I am so thankful that DG Translation (DGT), the European Commission's in-house translation service, has allowed me to participate in the Translating Europe Forum 2021 (#2021TEF). Due to the COVID-19 situation, this year's edition was virtual again and held online on 3-5 November 2021. I could not make it on 3 and 4 November but attended a very informative plenary session and interactive panel discussions on Friday 5 November. I had already attended the Translating Europe Forum 2015 in Brussels and had already learned a lot from that experience back then.
The main theme of the #2021TEF was Collaboration in times of automation. It was also a great opportunity for translators to network and learn about great IT tools, future trends in the language industry, etc.
On 5 November, the participants in the #2021TEF, the vast majority of them being translators from all over the world (mainly from Europe but also from Africa, Taiwan, Argentina, Colombia, etc.), could enjoy a first excellent presentation by British futurologist, speaker and broadcaster Shivvy Jervis who was introduced by British-Italian journalist, moderator and translator Aminda Leigh. Shivvy Jervis, voted one of Britain’s Women of the Year for 2021, focused on our human potential. She convincingly talked about the science of motivation, the three signals that mean machines will not displace people in the way feared by some of the #2021TEF participants and some of the most fascinating jobs and skills of the future. As far as the three signals are concerned, here is what Shivvy Jervis explained:
Mrs. Jervis also highlighted the fact that augmented reality will create jobs in the future. According to her, there are five job areas to be considered for the (near) future: digital ethicists, virtualised medicine professionals, immersive media experts, experts contributing to 'adaptive AI' and alternative energy planners. She also mentioned that people absorb information 6 times better when it is in an immersive format such as augmented reality i.e. overlaying digital info onto our real worlds. In short, Shivvy Jervis sends the following message to the translators: feel future ready! She also told them that there will be surprising opportunities from a turbulent time:
In order to learn more about Shivvy Jervis and her studies on the intersection of digital breakthroughs, scientific discoveries and brain chemistry, you can go to her website: www.shivvyjervis.com.
After this session, I had the chance to attend two online workshops. The first one, entitled A new, flexible working environment, was chaired by Geert Vanderhaeghe (owner and general manager of Lexitech and a LIND group representative). Other panelists were Martina Kichler (deputy secretary general at Universitas), Alina Birsan (founding manager at AB Language Solutions), Kåre Lindahl (CEO of Venga Global, part of ARGOS Multilingual), Kata Juhász (head of HR at MemoQ). COVID-19 has changed the way we work. It has sped up technological advances and revealed how important people are in providing language services. What does it mean for the post-COVID era? What new flexible ways of working did we learn? Has the concept of office space changed? Is a return to the office really necessary? Have we not proved that the job can be done well also from home and, if so, what does this mean for the language industry? The panelists have tried to give answers. This first workshop was quite interactive. During the talk, the audience was asked to participate and take surveys. When asked how much the work of translators was impacted by COVID, 46% of the survey respondents indicated that they work more from home than before and they enjoy it. 31% of the people who completed the questionnaire said that there was no significant change in how they work. 23% of the participants work more from home than before, but they see a lot of negative impact. Another question was then raised: how did technology impact the COVID period? In this case, 64% of the respondents have answered that they feel more connected to the outside world thanks to technology whereas 36% of them feel more isolated than before COVID despite technology. One lesson to be learned from this panel: language service providers (LSP) hire for culture... Skills depend in fact on the company you apply for. LSP managers need to understand what motivates the people that they want to hire. A rigid mindset could turn into a problem. Nowadays, people seem to be more attracted to purpose than to efficiency. Flexibility, openness, agility and curiosity are some of the competences which are most looked for by LSP managers these days. The second workshop attended by me on 5 November was more technical: several experts had prepared a live demonstration of noteworthy IT tools. It was just a glimpse of the newest automation tools and products for the translation profession...
In the middle of the afternoon, Aminda Leigh introduced Yota Georgakopoulou, a consultant at Athena Consultancy P.C. and a LIND group representative, who chaired a very informative panel discussion entitled Automation for the Translation Profession – What’s next? followed by a Q&A session. The high-level panel members were Robert Etches (CEO of Exfluency), Amanda Smith (director of language strategy and content business operations at Discovery Communications), Peter Van den Steene (CEO of Presence Group), and Tomáš Svoboda (translation scholar, freelance translator and EMT board member). Mr. Etches quickly set the tone of the debate: "We [at Exfluency, his company] don't sell translation!". He and the panelists insisted on the fact that translating remains a human thing. And interpreting remains even more human! Mr. Van den Steene took the example of puns or expressions to be translated. What came out of the talk is that full automation is not for tomorrow! Again, a few questions were asked to the audience via the Slido interaction tool in paralllel with the panel discussion. Will auto-interpreters be a default service offering by 2030? 47% of the respondents picked the answer Maybe, 28% said No and 25% chose Yes. Another question was raised later on: is being paid by the hour better than being paid per word/minute of video + CAT/MT discounts? The answer Better to be paid per hour reached 59%, Both are problematic/just as good was chosen by 25% of the respondents and Better to be paid per word/minute of video + discounts was 16% of the answers. Capitalizing on talent (and experience maybe?) in order to connect people will definitely still prevail for some time.
Ismo Leikola (also called ISMO), a famous stand-up comedian, concluded the forum with a nice and very funny comedy show which lasted a few minutes. ISMO makes people see familiar things anew through his unique perspective. He started his comedy career in 2002 in Finland, his home country. There, he wrote and starred in two seasons of his own sitcom simply entitled... ISMO! He also filmed four DVD specials from 2008 to 2016. The comedian made his US debut in 2014 at the Laugh Factory in Hollywood where he won the title of The Funniest Person in the World. In December 2015, he relocated to Los Angeles from Scandinavia. Now he performs to sold-out crowds around the world and has also gained attention at the biggest comedy festivals. Ismo Leikola can be seen regularly performing in LA clubs and headlining across the USA. See some of his funniest performances freely available on YouTube: ISMO - Super excited, ISMO - Man on the moon or ISMO - Flying through time. ISMO made me laugh!
You can find details and information about the excellent Translating Europe Forum 2021 (including video files of all presentations freely available) on:
https://ec.europa.eu/info/news/translating-europe-forum-2021tef-2021-nov-06_en
and
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLLqIRaiVCGCQp1cLGJn-F7aqnuxGX5xPn
Photo credentials: Bert Larsimont, #2021TEF - European Commission and Ismo Leikola – Watch Your Language Tour 2020
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