As media companies look to capture global audiences, language-learning app Duolingo
sees a major opportunity.
The Pittsburgh-based startup offers free language lessons to its 25 million registered users. Last week it closed a $20 million Series C round led by Kleiner Perkins, bringing the company’s total funding to $38 million.
Rather than charge for lessons, Duolingo is looking to make money by getting its users to work for the company – literally. Duolingo is harnessing the skills of its advanced language learners to provide translation services for media organizations like Buzzfeed.
Buzzfeed – which reported 130 million unique visitors in November — says Duolingo’s service provided a unique opportunity: quick, cost-effective translations that maintain the brand’s voice. More.
See: Fox Business
See these related Translation News articles:
- Duolingo, the free language-learning app that’s addictive and fun
- How BuzzFeed’s translation project will hurt foreign news
- Pittsburgh-based language technology company announces translation partnership with BuzzFeed, CNN
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United States
Local time: 17:43
Member (2012)
French to English
+ ...
I don't know much about the usefulness of crowdsourcing, but it definitely seems to fly in the face of professional translation standards. While Duolingo is a fairly interesting language-learning tool, as a commercial source of translation it looks really lazy. I don't see the comparison with Wikipedia, either, since that's monitored by experts and you can cite sources and so forth.
What do others think of this?
United States
Local time: 17:43
Spanish to English
+ ...
They may think they are getting a translation, but what they are getting is text that only looks like a translation on the surface. Check out this great article on the topic by Miguel Llorens:
http://traductor-financiero.blogspot.com/2012/08/what-is-professional-translation.html
[Edited at 2014-03-04 20:36 GMT]
Vietnam
English to Vietnamese
[Edited at 2014-03-06 02:06 GMT] ▲ Collapse
United States
Local time: 17:43
French to English
+ ...
I wouldn't want the translation done by someone still learning a language and may be still a beginner.
Little Woods, I totally agree with you (and with the skepticism of other commenters), and I took a look at the French Buzzfeed to see what it was like. Basically Buzzfeed is so short on content that the translations matter less than you would think. But this attempt to attract a French-speaking market is full of other pitfalls (I can't speak to the other languages, but I imagine the approach is similar). You can read more at katedeimling.com.
[Edited at 2014-03-11 14:06 GMT]
United Kingdom
Local time: 22:43
Serbian to English
+ ...
As a general rule, I would surely agree.
But I remember right now of one case where it was EXACTLY the opposite.
Number of years ago there was a in Serbia a couple monopolising almost all film subtitling - apparently these two were experts in about 10 languages at least.
What I could spot for sure was that their translations from French were utter r... See more
As a general rule, I would surely agree.
But I remember right now of one case where it was EXACTLY the opposite.
Number of years ago there was a in Serbia a couple monopolising almost all film subtitling - apparently these two were experts in about 10 languages at least.
What I could spot for sure was that their translations from French were utter rubbish - they were totally lost when translating argot or anything that requires more than some beginner's French-Serbian dictionary.
And then one day, a miracle happened! I was watching a French movie without being irritated by rubbish subtitles. So, for a change at the end the movie I watched the credits rolling, curious to learn who translated the subtitles.
I turned out to be the collective work of a group of secondary school kids! ▲ Collapse
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