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A Meeting of Minds at McGill


No one can deny that Canada has been relatively slow to embrace localization. Two reasons explain the country's reticence. First, relative to the U.S., Canada produces far less software. The software industry is where localization has its roots. Second, Canada's official bilingualism provides the focus, and the main source of revenue, for the country's translation industry. By its very nature, localization embraces multilingualism.

The rapid globalization of markets and the lure of e-business, however, are forcing Canada to consider localization as not only a viable industry but as a business necessity. The impact is being felt in the academic, traditional translation and business communities.

My next articles will focus on localization in Canada from the perspective of those active in the academic community, the traditional translation sector and the nascent domestic localization industry.

Grandescunt Aucta Labore—motto of McGill University, translation: By work, all things increase and grow.

McGill University typifies the term "old school:" architecturally imposing, venerable with a reputation for producing great minds. Chartered in 1821, the main campus occupies 80 acres in downtown Montreal at a slightly higher elevation than the business center. According to a Gallup poll released last year, Canadians recognized McGill University the best university in Canada eight times since 1991. (Photo credit: McGill University, Royal Victoria Hospital and Mount Royal, © Tourisme Montréal, Stéphan Poulin)

In a recent interview, Dr. James Archibald, Director of the Department of Languages and Translation at McGill, discussed localization and its place in his department's curriculum. Archibald first noted that machine translation has long been considered a topic worthy of study. "In fact, if you go back, one of the very first works that was even written on this area [localization] was written by Georges Mounin during the Cold War period," he said. "He wrote a book which has become a classic called La Machine à Traduire in which he looks at the issues of computerization at that period."

Archibald asserted that "today, no one can go into the translation business unless you are very much aware of all the technological issues that one has to keep in mind." Currently, McGill's graduate degree program in translation includes a course in computer-aided translation (CAT) and "the interface of translation and technology."

Relatively recent innovations, notably the Web and Web-based communications, have only increased the need for fast and accurate translation. The result being that "we are faced today with a number of issues that we couldn’t have even thought of when Georges Mounin wrote that book."

The copyright of the article A Meeting of Minds at McGill in Export Marketing is owned by Nancy A. Locke. Permission to republish A Meeting of Minds at McGill in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

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