Intercultural Collaboration Tools Based on the Language Grid

Abstract

As the number of online machine translation tools continues to expand, the importance of utilizing machine translation in multilingual communities is also increasing. Yet several problems exist when using the existing machine translation tools with intercultural communication in a multilingual community. 1) Translation of community-specific terms or sentences within communities is always of low quality. 2) Machine translation tools lack a view of how a multilingual community’s activities should include the improving of low-quality translation. 3) They do not provide a means for customization based on the requirements unique to a community. To address these issues, we developed Language Grid Toolbox. Language Grid Toolbox aims to support intercultural collaboration using the Language Grid and provides various functions such as creation of community-specific dictionaries combined with a machine translator and multilingual BBS where translated language can be corrected collectively by community members. Moreover, since Toolbox is developed as open source software and provides APIs of basic functions, customized functions for each community can easily be developed. Several customized communication tools extended from Toolbox’s basic modules have already been implemented by universities and local governments.