Intercultural Communication and Translation News

Russia has agreed to donate three Siberian tigers to Korea, the Environment Ministry announced Monday. Siberian tigers, also known as Manchurian or Korean tigers, once widely inhabited the Korean Peninsula but the species is now on the verge of extinction with only a small number living in the wild in the Russian Far East. Korea currently has 51 of the tigers living in captivity which came from the United States and North Korea. Of them, 24 are in the Seoul Zoo.

Russia’s tiger donation came about partly through an interpreter’s mistake. While visiting Korea in June, a Russian delegation led by Vladimir Kirillov, the head of Russia’s Federal Supervisory Natural Resources Management Service, went to the National Institute of Biological Resources with Vice Environment Minister Lee Byung-wook to see a display of mounted animals, including a Siberian tiger.

During the tour, a Korean official said, “Korea is very interested in Siberian tigers.” But the interpreter mistranslated the comment, and asked about Russia’s willingness to donate the animals. In response, Kirillov asked if Korea could raise donated tigers in the wild.

“The government didn’t give much thought to the remarks at the time, but it seems Kirillov proposed the donation while briefing Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on his visit to Korea,” a ministry official said. The Environment Ministry made an official request to Russia for the donation of the tigers in a bilateral environmental cooperation meeting in Moscow on Oct. 30.

Read more > Error

In a bid to break communication barriers and help people sharpen their linguistics skills in a remarkable way, a Japanese firm NEC has designed a high-tech gadget, which offers users instant real-time language translation capabilities.

Dubbed as “Tele Scouter”, the gadget’s shape resembles that of a pair of glasses, and it helps users establish conversations with people of different languages by offering real-time language translation directly onto their retina.

The system incorporates voice recognition technology, microphones, along with various translations programmes to interpret conversations as they occur, projecting subtitles on the user’s retina, thereby eliminating the need of human translators completely.

In addition, the device also has the feature to offer audio translations via headphones.

Speaking about the features of the device, Takayuki Omino, NEC’s market development official, said in a statement: “You can keep the conversation flowing. This could also be used for talks involving confidential information, negating the need for a human translator”

Read more > NEC

HealthForumOnline (HFO), a nationally-approved (APA, ASWB, NBCC, PSNA, CA-BBS) provider of online continuing education (CE) for psychologists, social workers, counselors, nurses and other allied healthcare professionals announces the addition of a new online CE course for health professionals working with children and their families, Cultural Competency in Pediatric Psychology: Issues & Clinical Applications to their extensive online continuing education library.

This addition to HFO’s online CE course selection is important as psychologists, social workers, counselors, nurses and other allied health care professionals in the U.S. have had a growing awareness of a shift in the demographic characteristics of their pediatric patients and their families over the last decade. Among them, is a marked change indicating a growing trend towards a more multi-ethnic society. However, despite this demographic shift, evidence suggests that Americans still do not equally share in the hope for recovery from mental illness despite the availability of effective and well-documented treatments.

Although a decade has passed since the U.S. Surgeon General first asserted that culture counts in mental health research and treatment, little has been done to address cultural variables in any way. One review of the research literature reported that only 11% of American samples included minority participants (i.e., African Americans, Asian Americans, Hispanics), only18% reported the SES of participants, and only 6% discussed potential moderating cultural variables such as a specific ethnic-related variable. Moreover, the existing literature typically focuses on adults, further limiting our ability to offer theory- and evidence-based interventions that are culturally sensitive to an entire population base – children and their families. Not surprisingly, U.S. minorities, particularly children, continue to face obstacles to accessing mental health care, including barriers related to language, geography and cultural familiarity, resulting in culturally-based disparities in the quality of care received and mental health outcome.

Read more > HFO