We are thrilled to invite you to our upcoming seminar, hosted by the Research and Impact Initiative on Communication in Healthcare and the Centre for the Humanities and Medicine at The University of Hong Kong!
Event Details:
- Speaker: Professor Narongdej Phanthaphoommee (Research Institute for Languages and Cultures of Asia, Mahidol University)
- Talk Title: “Between access and awareness: Machine translation Literacy in migrant workers' daily lives”
- Date: September 2, 2026 (Wednesday)
- Time: 4:00–5:00PM HKT
- Location: Room CRT-7.45, 7/F, Run Run Shaw Tower, Centennial Campus, The University of Hong Kong
- Sign Up Here: https://hkuems1.hku.hk/hkuems/ec_hdetail.aspx?UEID=109111&ticket=ST-191680-LzcqzqcUIGz90sTXPsWd
Abstract:
Machine translation has become part of everyday migrant life in Thailand, taken up in hospitals, workplaces and official dealings, yet used with little instruction in its limits. Two studies from one programme. This report presents two studies from one programme. here. The first was conducted with fifteen Myanmar migrant workers in Bangkok and Samut Sakhon, whose knowledge of the tool had been gained informally. Reliance upon camera translation was heavy, recognition errors followed from accent variation, and privacy risk was largely unrecognised. Five concepts were derived and made into a training programme, afterwards carried to Mae Sot and delivered to twenty Myanmar teaching assistants at migrant learning centres, who translate for pupils, parents and institutions. The finding shows participants having a decision-making process before translation, trust conditional upon subject matter, and privacy understood as a duty owed to others. Access to translation, it may be argued, is more readily obtained than awareness of what its use entails, a burden that should not rest upon migrant users alone.
For enquiries, please feel free to email chm1@hku.hk or riich@hku.hk. We look forward to seeing you!