Fall 2026 Meeting Report
Ohio Honyaku Group 2026 Fall Meeting Report
The Ohio Honyaku Group held its 2026 fall meeting on October 10 at the Whetstone Branch of the Columbus Metropolitan Library.
The meeting began with an open discussion about how sophisticated scammers have become.
One member related that he had experienced a flat tire on the Friday before Labor Day weekend (a Monday holiday), and because he was unable to release the lug nuts by hand and put on the spare tire, he called his roadside assistance insurer on his mobile phone to send him professional help. He had a short conversation on the phone with a native English speaker who said he needed to verify his caller’s identity, and asked our member to verify many pieces of personal information before contacting the professional service. After providing many pieces of information, our member began to suspect something was amiss and hung up.
However, the damage was already done. The following Tuesday, this member noticed a small charge on his credit card of $1.95 from an unknown source identified by a string of numbers. The member called his bank’s hotline and discovered that the source was a known scammer who had made the charge as a test to see if the member’s credit card was valid. The bank immediately canceled the member’s credit card and sent him a new one.
This member also mentioned that he still uses a desktop as his main computer, and he has used the same email address for almost 20 years. He stated that he receives about 15 phishing emails each day from scammers, and he has to spend time deleting them and blocking sender addresses.
Current State of AI and Translation
Another discussion concerned ways to prompt online AI engines to reduce hallucinations and receive reliable answers. One member recommended that the prompts should be worded as direct questions requiring very specific yes or no answers rather than vague queries using why, how, etc., which allow AI too much leeway in providing responses. This led to a discussion of the pros and cons of accepting AI post-editing work at a lower rate than human translation. One member noted that human translation is still superior to AI for targeted advertising and other types of localization.
We also discussed the current slowdown in job offers even from long-time customers and the problem with the low yen-to-dollar exchange rate. One member said that he is considering taking on side jobs such as substitute teaching in the public school system to stabilize his income between translation jobs from Japan.
Another member presented two prepared handouts that he had copied from online articles. The first is entitled “Freelancers are getting buried with ‘soulless’ AI slop cleanup: ‘It’s a shame we need to do it.’”
The article relates how freelancers such as graphic designers (and in our case, translators) who have traditionally performed many types of creative work must now accept AI cleanup, which can comprise as much as 70% of their incomes. For example, on Freelancer.com, a contract work platform with more than 88 million users, job listings tagged with phrases such as “correct AI”, “AI hallucination”, and “AI error” rose 87% between August 2025 and June 2026.
(https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/sep/02/ai-jobs-freelance-cleanup)
The second handout was copied and pasted from the website of Lionbridge Translation & Localization for Global Enterprises, which brags about its practice of having humans play an important role in the process by first using Large Language Models (LLMs) to generate rough drafts of translations and then using humans to post-edit the output for fine tuning and quality assurance. One main focus on the website is the following statement by Vincent Henderson, Lionbridge VP of strategy:
“You can’t embrace the new AI world with a platform paradigm dating back 20 years ago. Instead of using AI as a buzzy band-aid for legacy platforms, we’ve built a platform that puts AI first and enables humans to curate the process, including LLM-assisted post-editing.”
ATA Certification
The main presentation was given by an ATA Certification judge, who discussed the advantages of ATA certification and explained the certification examination and grading process. ATA certification is available only to ATA members and remains valid as long as the translator maintains ATA membership and fulfills the continuing education requirements. Certified translators are listed as ATA-certified in the Directory of Translation and Interpreting Services, and may use their certification on resumes and other professional materials. The ATA certification seal also provides a link to the translator’s current certification status.
Only ATA members may take the certification examination. The exam is three hours long, open-book, and is offered for a specific language pair. Candidates select two passages to translate from three general-topic passages of approximately 225 to 275 words each. The exam may be taken either in person with a proctor or online with remote proctoring. The examination fee is $525. In 2026, exams were offered from April through October, with online exams available through September 30. The last in-person exam sitting is held at the ATA annual conference (October).
Internet searches are permitted during the exam, but candidates may access only approved types of resources and may not use chat or forum sites, machine or automatic translation sites, or email. Printed reference materials, including paper dictionaries, may be used, as may glossaries and dictionaries stored locally on the candidate’s computer or laptop, provided that they are not contained within CAT tools.
Here is a link to the list of allowed resources:
For the online exam, candidates must first complete a system check with the service provider. The exam is completed directly in a web browser using a current version of Chrome or Firefox, and the work is saved automatically. Candidates must also download the online exam app to a phone or tablet and position the device so that the remote proctor can monitor them during the examination. Only one computer monitor may be used, and copying and pasting are prohibited. Candidates receive warnings if they access an unauthorized website, and a third warning will stop the examination. Violations may result in the exam being voided, forfeiture of the registration fee, restrictions on future eligibility, and possible ATA ethics sanctions.
Candidates are sent only the final result of the examination, and the examination itself remains the property of ATA. Because the certification exam is challenging, with an overall pass rate of less than 20%, ATA also offers practice tests. Both ATA members and non-members may take a practice test and have it graded with feedback by an ATA grader in the relevant language pair. The feedback gives candidates an opportunity to learn how the graders evaluate translations and to assess whether they have a reasonable chance of passing the certification exam. Practice tests cost $105 per passage for members and $155 for non-members, and candidates are advised to allow up to eight weeks to receive the evaluation.
The presenter also discussed common reasons for failing the practice test or certification exam. These include major omissions, major mistranslations in which the meaning of the original is lost, and an accumulation of target-language writing errors. A high percentage of failures in the Japanese-to-English examination are non-native speakers of English.
Finally, the presenter explained how the certification examination is graded. Each examination is sent to two graders. Candidates who receive a passing evaluation on both passages from both graders receive certification. If the graders disagree on the outcome, a third grader evaluates the passage or passages in question. Errors are assigned 1, 2, 4, 8, or 16 error points depending on their severity, while up to three quality points may be subtracted from the error total for especially good translation choices. Errors are classified into categories such as omission, terminology, and other translation or writing problems.
The next meeting date is still undetermined, but we plan to meet at the same location — Whetstone Branch of the Columbus Metropolitan Library.
