Imagine the millions of blogs sprouting on the internet. I’m sure there’s a lot more talents out there which we have not discovered for they must have been written in some language we don’t understand. Imagine the so many languages converging on the internet.
Internet essentially created or at least was supposed to create a community of one. Well it did. Each one of us have our own group. It actually created some villages. Organized some of us in columns. The elites here, the barriotics there, the jologs in one corner and everything else. But see, it’s difficult to appreciate what the rest of the world are writing. Are we truly all the same in culture? In what we laugh at? In what drives us nuts? In the music that we appreciate? Perhaps. But it is still difficult to relate because of one stumbling block – the language barrier.
English is the world’s accepted lingua-franca, except if you ignore how many Chinese speakers are there, yet the world of blogs is still lacking with one commonality. One language. But will it ever happen? Never. So, in Year 2010, I ask myself if this will be the year of the translation software? When that happens, gay lingo will have to be reinvented again.
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{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
I liked working for Berlitz. One of my favorite odd jobs first time on U.S. soil in the mid 70s. Lots of smart multilinguals. I got paid nicely for technical translation. For 2 days of work, I could pay rent and go to the clubs the rest of the time. Have you tried putting in a paragraph of text into a freeware translation program? Watch your paragraph morph into embarrassment and shame. Live translation has the same problem. Nuance and local usage and the usual context mishaps. Translation software should get better with time but not by much until they invent subdermal implants that let you read somebody else’s thoughts. Possible? Don’t know. Meanwhile, you need human intervention. At courts, even at the U.N. Remember that one time Hillary Clinton got miffed in Africa over somebody’s question which turned out to be a translation goof up? Imagine how many wars may have been the after effect of bad translation.
And gay lingo? Especially in the odd polyglottic Pinoy tongues version, it’s untranslatable!
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reynz Reply:
December 29th, 2009 at 8:42 am
aha! so you must be speaking a number of languages then? i’m struggling with my french. i could not find anybody to speak with. soon, it will just be foreign to me.
but yeah, i expect translation software to be the next leader given the saturation of the internet. it’s just a logical path, ain’t it? and the reason why i say that gay lingo (esp in the philippines) has to be reinvented because of the tranlation hahaha precisely because gays prefer not to be understood or at least that’s why we have the gay lingo hahaha
.-= reynz´s last blog ..Translation software: Uniting the blogosphere =-.
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You know, I’ve been waiting a long time for translation software to come of age. I’m waiting for young people to come up with a virtual translator. Something you put on your head or plug into a la Matrix and the person you’re talking to has the same thing so you’re sort of speaking the same language at the same time. If that happens, you won’t need to learn languages. You just download them into the program from the cloud.
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reynz Reply:
December 29th, 2009 at 5:37 pm
hahaha virtual, who knows maybe it’s already coming, cloud computing is already a reality anyway… welll sorta hehe
.-= reynz´s last blog ..Privileged Spits =-.
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I dont mind getting multi-lingual or welcoming the translation software. As a blogger, you will be able to get your message across diverse and huge number of audiences. I am not also afraid to learn new language and culture as well. The more the merrier. Somehow dreaming to become a polyglot someday like Jose Rizal.
Imagine Barrio Siete penetrating the Chinese audience. Hheheheh. Or Barrio Siete establishing a niche in Russia or India. As in WOW moment yun for the Barrio and the writers as well. That will benefit Barrio Siete big time and also the blogs of the writers as well.
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reynz Reply:
December 29th, 2009 at 9:54 pm
just like what Raul had said, it will truly be a challenge for them to translate Reyna’s language hehehe
but i can’t wait for the translation software to get ripe. one world. scary.
.-= reynz´s last blog ..Ampatuan patriarch gave Arroyo big win that fueled his rise to power, Part 2 of 2 =-.
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when will it be??? hmmm…
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