Written by Tim Kaney of The Geo Group Corporation.
This post is a response to a CNN.com article published recently by Mr. Ahn January 8, 2012.
Luis von Ahn @luisvonahn is a man with a dream. Well actually, it is his second or third dream (he helped re-invent CAPTCHA to help digitize books, now known as RECAPTCHA). His latest dream - a world where all people across all countries can read anything on the web in their own language, while learning a new language.
How does he plan to do this? Simple. By letting everyone and anyone learn a language for free, while translating real content from the web for free. Then, others rate those translations and a sort of quality checked glossary is manifested. The article and video video leave mostly to conjecture what becomes of the translations after they are rated and stored.
See his website at duolingo.com and watch his informational video.
One thing that stood out in his video for the TED talk, was how he said it was a system that can work very fast and very accurately. He showed some examples that indicate accuracy and short-time frames, based on the number of users. He adds that these can be shown to be as accurate as professionally translated text. I wonder what professional translators have to say about that?
After reading all of this, watching the video, and having worked within the translation industry, I can’t help but think to myself, “What will this do to the foreign language service industry, if it works?”
It seems to me that if this system would work, more and more companies who normally go to agencies and independent translators for language services would drop them on a dime and seek help from his system. That means many highly educated and qualified professionals might be out of jobs, in an already turbulent global economy. Of course, this assumes that he would make the translations available to businesses and organizations on the web for free or a small fee.
While the video talked about what duolingo can do, it didn’t talk about how it could get the translations back on the web. That is something seemingly trivial at this point, but could have interesting, if not drastic consequences in the near future for the industry of foreign languages services.
Overall it seems like a very laudable effort and noble cause, but, as with all things, we must wait and see to be sure.
If you are a translator/linguist/etc., we would love to hear your take on this new language learning and crowd source translation option.
Does it frighten you? Will it work? How will it affect your work as a language industry professional?
All comments are welcome and must follow our commenting guidelines.
Tags: Duolingo, Luis Van Ahn, Mr. Ahn, The Geo Group Corporation, Translation News, Xlate, xlate news
