Localisation Training in Spain and Beyond: Towards a Consensus on Content and Approach

Since localisation emerged in the 1980s as an activity linked to the software industry, its evolution has gone hand in hand with technological advances. In the globalised market of the 21st century, an ever-increasing range of digital products must be localised. While academic institutions are aware of how the increasing demand for localisation is affecting the translation industry, there is no consensus regarding what and how courses and modules on localisation should be taught. This article reports the findings of a survey-based study that adopted a descriptive-interpretive methodology to collect both quantitative and qualitative data from a group of 16 localisation trainers teaching on undergraduate translation programmes at Spanish universities. To contextualise and help with the focus of the survey, a literature review on localiser education was carried out. The results of both the survey and the literature review reinforce the findings of an earlier unpublished study by the same authors that localisation training is keeping pace with technological evolution, despite its scarce presence in translation studies curricula. In addition, respondents noted that one of their main challenges is finding authentic teaching materials and recommended closer collaboration between academia and the localisation

Global Technical Communication and Content Management: A Study of Multilingual Quality

The field of technical communication (TC) is facing a dilemma. Content management (CM) strategies and technologies that completely reshape writing and translation practices are adopted in an increasing number of TC work groups. One driving factor in CM adoption is the promise of improving quality of multilingual technical texts, all the while reducing time/cost of technical translation and localization. Yet, CM relies on automation and privileges consistency¯an approach that is problematic in global TC with its focus on adapting texts based on the characteristics of end-users. To better understand the interdisciplinary dilemma of multilingual quality in CM, during my dissertation project I conducted a twelve-month long qualitative case study of multilingual quality at a leading manufacturer of medical equipment who had adopted CM strategies and technologies to create technical texts in several languages three years before my study began. In my study, I drew upon an interdisciplinary theoretical base (genre ecology framework, activity theory, actor-network theory, and Skopos theory) to examine the construction of multilingual quality understandings and approaches by global TC stakeholders who are employees and contractors of the company and the role of CM in their practices. Examination of the extensive data I collected through observations, interviews, questionnaires, document collection/content analysis, and software exploration uncovered the staggering disconnects in understandings of and approaches to multilingual quality. These disconnects resulted from the lack communication between stakeholders and were promoted by the different relations to CM technology and the mediating work of the new genre, chunks of content. Inhibited knowledge sharing, risk of expertise invisibility and loss, and constrained new ideas about improving multilingual quality were some of the rhetorical, social, and political implications of these disconnects. As a result of my analysis, I sketched strategies for achieving contextualized multiple-stakeholder approaches to multilingual quality and outlined leadership possibilities for technical communicators in global information development. This analysis provides TC practitioners with strategies for improving multilingual quality in CM contexts; TC educators with ideas for expanding teaching approaches by combining digital and cross-cultural literacies; and TC researchers with opportunities for rhetorical action through critiquing, theorizing, and innovating CM

Moving Boundaries in Translation Studies

Translation is in motion. Both translation practice and translation studies (TS) have seen considerable innovation in recent decades, and we are currently witnessing a wealth of new approaches and concepts, some of which refect new translation phenomena, whereas others mirror new scholarly foci. Volunteer translation, crowdsourcing, virtual translator networks, transediting, and translanguaging are only some examples of practices and notions that are emerging on the scene alongside a renewed focus on well-established concepts that have traditionally been considered peripheral to the practice and study of translation: intralingual and intersemiotic translation are cases in point. At the same time, technological innovation and global developments such as the spread of English as a lingua franca are affecting wide areas of translation and, with it, translation studies. These trends are currently pushing or even crossing our traditional understandings of translation (studies) and its boundaries. The question is: how to deal with these developments? Some areas of the translation profession seem to respond by widening its borders, adding new practices such as technical writing, localisation, transcreation, or post-editing to their job portfolios, whereas others seem to be closing ranks. The same trend can be observed in the academic discipline: some branches of translation studies are eager to embrace all new developments under the TS umbrella, whereas others tend to dismiss (some of) them as irrelevant or as merely refecting new names for age-old practices. Translation is in motion. Technological developments, digitalisation and globalisation are among the many factors affecting and changing translation and, with it, translation studies. Moving Boundaries in Translation Studies offers a bird’s-eye view of recent developments and discusses their implications for the boundaries of the discipline. With 15 chapters written by leading translation scholars from around the world, the book analyses new translation phenomena, new practices and tools, new forms of organisation, new concepts and names as well as new scholarly approaches and methods. This is key reading for scholars, researchers and advanced students of translation and interpreting studies. The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 licens

Initiating and Improving Business Relations in Serbia: Analysis and Recommendations

The purpose of this project is to create a model for the effective initiation and improvement of business relations in The Republic of Serbia. Using Serbia as an example, different economic and cultural values will be analyzed to determine the suitability and benefits of doing business in this market. I will discuss what has been trending politically and economically in Serbia, neighboring countries, and the European Union (EU) to help fill an existing information gap. This information will be published in the interest of producing a comprehensive paper that is relevant for domestic operations, foreign investment opportunity, businesses with individual overseas assignments, or interests in expanding operations. This will include recommendations for improvement and demonstrate characteristics of the current environment for businesses that are interested in expanding their global presence to Serbia’s unique market

Initiating and Improving Business Relations in Serbia: Analysis and Recommendations

The purpose of this project is to create a model for the effective initiation and improvement of business relations in The Republic of Serbia. Using Serbia as an example, different economic and cultural values will be analyzed to determine the suitability and benefits of doing business in this market. I will discuss what has been trending politically and economically in Serbia, neighboring countries, and the European Union (EU) to help fill an existing information gap. This information will be published in the interest of producing a comprehensive paper that is relevant for domestic operations, foreign investment opportunity, businesses with individual overseas assignments, or interests in expanding operations. This will include recommendations for improvement and demonstrate characteristics of the current environment for businesses that are interested in expanding their global presence to Serbia’s unique market

Moving Boundaries in Translation Studies

Translation is in motion. Both translation practice and translation studies (TS) have seen considerable innovation in recent decades, and we are currently witnessing a wealth of new approaches and concepts, some of which refect new translation phenomena, whereas others mirror new scholarly foci. Volunteer translation, crowdsourcing, virtual translator networks, transediting, and translanguaging are only some examples of practices and notions that are emerging on the scene alongside a renewed focus on well-established concepts that have traditionally been considered peripheral to the practice and study of translation: intralingual and intersemiotic translation are cases in point. At the same time, technological innovation and global developments such as the spread of English as a lingua franca are affecting wide areas of translation and, with it, translation studies. These trends are currently pushing or even crossing our traditional understandings of translation (studies) and its boundaries. The question is: how to deal with these developments? Some areas of the translation profession seem to respond by widening its borders, adding new practices such as technical writing, localisation, transcreation, or post-editing to their job portfolios, whereas others seem to be closing ranks. The same trend can be observed in the academic discipline: some branches of translation studies are eager to embrace all new developments under the TS umbrella, whereas others tend to dismiss (some of) them as irrelevant or as merely refecting new names for age-old practices. Translation is in motion. Technological developments, digitalisation and globalisation are among the many factors affecting and changing translation and, with it, translation studies. Moving Boundaries in Translation Studies offers a bird’s-eye view of recent developments and discusses their implications for the boundaries of the discipline. With 15 chapters written by leading translation scholars from around the world, the book analyses new translation phenomena, new practices and tools, new forms of organisation, new concepts and names as well as new scholarly approaches and methods. This is key reading for scholars, researchers and advanced students of translation and interpreting studies. The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 licens

Migration Research in a Digitized World

This open access book explores implications of the digital revolution for migration scholars’ methodological toolkit. New information and communication technologies hold considerable potential to improve the quality of migration research by originating previously non-viable solutions to a myriad of methodological challenges in this field of study. Combining cutting-edge migration scholarship and methodological expertise, the book addresses a range of crucial issues related to both researcher-designed data collections and the secondary use of “big data”, highlighting opportunities as well as challenges and limitations. A valuable source for students and scholars engaged in migration research, the book will also be of keen interest to policymakers