After a summer’s worth of hard work, we are proud to share our latest project: a video series diving into the charming world of Jay Chou’s iconic song, “Blue and White Porcelain.”

The series consists of three engaging parts:

1. Educational Video: An introduction to the key terms and concepts in the song, providing valuable insight into its cultural and historical references.
2. English Translation: A clear and thoughtful translation of the lyrics, making the poetic beauty of the song accessible to a broader audience.
3. ASMR Lyrics Reading: A soothing experience featuring an ASMR reading of the lyrics, allowing you to enjoy the lyrics in a unique and calming way.

Click to watch all three parts combined in one video on YouTube.

Feedback Received

It is delightful to be able to engage our clients in a dialogue about culture, poetry and translation!

A client of Monterey Language Services shared a wonderful interpretation of Blue and White Porcelain of her own with us after reading our translation. She thought the song described the beloved landscape scenery of China as captured in blue and white porcelain pottery.

How did this story happen? Let us share how Monterey Language Services turned this beautiful piece into a fascinating project!

Spreading the Joy of Translation

The song “Blue and White Porcelain” by Taiwanese artist Jay Chou was released in 2007, so why did we choose it for our 2024 summer project? The idea didn’t come after a lot of planning or brainstorming, but as a sudden enlightenment.

At the start of the summer, Mei-Ling kept hearing “Blue and White Porcelain” in different places, so she decided to learn it. The more she sang the song, the more the beauty of the Chinese culture embedded in the lyrics resonated with her. Appreciating the poetry of the lyrics, Monterey Language Services decided to share the song with a broader audience by translating the Chinese lyrics into English.

Even non-Chinese speakers were able to join in this effort. In this video, Layla, a Spanish interpreter whose native language is English, read the translation as a poem. We then developed the reading further using ASMR techniques.

This story is an inspiring example of the power of translation to facilitate communication between people of different languages and cultures.

Collaborative Teamwork

This project is the product of collaboration between many colleagues and professionals. The end result surpasses what one person is capable of doing alone.

We started the project with Christoph, whose Chinese-to-English translation follows the syllable-count and meter of the original song and provided the foundation for what was to come. See our previous blog post for more information.

After the English translation video was complete, Shreya joined in. She suggested adding an educational video with eye-catching images to explain the key terms in the lyrics.

Layla thought the English translation was poetic, so she performed a reading in her clear and gentle voice. Her soothing tone inspired Shreya to suggest creating an ASMR version.

Finally, we wanted to create a complete sensory experience. Gary edited the background music and added sound effects such as rain falling on leaves, fire crackling, and pottery wheel clicking. These effects enhanced the video and made it atmospheric.

We are proud to mention that the younger generation also played a part. The background image of the ASMR video was drawn by De-Yi Lee, a junior high school student.

For this project, we have many people to thank, including the song’s original composer and singer Jay Chou and lyricist Vincent Fang. The song inspired a lot of creativity, which has made this project very enjoyable.

Through the collaborative efforts of many talented individuals, we were able to produce a video with a clear vision.

Video Editing

The combined video has three parts, and we created it in three different phases. As the videos consist of many different elements, video editing was required to combine and synchronize them. Smoothing the audio and creating seamless transitions between different segments were also fun to handle.

In the introduction to Parts One and Two, we used a stunning animated image of falling flower petals, while a blue and white bowl rotates in the background. On its own, the animation is beautiful, but when put it into our video, we felt that the speed was a little too fast.

The video is aimed to relax rather than energize, so we decided to slow the animation down, reducing the speed by half. The effect was immediate and magical. The animation was seamlessly integrated into the rest of the video.

From start to finish, we made sure that there are smooth transitions throughout the video. Our aim was to find a balance between joy and serenity as well as between majesty and simplicity, while maintaining a relaxing mood on the whole.

Translation Journey

Before translating the lyrics, we took the time to decide on our approach. We weren’t merely trying to produce a mechanical, one-to-one translation of the words. Instead, we aimed to create a singable English version that mirrored the rhythm and flow of the original song.

At the same time, we also wanted to faithfully convey the story told by the original lyrics. Therefore, every word went through a great deal of consideration and scrutiny.

To keep the translation accessible and easy for a non-Chinese audience to understand, some proper nouns had to be dropped. These included references to a Song dynasty style potter’s mark on a vase, and a town in Jiangnan, a region in China known for its romantic river scenery.

Both terms are richly evocative to a Chinese listener, but their dense cultural meanings could not be explained within the limitations of the syllable count.

For the Song dynasty reference, we simplified the phrase to “old potter’s mark”. Although “antique” may have been better at capturing the intended meaning, “old” was a better fit for the syllable count.

On the other hand, we omitted the reference to the Jiangnan region altogether. As Jiangnan’s literal meaning is “south of the river,” we gave up geographic specificity but kept its romantic associations by using the word “enchanted” in the same line.

After a process of painstaking deliberation, we are happy with the translation. It is both faithful to the original lyrics and singable to the original meter.

Interpretations of the Song

Song lyrics can be considered a form of poetry and can have many different interpretations. During the translation of the song, we had a debate about whether the speaker in the lyrics is addressing a blue and white porcelain vase or a human love interest.

One interpretation was that the speaker is an art lover recalling his encounter with a beautiful blue and white porcelain vase in Jiangnan. The art lover’s treasure hunt led him to discover the porcelain vase hidden behind a splashed-ink landscape painting among other works of Chinese art.

The other interpretation is that this is a love song that uses metaphors from Chinese art to describe his longing and the beauty of his lover.

Creative translation, also known as transcreation, of works such as “Blue and White Porcelain” can spark lively discussion, as there can be many different interpretations of the same text.

Joy of Translation

Monterey Language Services worked to translate an excerpt of a very famous Mandarin pop song, 青花瓷 (Blue and White Porcelain).

We present an English translation that recreates the story of the original song in comfortable, singable English.

Even if you don’t speak Chinese, you can truly enjoy and sing the song! That is precisely the intention of this project – to show how much joy a great piece of translation can bring to people.

Be on the lookout for our YouTube videos, which will have both individuals and groups singing the song!

For reference: https://youtu.be/EWIOdhz4oQQ

Interpretation of the Lyrics

Our translation is based on our unique interpretation of the lyrics as a dialogue between an art connoisseur and an antique blue and white porcelain vase from the Song dynasty.

The art connoisseur stumbles upon the vase in a town south of the Yangtze river, in the Jiangnan (“south of the river”) region, an area known for its drizzly weather, for the beauty and soft-spoken nature of its residents, and for being the birthplace of many beautiful works of pottery.

Banana trees, rain, and door-rings rusting green portray not only the humid climate of Jiangnan, but also the perfect weather for bringing out the best color in making porcelain.

The song recalls this fateful encounter and the art connoisseur’s feelings of longing for this immortal work of art.

As listeners, we are invited to share in the connoisseur’s feelings of awe towards the secrets of ancient pottery that have been forgotten for thousands of years.

This art connoisseur could even be imagined as a non-Chinese person fascinated with Chinese culture.

In the second verse, the art connoisseur sees a bowl with leaping carp and is reminded of an antique blue and white porcelain vase, or “you.” The verse describes his discovery of the vase behind a splashed ink painting among other old works of art.

The lyrics reference many different traditional Chinese arts and crafts, such as calligraphy, seal-carving (such as for the potter’s marks stamped on the underside of vases and bowls), embroidery, and landscape painting in the “splashed ink” style.

The song can be viewed as a love letter to Chinese culture.

About the Original Song

With their 2007 song “Blue and White Porcelain”, musician Jay Chou and lyricist Vincent Fang ushered in a trend of “Chinese style” (中國風) songs in Mandopop music, fusing traditional Chinese cultural elements and instrumental stylings with contemporary and Western influences.

Vincent Fang’s lyrics are crafted in a hybrid of modern and classical Chinese, blending literary allusions to classical art forms with the intimacy of address in a modern love song.

Apparently, Fang initially wrote the song about a different kind of pottery called Ru ware (汝瓷), known for the beautiful sky-blue color of its glaze.

However, because a song titled “Ru ware” seemed too esoteric, the theme was eventually changed to blue and white porcelain.

This porcelain is more widely known and therefore easier for the audience to visualize, and Fang also thought it was better suited to convey love, the emotion at the song’s core.

Lyrics

色白花青的錦鯉 躍然於碗底
Carp leaping live in the bowl, painted white and blue

臨摹宋體落款時 卻惦記着你
tracing the old potter’s mark, I’m thinking of you

你隱藏在窯燒裏千年的秘密
You’re the secret kept in the kiln all these centuries

極細膩猶如 繡花針落地
fine as a sewing needle’s falling ‘clink’

簾外芭蕉惹驟雨 門環惹銅綠
Banana trees tempt the rain, doors rust to green

而我路過那江南小鎮惹了你
and when I passed through your town, you enchanted me

在潑墨山水畫裏
Splashed in the landscape painting

你從墨色深處被隱去
you were hidden in the depths of ink

Credit and Disclaimer

The original Chinese song is credited here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uf8HHCcbpFc&list=PLZMNI72DYSfavFSLH-o0WfWQ2C-1dbj_e&index=13

This English translation is a collaboration between Mei-Ling Chen and Christoph Zhang.

The English translation shown in this video is property of Monterey Language Services for purely educational purposes.

Monterey Language Services has no intention to use it for commercial profit.

Individualized Education Program Meetings

School is a common experience that a lot of us have. For some, though, it’s not that simple of an experience. Imagine you’re having trouble keeping up in school and not learning at the same rate as others. What can you do? Sometimes doing your best can only take you so far. This is where IEPs come into play.

IEP is a legally binding process.

Individualized Education Programs are a very involved and careful process that involves not only the student, but their parents, and their teachers too. As you might be able to imagine, it’s important that everyone is able to understand each other for such a delicate and important process!

For interpreters, helping to interpret IEP meetings is a rewarding line of work that they actively look forward to. Seeing the smile on the child’s face or the parents’ face when they know that careful attention is being paid and that they can flawlessly communicate with each other without the barrier of language is a great feeling!

While there’s no set formula for the perfect interpreter, all our interpreters agree that experience plays a significant role.

Pedro and Noemi suggest that it typically takes about a year for interpreters to feel comfortable working in special education.

Familiarize yourself with the terminologies and the entire IEP process thoroughly so that you’re fully prepared for what’s to come!

It’s even better if you have a collection of examples ready to share, making it easier to explain and clarify information for parents.

Interpreters Need to possess comprehensive knowledge of the school system and more!

Susy specifically emphasizes the need for interpreters to possess comprehensive knowledge of various aspects, including the school system, resources of the school district, expectations of teachers, staff, and therapists, understanding the background of the family and the list goes on!

To do so, we recommend maintaining close ties with local school districts, which allows you to have a deeper understanding of the ever-evolving systems and resources. Following up with current standards is crucial!

Interpreters Need to have some knowledge of autism and speech development

Autism traits and speech development vary widely, so staying informed and updated on these topics proves immensely beneficial in delivering effective interpretation services. As Flower says, autism is a spectrum, so it is overall best to have some knowledge of it, otherwise someone who is not familiar with certain autism traits and/or the lack of speech development will probably be taken off guard.

Interpreters Need to take notes and/or ask the speaker to pause so they may interpret efficiently.

Interpreters must interpret the core message, and as such must take notes and/or ask the speaker to pause so they may interpret efficiently. While it’s true that interpreters usually bring out the core message, they also try to retain as many of the details and nuances as possible when interpreting for a speaker.

In order to do this, it’s important that the speaker doesn’t speak for too long so that the interpreters can be sure to repeat everything that they said in another language.

The job of an interpreter is to facilitate communication to the point that it’s almost as if the two sides are talking to each other. As such, omitting details is not something that interpreters try to do.

Interpreters Need to interpret in a register that the parents can understand!

Full inclusion refers to the total integration of a student with disabilities into the regular education program with special support. In full inclusion, the student’s primary placement is in the regular education class. However, the student can leave the class to receive related services such as speech or physical therapy.

For some interpreters, one challenge they find is that the language of the IEP’s various pathologists is sometimes at a register far above the level of understanding of the parents.

If that happens, the interpreters should try asking for permission to interpret in a register that the parents could understand.

Also, with COVID-19, the introduction of non-native English-speaking speech and language pathologists, may add another complexity in between IEP meetings.

This is why it’s very helpful for interpreters to have native-level strength in English while also being familiar with speech development. It makes communicating with the correct technical jargon much simpler and also easier to simplify everything for parents.

Our favorite moments despite these difficulties

Needless to say, there are so many cherished moments throughout the process, considering how closely interpreters work alongside the family.

Pedro fondly recalls being able to witness students’ progress and growth, or even celebrate their graduation from needing special education services.

Susy shared a heartwarming moment when the principal, who attended the IEP meeting, acknowledged her passion and dedication, which led him to choose her again for the school district meeting.

These accomplishments are truly what made our interpreters feel deeply satisfied and reaffirm the meaningfulness of their work!

If you know any T&I schools we can reach out to, please share them by contacting us at info@montereylanguages.com.

Monterey Language Services has followed AI development closely and reached out to professional interpreters across the globe to gather their advice for future interpreters.

https://www.montereylanguages.com/blog/advice-to-future-interpreters-4894

Now we’re looking to share what we’ve gathered with students around the world who are pursuing a career in translation or interpretation.

Thank you and let’s encourage the next generation together!

MIIS TILM Career Fair 2024

Check out or career fair journey here!

Monterey’s local Middlebury Institute of International Studies had its annual Translation, Interpretation, and Localization Management career fair on February 16^th. It was an exciting day for graduates, current students, and all participants alike.

It’s one of our favorite times of the year!

Many of our colleagues in our office are alumni from MIIS, so it’s always great to be able to go back and meet bright minds and familiar faces.

This year, the event was hosted on the MIIS campus itself, which was wonderful and brought back many memories of attending classes there and being in the same shoes as the students there today.

Speaking to the students there and hearing their enthusiasm and passion really reinvigorates us to make sure that we do our absolute best to ensure that they are coming into a flourishing industry. We truly believe in fostering a community of mutual support where everyone has the opportunity to thrive and succeed.

We made information easy for students

Our staff members were there to set up bright and early at 8:00AM and made sure to make the booth perfect and efficient.

We showcased posters featuring various position descriptions, which allowed students to intuitively understand the roles we are looking for.

Going off the success of last year, we organized information for students to scan with their phones so that they could see the positions we’re hiring for, links for them to sign up, and our advice for future interpreters.

It seems like this was a hit because we received a long line of students eager to speak with us and we received a lot of positive feedback from attendees.

We strive to deepen the connections further as we move forward.

Students felt the energy that our company has, and we felt theirs as well! Every attendee was enthusiastic about seizing the opportunity to speak with industry professionals.

The place was filled with so much potential and possibility, and it was indeed a pleasure to witness such energy and enthusiasm.

The part we’re proud of the most is how much the students said that they appreciated the genuine connections they felt when speaking with our interpreter and representative.

One of the most important talents in our industry is establishing connections with those we work with, so hearing this from not just one, but many students is something we take as a very kind compliment!

Thank you to everyone!

We’re so glad to have had the opportunity to attend this year and thank everyone at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies for making this event such a success.

We always think very highly of the event and see it as a great opportunity to meet new minds in the industry as well as just genuinely connect with people.

Thank you, and we can’t wait until next year’s!

Behind the Scenes

Flipbook Link: https://heyzine.com/flip-book/295aedfedf.html

How did the idea come up?

One of the participating interpreters Sasha commented: The thought of coming up with such a book is already an achievement.

That’s right, the idea to give advice to future interpreters didn’t occur to us until after having completed a series we did that compared professional interpreters to AI.

Starting from Interpreters and Music to Interpreters and Voices (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLO-QGEbwcTr2MdhbLPPGszMw8Rdc5J9aI), the 12 videos we’ve made in 6 months led us to a certain question:

• How are we going to pass the torch on to the future interpreters in the era of AI?”
• We began thinking about if it was possible for us to share advice to encourage the future of our industry.

Who did we reach out to?

This subject is bigger than our company (Monterey Language Services), so we reached out across the globe to various colleagues in the field to ask them what kind of advice they would give to future generations.

Judging by the number of quality, in-depth, and complete responses we received, it seems that our idea to seek out advice from colleagues was a step in the right direction.

Navigating the complex undertaking

Martha graciously shared the medal she was awarded for writing the bilingual publication. It was very inspirational and taught us that we can learn to open our mind beyond interpretation assignments! It awakened our awareness of our role and responsibilityto disseminate the value of our heritage to other language speakers.

As a result, we decided to pursue putting a face to their quotes and deliver even more layers of information to the project, and that thought has really elevated the project and made everything more intriguing!

Captions and pictures

We are totally in awe to receive amazing one-line captions, such as:

• Bing’s regarding “the wealth of information disguised as language”
• Lenne’s regarding eye contact on the job. Lenne brought it to our attention that there are many different theories as to how long to maintain eye contact and where to look while talking to someone vs. What an eye-opening piece of feedback from Lenne!
• When we received Elizabeth’s picture with lots of beautiful divine light on her face, we were blown away. She explained that her husband took that picture as she was preparing for prayer ministry at a Christian retreat.
• Elizabeth gave us 3 options for captioning. We picked one, but her other two are equally powerful:
• A peaceful heart helps our minds connect the right words. Don’t be overwhelmed; rely on help from above.
• The key to quick recall of obscure terminology is the peaceful alertness of a watchman.

Our director of translation, Mei-Ling, cannot agree more with Elizabeth that feeling peaceful is the way to cope with uncertainty or obscure situations that we often face at work. It’s at those times that we should take some time, get some space, clear our minds, and seek inspiration. Once we find our inner peace, we will know what to do and understand that things will work out.

• Virginia’s holiday picture from her family is an invaluable contribution because, not only is it the only picture in the book with more than just one person, but it also shows how important it is to have a support system behind every one of us, let it be your family, friends, colleagues, or a professional team.

Collaborating with others and not fighting alone are very moving pieces of advice, and can really help one to progress. The flipbook is testimony to that. After all, so many passionate professionals in the industry came out in full force to support, not only this project, but the future of our industry as well.

• Pictures of Ruth, Layla, Jose, and Mei-Ling show that doing extra-curricular activities actually sharpen your mind and thoughts and make us a stronger and better interpreters!
• The pictures from Rania, Elizabeth (Love What You Do), Lisa, Paulo, and Maria show core elements, skills, and practical tactics required of interpreters.

Last, but not least, we also would like to give thanks to Rania’s contribution. Thanks to her summary of all the major advice, everything fell right into place, which we couldn’t appreciate more. We are proud to echo what Bing says–  “the flipbook is well designed and exceptionally inspiring,” what Elizabeth says – “I am sure it will be a blessing to newcomers and seasoned professionals alike.”

Conclusion: AI vs. Humans

Finally, the conclusion of the flipbook is on pages 14, 15, and 16.

• On page 14, Helena and Sasha identify the elephant in the room –
• Then on page 15, Vanessa challenges AI saying – “if you interpret/translate like a machine, a machine could take your job, but if you bring your humanity into the work, you can really stand out.”
• On page 16, Jose further concludes that –
  “In our fast-paced digital world, the intrinsic human qualities of empathy and warmth remain indispensable in interpretation.”
• “So, continue honing your skills and nurturing those invaluable soft skills – they are your most powerful tools in this profession!”

We were amazed to see that the interpreters provided different perspectives on AI and Humans, and echoed each other so well! The participating interpreters’ conclusion coincides with what Monterey Language Services is convinced of after making 12 videos to compare the performances of professional interpreters to AI.

Wonderful insight and advice

The messages from all these accomplished interpreters with their fingers on the pulse of the industry, with their heartfelt words and their pictures – it’s all really come together to make something special that we’re excited to share with whomever needs to hear it, especially during this time of uncertainty.

We love the awesome quote from Bing “the wealth of information disguised as language”. There’s so much information coded in language, and it’s up to us as interpreters to decode it for others to understand, which is something that machines still fail to master.

We clearly see a bright future for those interested in becoming translators or interpreters! So keep calm and keep going!

“Keep calm and keep going” is a powerful reminder for everyone. Don’t get too much into your head or scramble for a fix, or rush to make progress. Just stay calm, do what you have to do, and carry on. With time, everything will turn out well, naturally. Thanks to Lenne for providing the perfect ending for such a complex undertaking that, as Martha put it, will benefit everyone in the world of languages.

Behind the Scenes Part VI

We often present clients with guidance on how to work with interpreters, and frequently get asked about AI. This is because many people are waiting for the day that they can simply go online and use AI to seamlessly translate between two different languages, but we would like to say it out loud here: THAT DAY HAS YET TO COME.

Please also check out this flip-book we’ve made https://heyzine.com/flip-book/20de67a12a.html

Please also check out our playlist for Chinese localization case studies: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLO-QGEbwcTr14xqfiR38Mp-EhHAmclsUY

We localized the Interpreters and Music video into traditional Chinese as an example to compare translation accuracy between humans versus AI and to identify some classic AI issues.

One of the biggest weaknesses of AI is that it often struggles with names. For instance, the name “Laura” was translated into both “蘿拉” and “勞拉.” When we saw this inconsistency in names, we looked at each other with amusement because this happens all the time. Some may say AI spelling names incorrectly isn’t a big deal since it’s an easy fix. However, for those people, we’d like to share a real-life example.

In a lease contract we worked on, Paragraph 1 said that the landlord shall be known as ‘A’ and the tenant as ‘B’. Paragraph 2 called the landlord ‘C’ and the tenant ‘D’. This was a document with 30,000 words that a client asked us to quote for reviewing the translation, which had probably been done by an AI. Just in terms of reviewing names, how much effort would it take to find out if there were places that call the landlord “E” and the tenant “F” and so on? Not to mention all the work it would take to find other mistakes that humans typically need several rounds of review to detect.

Our analysis also uncovered that AI defaults to using the pronoun “你,” referring to males and offering no female form “妳.”

AI have translated love song titles like “Suddenly Missing You” and “Stuck on You” into traditional Chinese, using the male form. The male singers may not prefer using the male form of “you” in their love song titles. Otherwise, a native speaker in traditional Chinese would feel kind of strange, reading it.

We inserted line breaks on messages that appear in the video. With line breaks, AI seemed to lose the context of the lines.

Line breaks are important. We are often requested to insert line breaks in Asian language marketing materials. Take Japanese line breaks as an example. There are some basic rules for line breaks or how to break words up, but at the same time, there are a lot of exceptions, which humans can easily catch if they understand Japanese, but not AI. In other words, humans break things apart (debriefing) and put them together in a creative way, which AI is just not capable of.

It turns out that AI struggles to translate any segment accurately and, at times, produces unnatural and contextually absurd translations. As shown in the screenshot below, even with a relatively short source text, the quality of AI translation was unbelievably subpar.

AI translated “interpretation” as “explanation” due to a lack of context.
AI translated “Performance” to machine’s performance rather than that of the interpreter’s.
AI mistakenly translated the meaning of “like” as “to be fond of” instead of “similar to.”
AI word-for-word translation for “big heart” doesn’t make sense to a Chinese audience.

It’s clear to us that AI is not able to handle messages that are broken down by line breaks. This then leads us to a question: How well could AI handle entire messages without line breaks?

We conducted a retest by removing all the line breaks on messages. In this attempt, the text was formatted in a more machine-friendly way to enhance AI’s understanding. But even so, post-editing remained an essential step, with 80% of the segments requiring significant human intervention. Without this crucial step, AI translations either come across as rigid and less relatable to our audience, or contain mistranslations. Below are some examples.

Example 1:
The AI translation appears rather stiff because the word “sync” was translated literally. The audience might wonder what it means to “sync” one language to another. Human translators are able to further explain the context of sync, that is, interpreters “listen to one language and convey it in another language.”

Example 2:
AI translated “more emotionally acute” as “more impatient,” which not only deviates from the intended meaning of the source, but also negates the impact of the word “music”. During post-editing, we replaced it with “more emotionally sensitive,” which is more contextually accurate.

Example 3:
AI did word-for-word translation again. It doesn’t sound like what a normal person would say in Chinese. As a dynamic language, Chinese favors verbs over nouns and usually keeps sentences short. Therefore, in post-editing, we restructured the sentence to make it fit a typical Chinese writing style, and flow more naturally.

Example 4:
AI’s translation of “concentration” lacked clarity. Without referring to the source, it was hard to grasp the intended meaning. So, we opted for a more precise choice of words.

Example 5:
AI does a literal translation, full of ambiguity and rigidity, which doesn’t make clear sense to a Chinese audience.

Translation is supposed to flow naturally to engage the audience. It is the more immersive and relatable experiences that make humans feel comfortable. These are exactly the areas where we as interpreters and translators can contribute to.

There may be a lot of gloom and doom from some in the community who think that their jobs are at risk, however, the reality is that we’re training AI to speak our language, but they aren’t able to fully understand it like we can. They can process it, try and find the corresponding pattern in their database, and come to a conclusion that they think is right, but they won’t always be. That’s where interpreters and translators will always have the edge over AI. Human creativity and our ability to understand what’s important, and the culture embedded in it, enables us to make sure that we are conveying the intended message.

We tried one of the latest AI platforms to translate one of our office videos into Mandarin.

While we were impressed by the seamless process and the voice cloning feature that enhanced voice modulation, we couldn’t help but notice pronunciation and translation errors in the generated video. Given that Mandarin Chinese is a tonal language, tones can become a source of misunderstanding if not pronounced correctly. The chosen video introduces the rental service of our conference room, making “conference” a high-frequency word. However, throughout the video, AI consistently pronounces the Chinese word for “conference,” as “memory,” with tones differing from the former. Also, “state-of-the-art” in Chinese is pronounced the same way that “cash” is. This could undoubtedly complicate the message we aim to convey if left alone.

The translation issues we caught are mostly recurring problems caused by machine translation as discussed above. Take the first sentence as an example. AI translated “Looking for a conference room to have a meeting over video or in person?” as “Can you look for a conference room via video or in person meeting?” AI’s rendition deviates from the original meaning, which is likely caused by line breaks, leading to confusion and miscommunication. Such discrepancies underscore the importance of post-editing and human intervention to refine machine-generated translations.

Our conclusion becomes clear.

In this age of AI becoming more prevalent, humans just need to work smarter to beat out AI. As individuals in an evolving world, it’s important to accept technological advancements, but also understand that AI lacks creativity, individuality, improvisation capability, and the understanding of human cultures. That’s how humans can break through and go beyond AI’s limitations.

One of our clients, a public relations team personally handwrote their greeting messages in a Christmas card to us. Thanks to the inspiration we received from the team’s warmth and sincerity, and also because 2023 has been a year full of music and human voice auras at Monterey Language Services, we decided to use the wonderful sound of the piano to express how we feel about all the interactions with our clients and colleagues in 2023. Then, the piano continues, and brings us to the first morning of 2024. From the fondest place of our heart, we bid farewell to 2023 and wish everyone a fresh start in 2024.

Though these two piano short clips are not played perfectly or professionally, we hope you can still feel our most sincere wishes being conveyed to you. There’s a certain rawness and unpolished sound from the music that goes straight to the deepest of our emotions. We don’t have to be a professional musician to tell a story or convey emotion, and that’s exactly what human touch or human aura is all about, and that’s what we would like to share for this year!

Happy New Year to everyone from Monterey Language Services! We wish you good health, peace, and success in the coming year! We have also prepared a holiday playlist for you to enjoy.

Please join us wholeheartedly in greeting the year 2024! Here’s to a year of aura and joy. Have a wonderful holiday season!

First music: played by Mei-Ling, our director of translation
Second music: played by Mei-Ling’s piano teacher Dian

Interpreters and Voices: On Human Aura

Behind the Scenes Part V

Please see samples here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLO-QGEbwcTr2MdhbLPPGszMw8Rdc5J9aI

Behind these formal presentations of audio video recordings, there’s something very intriguing and interesting happening behind the scenes. In a very liberal sense, we are not too different from journalists or reporters who report on stories due to inspiration from those around them. What primarily drove us to begin and continue this project were the comments and feedback from interpreters and our colleagues. They have helped prompt and shape our actions, ultimately leading us to explore further, and continue our quest for answers on what the future will be like between AI and interpreters. Some interpreters are worried about not being able to make ends meet in the future, while others are asking why they should worry about AI. Will human language disappear? Will humans become like computers communicating with each other without having to verbally speak as certain individuals claim?

Whether we like it or not, AI will become more and more prevalent on public transportation, on social media, on our phones, in our daily life, and even in our industry. There seems to be a trend where humans make language simpler and friendlier for AI, so it becomes easier and more accurate for AI to translate or interpret. In this way, humans become a conduit for AI and AI becomes a useful tool for people worldwide to communicate with each other instantaneously. AI has evolved to become our translators and interpreters, and this application of AI has steadily become more popular over time. Ever since Google Translate was released, there have been increasingly new AI platforms such as AI video translation, AI spokesperson translation, and so on, that have surfaced. AI has been developed so quickly and accurately that it is just a matter of time until humans fully adopt AI. We tried our hand using one of the latest AI platforms to translate/interpret one of our office videos into Chinese. The results were impressive, but not without some imperfections. The AI voice did much better than the usual, generic robotic voice we typically hear, which most likely has to do with voice cloning.

In the face of rapid development of AI, does it mean that eventually we as interpreters will no longer be needed? How should we give guidance to the younger generation who aspire to become interpreters or translators? These are serious questions that make us really sit down and think and here is what we would like to share.

AI voices are serviceable, but they lack the beauty and liveliness that human voices have. That’s why human voices will always have a place in our world. This is what we set out to prove with the Interpreters and Voices series, and we think we have succeeded. In this blog, we are giving a conclusion about our thoughts on AI and human voices. Everyone knows AI voices are usually robotic and monotonous, but with voice cloning technology, AI could sound better and less robotic. This is why, even in the future, human voices will always play a role because they have that personal touch, which allows us to feel heard and assured. In the Interpreters and Voices series, 17 of our passionate interpreter colleagues have recorded themselves reading various blogs on AI nature and capabilities. Our colleagues have demonstrated how human voices are beautiful and lively compared to AI’s. It shows how big of a gap there is and how big of a gap there will always be between human voices and AI.

First, thanks to the participating interpreter Liling who introduces the concept of “aura” from a mechanical engineering point of view. She said AI-voice interpretations lack a key element – “Aura”.  Aura refers to a quality integral to an artwork that cannot be communicated through mechanical reproduction techniques and was used by Walter Benjamin in his influential 1936 essay “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction”. Human-created artwork has its presence in time and space, its unique existence at the place where it happens to be, its ‘aura’.  Using this analogy, each interpreter recording has his/her unique interpretation in a unique space, time, and place, thereby creating an artwork with “aura”.

Second, while AI voices can only say exactly what they are programmed to say, interpreters are able to use their own individuality, smarts, and uniqueness to come up with clever phrasing that perfectly fits the situation, rather than just a word for word translation. Interpreters deliver words in a very exciting way that is palatable to the ear and also interesting to listen to. Each interpreter demonstrated their different interpretation of the script that we provided them. Some interpreters emphasized certain words. Others would, at times, speak at faster speeds. Some interpreters would ad-lib and sing certain parts while others would add a light laugh at a joke. Some interpreters go deeper with a dialogue style as if they are talking to each other, echoing each other, encouraging you to think further, or having a conversation with you. AI is not capable of this kind of responsiveness and communication. All the AI, regardless of which company develops them, lacks variation between them, making it easy to spot them almost right away even if it’s a clone of a human voice!

In the era of AI impacting every industry, including our translation and interpretation industry, these interpreters’ voices seem so wonderful and one of a kind. So we decided to create different collages of voices. We even have different colleagues work separately to create their own versions, and the results are stunning! Despite the colleagues making their own selections from the same pool of recordings, they arranged all the pieces together in different ways to convey their own take on the blog story. The entire project has been about human voices in range, richness, diversity and individuality.  It features different takes on the interpreters’ best individual moments, focuses on elevating each other to higher levels, and aggregates them to a beautiful, powerful collage as a whole. It serves as a reminder that we don’t want a world without human voices and also as a way to perhaps shed some light on the interpretation community. Quite a lot of work has been put into arrange everything for these purposes, but it’s a labor of love, and has been very enjoyable. We’re so excited to share it with everyone!

The video on Interpreters and Voices has a solo and two world versions. The solo version shows how powerful one person can sound while the world versions show how much excitement with many people from all over the world can generate. The world versions feature multiple interpreters from around the world, namely Asia, Europe, North and South Americas, and the Caribbeans. Each participating interpreter submitted their own unique and individual recording. Our colleagues combined them to the effect that it’s almost as if everyone is having a conversation with each other. It’s a truly beautiful collage of voices from around the world, all united for a forum discussion and you’ll feel like you’re right there with them!

It’s fairly easy to spot where different interpreters come from in the world, and it’s all thanks to their distinct styles. At times they are lighthearted, emphatic, or communicative that are embedded in their respective cultures. It’s truly a globally cultural feast! It’s also a showcase of the auras, emotions, and cultures prevailing in the world. Did you feel engaged listening to the interpreters? This collection of auras is something very difficult if not impossible for AI to mimic. We believe that as long as humans carry their own aura and pour it into their creations, AI will have a hard time getting a leg up over humans.

The video on Human Individuality, we’ve also created two versions: a trio and a quartet. The two versions feature three and four interpreters, respectively, and were also created by two different colleagues separately. The effect this makes is quite pronounced, and you feel as if you’re listening to two different pieces entirely.

For the short and sweet Thoughts about AI piece, we initially thought that with the way the content is structured, it’d be best for two interpreters to read it. But then what would happen if we added a third interpreter, someone who comes from another part of the world, instead of the duet of interpreters from the United States? The trio piece features wonderful chemistry between the three interpreters, and if you stay until the end, you’ll be rewarded with a surprise, which we are sure all listeners will enjoy! We have also made a solo version for those who might have been overstimulated by the different voices, and for those who might prefer just a single vocalist instead of an entire band. We enjoyed all of these so much, and absolutely recommend you check them out too! We’ve provided links to the audio and video series below for easy access!

Other than being fun, this project has also helped us see the bigger picture when dealing with translation and interpretation projects. Now we see our overall role very clearly and understand better what’s more important in the work we do. Therefore, we plan to show the series to younger generations, so they understand that translators and interpreters will always have work, and their value to this world will never change. The aura that naturally comes from being a human interpreter has and always will be something sought after. As long as we have energy and fun as humans and as interpreters, we will never have to worry about being replaced by AI. However, if we lose our energy or fun, we are doomed to surrender to AI superiority.

If you would like to encourage the next generation that there is a future for them, and they shouldn’t give up, we’d love to hear your advice to those who aspire to join our industry in the future. We will gather advice from all sources and present them in our next blog. We think that’s what we as translators and interpreters should aim for when we pass the torch on to the next generation in the face of a potentially AI dominated world! But we must always remember that interpretation is like art or music, or a fine-tuned performance, and that’s one thing area humans will remain dominant in for years to come!

Links to Audio Recordings:
1. Thoughts about AI (Solo Version): Posted
2. Thoughts about AI (Duet Version): Posted
3. Thoughts about AI (Trio Version): Posted
4. Diversity and Richness: Posted
5. Human Individuality (Trio Version): Posted
6. Human Individuality (Quartet Version): Posted
7. Interpreters and Voice (Solo Version): Posted
8. Interpreters and Voices (World Version 1): Posted
9. Interpreters and Voices (World Version 2): Posted
10. Human Aura: To Be Posted

Reference Video: Interpreters and Music

Behind the Scenes Part IV

Audio link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4UN-K8OIMCs

Ever since we began the video project on Interpreters and Music, we’ve felt a lot of energy from the interpreters who have been kind to join us on our initiative to explore the relation between AI and interpreters including such questions as: What will the future look like for these two? Will interpreters become a conduit for AI?

This all ultimately led us to compare AI and interpreters. We are on a journey to highlight professional interpreter’s strength over AI, and human voices are one of the areas we’d like to compare.

We have invited quite a few interpreters to participate in the “Interpreters and Voices” project. After only hearing the premise and description of the project, many interpreters have described the project as “interesting”, “great fun”, “wonderful”, “something new and exciting”, “fascinating”, and “riveting”. We thank all of the interpreters who we’ve reached for genuinely sharing their thoughts and we have included some of their ideas in this blog post.

Many of you may agree with us that AI recordings are usually boring, if not unsettling. The natural inflexions of speech are missing, and their robotic, monotonous tone drive us crazy! Even so, the threat of AI recording looms large as a dark cloud on the horizon. We don’t enjoy AI recordings at all and really wouldn’t want to see the world develop in a way where AI is primarily used over human voices. It would undoubtedly be a tremendous loss to humanity. It’s something that we truly hope won’t occur. It would really take away the joy and emotion that can only be experienced through the vehicle of human voices. By the way, if you know of any interesting AI recording samples, please do feel free to share them with us for our learning purposes.

AI is a wonderful tool of convenience and efficiency in modern times; but there are still certain things that AI simply cannot produce. Even though AI may be able to replicate the breathing, pauses, and quivering of human voices, these elements always sound timed and programmed. If spoken or read by a human, the words would be conveyed in different styles with emotions and be paced at different speeds. Let’s take the diversity and richness audio file as an example, it was read by 3 interpreters with 3 main styles, professional, expressive, and artistic. The reading speeds at times are normal, fast, or slow. Yet the combination, or mix, or interaction of these elements creates a charming, attractive, even sensational atmosphere that entices us to listen. Honestly, we’ve listened to it more than a handful of times! The more we listen to it, the more we feel the pleasure and ambience, as if we were brought to another world. We are totally immersed.

Distinctness between each speaker is something else that AI cannot replicate. In the recordings, we hear richness of styles—all of which communicate the individuality of the reader and storyteller. These styles can range from being personal, professional, emotional, poetic, artistic, expressive, explanatory, upbeat, engaging but not overemphasizing, measured, modulative, and sporadic in regards to pacing. We are also delighted to hear little off-script moments like singing instead of purely reading. Yeah, a little surprise is the spice that keeps the audience interested and entertained and it’s that exact element that keeps blowing us away!

For this project on human voices, the only instruction we gave the interpreters was to give the recording their best shot and then leave the rest for us. The recordings read by quite a few interpreters, not only sound different to the ear because of accent, gender, tone/pitch in their voices, but also the background each interpreter has come from. The interpreters are long time devotees to language and communication, and are also people with interests in poetry, storytelling, and cultural performances. The interpreters apply their own unique interpretations to reflect how they perceive the text. One interpreter might make a certain sentence or phrase sound more important or expressive, whereas another interpreter might read it in a lighter sense. We all parse and deliver messages differently despite general similarities.

Interpreters use their voices to produce work every day, therefore, it’s wonderful to aggregate their voices in a collage. We have rotated different voices, even deliberately paired up different voices, male and female, low and high, fast and slow, personal and professional to show contrast. The different takes on the recordings is where the teamwork gets really upgraded to exciting and magical levels. AI is limited in the sense that it lacks the kind of creativity and artistic expression that comes to humans so naturally. Humans are best at creating and putting our own spin on things. Having different interpreters read the same blog and then combining them all into one recording is a great way to showcase how individualistic we sound as humans even when we’re doing the same activity.

The participating interpreters took time out of their busy schedules to do the work pro bono. The common goal is to demonstrate that professional interpreters do so much better in recording than AI does. Hearing the interpreters’ recordings really helps drive home the difference between human individuality and the monotonous nature of AI. We really think this project is special because it helps to show something that everyone, not just people in our industry need to see. Please feel welcome to share this with everyone, but certainly not for the purposes of training AI! Last but not least, a final, big shout-out to the participating interpreters. Thank you so much for the wonderful and abundant voices. They are truly music to our ears. Working together, we have demonstrated the power and strength of professional interpreters in our voices over AI, and the journey must go on!

Originally we were thinking about comparing AI narration to humans by putting them one after another, but we realized that the contrast is not as significant as we initially believed. This is because humans are typically only able to endure AI narration for nothing more than a few paragraphs. After that, humans recognize the mechanical, robotic patterns that are inherent to AI narration. After realizing that, humans make the decision to stop listening. Please feel welcome to let us know after how much of the AI recording you listened to before you decided to give up! We think it will be a very interesting fact to explore!