Beyond Borders: Game and Transmedia Localisation for Global Audiences

• Date: 28 February 2025
• Time:  3pm - 6pm
• Venue: Seminar Room 6 (01-04), 48 Nanyang Avenue, Singapore 639818

In this session, we will explore the critical role of localisation in supporting the growth of the game and entertainment industries beyond their original markets. Localisation involves nuanced adaptation of contents that aligns with the cultural, linguistic and emotional expectations of the target markets, that allows players around the world experience content that feels authentic and immersive. We will also focus on the culturalisation of game and transmedia contents, where content creators and localisation teams collaborate to adapt storylines, characters and narratives to fit the cultural norms and values for different regions. We will examine the localisation strategies and approaches, which enable content to preserve its original intent while being culturally relevant in the target markets. This session will also cover practical aspects, such as challenges and best practices in adapting contents for global audiences. There will be hands-on practice during the session for the attendees to apply the concepts on sample contents.

This session will introduce participants to the challenges and techniques involved in localising video games for international markets. Participants will engage in translating game and transmedia contents, with a focus on cultural adaptation and audience-specific language use.

Kah Hui Teo is the Portfolio Director at Keywords Studios, with more than 15 years of experience in the games industry. She is a part-time lecturer at Nanyang Technological University Master in Translation and Interpretation programme and serves on the Singapore National Translation Committee Chinese Resource Panel. She believes in bridging the gap between the industry and academia, and has collaborated with universities in Singapore, China and the UK on game and transmedialocalisation lectures and courses. Kah Hui was appointed a Women in Games Ambassador in 2020 and the Director of Women in Games Asia Chapter since 2022. She currently serves as a council member of the Keywords Studios Global Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging Council. She had also served as an Advisor and on the Executive Committee of the Singapore Games Association, and as the Mentorship and Education Manager of Women in Localization Singapore Chapter.

Varieties of Chinese and Translation

• Date: 14 March 2025
• Time:  3pm - 6pm
• Venue: Seminar Room 6 (01-04), 48 Nanyang Avenue, Singapore 639818

The “Varieties of Chinese and Translation” session will employ an interactive teaching methodology that integrates seminar-style presentations, group discussions, and hands-on exercises. This session serves as an introductory exploration of the linguistic variations among Chinese varieties spoken in Mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, and beyond. For example, consider the term ‘Standard Mandarin,’ which is translated as 普通话 in Mainland China, 国语 in Taiwan, and 华语 in Singapore. By engaging with diverse real life examples, participants will get a taste of the nuances of these linguistic differences and their implications for English-Chinese translation. Through collaborative discussions and practical exercises, they will gain initial insights into delivering precise, regionally sensitive translations, helping them begin to navigate the complexities of cross-cultural communication in our globalised world.

Participants will examine the linguistic diversity within Mandarin Chinese varieties and its impact on translation. The session will focus on adapting language to suit various audiences and contexts within Sinophone communities.

Associate Professor Lin Jingxia (PhD in Chinese Linguistics, Stanford University) joined NTU Singapore in 2013. Her research interests include cognitive functional linguistics, language variation and change, typology, and contrastive linguistics. Her current work focuses on World Chineses, with a particular emphasis on Singapore Mandarin.

Translating Translingual Writing: A View from the South

• Date: 11 April 2025
• Time:  4pm - 7pm
• Venue: Seminar Room 6 (01-04), 48 Nanyang Avenue, Singapore 639818

Switching in and out of languages is part of everyday life in Singapore/Malaysia, and other parts of the world. In this session, we look at how a translation practice which seeks to validate such “multilingualism” might work in...er....practice. Why do people codeswitch or codemesh? Especially in the case of translingual works, what options, permutations, issues, conflicts, and contradictions arise when we value sociality and the endogenous knowledge-systems that support it?

These lines from Goh Sin Tub’s poem, “Speaking in Tongues--Singapore Style,” give an indication of the challenges in this area:  

Dr. Sim Wai Chew is Associate Professor in the School of Humanities, Nanyang Technological University. His research interests are in Singapore/Southeast Asian Literature, Comparative Literature, and Postcolonial Theory. The broad theme of Southeast Asian writing as an alternative theoretical locus to metropolitan discourse inspires his research and creative/translation practice.

Take a chance on me: generative AI and the prospects for machine poetry

• Date: 25 April 2025
• Time:  3pm - 6pm
• Venue: Seminar Room 6 (01-04), 48 Nanyang Avenue, Singapore 639818

What is it in virtue of which any poetic output will be included or excluded from the category of art? How is the cut-off made between art and non-art? We will attempt a response to this demarcation problem, while paying close attention to several concrete examples of poetry generated by aleatory processes. As we shall see, our response is congenial to a context of production in which we find human poets, poetry-generating AI systems, and human-AI interfaces.

Participants are expected to have a Google account for accessing Google Colab. During this session, they will have the opportunity to run or execute code that has been specifically designed to help them understand better how LLMs work. Laptops are needed for this session to run and execute codes on Google Colab.

Dr. Melvin Chen is an expert in applied artificial intelligence research, the philosophy of artificial intelligence, formal epistemology, aesthetics, metaethics, normative ethics, and philosophy and literature. His forthcoming book-length publications include Philosophy & Art in Southeast Asia (Bloomsbury, 2024) and The Thinker’s Game: Decoding the Chess Universe (Thinkers Publishing, 2024). He also has a manuscript under review titled The World & Our Place in It: Big Questions in Science & Philosophy.

Dr. Chen’s recent journal contributions in 2023 include articles such as ‘Seven pillars for the future of AI’ (IEEE Intelligent Systems), ‘Take a chance on me: Aleatory poetry, generative AI, & the external demarcation problem’ (The Journal of Aesthetics & Art Criticism), ‘A trilemma for the singularitarian’ (Philosophy & Technology), ‘The philosophy of the metaverse’ (Ethics & Information Technology), and ‘Trust, understanding, & machine translation: The task of translation & the responsibility of the translator’ (AI & Society). In the realm of public philosophy, his 2024 article, ‘In AI we trust? A philosophical perspective,’ is set to be published in THINK Magazine. His interdisciplinary work brings a deep philosophical lens to contemporary issues in AI, ethics, and aesthetics, positioning him as a leading thinker in these evolving fields.

Judicial Proceeding Interpretation (A Moot Court Session)

• Date: 30 April 2025
• Time:  3pm - 6pm
• Venue: Seminar Room 6 (01-04), 48 Nanyang Avenue, Singapore 639818

The eligibility for court and parliamentary interpreters in Singapore is limited to Singaporean citizens. It is important to expose participants to the key aspects of interpreting so that they can guide potential students, especially when teachers identify promising talents among their JC students before they choose the majors in the universities.

This session will simulate a judicial proceeding where participants will perform as court interpreters. They will be exposed to legal terminology and real-time interpretation challenges, emphasizing accuracy, neutrality, and context adaptation.

Nehemiah Yeo graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Civil & Structural Engineering (major), with Chinese and Psychology as minors from Nanyang Technological University. Upon graduation he worked as an investigation officer in the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau, combating corruption and other related offences for four years. In the subsequent 12 years or so, he went on to be a certified interpreter and translator in the State Courts which scope included criminal law, civil law and family law. Throughout his stay there, he realised that legal interpretation and translation made him re-learn English and Chinese within proper context. Due to overwhelming workload, he decided to quit the job and to date, he is still in the same practice except that he interprets and translates for law enforcement agencies mainly on a freelance basis. All considered, while he finds legal interpretation and translation to be taxing, they are interesting such that he has been reading the Penal Code, Criminal Procedure Code and Evidence Act in the past two decades for the purpose of identifying the subtle difficulties in order to facilitate interpretation and translation.