Have you ever imagined what life would be like without speech? Well, it is a reality for more than four million people with hearing disabilities in the U. S. Add to that the number of people who have difficulty speaking in certain situations, i. e. who suffer from selective mutism, and you will realize that it is not a marginal phenomenon.

In order to communicate with those people, a new way of communicating had to be established. Most of us have tried – more or less successfully so – to convey information or a question to somebody who does not speak your own language, using your hands and feet, and have probably seen the limits of this form of rudimentary communication. Sign Languages, however, are a highly-developed form of communication and help people with disabilities be a part of society. The reason I used the plural form of the word “language” is simple: Sign Languages across the world differ greatly since they are not related to the spoken languages in any way. Even though the U.S. has English as its predominant spoken language, American Sign Language has its roots in French Sign Language, and the sign languages of Spain and Mexico are very different from each other despite the fact that Spanish is the national language in both countries. To add to the confusion, the sign language of Spanish-speaking Bolivia is based on American Sign Language instead of a Sign Language from another hispanophone country. And as if there weren’t enough “national” Sign Languages already, regional differences can be found within a Sign Language, just like we have dialects in our spoken languages. These differences can indicate where people learned to speak Sign Language, which is how Dr. Temperance Brennan and her partner find the parents of a deaf girl in the 2011 episode “The Signs in the Silence” of the TV show BONES.

Sign language families

Apart from their variety, there is another issue with Sign Languages: the small number of speakers. Only an estimated 500,000 to 2,000,000 people in the US know ASL – which is why it is often helpful and / or necessary to hire an interpreter to communicate with people with hearing disabilities, just as it is sometimes necessary to hire an interpreter or translator to facilitate understanding between speakers of different languages. All our translators and interpreters are committed to making all kinds of communication easier and more effective. Our Translation Department will ensure that your project will be to your satisfaction.

If instead of having to rely on somebody else to convey your message you would rather choose our own words yourself, why not learn a new foreign language, maybe even Sign Language, or improve on one that you already have a basic command of? We have experienced instructors available all over the U.S. for virtually every language. Our Training Department will be more than happy to coordinate the classes for you.

Contact us today to get your free estimate!

Sources:

Gallaudet.edu,

Translation is an essential tool for communication between businesses, between companies and their customers, between organizations, and between countries. The most common way to get a translation done is to go through a translation agency or a freelance translator. But for the past few years, we have seen the emergence of a new type of translators: machine translators.

What are the differences between human translation and machine translation? What type of project can you use them for? How reliable are they?

Translating is converting the language of a source text into the language of the target text. It is a complex process in which translators have to take a lot of things into consideration. For example, you can judge a translation quality on how natural and fluent it sounds in the target language. If the translation is very well done, the reader may not even suspect that the source text was written in another language and was translated. The most important thing is to keep the original meaning. To get a good result, translators must take many elements into account: the tone of the text, cultural or contextual references, slang, specific expressions, familiar language and such.

Machine translation may appear as a good way to save money and time, but be careful. These kinds of translators first analyze the structure of each term or phrase within the source text. They then break this structure down into elements that can be easily translated and recompose a term of the same structure in the target language. This method may seem correct, but the quality of the translation is much lower than a human translation, because the structure of each language is different and it is something that most machine translators don’t take into account.

In some cases, some machine translators may even basically provide a literal, word-for-word translation, which leads to a terrible result. Indeed, the translation, even though it may be comprehensible, will not sound natural at all, may comprise a certain number of grammatical mistakes, will not be well-structured and may not keep the original meaning. Moreover, some words can have various possible meanings in the target language depending on the context. This is all why a human analysis is necessary. A perfect understanding of the source text is essential, which machine translators don’t have because they don’t have a global vision of it.

Even in the FAQ of the Google Translate tool states:

“Even today’s most efficient software cannot master a language as well as a native speaker and have by no means the skill of a professional translator.”

Human translators are most often native speakers of the target language. That’s why, unlike machine translators, they are perfectly familiar with all of its specificities, subtleties, expressions, slang, grammar etc., which allows them to keep the meaning and the tone of the original text and provide the best and most accurate and appropriate translation. Also, most human translators have translation degrees, and some of them may focus on a specific area of expertise, in which they may have a professional background. Their knowledge in the field of the project facilitates the translation, while a machine translator may not be able to give an accurate translation of specific technical terms. Machines, if they can’t provide equivalent terms in the target language, might sometimes leave them as they are in the source text.

In a nutshell, machine translation can be used for small, non-crucial projects, for which you don’t necessarily need a perfect translation, but only a general understanding of it—for internal purposes, for example. But, for important projects, which will be shown to a global audience, human translation is essential and much more reliable to ensure a high-quality job, and to make sure the message you want to deliver can be perfectly understood by your audience.

Contact us today for a free translation estimate. We guarantee that every translation is “handcrafted” by a seasoned translator!

Great news!

As of September 9, 2014 OneWorld Language Solutions is now officially HUB certified by the State of Texas.

A Historically Underutilized Business (HUB) is:

• is a for-profit entity that has not exceeded the size standards prescribed by 34 TAC §20.23, and has its principal place of business in Texas, and
• is at least 51% owned by an Asian Pacific American, Black American, Hispanic American, Native American, American woman and/or Service Disabled Veteran, who reside in Texas and actively participate in the control, operations and management of the entity’s affairs.

The certification was granted due to the efforts of the female director and owner of OneWorld Language, Mrs. Gabriele Hayes.

The Human Brain and Language Learning

Are you sometimes tripping over your own words? Do you find it difficult to understand what someone says on a cocktail party? Do you have to concentrate very much to understand what that person with that foreign accent on TV is talking about?

Well, that is because of the way your brain is processing language! The human brain is something amazing. It is responsible for the whole coordination of our body which also includes our ability to speak. We are the only species on the planet that is able to use complex language and writing skills. These skills give us the opportunity to communicate very efficiently with others.

Our brain is divided in two separate parts, called hemispheres. There is a right and a left one. The left hemisphere is also called the “logical brain” because it is the one that is involved in language and analysis. At least five regions in this area of our brain are involved in the process of speech. These include the Wernicke’s area and the Broca’s area which are considered to be the most important areas for language processing. The main function of the Wernicke’s area is the comprehension of language and the ability to communicate coherent ideas, whether it is vocal, written or signed. The Broca’s area is mostly involved in the production of speech. It is connected to our tongue, larynx and mouth. So, if we cannot remember a Spanish vocabulary or we can’t pronounce a word properly it is because of this part of our brain. Nothing is wrong with our tongue!

As you can see language is a very complex and fascinating process. We deal with it every day even if we are not aware of it most of the time as it usually works automatically. But, in order to learn a new language for example it is helpful to know that our brain is playing the main part in the learning process. Therefore, we can sometimes trick our brain in order to get better learning results. You might have heard of the trick of making words you want to memorize into a song. It is often easier to remember the lyrics of a whole song than to remember ten new individual words.

Our language instructors at OneWorld know these little tricks which you can use to make it easier learning a new language. They will help you to use your “language brain” in the most efficient way! Learn more about our Language Training and request a free estimate today.

Sources: News Medical, Brainfacts, Wikipedia, Huffington Post