Tuesday, May 09, 2006
Learn a Foreign Language
Alta Vista has a really cool service called Babel Fish that will translate a block of text into a language of your choice. I studied some German and Latin in High School and College, and one of the things I learned was that no matter how smart technology becomes, it will never be able to completely capture the original tone in any translation.
Simply put, one word does not necessarily equal another in another language. There is simply no way technology can make the right choice of vocabulary based on context. Babel Fish obviously doesn't look at context, it just translates literally, and applies some simple grammar rules.
I am not down on Babel Fish. I use it quite a bit. Since I don't have the opportunity to speak much German in my everyday life, I use Babel Fish to fill in some of the vocab holes that I have. It's a really useful tool, for translating a word or phrase. Beyond that it can be somewhat comical.
No, I'm positive about teaching foreign languages. Even though I don't use the German I learned very much, learning it made me more concious of how English is put together. It also gave me a tiny bit of insight into another culture and made me realize that my own culture doesn't always handle things the best way. Neither does German culture, for that matter, but it was good for me to get that sort of insight.
Learn a foreign language, but don't just learn it as a skill. Yes, understanding Spanish is proving to be a good skill to have in the workforce, but take everything from it. Take the little bit of insight into another culture that you get from it.
The following, from my post "A Day Without Immigrants" has been translated from English into Spanish and then back to English using Babel Fish. Something is definitly lost in the translation.....
The illegal immigrants and their those in favor are demonstration, protests, and boycottings of the parking today. The aim of the boycottings is to demonstrate to the rest of us "not-immigrants" how much we needed illegals. How much they add to our society doing the works we them "not-immigrants" do not wish to do. How much they add to our economy buying merchandise and services. Illegals is trying to demonstrate to us how much we needed them carrying out a "day without the immigrants.
I wonder myself what American native thinks of this. To a native American, I am an immigrant. My family has both been in this country for all the last century plus the small very small small pieces of centuries that surrounded it. My family placed mainly in small cities in Illinois, Iowa and Dakota of the South. The cities that, above until of World War II you could have obtained not speaking anything but German in some of these cities. You could make commerce and practice your religion in German. During World War II the class of the government of the E.E.U.U. to end that one. No came in churches you would lutheran and they did not demand that the services are only carried out in English, but animated to congregations that carried out only services in the Earth language. Some services German continued in years 50 in some cities, but the language was weeded generally of populacho by then.
Today as I watch the Cnn, I see people protesting of the laws of this country whereas it takes the flag of another country of soverign. I am obtaining class of a message mixed here. Some of the flags are printed in a language that does not understand. I am everything to allow that people speak the language of her inheritance, I I wish only our government had not prohibited to my family the same courtesy.
In this "day without the immigrants" they remember to me that my family was immigrants. It undertook great difficulty to come to this country, although they left rough economic conditions in the country, were not no there guarentees in the United States. But he jumped with all the appropriate hoops, let the government know it was here, entered a where and to when the government said to him. In many cases lived in earth the government he said to him that they could live ignition. They, and another one of level northern Europe placed nothern.
What we have today is not a "day without the immigrants." We must call this day which really is, "a day without the illegal immigrants." The protest, goes next and protests, but if Migra ' demonstrates for above in its protest, you do not have any right to complain when they send to him again to you you came wherever. There are legal ways to obtain in this country. Hell, I worked with a handful of them in SoCal. Some of them worked here in visas, others asked for and received citizenship. They made our country a more interesting place, as soon as as a German handful goofy did on a century ago.
This country will always have immigrants. They offend something that certain group of them has decided to demonstrate them to which he would be like without them. My ancestors never decided to try to demonstrate the rest of the country what things would be like without them. Then again, too much they were occupied placing the central portions of this country.
BOXWOOD
Apparently BOJ is BOXWOOD en Espanol. If that's not reason enough to actually learn a foreign language, I don't know what is.
BOXWOOD
Simply put, one word does not necessarily equal another in another language. There is simply no way technology can make the right choice of vocabulary based on context. Babel Fish obviously doesn't look at context, it just translates literally, and applies some simple grammar rules.
I am not down on Babel Fish. I use it quite a bit. Since I don't have the opportunity to speak much German in my everyday life, I use Babel Fish to fill in some of the vocab holes that I have. It's a really useful tool, for translating a word or phrase. Beyond that it can be somewhat comical.
No, I'm positive about teaching foreign languages. Even though I don't use the German I learned very much, learning it made me more concious of how English is put together. It also gave me a tiny bit of insight into another culture and made me realize that my own culture doesn't always handle things the best way. Neither does German culture, for that matter, but it was good for me to get that sort of insight.
Learn a foreign language, but don't just learn it as a skill. Yes, understanding Spanish is proving to be a good skill to have in the workforce, but take everything from it. Take the little bit of insight into another culture that you get from it.
The following, from my post "A Day Without Immigrants" has been translated from English into Spanish and then back to English using Babel Fish. Something is definitly lost in the translation.....
The illegal immigrants and their those in favor are demonstration, protests, and boycottings of the parking today. The aim of the boycottings is to demonstrate to the rest of us "not-immigrants" how much we needed illegals. How much they add to our society doing the works we them "not-immigrants" do not wish to do. How much they add to our economy buying merchandise and services. Illegals is trying to demonstrate to us how much we needed them carrying out a "day without the immigrants.
I wonder myself what American native thinks of this. To a native American, I am an immigrant. My family has both been in this country for all the last century plus the small very small small pieces of centuries that surrounded it. My family placed mainly in small cities in Illinois, Iowa and Dakota of the South. The cities that, above until of World War II you could have obtained not speaking anything but German in some of these cities. You could make commerce and practice your religion in German. During World War II the class of the government of the E.E.U.U. to end that one. No came in churches you would lutheran and they did not demand that the services are only carried out in English, but animated to congregations that carried out only services in the Earth language. Some services German continued in years 50 in some cities, but the language was weeded generally of populacho by then.
Today as I watch the Cnn, I see people protesting of the laws of this country whereas it takes the flag of another country of soverign. I am obtaining class of a message mixed here. Some of the flags are printed in a language that does not understand. I am everything to allow that people speak the language of her inheritance, I I wish only our government had not prohibited to my family the same courtesy.
In this "day without the immigrants" they remember to me that my family was immigrants. It undertook great difficulty to come to this country, although they left rough economic conditions in the country, were not no there guarentees in the United States. But he jumped with all the appropriate hoops, let the government know it was here, entered a where and to when the government said to him. In many cases lived in earth the government he said to him that they could live ignition. They, and another one of level northern Europe placed nothern.
What we have today is not a "day without the immigrants." We must call this day which really is, "a day without the illegal immigrants." The protest, goes next and protests, but if Migra ' demonstrates for above in its protest, you do not have any right to complain when they send to him again to you you came wherever. There are legal ways to obtain in this country. Hell, I worked with a handful of them in SoCal. Some of them worked here in visas, others asked for and received citizenship. They made our country a more interesting place, as soon as as a German handful goofy did on a century ago.
This country will always have immigrants. They offend something that certain group of them has decided to demonstrate them to which he would be like without them. My ancestors never decided to try to demonstrate the rest of the country what things would be like without them. Then again, too much they were occupied placing the central portions of this country.
BOXWOOD
Apparently BOJ is BOXWOOD en Espanol. If that's not reason enough to actually learn a foreign language, I don't know what is.
BOXWOOD
# posted by Blind Orange Julius @ 3:33 PM 
