What’s so great about Google’s ‘translation glasses’? - Computerworld - Translation

Google teased translation glasses at last week's Google I/O developer conference, holding out the promise that you can one day talk with someone speaking in a foreign language, and see the English translation in your glasses.

Company execs demonstrated the glasses in a video; it showed not only “closed captioning” — real-time text spelling out in the same language what another person is saying — but also translation to and from English and Mandarin or Spanish, enabling people speaking two different languages to carry on a conversation while also letting hearing-impaired users see what others are saying to them.

As Google Translate hardware, the glasses would solve a major pain point with using Google Translate, which is: If you use audio translation, the translation audio steps on the real-time conversation. By presenting translation visually, you could follow conversations much more easily and naturally.

Unlike Google Glass, the translation-glasses prototype is augmented reality (AR), too. Let me explain what I mean.

Augmented reality happens when a device captures data from the world and, based on its recognition of what that data means, adds information to it that’s available to the user.

Google Glass was not augmented reality — it was a heads-up display. The only contextual or environmental awareness it could deal with was location. Based on location, it could give turn-by-turn directions or location-based reminders. But it couldn’t normally harvest visual or audio data, then return to the user information about what they were seeing or hearing.

Google’s translation glasses are, in fact, AR by essentially taking audio data from the environment and returning to the user a transcript of what’s being said in the language of choice.

Audience members and the tech press reported on the translation function as the exclusive application for these glasses without any analytical or critical exploration, as far as I could tell. The most glaring fact that should have been mentioned in every report is that translation is just an arbitrary choice for processing audio data in the cloud. There's so much more the glasses could do!

They could easily process any audio for any application and return any text or any audio to be consumed by the wearer. Isn’t that obvious?

In reality, the hardware sends noise to the cloud, and displays whatever text the cloud sends back. That’s all the glasses do. Send noise. Receive and display text.

The applications for processing audio and returning actionable or informational contextual information are practically unlimited. The glasses could send any noise, and then display any text returned from the remote application.

The noise could even be encoded, like an old-time modem. A noise-generating device or smartphone app could send R2D2-like beeps and whistles, which could be processed in the cloud like an audio QR code which, once interpreted by servers, could return any information to be displayed on the glasses. This text could be instructions for operating equipment. It could be information about a specific artifact in a museum. It could be information about a specific product in a store.

These are the kinds of applications we’ll be waiting for visual AR to deliver in five years or more. In the interim, most of it could be done with audio.

One obviously powerful use for Google’s “translation glasses” would be to use them with Google Assistant. It would be just like using a smart display with Google Assistant — a home appliance that delivers visual data, along with the normal audio data, from Google Assistant queries. But that visual data would be available in your glasses, hands-free, no matter where you are. (That would be a heads-up display application, rather than AR.)

But imagine if the “translation glasses” were paired with a smartphone. With permission granted by others, Bluetooth transmissions of contact data could display (on the glasses) who you’re talking to at a business event, and also your history with them.

Why the tech press broke Google Glass

Google Glass critics slammed the product, mainly for two reasons. First, a forward-facing camera mounted on the headset made people uncomfortable. If you were talking to a Google Glass wearer, the camera was pointed right at you, making you wonder if you were being recorded. (Google didn’t say whether their “translation glasses” would have a camera, but the prototype didn’t have one.)

Second, the excessive and conspicuous hardware made wearers look like cyborgs.

The combination of these two hardware transgressions led critics to assert that Google Glass was simply not socially acceptable in polite company.

Google’s “translation glasses,” on the other hand, neither have a camera nor do they look like cyborg implants — they look pretty much like ordinary glasses. And the text visible to the wearer is not visible to the person they’re talking to. It just looks like they’re making eye contact.

The sole remaining point of social unacceptability for Google’s “translation glasses” hardware is the fact that Google would be essentially “recording” the words of others without permission, uploading them to the cloud for translation, and presumably retaining those recordings as it does with other voice-related products.

Still, the fact is that augmented reality and even heads-up displays are super compelling, if only makers can get the feature set right. Someday, we’ll have full visual AR in ordinary-looking glasses. In the meantime, the right AR glasses would have the following features:

1. They look like regular glasses.
2. They can accept prescription lenses.
3. They have no camera.
4. They process audio with AI and return data via text.
5. and they offer assistant functionality, returning results with text.

To date, there is no such product. But Google demonstrated it has the technology to do it.

While language captioning and translation might be the most compelling feature, it is — or should be — just a Trojan Horse for many other compelling business applications as well.

Google hasn’t announced when — or even if — “translate glasses” will ship as a commercial product. But if Google doesn’t make them, someone else will, and it will prove a killer category for business users.

The ability for ordinary glasses to give you access to the visual results of AI interpretation of whom and what you hear, plus visual and audio results of assistant queries, would be a total game changer.

We’re in an awkward period in the development of technology where AR applications mainly exist as smartphone apps (where they don’t belong) while we wait for mobile, socially acceptable AR glasses that are many years in the future.

In the interim, the solution is clear: We need audio-centric AR glasses that capture sound and display words.

That's just what Google demonstrated.

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How the SZBA Fosters Arabic Translation - Publishers Weekly - Translation

The tradition of literary translation from Arabic is not long. It was only in 1966, when Al-Tayeb Salih’s Season of Migration to the North was published, that a contemporary Arabic-language title attracted international attention when it appeared in English just three years later as part of the legendary Heinemann African Writers series in a translation by Denys Johnson-Davies—who was himself the winner of the very first Sheikh Zayed Book Award for translation in 2007. In 1973, the General Assembly of the United Nations approved Arabic as an official UN language. Then, in 1988, Egyptian writer Naguib Mahfouz was the first Arabic-language writer to win the Nobel Prize.

These are all significant milestones. But they show just how much road there is left to travel. After all, Arabic is the fifth most-spoken language in the world, with some 370 million users, yet Mahfouz still the only Arabic-language writer to win the Nobel.

Much of this has to do with translation, Mark Linz, the trailblazing director of the American University in Cairo Press, who died in 2013, was instrumental in bringing Mahfouz to English-language readers for the first time – and was a regular visitor to the Sheikh Zayed Book Awards and the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair. English, being a gateway language, Linz helped introduce Mahfouz, and scores of other authors Linz published in translation, to the world. It was Linz who became Denys Johnson-Davies’ publisher of record late in his life. (Mahfouz was responsible his own SZBA, when in 2015 that Hanawa Haruo won the SZBA for translating Naguib Mahfouz's Cairo Trilogy into Japanese.

Today, according to the latest UNESCO Index Translation Statistics, while Arabic is only 29th on the top 50 list of "target languages", which considers translation of titles into specific languages, it is significantly stronger in translations from Arabic to other languages, where it ranks 17th on the list of "original language translation.”

What changed? When considering the production of Arabic language books, one needs to take in the entirety of the Arab-speaking world, which includes 22 countries of the Arab league: Algeria, Bahrain, Comoros, Djibouti, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, KSA, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, UAE, Yemen. While accurate statistics are difficult to come by, the online bookseller Neelwafurat has estimated the production of new Arabic books at between 15,000 and 18,000 titles per year, of which 20% are translations from other languages. That means that foreign publishers have a minimum of 12,000 new titles per year to choose from.

In the United States, 321 books were translated and published by mainstream trade houses from 2008 until the end of 2021, according to Publishers Weekly's Translation Database. It is clear that Arabic language books are garnering more and more international attention as well. To wit: the awarding of the 2019 International Booker Prize to Celestial Bodies, a book about a trio of Omani sisters who take different paths in life by Jokha Alharthi, in a translation from Arabic by Marilyn Booth. It was published in Sandstone Press.

The Sheikh Zayed Book Awards are contributing to this wave of change. Not only does it offer awards to writers translating from Arabic, it offers awards to support, facilitate and foster the additional translation of books from Arabic into other languages. The program—the Sheikh Zayed Book Award Translation Grants—was introduced in 2018 and introduced a translation grant program to help support the translation of SZBA-winning Arabic language books and their publication around the world. Sixteen books have been translated into multiple languages since the launch of the grant, including English, German, French, Italian, Greek, Georgian and Ukrainian.

This year, five international publishers were awarded translation grants, resulting in six translations of SZBA-winning titles. Among these titles are 2017 winner Hatless by Kuwaiti author Lateefah Buti, which is being translated into English by Nancy Roberts in collaboration with Darf Publishers; 2020 winner Lilac Girl by Palestinian-American author Ibtisam Barakat, translated into German by Suleman Taufiq to be published by Germany’s Sujet Verlag; and 2014 winner Thirty Poems for Children by Lebanese poet Jawdat Fakhreddine, translated into French by Leila Tahir and into English by Huda Fakhreddine with Bookland Press.

From the Literature category, 2018 winner Remorse Test by Syrian author Khalil Sweileh has been translated into German by Suleman Taufiq to be published by Sujet Verlag. Lastly, the 2015 winner The Madmen of Bethlehem by Palestinian author Osama Alaysa, was translated into Georgian by Darejan Gardavadze to bepublished by Intelekti Publishing.

Through the SZBA Translation Grants it becomes clear that Arabic-language literature resonates around the world, even in times of crisis. This year two Ukrainian publishers Eleonora Simonova of Nora-Druk Publishers and Anetta Antonenko of her eponymous imprint discovered books by acclaimed Lebanese and Syrian authors for translation. They note the opportunities for cultural exchange supported by the SZBA translation grant, which comes at a time when it is essential to support Ukrainian translators and publishers. In this way, the SZBA is having an impact far from home and where it can have the greatest cultural impact.

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The International Booker Prize may give English translation in India its moment in the sun - The Hindu - Translation

A literary campaign, #translatorsonthecover, started on International Translation Day (September 30) last year. It was a demand by American translator Jennifer Croft (who shared the 2018 Man Booker International Prize with Olga Tokarczuk for her translation of Tokarczuk’s novel,  Flights) and British novelist Mark Haddon to have the translator’s name alongside the author’s on book covers. The petition, which has more than 2,500 signatures till date, stated its purpose simply: “For too long, we’ve taken translators for granted. It is thanks to translators that we have access to world literatures past and present... They should be properly recognised, celebrated and rewarded for this.”

Following the worldwide call, Pan Macmillan announced in October 2021 that translators will be acknowledged on the book cover. Some responses weren’t so positive: Adam Freudenheim, publisher and managing director of Pushkin Press, went on record saying that some works are co-translated, “and including them all on the front cover could make it look messy”. Unsurprisingly, the cover of Pushkin Press’s  At Night All Blood is Black (by David Diop), which won the 2021 International Booker Prize, doesn’t mention the translator, Anna Moschovakis. So while things might be looking up, translators still have a long fight ahead of them.

Snazzy covers

In India, English translation is undergoing a renaissance. Gone are the days when translated books meant dull-looking volumes littered with typos. Now they have snazzy covers, which usually announce the translator’s name loudly. Mini Krishnan, Co ordinating Editor, Tamil Nadu Textbook & Educational Services Corporation, says, “Earlier, translation was voluntary and a translator went from door to door lugging typescripts. They were overwhelmingly retired teachers of English Literature. Over the last 20 years or so, seeing a ‘business opportunity’ in the thousands who emerge with higher education degrees equipped with only English, publishers have become pro-active in commissioning and locating translators, seeking advice from regional language bodies and assembling lists for the home market.”

Translated literature is not only getting global recognition (such as Geetanjali Shree’s  Tomb of Sand, translated by Daisy Rockwell, competing for this year’s International Booker Prize to be announced on May 26) but also national acclaim, with awards like the JCB Prize for Literature rewarding both translators and authors.

Moutushi Mukherjee, Commissioning Editor, Penguin Press, Penguin Random House (PRH) India, says, “We live in a multilingual society, and at PRH we celebrate that rich diversity in language, dialect, and culture by making a deliberate effort to give literature from local languages the recognition and space they deserve. Translations is one of the best ways to play that out. Globally, of course, the translation market has grown exponentially to keep pace with immigration and growing engagement with local markets. And there is more and more room for South Asian literature to expand into the rest of the world because we have compelling stories to tell.” While we still haven’t reached that stage where the translator is almost as famous as the author — Ann Goldstein (translator of Elena Ferrante) or Philip Gabriel (translator of Haruki Murakami), for instance — some translators like Arunava Sinha (for Bengali) and N. Kalyan Raman (for Tamil) are well on their way there.

Can a living be made of translations now? Sinha answers with a big ‘no’ . He says, “There are no fixed rates for translators. It’s not a better paid job now than before unless that book you are translating has really good commercial prospect. Otherwise, the translator’s remuneration is just a function of the advance the novel will fetch and fiction, in any case, starts off with smaller ambitions.” Most translators hold day jobs as journalists, academics or writers, waiting for the day when translation will be recognised as a well-paying, full-time profession.

The lack of adequate remuneration might be one of the reasons why a huge body of  bhasha literature still remains untranslated. According to both Sinha and Krishnan, Telugu and Odia are two of the most neglected languages in spite of having a rich body of works. But recently, we have had a few good translations from Telugu and Odia as also from other less-represented languages like Gujarati or Konkani.  The Wait and Other Stories by the 2022 Jnanpith Award winner Damodar Mauzo, translated from the Konkani by Xavier Cota, releases from PRH in June.

Translators also take up a project for the love of the language they are translating or as a tribute to the author. Author Nisha Susan, who recently translated K.R. Meera’s Malayalam novel,  Qabar, into English, says, “I think of it as a privilege — to share my enthusiasm for a book I admire with a new audience. That is a reward.”

ALSO READ: 12 Indian translators discuss their forthcoming works

Mini Kapoor reviews Geetanjali Shree’s ‘Tomb of Sand’, trs Daisy Rockwell

Breaking the wall: Translation as a form of political activism

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Matthew McConaughey believes a word should be removed from dictionary - NBC4 WCMH-TV - Dictionary

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Matthew McConaughey believes a word should be removed from dictionary  NBC4 WCMH-TV

8 Great Novellas in Translation - Book Riot - Translation

If you’re looking to read more books from around the world, beginning with novellas in translation makes a lot of sense. For reasons I don’t fully understand, a lot of the fiction that gets translated into English is novella length. It may be that the novella is a more dominant form in other countries than it is in the U.S., or it may be that shorter books are easier to translate and therefore easier to publish. Either way, there are many wonderful novellas in translation to choose from.

Personally, I love reading novellas: they are long enough to create the feeling of immersion in a story, but not so long that I, as a slow reader, feel bogged down. They are also a great way to try out new authors and styles without a major investment of time. If you like what you find, you can search out other books by that author or in that style.

Also, if you fall in love with a particular novella in translation, you can seek out other work from that country or region. The books in the list below come from Mexico, Palestine, Japan, Argentina, Switzerland, France, Colombia, and South Korea. Reading one of these might inspire you to learn more about the literary culture and traditions of that place.

You might also find a new favorite author. I have read and loved the books in this list and have gone on to seek out other work by these writers. You might have the same experience!

The Taiga Syndrome by Cristina Rivera Garza, Translated by Suzanne Levine and Aviva Kana

This novella mixes fairytales, detective fiction, travel writing, and theories of translation in a wild, eerily strange ride of a reading experience. An ex-detective gets tapped for a mission to find a lost couple. To complete her mission, she travels into the far north with a translator. As the two of them wander further into the forest, what they discover gets stranger and stranger. This is a great book for those who like strange reads that keep you on your toes and give you plenty of food for thought.

Minor Detail by Adania Shibli, Translated by Elisabeth Jaquette

The first part of this novella is set in 1949. It tells the story of an Israeli officer who leads a group of soldiers on a mission to find and capture Palestinians in the Negev Desert. They capture and then brutalize and kill a Palestinian teenager. The second part describes a woman in Ramallah in the present day who becomes obsessed with this murder and begins to research it. The subject matter is dark and difficult, so be prepared for that. The book looks closely at violence, memory, and how the past shapes the present. Its two halves mirror each other in fascinating ways as well.

Territory of Light by Yuko Tsushima, Translated by Geraldine Harcourt

This novella tells the story of a woman in Tokyo setting up life in a new apartment with her 3-year-old daughter. She and her husband have recently separated. In a series of vignettes, Tsushima charts this woman’s high and low points. She feels isolated and exhausted, but also exhilarated with her new freedom. Mother and daughter bask in their apartment’s abundant light, but also struggle with adapting to change and meeting new challenges. The book is beautiful and meditative and also a sharp portrayal of what it takes to survive as a single mother in a world that offers mostly disapproval.

The Wind That Lays Waste by Selva Almada, Translated by Chris Andrews

Two people, a preacher and his teenage daughter, find themselves stranded after their car breaks down. They are on a rural road in Argentina, and they get a ride to a mechanic who lives with a teenage boy. The Wind That Lays Waste tells about these four characters’ interactions throughout one day as the travelers wait for their car, and it also fills in their backstories. The characters spend a lot of time talking about God and religion, sharing ideas and experiences as a storm threatens on the horizon. It’s a beautiful novel that encourages thinking about matters of faith and meaning.

Sweet Days of Discipline by Fleur Jaeggy, Translated by Tim Parks

This novella from 1989 takes place in a Swiss boarding school. The 14-year-old protagonist finds herself fascinated by a new student on the scene, Fréderique. Friendships and alliances shift as Fréderique settles in. The book describes daily life at the school and the twists and turns of gossip and judgments. It’s a seemingly quiet story, but darkness is never far away. The novella is an unsettling exploration of the images the students project onto the world and the reality that lurks underneath.

That Time of Year by Marie NDiaye, Translated by Jordan Stump

In this 1994 novella, Herman and his family overstay their summer vacation in the French countryside by one day. This shouldn’t be a big deal, but it is: the world they knew on August 31st is utterly transformed on September 1st. The weather turns rainy and cold and then Herman can’t find his wife and child. He heads into the village to search for them, but no one has answers and no one seems concerned. The villagers ignore him and officials can’t or won’t help. The story keeps getting more and more surreal. Fans of literary horror will particularly love this one.

The Bitch by Pilar Quintana, Translated by Lisa Dillman

This novella tells the story of Damaris, a woman in her 40s who adopts a puppy to ease her loneliness and unhappiness with her husband. She thinks of the puppy as a substitute for the children she was never able to have. As the puppy grows and becomes aware of the wider world, however, it runs away, and its relationship with Damaris is never the same. The novella beautifully captures the eerie, wild coast of Colombia, which is near both the jungle and the ocean. Damaris’s combination of longing and hope is moving. Be prepared for scenes of animal cruelty if you pick this one up.

b, Book, and Me by Kim Sagwa, Translated by Sunhee Jeong

This novella tells the story of two best friends, Rang and b, left alone by their parents and ignored by their teachers. They are teenagers living in a South Korean city who struggle with poverty, loneliness, and bullying. Together, they dream of escape. But then Rang unintentionally betrays b by writing about her dying sister, and their friendship falls apart. We follow their stories as they work their way back toward each other. The novella captures how dark life can be for teenagers and how difficult it can be for them to find their way forward.

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After reading this list of novellas in translation, you might be inspired to find even more books to check out. Book Riot has you covered! You can read this list of books in translation from 2022 and this list of 2021 translations. We also have a list of 50 must-read short books in translation. You can check out our translation archives as well.

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Believe it or not: Matthew McConaughey wants ‘unbelievable’ removed from the dictionary - WSOC Charlotte - Dictionary

Matthew McConaughey – What you need to know Matthew McConaughey – What you need to know

Whether you believe him or not, Matthew McConaughey says he’s serious about his dislike of the word “unbelievable.”

>> Read more trending news

“It’s my least favorite word,” McConaughey said in a video posted to Twitter. “I think we should wipe it out of the dictionary. …It happens every single day. We shouldn’t think that the most beautiful sunset or that the greatest play or the greatest love of our life or the greatest moment of euphoria is ‘unbelievable.’ Believe it! It’s happening.”

But not just in the positive sense, McConaughey extends his belief to tragedy and natural disasters as well, saying, “It’s part of life too. Believe it. We see it happen every day. So, ‘unbelievable,’ I don’t buy. Awesome. Horrible. Incredible. I believe those. That’s a good way to explain things. But ‘unbelievable?’ Nah. It just happened. Believe it.”

Merriam-Webster’s dictionary defines “unbelievable” as “too improbable for belief” and also “of such a superlative degree as to be hard to believe.”

Merriam-Webster responded to McConaughey’s tweet with its own, saying simply, “no.”

This is not the first time the actor has expressed contempt for the word. During his commencement address at the University of Houston in 2015, McConaughey made the same point, KXAN reported.

©2022 Cox Media Group

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Believe it or not: Matthew McConaughey wants ‘unbelievable’ removed from the dictionary - WSOC Charlotte - Dictionary

Matthew McConaughey – What you need to know Matthew McConaughey – What you need to know

Whether you believe him or not, Matthew McConaughey says he’s serious about his dislike of the word “unbelievable.”

>> Read more trending news

“It’s my least favorite word,” McConaughey said in a video posted to Twitter. “I think we should wipe it out of the dictionary. …It happens every single day. We shouldn’t think that the most beautiful sunset or that the greatest play or the greatest love of our life or the greatest moment of euphoria is ‘unbelievable.’ Believe it! It’s happening.”

But not just in the positive sense, McConaughey extends his belief to tragedy and natural disasters as well, saying, “It’s part of life too. Believe it. We see it happen every day. So, ‘unbelievable,’ I don’t buy. Awesome. Horrible. Incredible. I believe those. That’s a good way to explain things. But ‘unbelievable?’ Nah. It just happened. Believe it.”

Merriam-Webster’s dictionary defines “unbelievable” as “too improbable for belief” and also “of such a superlative degree as to be hard to believe.”

Merriam-Webster responded to McConaughey’s tweet with its own, saying simply, “no.”

This is not the first time the actor has expressed contempt for the word. During his commencement address at the University of Houston in 2015, McConaughey made the same point, KXAN reported.

©2022 Cox Media Group

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