web content.

IBM’s project, called n.Fluent, automatically translates web pages. Users can enter in a URL to get the page translation, and site owners can install a translation web app onto their site that allows users to choose their language from a drop-down menu to have the page translated.

Of course, machine translations are still imperfect-a problem IBM is trying to rectify by crowd-sourcing the work, tapping its multilingual workforce to improve the translation software’s capabilities. The approach has helped IBM rapidly improve the quality of their translations, but David Lubensky, an IBM “real-time translation” specialist, told CNN that the company still faces challenges with this approach:

“There are two challenges. Firstly, getting a sustainable, enthusiastic community can be difficult. The goal is to have an ongoing interest, to make it part of the fabric.  The second issue is quality assurance of content; how useful is the feedback, how many mistakes do people make and how much impact will they have?”

Google’s project is similar, but naturally, the titans of search are also interested in translating search terms.  Google’s vice president Marissa Mayer explained the goal of her company’s translation tool to the Daily Telegraph:

“Imagine what it would be like if there was a tool built into the search engine which translated my search query into every language and then searched the entire world’s web sites.  And then invoked the translation software a second and third time — to not only then present the results in your native language, but then translated those sites in full when you clicked through.”

Although IBM’s project is aimed more at businesses and Google’s appears to be aimed more at consumers, both would go a long way toward opening up the entire internet to everyone. However, it’s unlikely that they will replace the services of an experienced translation company-if you are translating something important, you want a human being who understands the nuances of both languages to do it.

Orginal Article on K International's Language Blog | Google and IBM Tackle Ambitious Translation Projects

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When it comes to microblogging, Twitter is king. However, according to this article on PC World, its sovereignty is being threatened in several Asian countries by upstart microblogging service Plurk, which offers the support for local languages and alphabets that Twitter largely lacks. Right now, Plurk is offered in 33 languages, including English, Chinese, Russian, and Hindi. It also offers support for European languages like Catalan and Irish. Compare that to Twitter, which only offers 5 languages: English, Spanish, French, Italian and Japanese.

According to PC World, Twitter founder Biz Stone has stated that company finds it difficult to offer localized services for Asian languages, which is why Japanese is the only Asian language Twitter supports.

However, Plurk appears to have overcome these obstacles with no problems. The company handles translations by enlisting teams of its users to translate. In PC World, Plurk’s founder Alvin Woon noted that this system made the translation process surprisingly fast, saying :

“When Plurk first launched, we had a translation system where the whole system was translated into 25 different languages in two weeks, and it’s all done by our users…I’ve been surprised at how many people want to translate Plurk into their own language.”

Overall, Twitter still gets much more traffic than Plurk. However, looking at the respective popularity of each service in different countries illustrates what a profound effect local language support can have. For example,  according to PC World, Plurk beats out Twitter for the title of top-ranking microblogging site in Taiwan, and it is also extremely popular in Indonesia and Malaysia.

The lesson here is simply that customers want to use products and services that speak their language. Translation services are important for international companies because they help increase customer satisfaction and customer loyalty.

Orginal Article on K International's Language Blog | Microblogging Service Plurk Attracts Asian Users

Copyright © 2010 K International the #1 choice of business and government for language translation services.

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Remember the Universal Translator from Star Trek? The translator enabled members of the Star Trek crew to understand alien languages as they were spoken. According to Geek.com, there is currently an iPhone app in beta that is reminiscent of the science-fiction device.

The iPhone app from Sakhr Software and Dial Directions, which is being used by US diplomats and soldiers in Iraq, can translate from Arabic to English and back again.

To use it, all you have to do is press a button on the iPhone and speak the phrase that you need to have translated. The app does the rest, using voice recognition algorithms to decipher what you are saying and translate it.

When the translation is complete, the app speaks the phrase in the other language, as well as displaying the translated version on the screen. Unlike earlier pocket translation programs, you don’t have to type anything.

Unlike most computerized translation programs, this one is actually pretty accurate, and based on this video demonstration, can even translate relatively difficult and complicated sentences.

As cool as it would be to have this on your own iPhone, it’s not available to the general public yet. But just imagine how much easier it would be to travel to another country if you had one of these!

Of course, I can’t see this app completely replacing trained, fluent and human interpreters who understand the nuances of both languages and cultures. Also, even if devices like this become common, it would still be preferable to learn as much of the language of the country you are visiting as possible. After all, most people prefer it when you talk to them, not to a machine. However, I think a pocket translator like this could make learning another language easier if you tried to learn from it instead of using it as a crutch.

Orginal Article on K International's Language Blog | Star Trek’s Universal Translator: Coming Soon to an iPhone Near You?

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TED (Technology-Entertainment-Design), the annual conference that brings together influential people from the areas of technology, entertainment and design, is now offering translated videos of speeches and performances from its conferences. According to the Huffington Post, “the TED Open Translation Project is one of the most comprehensive attempts by a major media platform to subtitle and index online video content. It’s also a groundbreaking effort in the public, professional use of volunteer translation.”

One of the most distinctive features about this project is that it allows volunteers who visit the site to translate talks into their native languages, with no restrictions as to which languages can be used. To get the project started, a small number of talks were translated by professionals into 20 different languages, but from then on, volunteers took over. Now, the project has over 300 videos translated into 42 different languages and more are being added everyday.

The languages of the translations range from languages as dominant as Mandarin Chinese to languages like Kirghiz, which only has about 4 million speakers. The translations are available in the form of subtitles, shown on the bottom of the video player, and as transcripts. The transcripts are interactive-you can use them to select the part of the video that you’d like to play back.

Other than the sense of satisfaction that comes from doing a good thing, what’s in it for the volunteers? The volunteers who translate these videos get credited for their work, and set up profiles on the TED site. So, if you volunteer to translate, you get the ability to promote yourself on an established website.

All in all, this is a cool project. The videos make the knowledge exchanged at the TED conferences available to everyone, and the translations mean that more people across the world will benefit.

Orginal Article on K International's Language Blog | TED Conference Talks Now Available in Multiple Languages

Copyright © 2010 K International the #1 choice of business and government for language translation services.

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Valentine’s Day is approaching fast, a time when we express our love with cards and presents. Love is honoured on this day throughout the world.

Valentine’s Day is shrouded with myths of sacred marriage, fertility and romance. The true St. Valentine was a Christian saint but very little is known about him. Originally St Valentine’s Day was celebrated as a Christian feast but it was abandoned due to lack of solid information. There are many Valentine’s in history martyred by the church and until 1969 the Catholic Church actually celebrated 11 Valentine’s Days throughout the year.

Language is a very important part of the Valentine’s celebrations. Billions of cards are sent on Valentine’s making it the second most popular time to send cards behind Christmas. What is said in the card can mean so much to the receiver even when the sender sticks with tradition and sends their words anonymously.

There are certain languages which have an association with love, French and Italian being the most famous romantic languages.French has a reputation for being the language of love; its flowing sound makes it perfect for flamboyant love poems. Descending from Latin, French is one of the ‘romance languages’ and is spoken as a first language by approximately 128 million people around the world.

Valentine’s Day has no real connection with French but the perception is that the French are very romantic. This may or may not be true, I would guess that it depends on the individual but the smooth, romantic tones of their language impress people from around the world on this day for lovers.

Valentine’s Day has become a very commercial event perhaps we should do something extra special this year, learn a phrase in French and recite it to your loved one. Below we have included some examples to get you started….

Bonne Saint Valentin! – Happy Valentine’s Day!

Je t’aime – I love you

Mon amour pour toi est éternel – My love for you is eternal

Je t’aime de tout mon cœur – I love you with all my heart

À toi, pour toujours – Yours forever

Tendres baisers – Love and kisses

Je veux passer la reste de ma vie avec toi – I want to spend the rest of my life with you.

Tu es la femme de ma vie – you are the woman of my life (a man talking to a woman and telling her)

Un bouquet de fleurs – a bunch of flowers
Une bague – a ring

With it being Valentines Day those romantic men among you may want to ask….
Veux-tu m’épouser ? – Marry me? (Will you be my wife?)

Or if you want to be cheeky….
On va chez toi ou chez moi ? – Your place or mine?

Orginal Article on K International's Language Blog | The Language of Love

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On the FT’s blogs today Tony Barber wrote this article about his recent experience of machine translation.

After hearing a recommendation that bloggers should use computerised translation to provide foreign language replicas of their own blogs he decided to put Google Translate to the test.

I won’t spoil it for you – the full article is here but there is one section that made us laugh for good fifthteen minutes… taken from a Polish Newspaper (Gazeta Wyborcza) and translated into English using Google Translate it says,

“A sign of the collapse of the French culture of the restaurant is visible on the streets of Paris rash of quick-service bar, offering generally pogardzane a few years ago and cheeseburgery hamburgers.”

Cheeseburgery Hamburgers – brilliant.

BTW – I’ve been talking about how poor machine translation is for a long time (actually wrote a paper on it at uni). For some more examples of how not to translate have a look at our main site – Machine Translation.

Orginal Article on K International's Language Blog | Cheeseburgery Hamburgers

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To help you to be extra romantic this Valentine’s Day we have added the language translation of ‘I love you’ below…

I love you in Bulgarian: Обичам те
I love you in Catalan: T’estimo
I love you in Chinese: Cantonese: 我愛你 – Mandarin: 我愛你; 我爱你
I love you in Croatian: Volim te
I love you in Czech: Miluji tě
I love you in Danish: Jeg elsker dig
I love you in Dutch: Ik hou van jou
I love you in Estonian: Ma armastan sind
I love you in French: Je t’aime
I love you in German: Ich liebe Dich
I love you in Greek: Σ’ αγαπώ
I love you in Hungarian: Szeretlek
I love you in Irish Gaelic: Tá grá agam ort
I love you in Italian: Ti amo
I love you in Japanese: 大好き
I love you in Latvian: Es mīlu tevi
I love you in Polish: Kocham cię
I love you in Portuguese: Amo-te
I love you in Romanian: Te iubesc
I love you in Russian: Я вaс люблю
I love you in Slovene: Ljubim te
I love you in Spanish: Te amo
I love you in Swedish: Jag älskar dig
I love you in Turkish: Seni seviyorum
I love you in Welsh: ‘Rwy’n dy garu di

Good luck!

Orginal Article on K International's Language Blog | I Love You in 25 languages

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Could you imagine what would happen if you had to adopt a new set of spelling and grammar rules? Well that’s exactly what has just happened in Brazil.

I’m sure you know that Portuguese is different in Brazil and Portugal. It all stems from 1911 when Portugal (and its territories) commissioned a standardisation of the writing system (orthography) for Portuguese; this was known as the orthographic reform of Gonçalves Viana.

Due to various disagreements and logistic issues Brazil set up an orthography of its own in 1934, with the same general principles as the Portuguese orthography, but not entirely identical to it, which lead to differences between the two languages.

Over the remaining 20^th Century various moves were made to reform the languages and bring them closer together, many positive steps were taken. The main change was the signing of the Orthographic Agreement in 1990 by seven Portuguese speaking nations.

Orthographic Agreement of 1990

The agreement sets out new spelling rules for the language in an attempt to standardise its use across its 250 million users. This means that as from this week some Brazilian Portuguese spelling and grammar rules will be different.

The changes include,

• Ruling out of letters c and p from the European/African spelling when silent
• The removal of the diaeresis mark from Brazilian spelling
• The elimination of the acute accent from the diphthongs éi and ói in paroxytone words
• Spellings such as anónimo and anônimo, facto and fato, both will be considered legitimate, according to the dialect of the author or person being transcribed.
• Common guidelines for the use of hyphens and capitalization.

What will it mean to you?

International websites such as BBC Brazil will be adopting the new way of spelling as soon as possible. If you sell/operate in this market make sure that you have your copy reviewed by a translator.

Orginal Article on K International's Language Blog | New spelling in Brazil

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