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Military translation is a very specific discipline, like medical or legal, that requires SME-level expertise in military science, military roles, strategy and tactics, armaments and defense techniques. Thorough knowledge of military terminology is a must for a military translator. The translator should be specialized in related technical and legal domains as well.

Much has been already said about Lean In, the book written by Sheryl Sandberg the chief operating officer of Facebook — good and bad. As our Moravia co-founder Katerina Janku can attest, there are plenty of examples of strong female leadership in the localization industry. Nevertheless, there's still plenty for women to learn from any leader, male or female, about how to make it to the top without crushing our souls or others along the way.

Three designers, Shi Jian, Sun Jiahao & Li Ke, have created a very cool gadget: a pen that gives you a ‘more efficient and concentrative way’ to get your text translated. This pen has been picked up and is being marketed by Yanko Design.

Last week in France two things happened in language history. The first is that the 2014 edition of France's most popular dictionary, the Petit Robert, finally decided that they have to include a word for the French kiss: galocher. The second is that the French people — speaking against the initiative of their own government — told the English-speaking world to, er, kiss it.

We don’t often wonder where the practice of translation originated and how the business evolved. We just accept that it exists, and it’s business critical. Translators do their best to create outstanding reproductions of one language to another.

Translation has become a huge industry - $30B by many estimates – and a true profession due to the demands of the market for accurate and thorough multilingual web pages, marketing materials, documentation like training materials, software, multi-media, and last but not least, literature.

Not really, but let me explain.

After 11+ years in the localization industry, working for three different localization firms, I can tell you firsthand: quality is not a key differentiator. Well, localization firms have to provide accurate translations so their clients can release their products and succeed in-market, but quality is one criteria you should be able to take for granted.

Today's test: suppose you’re reading a Japanese company’s marketing collateral in English and you come across these terms. Would you know what they mean to a Japanese native who speaks English?

This week marks the eighth anniversary of the Internet's love of YouTube. The channel, originally conceived of by three former PayPal employees in 2005, was acquired by Google in 2006 for $1.65 billion, which seems like a bargain for a site now valued at nearly $50 billion.

... in which we celebrate Google's global initiative (again), blabber on about Yammer's future translation capabilities, get lost in app translators, and wheel our way to Xbox glory. All in a day's work.

In this morning's headlines comes news that Bing Translate will now include Klingon, the fictional language of the Star Trek franchise, among its more than 40 language pairs. How do you say "how cool is that!" in Klingon? Oh, Heghlu'meH QaQ jajvam! (It is a good day to die!)

This is a pretty big deal for a language that consists of little more than 2,000 total words. Where did the Klingon language start? And where does it all end?