I recently received a translation assignment, which consisted of only one sentence. The assignment came from a Chinese restaurant owner, who gave me a picture with the sentence in it. Many customers, including English and Spanish speakers, always asked her about the meaning of that sentence. My first reaction was, “This should be a piece […]

Recently, researchers from Microsoft Corporation gave a presentation in China, showcasing the company’s latest language software, which was able to turn an English speech into Chinese—in the speaker’s own voice. Will this software eventually replace human translators and interpreters? We think not. And here are our thoughts: The technique behind this revolutionary translation and interpretation […]

Fact: As of 2012, among the 7 billion people in the world, roughly half of them are considered to be at least bilingual. Fact: Based on the 2010 data, the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics also project 58,400 translation and interpretation jobs available to translators and interpreters. Question: How many professional translators and interpreters […]

  The Thanksgiving Day can trace its origins back to 1620, when the pilgrims from Britain settled down in Plymouth, North America. Many pilgrims died or suffered hunger due to the harsh winter conditions. Fortunately, the Native Americans reached out their hands to help and teach the pilgrims to grow crops such as corn, pumpkins, […]

The Athletes in the Spotlight Thinking back to the London Olympic Games this past summer, the elegant divers and agile gymnasts delivered near-perfect performances in front of the world and left millions in awe. While we appreciate the outstanding performances of these athletes, it is very easy to overlook the thousands of hours and the […]

High Quality is the core value of Monterey Language Services.  We invite everyone to think quality and share their stories.  This blog is part 1 of our think quality story series.  You are most welcome to share your story by sending it to mei-ling@montereylanguages.com.  If your story is chosen to publish, you will receive a surprise. […]

The idea of being able to pinpoint the origin, migration, and evolution of modern day language has kept scientists fascinated ever since there has been technology which allows them do so. The latest of this research was conducted by New Zealand scientists and suggests that the Indo-European language family is descended from a language that […]

“Top of the mornin to ya!” means a heartfelt “Good morning!” in idiomatic Irish/American. Yet none of the following word for word translations convey the true meaning of the phrase. French: “Top des Mornin à Ya!” German: “Spitze der Mornin zu Ya!” Simplified Chinese: “顶部以遐的早晨！ When most people think of translation, they may think of […]

In a previous blog, we explained various means of delivering Whisper Interpretation. In fact, all simultaneous interpretation involves whispering in order to not disturb others. A booth offers the benefit of further reducing disruptions to the audience and the interpreter. When interpreting inside the booth, the interpreter listens to the speaker through a headset and […]

In Whisper Interpretation, the interpreter whispers the interpretation into the client’s ear. The goal of Whisper Interpretation is always the same – to communicate the meaning to the client without disrupting the presentation, show, or conference. This goal can be accomplished in one of two ways: directly, or with electronic aids. In the direct manner, […]