Academic Translation and Author Services as Growth Markets With ALE CEO, Avi Staiman

In this week’s SlatorPod, we are joined by Avi Staiman, CEO of Academic Language Experts (ALE) to discuss translation for the academic publishing sector.

Avi shares his background studying and working in the education sector and how this led to him founding ALE. He delves into ALE’s services, which range from editing and translating materials for scholars before they pitch their book or article to big research institutions and funding agencies.

The CEO talks about the role of English as lingua franca in academia and how non-native English scholars are at a disadvantage as a result. He runs through the typical workflow between authors, linguists, and editors, as well as how ALE’s thorough reviewing process helps retain clients.

Avi comments on the use of technology in academic translation, where the lack of repetition in research can hinder the benefits of translation memory tools. He talks about how ALE is raising awareness around the issue of visibility when it comes to giving translators credit in academic work.

First up, Florian and Anna discuss the language industry news of the week, with Lionbridge AI buyer, Telus, putting forth and then pulling back its bid for Australian data annotation provider, Appen.

In M&A, France-based media localization provider, Dubbing Brothers, expands into the Nordics with the acquisition of Eurotroll, a Scandinavian dubbing and subtitling company. Meanwhile, on Twitter, #TranslatorsInTheCredits gains traction as translators exchange experiences of being excluded from the credits of localized video games.

The Slator duo also talk about recent studies that examine data privacy risks associated with large pretrained language models, such as memorization and association of personal information. A study by Inbox Translation examined the annual spend on language services at the UK’s NHS, where 40 times more is spent on interpreting than translation.