Tuesday, August 26, 2008
War, language and the tower of Babel
Previous to Russia re-asserting herself over the Georgia provinces of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, I can’t say I knew much about Georgia. When I lived in Normandy a few years ago, I would run into a fellow from Georgia at the rock climbing gym, and he was nice enough to teach me the French rock climbing terms (He was very careful to explain that he was from Georgia, the country, not Georgia, the state—so as not to whip me into a frenzy at meeting a fellow American far from home, I suppose). That was about as much direct exposure I’ve had to Georgian culture, language, heritage, you name it.
But it seems that the ungoing Georgian struggle is a very old tale—besides talk as to whether it’s spurred on by greed for oil, greed for power, or greed for land, the New York Times hints that a lot of it —some of it— originally— is linguistic. As the Rhineland was linguistically different than France, so the would-be independent provinces are linguistically different than the rest of Georgia. As the former Yugoslavian region was divided by language, so is the Caucasus.
As with English in the new World, as with Normans in Saxony, as with Saxons in the Celtic lands they conquered—to overcome a place or a people is to bring new language or force two differing systems together; to rebel is to speak the ancient or traditional one. Being as old as language itself, this is not something that is easy to solve.
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Linguistic Paranoia
Kudos to Nataly Kelly of Common Sense Advisory, whose recent editorial submission to the Boston Globe, Caught in the grips of linguistic paranoia, was picked up by The Week.
Why are other languages so threatening to us monolingual Americans? I think it is a testament to the power of language. I lived in South Africa for a while in the early 1980’s and saw first-hand how languages can be used to control parts of the population. It is not a pretty site.
But if language is so powerful, why don’t we tap in to that resource? It takes effort, especially in a country that can be rather insular. Kelly suggests: “Accepting that we are a multilingual nation is a challenge, because it requires looking beyond our borders and outside our comfort zone.” She follows with: “The only solution? Know thy enemy.”
I submit that if we study our enemy’s language, we may find a friend. Or at least someone we can live peacefully beside.
Thursday, August 07, 2008
Across thinks large
Do you remember the vehicle ad campaign in the early sixties “Think Small”? It was a great campaign to catch the American market’s eye for the tiny Volkswagen Beetle. And it worked. VW Beetles may be small, but the company is anything but that. With nearly 10% of the global automobile market and 49 production sites, Volkswagen produces Audi, Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini, SEAT and Skoda in addition to the VW line.
Along comes Across. With their Language Server, Across is making major inroads in the market as an independent technology provider, just when we thought that was a difficult thing to do. And a major inroad was announced last week: Volkswagen is going to implement Language Server from Across Systems, GmbH.
Just three years ago, we received press releases about how TRADOS was being used at VW and now VW is changing over. Is this a blip on the screen? An anomaly? Judging by other recent announcements from Across, I think not. They are evidently thinking large.
Tuesday, August 05, 2008
MySpace and Facebook: Lessons from Japan
Good article on techcrunch.com called Taking social networks abroad - Why MySpace and Facebook are failing in Japan reminds us not to get too caught up in all this Web 2.0 hype and remember some localization and internationalization basics.
Issues like cultural misalignment, lack of localized features, dismal translation quality, wrong platform emphasis, and more, are all covered. For example, the writer, Serkan Toto laments the lack of optimized versions of MySpace and Facebook for Japanese mobile users:
Millions of Japanese are accustomed to using one thumb, a dialpad and a jog dial on their phones when accessing the web during their commutes to school and work. In this country, the mobile web is bigger than the PC web.
And again, we hear about the presence of a local offering that’s holding its own: Mixi
Mixi, the country’s biggest social network, positioned itself as a tool for communicating at a distance through diaries and communities to meet like-minded members. It doesn’t primarily exist to make new friends (poking is restricted) or as a platform for public self-presentation.
A basic reading of the Pew Internet and American Life Project tells us that American boys and girls don’t even use social networking the same way, so why would people in different countries be expected to behave the same, without even a pause for thought?
Why companies continue to make such mistakes amazes me.
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Sunday, July 27, 2008
KQED Forum: Operation Falcon
Last week, San Francisco’s KQED covered the case of translators who worked for the U.S. Military in Iraq and Afghanistan and who are now trying to emigrate to the United States.
I know this is a subject close to many of your hearts (including Laurel’s), and you can listen to the entire program here.
The discussion centers on Haitham Jasim, one such translator, who has now moved his family to San Jose, and introduces us to Operation Falcon, a non-profit devoted to bringing translators like Jasim to the U.S. The phone-in section includes the concerns of citizens of the U.S. struggling in a declining economy, so it’s a well-rounded discussion.
By the way, it’s really great to be back in the Bay Area.
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Friday, July 18, 2008
Google: 1500 localized products
Taken from the Google Official blog, today: Google have 1500 local-language versions of various products.
Amazing growth. A testament to the pervasiveness of the Google message, but also Unicode.
Fantastic.
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China Leads Web 2.0 Usage Say BCG
"China’s digital and online communities are the world’s leading users of mobile communication, instant messaging and web 2.0 applications, according to a new report by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG)” says China Daily.
The report is well worth a read, ‘though some of it is not that surprising given the size of the market and what we know from other developing nations about the “bypass” impact of cell phones and how other phenomena of technology adoption can change communication and business patterns:
“Where most American netizens still rely on emails to communicate with each other, their Chinese counterparts use IM and web 2.0 applications.”
It appears there are three categories of Chinese user: little emperors, reform beneficiaries, and frugal middle-agers (this stuff must have lost something in translation).
However, the report is largely business driven (Really? The BCG?). Despite claims that with “many activities such as IM and blogging, China is more advanced than the United States and other Western economies” we’re not told about how the participative social side of Web 2.0 and what the French call “contenu auto-créé” are impacted by the state’s censorship.
And I’ve love to know how many of those “web 2.0 applications” (it would be more helpful if they were named) are localized and to what extent. I am guessing quite a lot, and that as we have seen from search engine market growth in China, local app offerings rule the day.
See also John Yunker’s posting on iPhone localization opportunities, by the way.
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Saturday, July 05, 2008
In the Name of the Fada
You might remember my griping about the Polish support folks in CWT not being able to handle the apostophe yet alone the accent on the capital “O” in my name. Now some Irish people have similar problems with diacritics (extended characters).
If you have an Irish name, say “Liam Ó Maonlaí”, then you might expect U.S. authorities (whatever about the population) to mangle your name thus:
* Liam OMaonlai (IRS/DMV: Don’t do accents, apostrophes, or spaces)
* Liam O’Maonlai (Department of State: Don’t do accents).
* Liam O. Maonlai (telephone providers, insurance, etc, immediately giving you a middle initial. I always liked to insist on a trailing “VI” everytime they did this to me).
The Social Security people get it right: Liam Ó Maonlaí (ironically, the SSN itself tracks you anyway).
But now, the Irish themselves are at it. And worse, they’re managing to combine apostrophes with the accent on the “O” (known as a fada or síneadh fada in Irish): Liam Ó’Maonlaí
(photo taken in The Coombe, Dublin, 25-June).
So, the next time you hear an Irish person knocking how Americans say “Ma-Hone-E” instead of “Mah-On-E” for “Mahony”, ask them to spell the name of the former lead singer of the Hot House Flowers.
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Monday, June 30, 2008
Tom Cruise Talks at TED about the origins of language
OK, it’s really Murray Gell-Man talking at TED 2007. I was confused when the presenter said the guy possibly knew more about everything than anyone.
Anyway, you can see and hear what Murray (Maurice to his friends) has to say in about a common ancestor for languages in this video from TED 2007:
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/276
This is an interesting perspective, though as all Irish people know, language begins and ends with James Joyce.
Check out the other videos there too.
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Thursday, June 26, 2008
New German Capital Announced: Curb Your Enthusiasm
Don’t all rush to WikiPedia to update the entry, but the Irish Times today tells us that “an addition to the German alphabet (has) emerged blinking into the daylight after a campaign lasting 130 years - to a hail of indifference.”
Apparently, it’s the capital letter equivalent of ß, which up to now has been taken care of (in Germany) by use of two “S” letters instead, because only a small letter ß exists.
They’d been trying to kill the case for the thing off for years, but now, the “German Norms Institute (DIN) ...proposed a capital ß to the International Organisation for Standardisation and, on Monday, the letter became standard - with ISO 10646.” The article quotes an excited Dr Günter of the German Language Council:
"We are not responsible for letters, but for keeping an eye on spelling and to make sure rules are followed. Whether there is a need for this letter is a question that remained unanswered for centuries. It’s likely to remain that way for a while to come.”
Anyway, I couldn’t find much about on the Internet as to what this new letter even looks like, or is supposed to look like. Maybe someone knows?
Yes: Someone did (see the comments too):
(WikiPedia has Unicode details too. Hat Tip: Will)
To read more about it, you’ll need an Irish Times paid subscription (don’t bother, it’s not worth getting streßed about).
Will this lead to a mad updating of translation memories, I wonder?
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Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Chinese Facebook Launched - Ish
Facebook in Chinese (Simplified, I presume) is available. The Wall Street Journal (a fine publication I read every morning in my local store until the Polish guy comes over and tells me to either buy it or get out) has the story.
The Chinese site can be accessed by going directly to zh-cn.facebook.com. However, this takes me to an English logon screen (presumably because of my Irish IP address), and then logging in with my usual details makes me think this Chinese version is rendered from a single global instance that’s just been cross-mounted with a .CN domain.
However, it does not - unlike other “international versions” - allow for “social translation” (see the “Translations” options in the following screen shot):
You can get the Chinese UI by simply switching your language option. Go to account > Language.
Hhmmmmm.....
Thursday, June 19, 2008
More Global Accessibility: WebbIE 3.6.10 Available - Language Versions Too
We’ve had a couple of articles written in Multilingual on the subject of internationalization and global accessibility requirements: The first by myself on the leverage points between accessibility enabling and internationalization, and the other by Libor Safar on what’s required and available worldwide for the user with visual impairment*.
Continuing the latter theme, I draw your attention to the new release of WebbIE - which is also available in French, Spanish, Estonian, Polish and Greek. WebbIE is a free browser for users who have visual impairments or are completely blind. It’s a a free web browser, and pod-catcher, podcast downloader, accessible version of the BBC’s iPlayer (note that you need to be in the UK to get certain programs), Gutenberg Library, BBC’s Listen Again Player, Web Directory, accessible PDF reader, RSS reader, and a bunch more.
Check it out.
* However, JavaScript is not inaccessible. This myth is shattered by this book; a resource I encourage all interested parties to read.
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Blogos covers language through multilinguality and translation, localization and global markets, individual skills and emerging technologies, enablers and barriers, knowledge and speculation.
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- War, language and the tower of Babel
- Linguistic Paranoia
- Across thinks large
- MySpace and Facebook: Lessons from Japan
- KQED Forum: Operation Falcon
- Google: 1500 localized products
- China Leads Web 2.0 Usage Say BCG
- In the Name of the Fada
- Tom Cruise Talks at TED about the origins of language
- New German Capital Announced: Curb Your Enthusiasm
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