Tag Archives: translation

by Steve Dept, cApStAn CEO In multilingual surveys, there is a strong trend towards performing more “upstream” quality assurance work to reduce the need for “downstream” corrective action. The late Professor Janet A.Harkness (1948-2012) relentlessly insisted on how important it is to craft questionnaire items carefully before they serve as a basis for translation and …

“Multilingual Surveys: Five cost-effective steps to improve your questionnaire before translation begins”

We are delighted to announce that we have crossed the 1,000 follower mark on our LinkedIn account. An important milestone for a very niche language service provider operating in the highly specialised linguistic quality assurance field. We thank our followers for their interest in what we do and for their support. It means a lot …

“Thank you to our 1,000+ LinkedIn followers!”

Acclaimed UK poet and translator Nancy Naomi Carlson is the winner of the Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation Prize 2022 for the translation from French to English of Mauritian poet, essayist, and semiologist Khal Torabully‘s book titled “Cale d’étoiles: Coolitude?” (1) Torabully’s work narrates the odyssey of “indentured” labourers across the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans. The “indenture …

“Translating literary works related to indentured migration as an act of social justice”

Codility is the #1 rated recruitment platform for developers, helping world-class companies the likes of Microsoft, Intel and American Express to assess candidate programmers via skills-based coding tests. The tests are administered in English, but often the candidates are not native English speakers. Hence the “pain point” identified by Codility: a too high level of …

“On-Demand Webinar | Disentangling Proficiency in Programming from Proficiency in English: Codility Meets cApStAn”

by Pisana Ferrari – cApStAn Ambassador to the Global Village New candidates for UNICODE approval A number of medical emoji have been approved in past years and are available on most user keyboards. These include emoji for the brain, heart and lungs, for syringes, X-rays, pills, thermometers, stethoscopes and adhesive bandages. A broader variety of …

“Physicians, patient advocates and volunteers launch an online campaign for more “medical” emoji to approved by UNICODE”

by Pisana Ferrari – cApStAn Ambassador to the Global Village Is Asturian a language or a dialect? There is no universally accepted criterion for distinguishing a language from a dialect and the debate around this issue is long standing. The distinction depends on one’s point of view. From a political standpoint a “language” may simply …

“Is Asturian a “language” or a Spanish “dialect”? What is it that differentiates a language from a dialect anyway?”

You need to deploy a test or questionnaire in multiple countries and languages? The reliable validation of translated data collection instruments requires­—among other things—a robust QA design. A design that focuses on equivalence, comparability as well as appropriateness in each target culture. Based on +20 years of experience as LQA practitioners, Steve and Andrea profess …

“On-Demand Webinar – Tests, Assessments and Surveys: Item-by-item translation and adaptation notes”

by Pisana Ferrari – cApStAn Ambassador to the Global Village The story The protagonist, Kristin, is a 24-year old Swedish immigrant in Scotland. She lives with her Brazilian-born Scottish boyfriend Ciaran, whose first language is Portuguese, as he was adopted when he was three years old. They speak English during the first years of their …

““How we are translated”, a novel which explores the “in-between-ness” of living in several languages at the same time”

by Pisana Ferrari – cApStAn Ambassador to the Global Village The work of a translator often involves much more than rendering a text from one language to another. Translators can find themselves acting as literary scouts, agents and publicists. Many spend time looking out for new authors and books and suggesting them to publishers. They …

“The release of the English edition of “The Books of Jacob” revives the debate around the recognition of translators’ work”

by Pisana Ferrari – cApStAn Ambassador to the Global Village The authors of a study titled “Effective Communication About Pregnancy, Birth, Lactation, Breastfeeding and Newborn Care: The Importance of Sexed Language”, published in Frontiers in Global Women’s Health, warn against the potential consequences of “desexed language”. They refer to an edition of The Lancet medical journal which highlighted an …

“Replacing “mothers” with “birthing people”: is inclusive language around female reproduction going too far?”

by Steve Dept, cApStAn CEO Readers of this informative series on good practice in test translation are aware that the Chaos Management Skills Assessment is a fictitious project, which we set up for the exclusive purpose of the series. The purpose is to illustrate the complexity of test translation and the added value of a …

“The Chaos Management Skills Assessment Series: A Test Translation Case Study Episode 4 – Linguistic Quality Assurance and Optical Check”

by Steve Dept, cApStAn CEO By now, readers of this informative series on good practice in test translation are aware that the Chaos Management Skills Assessment is a fictitious project, which we set up for the exclusive purpose of the series. The purpose is to illustrate the complexity of test translation and the added value …

“The Chaos Management Skills Assessment Series: A Test Translation Case Study Episode 3 – Translation Technology and Support to translators”