Translation and Interpretation

Short course Interlingual Subtitling: Technology – Quality – Beyond

Audiovisual translation is becoming increasingly important in the translation market. From the translation of streaming platforms to corporate translation, this Short Course provides an answer to contemporary challenges.

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Information

Period

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6 Teaching hours

Language

English

Format

Distance learning

Contact

Sandra LANCOUD
+41 (0)22 379 98 92
Sandra.Lancoud(at)unige.ch

Location

Geneva

Registration

Contact coordinator

Fees:

CHF 500.-

Contribution to the SDGs

Objectives

Acquire the requisite theoretical knowledge and practical opportunities to use the appropriate professional software
Become more sensitive to and understand the specifics of the audiovisual translation process of subtitling as a form of semiotic transfer
Learn the basic functions of the appropriate professional software required to generate interlingual subtitles
Work on a subtitling project into your own A-language to develop your skills

Audience

Freelance and employed translators in various institutions and companies, such as language service providers, translation agencies and media broadcasters. General language, media and accessibility professionals and participants with a languages background.

Programme

Theory

Interlingual subtitling : cultural-linguistic aspects and translation strategies
Machine translation and post-editing of subtitles
Evaluation of (automated) interlingual subtitling quality
Taking stock : recent research on AI and subtitling – pros and cons
Current CAT tools and AI synergies for subtitling
Avatars and artificial voices – future use of subtitles for the audiovisual localisation of visuals and sounds

Practice

Hands-on : MTPE subtitling project

Technology :

Insights into subtitling software and how to use basic functions and tools

Linguistics :

Quality analysis of (machine-translated) interlingual subtitles
Post-editing automatically generated subtitles
Group discussions on the MTPE subtitling project and its evaluation in terms of quality and efficiency

Director(s)

Prof. Alexander Künzli, Faculty of Translation and Interpreting University of Geneva

Coordinator(s)

Véronique SAURON, University of Geneva

Audiovisual translation is becoming increasingly important in the translation market. While streaming providers are making a tremendous number of their productions available in different languages, more and more public and private companies are subtitling their video content in order to reach a global audience.
Aimed at participants already working in the language industry with different language combinations, this introduction offers insights into the practical work of interlingual subtitling not only for translation professionals, but also for accessibility and media experts, enabling them to enhance their media content.
In addition to theoretical and practical knowledge for cross-lingual subtitling, this course will shed some light on the use of current technological developments.
Therefore, in this workshop you will learn about interlingual subtitling as a form of audiovisual translation with a strong focus on the potential of speech technologies such as machine translation. In addition, more recent applications and workflows based on artificial intelligence (AI) will be addressed, which could be enhanced with subtitling for future audiovisual production scenarios.

Alexander Kurch has been working as an audiovisual translator for accessibility since 2013, including speech-to-text interpreting (live texting for people with and without hearing impairment), intralingual and interlingual subtitling, audio description (authoring of audio film versions for people with visual impairments) and post-editing for artificial voices.

He studied translation studies at the University of Heidelberg and at the Dublin City University, and media translation at the University of Hildesheim. Besides his practical experience, he is active as an independent researcher, freelance lecturer, trainer and auditor for accessibility in audiovisual translation. His special focus is on synergies of accessible communication in combination with (language) technologies and machine learning, such as speech recognition, machine translation, and speech synthesis including post-editing and evaluations of quality and efficiency.