Fostering accessibility and entrepreneurship through technology-assisted translation

Abstract

This paper reports on the extension project “Fostering entrepreneurship through computer-aided translation and interpreting practices” carried out by undergraduate language translation students at São Paulo State University in São José do Rio Preto, São Paulo, Brazil. The extension project worked in partnership with the Company Incubator Center and the Technological Park of São José do Rio Preto in 2017. The project is comprised of a series of activities aimed to integrate the practice of Brazilian Portuguese language writing and translation into English and Spanish. The translations are assisted by translation memory systems to meet the demands of small companies and entrepreneurs in their early development stages without the financial resources to advertise their services and products to potential consumers abroad. In order to promote the products and services of these companies, a series of activities were developed for the Company Incubator Center website into English and Spanish, contributing to undergraduate translation students’ education and qualification while increasing the visibility of start-up companies both domestically and internationally. The results suggest that collaboration between internal and external university communities can create products (a trilingual website, a linguistic database, and a trilingual glossary) capable of fostering both professional and personal growth for students and businesses.