At the Center of Power Yet...

Somehow sublimated from its structure or meaning.

The phrasing may sound stilted or odd, but this is because the phenomenon illustrated is subtle, and something few persons would experience directly in their day to day lives.  Germany's Manager Magazine put together this lovely set of images that illustrate quite concretely the contradictions of the professional peaks of the interpreter's profession:  statecraft between leaders.

The images contain instantly recognizable faces of the highest order of importance, held together by another face, this time nameless, whose intimacy with one or the other of the speakers is the force and effort that enables the meeting in the first place.

 

Upcoming Engagements Around The World March 2015

International Year of Light
(Sponsored by UNESCO)

Osaka Lecture March 6

Did you know that 2015 is the United Nations' International Year of Light and Light-Based Technologies?  (Editor's note: nice distinction. Necessary almost!)

The International Year of Light is a global initiative that will highlight the importance of light and optical technologies in our daily lives, for the future, and for the development of society. The array of offerings is impressive and global.  And if you peruse them, you'll come to see how light is the origin of all energy here on Earth, and how photonics - the science and technology of generating, controlling, and detecting photons, which are particles of light. --  will rise to assume its place next to electronics in the 21st century economy.  It all comes together in Energy (generation & transport), Architecture & Urban Planning, Agriculture, Transportation, and desalination technology.

Who knew?

National Forum 'Light as urban and cities cultural planification factor' is a March 6 lecture in Osaka where two of our interpreters will assist global experts presenting views on the light given off by cities as a planning factor for culture and urban design.  The session will  focus on smart light project and cities branding potential through light policies. Open to all, free of charge.  Register here.

 

 

Young President's Organization
The Original Social Network

YPO Edge 2015: Melbourne, Australia March 25 - 26

Each year, business leaders from around the world gather for YPO Global EDGE, YPO’s landmark event. For 2.5 days, members, their spouses, partners and invited guests from more than 125 countries convene with world-renowned thought leaders to address key issues in business, politics, philanthropy and humanities. The event, hosted on a different continent every year, offers exceptional educational opportunities for attendees while helping the global leaders of today shape the world of tomorrow.

The 2015 EDGE Conference will focus on the theme of Dreamtime [video here], an aboriginal legend centered on the concept of creation and interconnected relationships. In Melbourne, attendees will examine their place in the world, their connections to past, present and future, and their roles as leaders in business, family, community and beyond.

Andrew Meehan looks forward to facilitating clear and effective communication among the conference attendees, a critical ingredient towards enthusiastic reviews of EDGE such as

“YPO Global EDGE was a phenomenal experience that challenged my thinking about both business and life. One of my key takeaways resulted in direct changes to our company’s strategy and a significant increase in performance in the following months. As a young YPOer, direct business value is a key driver of my YPO experience.”

About YPO

Founded in 1950, YPO today provides 22,000 peers and their families in more than 125 countries with access to unique educational and networking experiences designed to support their business, community and personal leadership.  Members of YPO are peers who share in common the achievement of success at an early age (before 45); a commitment to learning as a lifelong adventure; and a desire to connect authentically in an environment of trust and confidentiality.

From the Annals of Translation & Its Perils

Translation technology has made impressive strides and is making its way into communications platforms like Google's search engine, and more recently, Skype..  Google translate -among other tools - is a godsend to anyone who has stared at search results in an unintelligible language.  But every once in a while, we can see concretely that machines are making best guess efforts based upon probabilities -- which is quite distinct from asserting that the machines understand meaning.

Famed linguist Noam Chomsky was to be published in Turkish daily newspaper, Yeni Safak.  The interview was conducted by email, and the kerfuffle arose around the following statement arising in the back-and-forth of interviews by email.

When the Turkish original: "Aksine ne zaman ki her şey süt liman olur, düzene girer işte o zaman Batı'da telaş başlar" is fed into Google translate, the results are

"Contrary to what happens when everything that milk port, enters the work order, then begins to bustle in the West."

In Turkish, the individual words "süt" and "liman" do mean "milk" and "port" on their own, but taken together they form an idiomatic expression to indicate calm.  A human translator might have put it thus:

On the contrary, when everything has calmed down, then this will be when the West starts panicking.

Translations should be elegant as well as accurate. Good translation is good writing which reflects a lifetime of experience, creativity and imagination.  (Ancillary moral to story:  respected newspapers should have access to human translators.)

Gülay Eskikaya is the founder of Turkish Business Translations, and wrote about the gap between Star Trek's universal translator handheld machine and this amusing anecdote in The Guardian, in 2013. Link to original, here.