RWS Moravia Professors on Educating Future Localization Professionals

RWS Moravia Professors致力于培养未来本地化专业人才

2020-09-11 02:40 RWS Moravia Insights

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Here at RWS Moravia, we believe the entire industry can benefit if we participate in educating the localization professionals of the future. In fact, in addition to working for RWS Moravia, some of our employees are also professors who teach in the field of localization and translation—specifically, Jon Ritzdorf, Jan Grodecki and Pavel Soukenik. We spoke with all three to learn how they got into teaching, what they teach and their insights about education in the localization field. Jon Ritzdorf Jon is a Senior Solutions Architect at RWS Moravia and an Adjunct Professor at the University of Maryland and the Middlebury Institute of International Studies. Jon has 17+ years in the field of localization. He received an MA degree in Chinese Translation from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies. He also studied Advanced Chinese Language at the National Taiwan Normal University and received a BA in Chinese Language and Literature from the University of Massachusetts. How did you get into teaching? When I found out there was a translation certificate program being offered locally at NYU, I chased down the director of the program and quite brashly told her it was ridiculous that they were not teaching the current generation of translators about CAT tools. To my complete surprise, I was hired on the spot and within less than a month, I was put in front of a classroom to teach my first summer CAT course. That was 2003. The rest is history. What are your areas of expertise? I'd say my area of expertise is translation technology, including computer-assisted translation tools, translation management systems, natural language processing tools, corpus linguistics and machine translation. What classes do you teach and where? At Middlebury Institute, I currently teach “The Financial Side of Localization” and “Localization Sales and Solutions Development.” At the University of Maryland, I teach “Fundamentals of Translation Technology” and “Website and Software Localization.” And, starting at Hunter College in the Fall of 2020, I'll be teaching “Computer-assisted Translation.” What do you like about university teaching? It's really fun to watch the students gradually grow into professional roles after they graduate. Do you have any thoughts for students on what to learn and how to succeed in the industry? Ultimately, I think my number one rule for success in the industry is to be open to learning anything and everything. Don't close yourself off from doing something just because you think you might not like it.  Jan Grodecki Jan is a Senior Solutions Architect at RWS Moravia and an instructor at the University of Washington. Jan has roughly 20 years of experience in the localization field and previously worked as an International Project Manager for Software and Content Localization at Microsoft. He studied at five schools including the Project Management Institute and Franklin Covey. How did you get into teaching? In around 2009, a co-worker at Microsoft asked me if I would be interested in talking as a guest speaker about software localization at the University of Washington (UW). This gradually developed into a permanent teaching assignment for the Localization Engineering course. What are your areas of expertise? My expertise is in localization engineering and localization project management. My passions are risk management, multimedia and machine translation. I’m also interested in bread-making and film photography, but that’s another story. What classes do you teach and where? I teach “Certificate in Localization: Customizing Software for the World” at the University of Washington in Seattle. What do you like about university teaching? Teaching requires building and maintaining knowledge on a regular basis. You have to keep up with the industry, research and latest technologies. As a Solutions Architect, this is the perfect addition to my day job. My professional experience allows me to illustrate the topics I teach with real-life examples. Oftentimes, student questions provide me with additional challenges that I can take back to my colleagues for further discussion. It simply is a win-win opportunity. What is the future of localization education? Will there be a change in curriculum? When in the past, it was relatively easy to update your topics year over year, like from statistical to neural machine translation, this has become more and more challenging with companies continuously entering new markets all the time. You would think that with new technologies, many of the old topics would become obsolete, but because there are still lots of legacy applications around, you can’t drop topics like localizability, software CAT tools or parser configuration, to name only a few. Do you have any thoughts for students on what to learn and how to succeed in the industry? In this profession, you have to be flexible. There are no common business hours. Usually, you work with teams around the globe; meetings can happen in the early morning hours or late at night. Also, there’s rarely a defined career path with training offerings. You have to be curious, do research and drive your own career. Pavel Soukenik Pavel is currently the Chief Client Acquisition Officer at RWS Moravia, an instructor at the University of Washington, a professional coach and a localization expert. He has roughly 20 years of experience in the localization and translation fields. He was educated at Masaryk University in Brno, Czech Republic, earning degrees in English, American Studies and Mathematics. How did you get into teaching? I got engaged with the University of Washington after a lunch with Carla DiFranco who was teaching there (on top of her role at Microsoft) and who encouraged me to look into that. What are your areas of expertise? The things I’m currently teaching are related to localization engineering. But I’m interested in all kinds of things—project management, machine translation, etc. What classes do you teach and where? I teach localization classes at the University of Washington. On top of that, I give guest lectures at other institutions like the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey and the University of Texas. What do you like about university teaching? What I enjoy the most is that there are so many bright people around the world that I can share a bit of my time and experience with. It’s very inspiring, and it’s humbling. What would you say you are trying to bring to the industry? The biggest advancements in localization that I can think of and that I’m trying to help bring about are not related to newer algorithms or platforms, but to a vision of educating people outside of localization about the concepts of global, localizable products. Do you have any thoughts for students on what to learn and how to succeed in the industry? My recommendation for success is for people to grasp firmly the underlying principles and to learn the lingo. The former is so they can use their own ideas and inventiveness in the context of understanding the problem area. The latter is because it’s frankly easier to get a good job in localization if you speak the same language (pun not intended) as other localization professionals.   RWS Moravia continues to be immensely proud of the valuable work that professors Jon Ritzdorf, Jan Grodecki and Pavel Soukenik have done and continue to do in the field of localization. We treasure having them as part of our company and believe that their work benefits the entire field of localization. We hope that you enjoyed the insights that they provided in these interviews.
在RWS Moravia,我们相信如果参与到培养未来的本地化专业人才的教育,整个行业都将受益。事实上,除了在RWS Moravia任职外,我们的一些员工也是本地化和翻译领域的教授,特别是Jon Ritzdorf,Jan Grodecki和Pavel Soukenik。 我们采访了他们三位,了解他们是如何进入教学领域的、所教的内容以及他们对本地化领域教育的见解。 Jon Ritzdorf Jon是RWS Moravia的高级解决方案架构师,也是马里兰大学和米德尔伯里国际研究学院的兼职教授。Jon在本地化领域工作长达17年之久,经验丰富。他获得了米德尔伯里国际研究学院的中文翻译硕士学位。 他还曾在国立台湾师范大学学习高级汉语,并获得了马萨诸塞大学的中国语言文学学士学位。 你是如何开始任教的? 当时我发现纽约大学正在当地开设翻译证书课程,去找该课程的负责人,并轻率地告诉她,他们竟然没有教当代的译者使用CAT工具,这太荒谬了。令我惊讶的是,我当场就被录用了,并且不到一个月我就被安排到一间教室去教授第一门夏季CAT课程。那是2003年。剩下的已经成为过去了。 你的专业领域是什么? 我的专业领域是翻译技术,包括计算机辅助翻译工具,翻译管理系统,自然语言处理工具,语料库语言学和机器翻译。 你任教的课程和地点? 我目前在米德尔伯里学院教授“本地化的财务方面”和“本地化销售和解决方案开发”。在马里兰大学教授“翻译技术基础”和“网站和软件本地化”。2020年秋季,我将在亨特学院教授“计算机辅助翻译”。 你喜欢大学教学吗? 看着学生毕业后逐渐成长、进入职场其实是件很有趣的事。 对于学生应该学习什么以及如何在这个行业中取得成功,你有何想法? 归根结底,我认为在这个行业取得成功的首要原则是乐于学习任何东西。切不可因为自己不喜欢某件事,而将自己拒之门外。 Jan Grodecki Jan是RWS Moravia的高级解决方案架构师,也是华盛顿大学的讲师。Jan在本地化领域大约有20年的经验,之前曾在微软担任软件和内容本地化的国际项目经理。他曾就读于包括项目管理学院(Project Management Institute)和富兰克林•柯维(Franklin Covey)在内的五所学校。 你是如何开始任教的? 大约在2009年,微软的一个同事问我是否有兴趣在华盛顿大学(UW)做一个关于软件本地化的客座演讲。 在此之后类似的客座演讲便逐渐发展成为本地化工程课程的永久教学任务。 你的专业领域是什么? 我的专业领域是本地化工程和本地化项目管理。爱好是风险管理、多媒体和机器翻译。我也对烘焙制作和电影摄影感兴趣,但那是另一回事了。 你任教的课程和地点? 我在西雅图的华盛顿大学教授“面向世界的本地化证书”:定制软件。 你喜欢大学教学吗? 教学需要定期建立和保持知识。你必须紧跟行业、进行研究和探寻最新技术。这是我作为一名解决方案架构师日常工作中的完美补充。我的专业经验允许自己用现实生活中的例子来说明所任教的主题。学生的问题常常会给我带来其他挑战,我可以把这些问题带回给同事们进行下一步讨论。简直是一举两得。 本土化教育的未来何在?课程有所变化吗? 过去,每年更新主题相对容易,像从统计学到神经机器翻译,随着公司一直不断进入新市场,这变得越来越具有挑战性。你可能会认为随着新技术的出现,许多旧的主题将会过时,但由于仍然存在大量旧版应用程序,你不能放弃诸如本地化、软件CAT工具或解析器配置等主题。 对于学生应该学习什么以及如何在这个行业中取得成功,你有何想法? 在这个行业里,你得灵活一点。没有共同的工作时间。通常,你与全球各地的团队合作;会议可以在清晨或深夜举行。此外,通过培训提供的职业很少有明确的职业道路。还必须保持好奇心,做研究推动自己的事业。 Pavel Soukenik Pavel 现任RWS Moravia首席客户获取官华、盛顿大学讲师、专业教练和本地化专家。他在本地化和翻译领域有大约20年的经验。他在捷克共和国布尔诺的马萨里克大学接受教育,并获得英语,美国研究和数学学位。 你是如何开始任教的? 在与Carla DiFranco共进午餐后,我加入了华盛顿大学(University of Washington)。Carla DiFranco当时在那里教书(在微软担任的职务之外),她鼓励我研究这个问题。 你的专业领域是什么? 我现在教的是本地化工程。但我对项目管理、机器翻译等各种事情都感兴趣。 你任教的课程和地点? 我在华盛顿大学教本地化课程。除此之外,还在蒙特雷的米德尔伯里国际研究学院和德克萨斯大学等其他机构做客座演讲。 你喜欢大学教学吗? 我最享受的是可以和世界上有那么多聪明的人分享自己的时间和经验。这非常鼓舞人心,而且令人保持谦卑。 你认为自己想给这个行业带来什么? 我能想到并希望帮助实现的本地化最大进步与更新的算法或平台无关,而是与对本地化以外的人们进行全球可本地化产品概念教育的愿景有关。 对于学生应该学习什么以及如何在这个行业中取得成功,你有何想法? 对于成功的建议是让人们要牢牢掌握基本原则,并学习行话。前者可以在理解问题区域的背景下运用自己的思考力和创造力。后者是为了如果你和其他本地化专业人员说相同的语言(不是双关语),则在本地化中找到好工作就容易得多。 RWS Moravia 继续为Jon Ritzdorf教授,Jan Grodecki教授和Pavel Soukenik教授在本地化领域所做宝贵工作感到无比自豪。我们珍视其将其成为公司的一部分,并相信他们的工作有益于整个本地化领域。我们希望你对他们在这些采访中提供的见解感到满意。

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