Found in Translation

Fire Exting Atche r
China has always had a problem with signs for foreigners written in less-than-perfect English.
However, before the Olympics, Beijing decided to wage a major campaign to purge the city of
imperfect English. Was it successful? One year after the Olympics took place, tourists visiting
Beijing were still snapping photos of signs with such memorable phrases as, “Do not put toilet pepper
in toilet,” and a glass case holding a fire extinguisher brightly painted with the words, “Fire exting
atcher box.”
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CHAPTER 7
Connecting the World and Advancing Technology in Translation
Language is a great force of socialization, probably the greatest that exists.
—Edward Sapir, American linguist and anthropologist
Tweet Me in St. Louis… or Cairo… or Islamabad
Imagine inadvertently posting an update on a social media platform about the
sound of a helicopter, without knowing that you had just alerted the world of
the military raid on the Osama bin Laden compound. That’s what Shohaib
Athar did from his home in Pakistan.
Or consider Wael Ghonim, an Egyptian who was a prominent online activist
for the prodemocracy movement in his home country. On January 26, 2011, he
posted a status update, “I said one year ago that the Internet will change the
political scene in Egypt and some friends made fun of me.” One day later, he
was detained and blindfolded for organizing protests. In Tahrir Square, his
name appeared on many posters as people gathered to protest his
disappearance. After twelve days, he was released.
Take into account Julia Probst, a German soccer fan who is deaf. After she
reads the lips of players and coaches, she tweets what they are saying, giving
other fans access to inside details that are not broadcast on television.
In another instance, when a 7.2 magnitude earthquake took place in Turkey,
television news anchor Okan Bayulgen received a message on his social
network about two people who were trapped. He sent emergency information
to relief workers. Within two hours, they had dug through the rubble and
rescued the pair.
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There has been much press in Western media describing the role of social
networks in helping communities connect, especially in regard to recent
uprisings in places like Egypt, Syria, Tunisia. And in fact, these four stories all
happened thanks to Twitter. While social networks give them a platform that
enables them to connect, it’s important to keep in mind that it’s the people—the

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members of these online communities—who actually make things happen. To
put things in perspective, journalists rarely do stories crediting AT&T and
Verizon with saving countless lives every day via 911 calls.
What these platforms should truly be praised for is not for merely existing
but for broadening their networks to make it possible for more people to use
them and expanding the potential of global communication. For that to happen,
these networks have to be made available in more languages. And that’s exactly
what Twitter is doing.
“By end of the first quarter of 2012, Twitter will be available in twenty-eight
languages,” explains Laura Gómez, localization manager at Twitter.
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“Our
goal is to build tools to make it easier for users to translate in their language—
and have wider language coverage across the world.” Indeed, those Twitter
users all over the globe have helped the company translate its platform into
their languages. Using a community model since 2009, the volunteer
translators submit translations that are then voted on by the local translation
groups.
Translation is important to Twitter ’s overall corporate strategy. “At the core
of our mission is our longing to make Twitter accessible to everyone on the
planet. In order for us to achieve this, we need to offer our tools and platforms
in a user ’s native language, whenever possible,” Gómez says. We want users to
understand and participate in the global conversation while easily navigating
through our product.” The plan seems to be working. As of January 2012,
Twitter had half a million volunteer translators and a small team of moderators
who focus on quality control.
Community translation—working with volunteer users who are motivated to
use Twitter in their native languages—also enables Twitter to launch new
languages quickly. “Twitter in Simplified Chinese was translated and
moderated in four days,” Gómez explains. “This was part of a longer process
that included building a community, establishing a relationship with the
community moderators, agreeing on language guidelines and a basic glossary,
as well as working on the specific challenges of every language.”
“Our translators and moderators are proud of their individual contributions;
they take their roles very seriously. Their commitment shows in our product,”
Gómez comments. Much like laying phone lines back in the early days of
telephones, Twitter ’s volunteer translators are building the social network
foundation that allows the Shohaib Athars, Wael Ghonims, Julia Probsts, and
Okan Bayulgens of the world to make their voices heard.

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