The strange tale of the Mechanical Turk The Mechanical Turk was a chess-playing automaton built in the 1760’s by the Hungarian inventor Hans von Kempelen, reputedly to impress the Empress Maria Theresa of Austria. It consisted of a large, box-like chess table, with an ornately costumed mannequin sitting behind it, and intricate mechanical systems for […]
What lies hidden in the machine? Read More »
People unfamiliar with the Japanese language (or with the translation industry in general) often tend to assume that translation between any two languages poses roughly the same degree of a challenge to the translator. This is far from being the case, however, and the Japanese-English language pair must rank as one of the most difficult
Why is Japanese-English translation more difficult than other language pairs? Read More »
The first thing I would like for everyone to do is stop using terms like “hallucinating” or “thinking” to describe what ChatGPT is doing. The anthropomorphic language used to describe computers is misleading at best. Instead of “hallucinating” you can say “producing random words” or “gibberish.” For “thinking,” you can say “crunching numbers.” Please? I
A westerner friend of mine used to work as an in-house Japanese-to-English translator at the offices of a world-famous Japanese vehicle manufacturer in central Japan. His Japanese boss (an engineer who had recently been transferred to head the documentation department) was something of a slave-driver, who showed little appreciation for the complexities of the work
You need a specialist—why “any old translator” just won’t do Read More »
Here is some vital information for anyone needing interpreters: they are usually booked months in advance, and most interpreting agencies will not accept urgent requests. Case Study 1 We are currently working on a project for a heavy equipment manufacturer who contacted us requesting no fewer than four interpreters for an event that will take
Urgent Interpreting Services Read More »
