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The Mindful Dictionary:A is for Appreciate Daily GazetteTuesday, April 5, 2022
The Great Translation Movement Shines a Spotlight on China's Propaganda - The Diplomat - Translation
Since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, China has been actively promoting an alternative reality that pushes pro-Russia and pro-Putin messages. On heavily censored social media platforms in China, a significant group of internet users started to share their support for Russian President Vladimir Putin, with messages advocating for Russia to use nuclear weapons. Documented by the New York Times, online opinion in China is mostly pro-Russia, pro-war, and pro-Putin.
Those radical ideas and opinions certainly do not represent the views of all Chinese residents, but individuals and messages speaking against the war and supporting peace are severely censored by China’s cyberspace authorities. On the other end, despite the murky official position from the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Chinese censors appear to side with views that support nationalism and Russia, and have demonstrated a very high tolerance for messages that belittle Ukraine (including calls for young Ukrainian women to be brought to China to marry Chinese bachelors).
A group of Chinese dissidents has had enough. They decided to take action to name and shame those who praise Putin, the unjustified invasion, authoritarianism, and the spread of far-right nationalist ideas on social media. Calling their social media campaign “The Great Translation Movement,” this group of anonymous dissidents created a Twitter account to collect social media messages that support radical ideas and Russian war activities, and translate them to English, Spanish, Japanese, Korean, and other languages. The campaign also has the hashtag #TheGreatTranslationMovement available in different languages for Twitter users to join the movement, share content, and attract more attention from the general public. On its official Twitter account, the Great Translation Movement has a thread that informs potential participants about the ways to support the campaign.
Just a month after its creation, The Great Translation Movement Twitter account now has more than 99,000 followers. The identities of the campaign organizers remain unknown. The Great Translation Movement is believed to have started among users in a subreddit channel named ChonglangTV. Calling itself a lighthouse that forever stands, the subreddit had been an active space for Chinese dissidents to speak against the authoritarian regime but was later banned by Reddit in early March for violating policies concerning personal privacy.
The translation movement does not have an identifiable leadership team, and when interviewed by Deutsche Welle, participants in the campaign said that due to security concerns, they do not know each other’s names or whereabouts. Speaking of the purpose of the campaign, they say that they would like to raise awareness among people around the world that China is not as nice as its propaganda says and that people living in China are poisoned by arrogance, nationalism, cruelty, and a lack of sympathy. When doing translations for campaign, some participants acknowledged that they were shocked by the disturbing content and had to temporarily stop reading Chinese social media for their mental health.
Translating materials from Chinese media and social media is not a completely new task. Journalists, researchers, and professionals working on China-related work regularly do this work to help non-Chinese language users to understand critical information regarding China. However, the Great Translation Movement created a new channel for internet users around the world to see the rarely discussed dark side of the Chinese internet.
Utilizing the Great Firewall, Chinese Communist Party (CCP) propaganda has been implementing different strategies for its international and domestic audiences. While trying to appeal to international audiences by criticizing issues such as racism and colonialism in Western democracies, China has increased its efforts to cultivate far-right nationalism ideologies as a domestic propaganda tool to justify its policies in Xinjiang, Hong Kong, and the lack of human rights improvements. The Great Translation Movement offers people who do not understand the Chinese language an opportunity to examine many outrageous propaganda materials and the outcomes of those propaganda efforts.
With this “name and shame” tactic, the movement also became a tool to fight against extreme nationalism in China and the government’s propaganda efforts to promote those messages. Shortly after the vulgar language around “sheltering” young Ukrainian women created a backlash, China began censoring sexist messages that mocked the sufferings of Ukrainian civilians. The Great Translation Movement declared a partial victory against CCP propaganda on Twitter, citing signs that various levels of the Chinese government halted and censored their propaganda efforts due to the pressure from the campaign.
Chinese state media outlet Global Times called the movement “a cognitive war” against China. The overseas edition of the People’s Daily, the CCP’s official mouthpiece, called the translation activities a smear campaign that is doomed to fail. Some critics also blamed the Great Translation Movement for causing the rise of anti-Asian racism in countries such as the United States and Canada. But those claims all appear to be self-contradictory: While anti-Asian hate crimes increased by 300 percent and 339 percent in Canada and the United States, respectively, those issues appeared in 2020, two years before the start of the Great Translation Movement.
The reactions from the Chinese government indicate the effectiveness of this social media campaign. By revealing the notorious side of China’s state propaganda, the movement subsequently became a deterrent to Beijing’s domestic propaganda efforts.
Compared to Beijing’s propaganda mechanisms, the Great Translation Movement has limited resources and impact on international politics. But this decentralized social media campaign has created significant challenges to the state-sponsored propaganda efforts supported by billions of dollars of funds. While a social media campaign is unlikely to outperform the CCP propaganda apparatus, the effectiveness of this social media campaign highlights a critical weakness in China’s propaganda tactics. Once relying on isolation and disinformation, and information gaps, CCP propaganda now faces further challenges as their messages and efforts now become embarrassments on international social media platforms.
Monday, April 4, 2022
Wayne County Clerk questions Dearborn plan for ballot translation - Michigan Radio - Translation
Dearborn wants to provide ballot translation for its Arabic-speaking population, but the Wayne County Clerk has concerns about it.
Last month, the Dearborn City Council passed a resolution that required the city clerk to translate ballots into languages spoken by at least 10,000 or 5% of the city’s residents. In Dearborn, that means Arabic as well as English. The resolution also applies to voter registration forms and other election materials.
But in a letter to the Michigan Secretary of State, Wayne County Clerk Cathy Garrett questioned whether they have the authority to do that.
“I look forward to reviewing the legal authority provided to the City of Dearborn from your office and the approved steps a City or Township in this state, that is not bound by federal mandate, follows regarding ballots and election materials being translated in other languages,” Garrett wrote in a letter to the Michigan Secretary of State’s office.
“The protocols on this matter are very important for not only those minority languages in Wayne County, but in the entire state.”
Garrett noted that the resolution does not “does not specify any language or dialect.” She went on to question whether any Michigan city has the right to print ballots in languages without a federal or state requirement. Garrett added that she is “in full support of expanding accessibility for citizens who are unable to speak or understand English adequately enough to participate in the electoral process,” but said she worried that translated ballots would be deemed “unofficial” and possibly go uncounted.
In a reply letter, the Secretary of State’s office gently rebuffed Garrett’s concerns.
“Section 203 [of the Voting Rights Act] requires ballots be translated to some languages if 5% or 10,000 members of a jurisdiction’s population speak one of those languages,” the letter read. “However, the law does not prevent jurisdictions from translating ballots to other languages, and even if a lower percentage of the population speaks that language or if the language is not specifically covered by the Voting Rights Act.”
The letter goes on to say that Michigan election law “does not prohibit printing ballots in other languages in addition to English,” adding: “If the City of Dearborn and Wayne County seek to expand voting access among the more than 50% of Dearborn residents who speak Arabic, they have authority to do so under the same provisions of the Michigan Election Law governing the general printing of ballots.”
The Secretary of State’s letter also noted that Dearborn plans to pay for the cost of translation, and suggested the procedure Garrett’s office already has in place for providing Bengali ballot translations in Hamtramck “can likely be replicated for Dearborn.” It goes on to say that language access expansion is a priority of Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, and offered Garrett technical assistance with the issue if needed.
Sunday, April 3, 2022
How to Choose the Best Translation Company - News Anyway - Translation
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As the necessity of traductor Oficial and localization is increasingly understood, there are now more translation agencies than ever before, making it more difficult to select one. Your translator must be able to perform your assignment properly, on time, and in accordance with your specifications when you choose a translation business. Concerns about brand consistency or sensitive projects may be among the reasons why you’re looking for an expert. When it comes to choosing a translation service, it might be difficult to go through all the possibilities. Here are some of the most important things to keep in mind while looking for a translation service.
How to pick the right translation agency?
- Verify if the translation agency also offers localization services.
Your material has to be not just translated but also localized by your traductor Oficial service provider in order for it to be a success. You may not be able to get your point through if your translations are not localized.
- Verify that the translation business has processes in place to ensure quality.
Your translations are important to you, which is why you’re looking for a reputable traducciones certificadas service in the first place. A verified translator alone, however, will not be enough. Humans make mistakes, and translators are no exception. A translation business may provide the option of using MT, which may make mistakes just as easily as people when it comes to sounding human and localizing the material. On the other hand Make sure that the translation business you engage with employs expert editors and has quality review systems in place to guarantee that the translated material meets your expectations, whether it be a second translator verifying your first work or an NMT PE.
- Customer service should be available around the clock in any language.
Additionally, a company’s customer service is an indication of professionalism. An agency’s availability around the clock is a good indicator of its ability to meet your needs. To observe how quickly a translation firm responds and how happy you are with their service, try contacting them by email, phone, or chat. Customer service may be judged based on how they respond to your initial question.
A translation business should also be aware of the need of communicating with consumers in their native language. It’s a positive indicator of a company’s capacity to deliver quality translation and localization services if they provide multilingual assistance.
- Industry and subject matter experts must be employed by the translation business
Traducciones certificadas, by definition, have a broad knowledge of the globe and a deep familiarity with the cultures and languages they are translating into. Although a competent translation business would have expertise in specialized industries like financial, medical, and marketing translations. To maintain the same level of professionalism in the target language as in the source language, these professionals make sure the right terminology is utilized. The best way to learn if a firm has qualified traducciones certificadas near me is to look at their website or try opening a project. A competent translation agency will have a staff of experts that can deal with any subject matter that is thrown at them with no problem.
- Your translation firm and its translators must be certified.
The translation is not a simple task, despite the appearance. Reaching the pinnacle of your career necessitates a certain set of education, training, and credentials. In addition, I have a vast amount of expertise translating a wide range of topics. There must be a team of qualified professionals in the languages and fields of work that a translation company specializes in. You should check out how a firm vets its translators and what kinds of certification or testing they demand of their translators before they begin delivering them customer jobs.
- Check the company’s turnaround time for your translation.
The speed at which your translation is completed is likely to be one of the most important considerations for you. A translation business that can get the job done quickly and efficiently is essential if you have a deadline for a project, need to submit a visa application, or simply don’t have the patience to wait for your translation.
In order to get an idea of how long your translation will take and whether or not the firm you’re considering can produce in the period necessary, get a quote for the job. Expedited delivery is often available for an additional price, so if you know you’ll need your translations quickly, keep this in mind while looking for a translation agency.
- Check out the company’s reputation, reviews, and references.
If you’ve done all of the above and still can’t decide which translation firm is right for you, you can always check out what other people have to say about a company. To get a sense of the quality of the company’s previous work, look for client testimonials or case studies on their website.
Choose the best traductor Oficial service to meet all of your requirements. We’ve covered some of the most important considerations to bear in mind when you decide to outsource your translation work.
Google Translate can now auto switch Gboard to the appropriate language - 9to5Google - Translation
Google Translate has been updated with a very neat quality-of-life improvement on Android that sees Gboard automatically update languages to improve text entry.
This deep integration comes into play when you enter text that isn’t in the default language of your device.
Let’s say you open Google Translate on a phone where English is the default and select Spanish as the language to “Translate from” (on the left). Upon opening the text field to start typing, you’ll notice that Gboard is using the Spanish keyboard — as evidenced by the ñ in the first screenshot below.
The Translate app automatically changed Gboard to the appropriate language for text entry with the full character set (as needed) available. This makes typing more accurate and saves users from having to manually go into Gboard settings.
The globe icon also appears to switch back when appropriate. Once you exit the translation screen, Gboard returns to your default language.
Previously, after selecting a different language pairing, you’d just enter text in whatever was the device default.
We’re seeing this feature live on a Pixel and Tab S8 (both Android 12) with version 6.33 of Google Translate and Gboard 11.6 (which is currently in beta). It did not appear on a phone running 6.30 and 11.5, respectively.
More on Gboard:
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Saturday, April 2, 2022
Google Translate now automatically switches Gboard language to match what you're translating - Android Police - Translation
There’s no denying the usefulness of Google Translate when trying to quickly check the meaning of an unfamiliar word or translate an entire sentence. One minor but bothersome issue is switching between your default keyboard to that of the foreign language anytime you have to type in Translate. The app's now getting a nifty update that should help solve that problem.
Google Translate’s recent update adds the ability for Gboard on Android to automatically switch your language when you input text in a language different from your default, per 9to5Google. Say you have English as your selected Gboard language. If you launch Google Translate and select Arabic, for example, as your “Translate from” language, Gboard will auto switch to the Arabic keyboard as soon as you open the text field to start typing.
Similarly, if you change to a different language, say Spanish, the Keyboard will auto-switch from whatever language it was in before to Spanish. Finally, Gboard will immediately switch back to your default language after you exit the translation screen. In the past, you could always tap the globe icon just to the left of the space bar if the language to be translated was one of your chosen system languages — otherwise, you had to go into Gboard settings to select it manually. This update makes things that much easier.
We can confirm that the feature is live on version 6.33 of Google Translate and is compatible with the current stable release of Gboard. You can download the latest version of Translate on APKMirror to try out the new auto language switch.
Google Translate has received several quality-of-life updates recently, especially with the app’s Material You revamp rolling out to non-Pixel users. Speaking of revamps, we’re still waiting for Google’s promised update that’ll improve "instant translation, captured image translation, and imported photo translation" on Android. We’ll update you once it arrives.
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