Welcome to the latest edition of STARlette, the STAR Servicios Lingüísticos news bulletin. In this edition we announce our involvement in the development of J2450, the system for assessing the quality of technical translations. We also present Linguamón, the body that promotes multilinguism. Furthermore, we communicate the broadening of our training programme to include the training of localisation professionals, approved by the TILP (The Institute of Localisation Professionals). As usual, we offer our opinion on high-value language resources for different language professionals. Finally, we comment on the efforts that STAR Servicios Lingüísticos has been making to achieve greater international influence in the area of latest technologies.

      As part of its commitment to the language industry, STAR Servicios Lingüísticos has agreed to participate in the European J2450 Task Force.
In order to establish a translation assessment system that automotive companies can use for comparing translation quality, the Sociedad de ingenieros de automoción (Society of Automotive Engineers - SAE) has created the J2450 Study Committee to develop a translation quality assessment system.
The aims of the J2450 Study Committee are to:

• Develop a methodology that can be used by the entire industry to assess translation quality.
• Document the development of this assessment system and obtain its approval.
• Supply the assessment system to translation providers.
• Establish a standard that allows objective measurement of the translation quality of publications in the automotive sector irrespective of the source or target language, as well as the translation method (human or machine translation).

In October 2001, the J2450 system was approved by the SAE committee with it now being recommended that it be applied. In addition, that same year, a European study committee was set up which currently meets monthly in different locations around Europe. STAR Servicios Lingüísticos, a translation provider in the automotive field, has been invited to assist as a member of the European J2450 Task Force committee in order to establish the quality standard outlined.

      Star Servicios Lingüísticos has agreed to participate in one of the Linguamón work groups.
Linguamón - House of Languages, is an international body recently created by the Catalan government, designed to promote equal and fair multilinguism. Linguamón intends to introduce initiatives that help to spread linguistic diversity as humanity's heritage, and internationally prepare and design management models on linguistic diversity.
Services that this organisation wants to offer language communities include the “Centro internacional de buenas prácticas en multilingüismo” (International centre of best practices in multilinguism - CIBPM), designed to promote world languages, internationally communicate its experience on the revival of Catalan and propose initiatives that constitute a respectful, equal and fair multilinguism management model.
STAR Servicios Lingüísticos is one of the organisations invited to participate in one of the work groups, organised by the CIBPM. STAR will be involved in the group that focuses on the information society and information and communication technologies, as a result of its pioneering work with the academic world for the localisation into Catalan of Transit/TermStar, the integrated computer assisted translation tool.
Further information is available at: http://www10.gencat.net/www.linguamon.cat/es/index.html

      Due to STAR Servicios Lingüísticos' involvement for several years now in providing localisation training, TILP (The Institute of Localisation Professionals) has accredited STAR Servicios Lingüísticos as a course provider which certifies participants on its courses as localisation professionals. The content of the training programmes will be announced shortly.
Further information is available at
http://www.tilponline.org/CLP/accreditedcourseprovider.shtml

      In a trip organised by the Barcelona Chamber of Commerce and the local development agency Barcelona Activa, STAR Servicios Lingüísticos, together with a large group of Spanish business people in new technologies, visited Sweden and Finland. It was a unique opportunity to find out first hand why these two countries and their companies are at the forefront of technological development. We visited some of the most well-known companies in Scandinavia (e.g. Ericsson) and research centres such as Tekes, VTT and the Helsinki Institute of Information Technology. “The fact that these two Scandinavian countries are on the crest of the wave of new technologies is due to a combination of factors”, says Michael Scholand, Director of STAR SL. “These factors not only include a clear commitment to innovation and globalisation, but also continuous improvement and a training policy tailored to people's needs and the demands of modern societies. It is impressive to see how companies, universities and governments work together to create intellectual capital and make sustainable progress possible”.

Idiomatic expressions with sound and videos in three languages: "A thousand images on the tip of the tongue" is a trilingual multimedia index with 1000 idiomatic expressions: with sound and videos. It is an interactive idiomatic expressions site with equivalents in Spanish, English and French, but not always with the same formulation or image.
Expressions are classified according to subjects. Each expression is included in a short text that indicates its meaning and is accompanied by a digital audio file. Listening to this file makes it possible to distinguish the nuances in pronunciation and intonation. The site also includes exercises, games and humorous animations that enable the discovery of the fascinating world of idiomatic expressions. This didactic material has been devised for Spanish, English and French foreign language courses and also for translation courses given in some schools in Canada.
Further information is available at http://www.ccdmd.qc.ca/ri/expressions/index.html

Football terminology: Coinciding with the World Cup in Germany, the TERMCAT terminology centre has published a broad range of football-related terms.
Each of the terms is provided in Catalan, with the equivalents in Spanish, French and English, as well as their definition. The interface, belonging to the “On-Line Dictionaries” collection, makes it possible to consult terms in the alphabetical index of each language or perform a search in the dialogue box, of both a term and a word from the definition.
The Diccionari de futbol gathers almost four hundred terms, from the Diccionari general de l’esport, which Termcat is preparing and expects to publish next year. This dictionary will contain more than 13,000 terms on the sixty most played sports in the regions of Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and Valencia.
Further information is available at http://www.termcat.cat/dicci/futbol/index.html

STAR Servicios Lingüísticos was set up in 1999 in Barcelona and forms part of the STAR Group, one of the 3 most important multinational companies in the field of translation and language technology development services in the world. The STAR Group, created in 1984 in Switzerland, has 36 offices in 28 countries with more than 850 staff. Since its creation, the Spanish office has experienced continuous growth, mainly due to the excellent service and price-quality ratio it offers its clients. The more than 23 members that make up its workforce come from translation, terminology, language engineering, marketing, IT and graphic design fields, and form a team that is totally committed to offering the best service possible. The flagship of the STAR product range is Transit, the computer aided translation system, specifically designed to cover the translator's needs and includes the most sophisticated translation memory in the language industry. The integratable TermStar and WebTerm terminology management tools, the FormatChecker quality control system for designers and advanced solutions for translation workflow and James globalization and GRIPS comprise the successful STAR product range. Its clients include highly prestigious companies such as Adobe, American Express, Airbus, Blaupunkt, BMW, Bosch, BSH, Bulgari, Cartier, Diesel, Dior, Hitachi, Leica, Lexus, Mercedes, Microsoft, McAfee, Peugeot, Roche, Tissot, Toshiba, Toyota, Unicef and Xerox.

STAR Servicios Lingüísticos, S.L.
Ali Bei, 67. 08013 Barcelona. Spain.
+34 932 440 880 - starspain @ star-group.net
www.star-spain.com