A big trial had a big charge: businessman Moses Stern recently pleaded guilty in a $128 million fraud investigation. He speaks Yiddish. So far, so good: more than 75% of U.S. Yiddish speakers live around New York City. And its court system has Yiddish interpreters.

Due to the rush job, however, other interpreters came in. Last week that situation led to gibberish--and a mistrial.

Part of the problem is that the Yiddish spoken in nearly 20 hours of recordings transcribed for the defense was "Hasidic Yiddish." Not all Yiddish interpreters understand it.

To read the story, click here.

Nataly Kelly has published a piece in the Huffington Post called, "Why So Many Translators Hate Translation Technology." She makes a number of points. For example:

• Too many people confuse "real" translation technology with Google Translate.
• Translation tool development has largely stagnated for a long time.
• It can be frustrating for translators, who value quality, when the customer does not.
• Many translators do not believe that technology developers are listening to them.

In addition, translators are increasingly asked to do post-editing of machine translation. As she writes, "Here's the problem. If you're a professional translator, why would you want to clean up a big mess that you didn't create? It's like asking a professional musician to take a recording that was done by a synthesizer, or by a less-skilled musician, and go back and fill in all the sour-sounding notes. It's a hacky way to produce a translation ... and it takes all the joy out of translation."

Would most translators agree? To read the article, click here.

The Graduate Studies in Interpreting and Translation (GSIT) program in the Department of Communication at the University of Maryland invites applications for Lecturers to teach one to four classes per semester for the 2014-2015 academic year and beyond.

For more information, click here.

Second Language Testing, Inc. (SLTI) is currently working on a short-term contract to develop translation tests in a range of spoken languages. They are currently accepting resumes for native speakers of various languages. Candidates must have good computer skills and access to high-speed internet because they will be working from home. Ideally, they are familiar with the ILR (Interagency Language Roundtable) scale, have experience as a teacher, test developer, or translator, and knowledge of sound editing software.