Translating and interpreting in the Metaverse: potential opportunities and challenges

Yıl 2023, Sayı: 35, 1589 - 1604, 21.08.2023

Tuğçe Elif Taşdan Doğan

https://doi.org/10.29000/rumelide.1346642

Öz

The concept of the Metaverse has started to be studied by scholars from different disciplines after the evolution of the idea of building a virtual 3D universe reflecting the real world in digital platforms. Since the impacts of such a digital universe will be enormous, it is beneficial to understand the main motives for developing such a system, the basic features of the Metaverse, its operational steps, and its possible impacts on different disciplines. When the literature is analyzed to find resources about the Metaverse, it has been seen that there are only a limited number of studies in the literature since the Metaverse is a relatively new concept in the sense that we know it today. The relationship between the Metaverse and the profession of translation and interpreting is one of the latest issues; therefore, only a few studies have been found in the literature associating somehow the Metaverse with translation, and the scope of these studies is quite limited. Therefore, the present study is innovative research elaborating on the potential advantages and disadvantages of the Metaverse in the field of translation and interpreting by referring to the studies in the literature. After a detailed analysis of the data and comprehensive interpretation of possible impacts of the Metaverse on the profession, it has been concluded that the Metaverse offers many advantages for translators, interpreters, and educators. It is also noted that such a digital environment fully integrated into people’s lives may result in social, mental, and physical problems.

Anahtar Kelimeler

Metaverse, translation and interpreting, artificial intelligence, avatar, advantages and disadvantages

Kaynakça

• Akkaya, N., & Şengül, L. (2022). Metaverse ve Dil Eğitimi. Eğitim ve Yeni Yaklaşımlar Dergisi, 5(2), 314–326. https://doi.org/10.52974/jena.1194504
• Ball, M. (2022). The metaverse: And how it will revolutionize everything (First edition). Liveright Publishing Corporation, a division of W.W. Norton & Company.
• Clemens, A. (2022). Metaverse For Beginners A Guide To Help You Learn About Metaverse, Virtual Reality And Investing In NFTs. Independently Published.
• Cunningham, T. C. (2014). Marching toward the metaverse: Strategic communication through the new media. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform.
• Dahan, N. A., Al-Razgan, M., Al-Laith, A., Alsoufi, M. A., Al-Asaly, M. S., & Alfakih, T. (2022). Metaverse Framework: A Case Study on E-Learning Environment (ELEM). Electronics, 11(10), 1616. https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics11101616
• Demetrio, R. (2023). Metaverse: Is it possible to Translate? Bureauworks.Com. https://www.bureauworks.com/blog/metaverse-content-localization-translation
• Dionisio, J. D. N., Iii, W. G. B., & Gilbert, R. (2013). 3D Virtual worlds and the metaverse: Current status and future possibilities. ACM Computing Surveys, 45(3), 1–38. https://doi.org/10.1145/2480741.2480751
• Duran, G., Kanıgür, S., & Hassan, A. (2022). Gri Gergedan Metaforu Bağlamında Metaverse’ün Turizm Sektörü Açısından İncelenmesi. Journal of New Tourism Trends, 3(2), 160–176.
• Fan, L., & Chen, S. (2023). Cognitive Effort and Communication Model in Terminology Translation: Translation, Communication and Knowledge Transfer of “Metaverse” in China. China Terminology, 25(2), 78–84. https://doi.org/10.12339/j.issn.1673-8578.2023.02.011
• González Vallejo, R. (2023). Metaverse and translation studies: Analysis of machine translation. Metaverse Basic and Applied Research, 38. https://doi.org/10.56294/mr202338
• Kalaivani, P., & Devaki, N. (2022). Digital Literacy Skills to Learn and Live in the World of Metaverse Era. In A New Perspective of Digital Knowledge in Academic. Krishna Publication House.
• Karabulut, H. (2023). Deprem Sonrası Kaygı Bozukluğu ile Mücadele Teknolojik Yaklaşımlar—Metaverse, Dijital Oyun ve ChatGPT Uygulamaları. In Eğitim Alanında Güncel Bilimsel Araştırmalar II (1st ed., pp. 73–96). İksad Yayınevi.
• Ma, W., & Huang, K. (2022). Blockchain and Web3: Building the cryptocurrency, privacy, and security foundations of the metaverse. Wiley.
• Moretti, G., & Schlemmer, E. (2012). Virtual Learning Communities of Practice in Metaverse. In Virtual Worlds and Metaverse Platforms: New Communication and Identity Paradigms. IGI Global.
• Novak, K. (2022). Introducing the Metaverse, Again! TechTrends, 66(5), 737–739. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11528-022-00767-0
• Nwakanma, C. I., Njoku, J. N., & Kim, D.-S. (2022). Evaluation of Language Translator Module for Metaverse Virtual Assistant. Korean Institute of Communications and Information Sciences, 78.
• Önay Dogan, B., & Gül Ünlü, D. (Eds.). (2019). Handbook of Research on Examining Cultural Policies Through Digital Communication: IGI Global. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-5225-6998-5
• Owens, D., Mitchell, A., Khazanchi, D., & ZIgurs, I. (2011). An empirical investigation of virtual world projects and metaverse technology capabilities. ACM SIGMIS Database: The DATABASE for Advances in Information Systems, 42(1), 74–101. https://doi.org/10.1145/1952712.1952717
• Park, S.-M., & Kim, Y.-G. (2022). A Metaverse: Taxonomy, Components, Applications, and Open Challenges. IEEE Access, 10, 4209–4251. https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2021.3140175
• Pöllabauer, S. (2012). Community Interpreting. In C. A. Chapelle (Ed.), The Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics (p. wbeal0159). Blackwell Publishing Ltd. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781405198431.wbeal0159
• Popova, B. (2023). Embracing the Metaverse: The Future of Islamic Teaching and Learning. 2023 20th Learning and Technology Conference (L&T), 1–7. https://doi.org/10.1109/LT58159.2023.10092367
• Rijmenam, M. van. (2022). Step into the Metaverse. John Wiley and Sons.
• Rodriguez, S. (2021, October 28). Facebook changes company name to Meta. CNBC. https://www.cnbc.com/2021/10/28/facebook-changes-company-name-to-meta.html
• Roettgers, J. (2022, February 23). Meta is building an AI Babelfish to translate every language. Protocol. https://www.protocol.com/bulletins/meta-ai-translation-metaverse-babelfish
• Scheiding, R. (2022). Designing the Future? The Metaverse, NFTs, & the Future as Defined by Unity Users. Games and Culture, 155541202211392. https://doi.org/10.1177/15554120221139218
• Sipper, J. A. (2022). The cyber meta-reality: Beyond the metaverse. Lexington Books.
• Smith, P. (2022). Black immigrants in the United States: Transraciolinguistic justice for imagined futures in a global metaverse. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 42, 109–118. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0267190522000046
• Smith, S. (2022, January 31). Language in the Metaverse: Predictions for Translating and Interpreting in the Metaverse. DayTranslationsblog. https://www.daytranslations.com/blog/language-in-the-metaverse-predictions-for-translating-and-interpreting-in-the-metaverse/
• Sonvilla-Weiss, S. (2008). (In)visible: Learning to act in the metaverse. Springer.
• Stephenson, N. (2008). Snow crash. Bantam Books.
• Syafrony, A., & Kusuma, V. A. (2022). Universal Language Translator: Is This the Future or the Doom of Language Learning? Jurnal Humaya: Jurnal Hukum, Humaniora, Masyarakat, Dan Budaya, 2(2), 92–100. https://doi.org/10.33830/humayafhisip.v2i2.4107
• Terry, Q., & Keeney, S. (2022). The Metaverse Handbook: Innovating for the internet’s next tectonic shift (1st ed.). John Wiley and Sons.
• Tirosh, O. (2022, July 13). The Impact of the Metaverse in the Translation Industry. Tomedes.Com. https://www.tomedes.com/translator-hub/metaverse-impact-translation-industry
• Ullah, Z., Alam, M. F., & Ihsan, W. (2022). Juxtaposing Urdu to English Captions of Facebook/ Metaverse: A Neural Machine Translation Study. Global Language Review, VII(II), 55–66. https://doi.org/10.31703/glr.2022(VII-II).05
• Wang, G., Badal, A., Jia, X., Maltz, J. S., Mueller, K., Myers, K. J., Niu, C., Vannier, M., Yan, P., Yu, Z., & Zeng, R. (2022). Development of metaverse for intelligent healthcare. Nature Machine Intelligence, 4(11), 922–929. https://doi.org/10.1038/s42256-022-00549-6
• Wang, S., & Zhu, Y. (2023). When Translation Meets the Metaverse: An Exploration of the Translation Practice Landscape in the Digital Society. Journal of Beijing International Studies University, 45(2), 33–47. https://doi.org/10.12002/j.bisu.439
• Yang, Q., Zhao, Y., Huang, H., Xiong, Z., Kang, J., & Zheng, Z. (2022). Fusing Blockchain and AI With Metaverse: A Survey. IEEE Open Journal of the Computer Society, 3, 122–136. https://doi.org/10.1109/OJCS.2022.3188249
• Yoo, G.-S., & Chun, K. (2021). A Study on The Development of A Game-type Language Education Service Platform Based on Metaverse. Journal of Digital Contents Society, 22(9), 1377–1386. https://doi.org/10.9728/dcs.2021.22.9.1377
• Zagalo, N., Morgado, L., & Boa-Ventura, A. (Eds.). (2012). Virtual worlds and metaverse platforms: New communication and identity paradigms. Information Science Reference.
• Zhang, X., Chen, Y., Hu, L., & Wang, Y. (2022). The metaverse in education: Definition, framework, features, potential applications, challenges, and future research topics. Frontiers in Psychology, 13, 1016300. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1016300