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Translation is the conversion of written text from a source language into a target language, sometimes a locale. A locale is a country- or region-specific variant of a language, for example, French as spoken in France or Spanish as spoken in Mexico.
Translation activities encompass both human translations, machine translations, and computer assisted translation and machine translations:
- Human translations include literal translations of technical content as well as modifications and adaptations that make the text more suitable for the target audience or understandable in the target language.Machine translations
- Computer-Assisted Translations (CAT) are human translations assisted by computer that identify previous translated text from a Translation Memory (TM) that can be reused as a full sentence (100% Match) or partially re-used (Fuzzy Match). These tools also include terminology support during translation that suggest correct translated terminology from an approved bi-lingual glossary. CAT tools are used in all ICANN translations and greatly improve the quality and throughput of the translation process. There are dozens of commercial and open source tools available that provide this support.
- Machine Translation (MT) are automated translations from one source language into one or more target languages using a Machine Translation system such as Systran or Google Translate. Computer-assisted translations are translations that are created by the use of Machine Translation (such as Systran) or Translation Memory technology (such as SDL TRADOS) and then post-edited and finalized by human translators.Machine Translation systems may support one or multiple target output languages with varying levels of quality. Machine Translation systems require customization based on standardized terminology and existing translations to improve the quality of their translated output. All machine translation systems require some level of post-editing by a human translator to achieve a level of quality generally considered acceptable for nominal business use. Although machine translation systems are improving rapidly many complex and technical translation criteria are still not well suited for machine translation requirements.
INTERPRETATION
Interpretation is the conversion of the spoken word from a source language into a target language. Interpretation is provided in different ways.
- Simultaneous Interpretation: ICANN has used and will continue using simultaneous interpretation during meetings, where appropriate.
- Consecutive interpretation, : is provided in a way where the target language version is rendered after the source version.
- Teleconference Interpretation: This service is provided during different teleconference callcalls. ICANN has been using this particular service to enhance communication during some At-Large, RALO’s and GNSO teleconferences.
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Transcription should not be confused with translation, which in linguistics usually means converting from one language to another, such as from English to Spanish. The most common type of transcription is from a spoken-language source into text such as a computer file suitable for printing as a document such as a report. Common examples are the proceedings of a court hearing such as a criminal trial (by a court reporter) or a physician's recorded voice notes (medical transcription). ICANN records many conference calls and a great part of the sessions that take place during each International Meeting. The audio recordings, in many occasionsinstances, are later transcribed to produce a document to post for posting on ICANN’s web.
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