Following the huge success at the trade fair in Berlin in June 2024, the next highlight took place last week on July 3, 2024:

Through my membership in the Federal Association of Interpreters and Translators (BDÜ), I learned that GESIS – Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences in Mannheim is seeking participants for a translation experiment in the field of questionnaire translation for international survey research.

The project involves translating a questionnaire from English into German, partly using machine pre-translation, while monitoring the translator’s keystrokes and her terminology search behavior on the internet during the translation process.

➡ Anyone who knows me knows I had to sign up for this ✅

And without really expecting it, I was one of 30 people selected to participate. So last week I took the ICE 🚅 to Mannheim.

The experiment lasted four hours and consisted of two parts: first, translating a questionnaire from English to German without machine pre-translation, and second, with machine pre-translation. The study examines a wide range of aspects of translator behavior in both variants.

The first results are expected in 2025. I’m really looking forward to them and proud to have been a part of it!🆒

This is yet another great example of how we translators can contribute in completely different fields that you wouldn’t even think of at first!💡

And since it was an exceptionally beautiful day in Mannheim, I used the time after the experiment for a bit of sightseeing and for coffee ☕ and cake 🍰 at one of the prettiest cafés (Pink!!!) I’ve been to in a long time.