The German language seems to be taking over in Birmingham! Not only do the people who come to man the annual German Christmas market speak German, it appears that ticket machines in Birmingham also prefer to speak in Deutsch.

Drivers trying to park in Brunel Street car park in Birmingham were recently encountered by a German message, which translated as “this car park is full”. The ticket machine, which usually gives instructions in English, changes to German when the car park is full to capacity. The council are hoping to have the issue resolved by next week, but in the meantime they have stuck a sign on the machine with an explanation and an English translation.

Motorists have been amused by the ticket machine’s apparent preference to speak German, but so far no one knows quite what caused this software error.

It isn’t the first time that Birmingham has had a linguistic identity crisis. A number of years ago visitors to the big wheel were greeted by a French voice describing Paris.

CSOFT (the multilingual software service provider) have unveiled TermWiki™ – the first wiki-based terminology management system. It is currently at the beta testing stage with a launch date set for spring 2010.

This is big news in the language world. Terminology management standards are vital for any project or campaign and failure to apply proper systems and procedures can result in vocabulary inconsistencies and have a negative impact upon the finished product. Companies with a global presence are finding their translation budgets escalate as the spread of globalisation has meant a growing need for the provision of multi-lingual information; not only for external clients and end users, but also internally for international workforces. Implementing successful strategies in this respect has never been so important.

Terminology management is sometimes referred to as the electronic version of the dreaded filing – many people know it should be done, but few relish the task. This is why this new wiki has been branded as revolutionary to the way in which terminology is managed. As reported by Global Watchtower, many businesses suffer from an absence of formal terminology management, citing the following reasons for the lack of relevant software or systems: high cost, low levels of usability and limited ability to integrate the solution. Yet the advantages of adopting terminology policies certainly outweigh the disadvantages and extra time spent in this area could mean better streamlined product development, documentation, marketing and support.

CSOFT claim that for enterprises and language service providers, this is ‘terminology management in real-time, ensuring that in all stages of product development, their organization consistently speaks with one voice’. Technically, it certainly seems to dot all the Is and cross all the Ts: there is a tracking facility which provides information about changes (author, date and reason); its interface is user-friendly and familiar; support is available to upload images; there is a plug-in facility; and it also boasts ‘customizable forms embedded in system to facilitate compliance with relevant ISO standards’.

It would appear that TermWiki™ has the potential to become a welcome translation tool for both language service providers and their clients alike, and with a familiar user interface, the package certainly looks set to be a hit in offices worldwide. Now, if only they could invent a real-time virtual filing machine . . .

The 2010 World Cup in South Africa has focussed minds on the growing importance of languages in the football industry. Thousands of fans will be flocking to the African country this summer to watch the world’s leading footballers battle it out for the ultimate prize in football, while millions of others will watch from the comfort of their own home or their local pub. The competition will trigger a whole host of language and translation related requirements: information for fans on the ground, interpreters at press conferences, sponsor advertising, subtitles for post match interviews with Messi, Ronaldo and Rooney (even if viewers can understand English, they may find it difficult to get to grips with his dulcet Liverpudlian tones)! During the World Cup South Africa will host 32 nations, many of whom will speak different languages, so the need for language related services will doubtless be high.

Of course the World Cup (unfortunately for us football fans) only comes around every four years, but the need for language related services has been rising steadily as the movement of players around the world has increased. Just one look at the teams of the top English Premiership clubs shows that English is not necessarily their first language: Vidic, Benitez, Wenger, Drogba, Tevez to name but a few.

Whilst these players and managers have all their contractual documents translated for them and interpreters provided, they can’t have translators with them all the time, and one wonders what the first English phrase was that they learnt: “I didn’t touch him ref” and “I got the ball ref” are sure to be the first things that they learn, while Thierry Henry probably learnt how to say “It didn’t touch my hand” quite soon on! Arsene Wenger’s first question to his English teacher could feasibly have been, “comment-on dit : ‘Je ne l’ai pas encore vu’?” Or, in English, “how do you say ‘I haven’t seen it yet?’” On a more serious note, interpreters for managers at press conferences have often commented on the difficulty in translating phrases that are common in football: “it was a game of two halves”, “strength in depth” and “we’re down to the bare bones” being three obvious ones whose foreign equivalents are expressed very differently in other languages.

One thing that is surely set to continue is the blame players apportion to mistranslation when they are quoted in local press. Two recent examples of this are Manchester City’s South American stars Carlos Tevez and Robinho: the former regarding his comments on his spat with Gary Neville and the latter regarding his possible transfer or loan deal to another club. Tevez described Neville as a ‘tarado’ which can be translated from Spanish with differing degrees of strength, the milder version is ‘boot-licking moron’, but it has been claimed that it can mean something a little stronger! Meanwhile, Robinho and his club Santos have made comments in Brazil that can be interpreted slightly differently according to which club’s fans are reading it. For Santos fans the translation read “I’m desperate to join my old club”, for City fans it’s more like “I’m flattered by their interest but I’m just focussing on my next game for City!” We’ll probably find out which he really meant by the end of the transfer window!

It goes without saying that the world of language and translation is constantly evolving. In the last few years alone the translation industry has had to adjust to many dramatic changes. The number of official EU languages has more than doubled (from eleven to twenty three). This, as well as factors such as advances in technology, globalisation and demographic movements have dramatically increased the requirement for highly skilled translators, whilst highlighting the lack of suitable translators in this market.

This is how the European Masters in Translation (EMT) came into fruition. The European Commission’s (EC) Directorate –General for Translation (DGT) reacted to the shortfall in an industry where demand exceeds supply, and where finding a way to evaluate and benchmark translators’ practices can be even more difficult.

The DGT draughted guidelines for the European Masters in translation back in 2005. These included a general description of the key competencies required to meet the needs of the industry, with the goal of developing the status and quality of the translation profession.

The importance of staying up to date with all modifications within the market is paramount. The programme also underlines the importance of focusing on new areas that have not always strictly fallen under the translation umbrella, but are just as significant in our industry; for example project management, subtitling and editing.

The EMT launched its request for Universities to apply to join the network in March 2009, and applications closed on 31st May. Members were pre-selected by an independent committee of experts from the translation and linguistic profession, and the 34 programmes deemed eligible to join was presented to the Director-General.

Members of the EMT must reapply every four years, and applicants who were unsuccessful are urged to reapply at the next call for new members to join. The next EMT conference will take place in autumn of this year, with the date for new institutions to apply to the programme to be unveiled at the end of the year.

The Translation People support this move towards a standardised method of certification and are hopeful that it will help meet the increasing demand for professional translators.

The Translation People understand that consistent use of terminology throughout a company’s documents is paramount and we appreciate that it’s essential to project a coherent message to clients and suppliers alike. Imagine for a moment, if you can, how difficult this must be in an institution the size and scale of the European Union! It was with this in mind that IATE (“Inter Active Terminology for Europe”) was conceived.

IATE is the EU’s inter-institutional terminology database. It was launched in 1999 to create a single web-based interface for all EU terminology resources, demystifying jargon for all users, making the information more easily available and ensuring its standardisation throughout the EU institutions. Prior to this date there were several different databases, including one for each of the three main EU institutions – the European Commission (EURODICAUTOM), the European Parliament (EUTERPE) and European Council (TIS). Although it has been used internally within EU institutions since 2004, the public interface was only officially opened on 29 June 2007 and since then its multilingual term base has been at the disposal of everyone in the EU. The overall development costs of the database from 1999 to 2003 were €1.41 million and the annual maintenance costs for 2007 were €627 000. These costs are covered by the budgets of all the participating institutions and bodies of the EU.

IATE plays a major role in assuring the quality of all written communication of EU institutions and bodies. By offering easy access to validated EU-related terminology, it aims to ensure the consistency and reliability of terminology which is crucial for producing the clear and unambiguous texts necessary to guarantee both the validity and transparency of the legislative process and effective communication with the citizens of the Union.

IATE is managed by the Translation Centre for the Bodies of the European Union in Luxembourg and is a “live” and interactive database, meaning that anyone can contribute and the content is constantly being updated. Anyone accessing the database can make changes but, in order to ensure the quality of the individual contributions, a change in the database automatically launches a validation cycle, whereby terminologists in the translation departments validate new and modified information. The database covers all 23 official European languages although the content volume per language varies, depending primarily on the length of time each language has been an official EU language. In the long term, the aim is to have equal volume in all languages. According to latest figures on the IATE website (http://iate.europa.eu), the database, contains not only 8.7 million terms EU-specific terms , but also 500 000 abbreviations and 100 000 phrases from areas such as agriculture, law & IT.

The database was conceived as an answer to problems with consistency of terminology in EU documents, to provide a tool facilitating the drafting of multilingual EU texts on any given subject. However, there are still concerns over the quality of some translations, especially legacy data from previous lists. All translations are given a star rating from one star (Reliability not verified) to 4 (Very reliable) depending on the reliability of the source and whether the translation has been officially approved. The consensus seems to be that IATE is a useful source, but one that should be used in conjunction with other reference sources and not relied upon 100%.