The First Chinese Language Services Collaborative Innovation and Development Forum & the General Assembly of the Association of Language Service Providers in 2016 were held from July 22 to 24 in City Hotel of Xiamen, one of the most livable cities by UNESCO in Fujian. They were sponsored by the Association of Language Service Providers and co-organized by Xiamen Master Translation Service Co., Ltd and Shanghai Tmxmall. The two meetings focused on language services and collaborative innovations.
On July 22, there were six seminars on the best practice by some different translation companies in regards of information technology application, enterprise management, project management, production management, asset management, term management, etc. Each company also introduced their translation software and web sites, for example, ePoolink promoted its ETIMS online translation management system to help improve the management of translation companies. Some corpus tools were also introduced, like MemoQ, and Trados, etc. Besides, some very enlightening ideas about translation and management were shared.
On July 23, many well-known experts like Professor Wang Jihui, Director of the Center for MTI of Beijing University, Professor Zhao Junfeng, Secretary-General of the National Directive Committee of MTI Education and Dean of GSTI of Guangdong Foreign Studies University; Professor Li Ruilin ,Deputy Director of the Foreign Language Studies and Language Services Collaborative Innovation Center; Dr Cui Qiliang, Deputy Director of International Language Services and Management Institute of the Foreign Economic and Trade University and so on delivered speeches about language service development and innovation, translation education, cooperation between colleges and enterprises, language services in future. Professor Zhao Junfeng said collaborative innovation is the new height of modern science and technology innovation and the new way of industrial development. The new trend of the language service industry is the collaboration between language technology companies, universities, research institutes, interpreters and customers. Professional teachers should take the initiative to improve their knowledge structure, translation practice, research and teaching, etc.
On July 24, discussed were the topics like collaborative innovation and development of language services, marketing and brand management, legal risk prevention, cooperation between colleges and enterprises. And the first domestic translation and interpretation contract model was unveiled at the meeting. In the interpreting forum, discussed and shared were the themes like interpreting services, interpreting theory and practice, and business model of interpreting training, etc. Simultaneous interpreting senior expert Bill held an interpreting workshop, and gave suggestions on how to help universities to train interpreting students to achieve competitiveness and find satisfactory jobs. During the section on the interpreting theory and practice in education by Professor Xia, Dean Gong shared his views on how to be a qualified interpreter, i.e., he or she must master bilingualism, cross-cultural competence and interpreting skills, which were responded actively by Professor Xia and the participants, and triggered more thoughts on interpreting education and training.
A lot was learned at the two meetings. As college interpreting and translation teachers, we need to keep up with the development and changes of language service, and realize the importance of the translation industry to help promote our Chinese culture. At the moment our department is working hard to apply for the translation major for undergraduate studies. It is helpful to know that the machine-aided translation and large translation network platforms will be more involved in translation industry in the near future. Colleges and universities need to introduce advanced translation technologies and software, and strengthen the construction of language experimental centers and translation platforms. Students wise, they need to know more about different subjects such as finance, technology, law, news, etc. and cultivate their translation and the team cooperation abilities as well as use the translation technology to improve efficiency. Only by doing so can they possess a wide vision, high and strong abilities of translation so that a better job of teaching and learning can be done.
In short, the two meetings were extremely eye-opening and enlightening in many aspects.
Reported by Shirley and Joe
P.S: Three translation platforms for reference:
www.etims.cn
jeemaa.com
www.tmxmall.com