The Pulse of Language, Translation,
Interpreting and Interculturation
Beyond words and languages: Building bridges across worlds
Issue No. 003 · 23 October 2026 · Weekend Edition
Editorial noteWho checks the machine, and who counts as a speaker?
This week public institutions met machine translation head-on. Canada’s federal AI translation tool made visible errors in its first six months, from “TB” turned into tuberculosis to a colleague renamed Stéphanie, while New Zealand’s police run two AI models side by side so investigators can pick the better one for each language. Both stories are about checking. Who checks the machine, and in which language?
The Hausa story shows why the question is sharp for African languages: tools that miss idiom, innuendo and praise poetry can misread speech, and a new study finds that even the language of the prompt changes a model’s answer. Against this, lexicographers add Ugandan and Ethiopian words to the OED, and a Congolese linguist reminds us that no language is intrinsically poor, only marginalised.
That is the thread of this issue and of our header line: bridges need people who know both banks. For Metaglossia, interculturation means that communities and professionals keep the last word.
Prizes, translators’ gatherings and a Québécois Kerouac show translation as creative work.
The 18th edition shortlists five literature and five essay translations, including Scholastique Mukasonga’s Notre-Dame du Nil. Of 60 translators, 26 were born after 1990. Winners are announced on 21 November in Nanjing.
Read the original: China.org.cn (in French)Maxime Catellier’s translation of Visions of Gerard (Boréal, 2026) argues that the book is Franco-American in voice, and restores the oral register that the 1972 French version missed.
Read the original: L’Express (in French)Twenty translators and nine publishers met on 20 to 22 October, with panels on cultural transfer, keeping suspense in translation and publishing Turkish fiction in Pakistan, Bulgaria and Croatia.
Read the original: Hürriyet Daily NewsIn brief
Public bodies adopt AI translation fast, and the errors show why checking matters.
Documents obtained by Radio-Canada list mistakes in GCtraduction’s first six months, such as “TB” as tuberculosis and “Indigenous” as “indigène”. Translators’ union wants human involvement; the minister’s office says it was a pilot and is being improved. Over 725 million words translated so far.
Read the original: Radio-Canada (in French)A Legit.ng Hausa-desk editor argues that tools miss idiom, innuendo and praise poetry in a language of 100 million speakers, and urges human sign-off. Reported through an AI-assisted wire summary of his article.
Read the original: Tomorrow’s PublisherMeta’s Seamless and Whisper on an internal platform let investigators choose the most accurate model per language. Internal emails show a two-year debate over controls.
Read the original: RNZIn brief
From the OED to a Congolese linguist, who decides what counts as a language and a word?
Congolese linguist Raoul Ekwampok Ka’ndum argues that status depends on history, use and recognition: a language looks “less developed” when it is marginalised, under-documented or absent from schools.
Read the original: ACP (RDC) (in French)They include the Ugandan “campuser”, the Ethiopian “azmari” (poet), Trinidad’s “canboulay”, Māori “whakapapa” and Welsh “twpsyn”.
Read the original: The Oxford StudentKreyòl pale, by Benjamin Hebblethwaite and David Tezil, took nine years to make: 29 chapters and over 60 exercises, free as a PDF from the University of Florida.
Read the original: Black EnterpriseIn brief
Research, prizes and exchanges that shape the profession.
Studies of migrant self-translation, eco-translation and language dynamics in the Italian colonisation of Libya, plus reviews on translation and decolonisation.
Read the original: John BenjaminsAmélie Guffond (French) and Matthew Trojić (English) took the 2026 prizes.
Read the original: UNIGE (in French)LTI Korea brings three novelists to the Nantes science-fiction festival (29 October to 1 November), then to a Paris bookshop on 2 November.
Read the original: Yonhap (in French)Application deadlines and start dates from 23 to 30 October 2026, drawn from UN job boards, the EU Knowledge Centre on Translation and Interpretation and the EST list of conferences. Always confirm on the official notice.
💼 Jobs
UNICEF Mozambique, Maputo. 12-month long-term agreement; 5+ years’ experience. Apply by 28 October.
Read the original: UNICEFUN Volunteers, remote. Apply by 29 October.
Read the original: UNVUN Secretariat, consultancy, Geneva or remote. Apply by 30 October.
Read the original: UN Secretariat🗓️ Events
Persian poetry evening, 27 October, Boston University.
Read the original: Boston University29 to 30 October, Babeș-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania.
Read the original: KCTIToday, 23 October, at the ALTA conference.
Read the original: Sixth ToneThe challenge is not simply to make words travel, but to make understanding possible.
We invite translators, interpreters, researchers, educators, students, publishers, language-technology specialists and language-rights advocates to join the conversation.
Every language carries a world, and every genuine act of translation creates an opportunity for worlds to meet.
Explore the collection: Metaglossia: The Translation World on Scoop.it