The Language of Love...
Valentine’s Day is approaching fast, a time when we express our love with cards and presents. Love is honoured on this day throughout the world. Valentine’s Day is shrouded with myths of sacred marriage, fertility and romance. The true St. Valentine was a Christian saint but very little is known about him. Originally St Valentine’s Day was celebrated as a Christian feast but it was abandoned due to lack of solid information. There are many Valentine’s in history martyred by the church and until 1969 the Catholic Church actually celebrated 11 Valentine’s...
Chinese Takes Over in American Schools...
American school systems, often strapped for cash and forced to divert resources toward preparing kids for standardized achievement tests, have been slowly decreasing their foreign-language offerings. According to the New York Times, “thousands” of American schools have dropped languages from their foreign-language programs in the past decade. Japanese has been especially affected, but the number of schools offering instruction in European languages like French and German is also declining. However, even though the study of foreign languages in general has declined,...
CIA Increase Language Requirements for T...
The Central Intelligence Service (CIA) announced on Friday that it is increasing its language requirements for employees looking to be promoted to the top ranks of the agency, the Senior Intelligence Service (SIS). Agency director Leon Panetta sent out a note to all CIA staff, stating that he expects the high-ranking employees “to lead the way in strengthening this critical expertise.” The agents require language skills anyway bit this announcement is about keeping those language skills fresh and up to date. Agents who are promoted to SIS will have one year t meet the language...
One Step Closer To Native Web Addresses...
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, aka ICANN, is one step closer to allowing the first Internet addresses written completely in non-Latin characters. Previously, in October, ICANN had voted to allow non-Latin web addresses. On January 21st, they approved the first four non-Latin top-level domains (extensions, like .com or .org, that appear at the end of a web address). Domains were approved for the Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. That means that, for the first time ever, people in these countries will be able to access web...
Do Prairie Dogs Talk?...
Prairie dogs are small, burrowing rodents native to the United States, where they are often treated as vermin by farmers and ranchers. However, scientists are now discovering that these ground squirrels may have some of the most sophisticated linguistic abilities in the animal kingdom, second only to humans (and possibly to dolphins.) In the wild, prairie dogs are social animals and live in large colonies. They communicate with each other by sound, barking to warn their neighbors about approaching threats. According to the Telegraph, a team of scientists led by Professor Con...
Mel Gibson’s Next Movie to Be Shot...
Mel Gibson is making a Viking movie. The movie doesn’t have a title yet, but William Monahan is writing the script, and it will star Leonardo DiCaprio. Oh, and the movie will be shot entirely in period languages. That means Leonardo DiCaprio will most likely deliver his lines in Old Norse or perhaps Old English (depending on whether he’s playing a Viking or an inhabitant of a town that is being pillaged by them). Apparently, for Gibson, the idea of making a Viking movie in Old Norse isn’t a new idea. He told Collider.com that “The very first idea I ever...
Day Care Aims to Teach Cornish to Toddle...
Cornish toddlers can now learn the Cornish language through a Saturday day care program at Cornwall College in Camborne. The program teaches the tots language through play while their parents take an adult Cornish language class. So far, according to the BBC, seven children have been registered for the crèche, which is part of the Cornish for the Nursery Schools movement (Movyans Skolyow Meythrin in Cornish). The first lessons included some Cornish vocabulary as well as popular songs in Cornish. Nursery school organizer Rhisiart Tal-e-bot told the BBC that: “This is...
Tensions Rise in Malaysia over How to Tr...
People tend to perceive debates over translation as dry, scholarly affairs, but sometimes, disagreements about how to translate a word can aggravate existing tensions between groups, even escalating violence. This was especially evident in the country of Malaysia last week, where a dispute about how to translate the word “God” has sparked protests and led to the firebombing of three Christian churches. According to the New York Times, the problems started when a Malaysian court ruled that Roman Catholics could use the word “Allah” in a Malay-language newspaper as...
Google and IBM Tackle Ambitious Translat...
You may not realise it, but the internet sites you see when you surf the web are limited by the language you are surfing in. So, there’s always a part of the internet that you are shut out of. Possibly, according to this article on CNN.com, not for long, both IBM and Google are currently working on ambitious translation projects. If successful, they will be able to create accurate, instantaneous translations of web content. IBM’s project, called n.Fluent, automatically translates web pages. Users can enter in a URL to get the page translation, and site owners can...Stories about languages, research, translation, countries, linguistics and occasionally K International.
- Robin: Google already support searching in many languages. I think ...
- Robin: I love you in Malayalam: gnan ninne premikkunnu...
- Robin: I love you in Tamil: naan unnai kaathalikkiRen...
- : That was stimulating . I love your style that you put i...
- gus: anyone person that gets upset over this slogan has no unders...
- ISABEL DIAZ: HI, WERW U GOT ASL MOBLE PHONE???????? IT WEIRD!!!!!!!!!!!!...
