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Though she “admires” multilingual people, English should be the official language of the United States, Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina said Thursday on CNN’s State of the Union.
“I admire the fact that Jeb Bush is multilingual,” Fiorina said. “I admire the fact that so many people are multilingual. And I also think that English is the official language of the United States.”
Fiorina went on to comment that the U.S.-Mexico border needed to be secured and called for fixing the legal immigration system. She also stated that while she doesn’t believe that undocumented immigrants should receive a pathway to citizenship, she would allow some undocumented immigrants to “earn a pathway to legal status under certain circumstances so that they can work.”
Fiorina’s comments are on trend with what fellow candidate Donald Trump said just a day before. Trump criticized former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) for not exclusively speaking English on the campaign trail, reverting to Spanish sometimes.
ProEnglish, an advocacy group that has pushed to implement English-only laws for decades, “applauds” the effort of the Republican presidential candidates calling to make English the official language. The group has been a leader in the English-only movement, which was founded by John Tanton, who has a history of making racially charged remarks with regards to minorities. He once questioned whether Latin American migrants would bring a tradition of bribes and lack of involvement in public affairs in the country and whether less intelligent individuals “logically should have less” children.
“It would encourage greater assimilation and it would help taxpayers cut down on unnecessary translation costs,” Robert Vandervoort, executive director of the organization, told ThinkProgress. He said that there are over 300 languages spoken in the country, so making English the official language “would reduce having to translate every document.”
America does not have an official language and the reality of the nation’s increasingly multicultural population makes the English-only movement particularly problematic for millions of limited English proficient residents.
According to the Instituto Cervantes, the U.S. has 41 million native Spanish speakers and 11.6 million who are bilingual (mostly comprised of children of Spanish-speaking individuals), making it the world’s second largest Spanish-speaking country after Mexico. The same study estimated that the U.S. will have 138 million Spanish speakers by 2050, almost one-third of the country’s population. And the Index of Human Development “ranks Spanish as the second most important language on earth, behind English but ahead of Mandarin,” the Guardian reported.
What’s more, a U.S. Census Bureau survey indicated that as of 2009, about 20 percent of the country is bilingual, a number that has risen since the 1990s. Los Angeles, California is one place where at least half of the millennial population are bilingual speakers. The foreign-born millennial population has come down, meaning that more U.S. residents are learning a second-language at home or in school, with immigrant parents likely passing along their native languages to their American-born children, VOA News reported earlier this year.
“America’s always been a melting pot with people who speak many other languages, but in order for America to work, we need a common bond of unity that brings people together to communicate in one common language,” Vandervoort said. “There’s always been an expectation that when people come to this country, they learn to assimilate and learn our language and our customs and I think the rise of, this push towards, multiculturalism is actually what’s divisive and taking away from our unity.”
The immigrant advocacy group League of United Latin American Citizens disagrees, stating instead that English-only legislation is in part a “bad idea” because “it sends the message that the culture of language minorities is inferior and illegal. With a dramatic increase in hate crimes and right wing terrorist attacks in the United States, the last thing we need is a frivolous bill to fuel the fires of racism,” according to a webpage discussing its stance on the topic. The group also believes that English-only legislation would negatively impact services provided to Americans with limited English proficiency and could potentially disenfranchise millions of Americans using bilingual ballots.
Calling for English-only proposals are a sentiment shared by many Republicans and immigrant-restrictionists. As of the end of August, Rep. Steve King’s (R-IA) English Language Unity Act bill has 57 cosponsors to support legislation that would make English the official language of the federal government. King has long been an outspoken critic of undocumented immigrants.
In 2013, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), another 2016 presidential candidate, included an English-only amendment to the Senate approved, but now-abandoned, comprehensive immigration reform bill. In reality, the provision would have overwhelmed an already underfunded English as a Second Language (ESL) system that would not have been able to support the influx of millions of limited-English proficient immigrants.
Newt Gingrich once denounced bilingualism as a “menace to American civilization” and even alluded to languages other than English as the “language of living in a ghetto.” Several states have already passed laws establishing English as the official language on the state level.
Still, English-only legislation may slowly be on its way out in some parts of the country. The Frederick County Council in Maryland recently voted 4-3 to repeal its English-only ordinance passed in 2012, a law that required the government to operate in English and may have likely discriminated against those with limited proficiency in English.
Via Charles Tiayon
"...seven new words from Korean culture, including "dalgona" and "hyung," in its latest update.
The December update, announced Tuesday, incorporated "noraebang," "maknae," "jjigae," "tteokbokki" and "pansori" into the dictionary.
It marks the first significant addition of Korean-origin words since September 2021, when 26 words, including "K-drama," "hallyu," "mukbang" and "daebak" were added.
The seven new entries reflect the growing global influence of Korean culture, particularly in English-speaking countries. Many are associated with K-culture, which has gained immense popularity worldwide.
"Dalgona" is described as "a Korean confection made by adding baking soda to melted sugar, typically sold by street vendors in the form of a flat disc with a simple shape, such as a heart or star, carved on its surface." The term gained international recognition following the Netflix series "Squid Game."
"Maknae" is defined as "the youngest person in a family or group; (now) spec. the youngest member of a K-pop group."
"Tteokbokki" is explained as "a Korean dish consisting of small, cylindrical rice cakes cooked in a spicy sauce made with gochujang, usually served as a snack (often as street food)."
Jieun Kiaer, a professor of Korean linguistics at the University of Oxford's Asian and Middle Eastern Studies who serves as the Korean language consultant for the dictionary, told Yonhap News Agency that words frequently used and discussed in English-speaking countries, with textual evidence, are included in the dictionary.
The inclusion of the words reflects the global spread of Korean culture, particularly through popular media and cuisine, she explained.
She anticipates a steady increase in Korean-related words in the dictionary, adding that words like "haenyeo" (female divers), "ajumma" (middle-aged woman) and "bingsu" (shaved ice dessert) are being considered for future updates.
"Korean-related words will be updated annually from now on," she said. "Korean food terms are expected to continue being added to the dictionary."
sshim@yna.co.kr"
Via Charles Tiayon
Google Translate’s latest update – turning the app into a real-time interpreter – has been heralded as bringing us closer to ‘a world where language is no longer a barrier’. Despite glitches, it offers a glimpse of a future in which there are no linguistic misunderstandings – especially ones that change the course of history. BBC Culture looks back at the greatest mistranslations of the past, with a 19th-Century astronomer finding signs of intelligent life on Mars and a US president expressing sexual desire for an entire nation.
Life on Mars
When Italian astronomer Giovanni Virginio Schiaparelli began mapping Mars in 1877, he inadvertently sparked an entire science-fiction oeuvre. The director of Milan’s Brera Observatory dubbed dark and light areas on the planet’s surface ‘seas’ and ‘continents’ – labelling what he thought were channels with the Italian word ‘canali’. Unfortunately, his peers translated that as ‘canals’, launching a theory that they had been created by intelligent lifeforms on Mars.
Convinced that the canals were real, US astronomer Percival Lowell mapped hundreds of them between 1894 and 1895. Over the following two decades he published three books on Mars with illustrations showing what he thought were artificial structures built to carry water by a brilliant race of engineers. One writer influenced by Lowell’s theories published his own book about intelligent Martians. In War of the Worlds, which first appeared in serialised form in 1897, H G Wells described an invasion of Earth by deadly Martians and spawned a sci-fi subgenre. A Princess of Mars, a novel by Edgar Rice Burroughs published in 1911, also features a dying Martian civilisation, using Schiaparelli’s names for features on the planet.
While the water-carrying artificial trenches were a product of language and a feverish imagination, astronomers now agree that there aren’t any channels on the surface of Mars. According to Nasa, “The network of crisscrossing lines covering the surface of Mars was only a product of the human tendency to see patterns, even when patterns do not exist. When looking at a faint group of dark smudges, the eye tends to connect them with straight lines.”
Pole position
Jimmy Carter knew how to get an audience to pay attention. In a speech given during the US President’s 1977 visit to Poland, he appeared to express sexual desire for the then-Communist country. Or that’s what his translator said, anyway. It turned out Carter had said he wanted to learn about the Polish people’s ‘desires for the future’.
Earning a place in history, his translator Steven Seymour also turned “I left the United States this morning” into “I left the United States, never to return”; according to Time magazine, even the innocent statement that Carter was happy to be in Poland became the claim that “he was happy to grasp at Poland's private parts”.
Unsurprisingly, Seymour was no longer translating when the President gave a toast at a state banquet later in the same trip – but his woes didn’t end there. After delivering his first line, Carter paused, to be met with silence. After another line, he was again followed by silence. The new translator, who couldn’t understand the President’s English, had decided his best policy was to keep quiet. By the time Carter’s trip ended, he had become the punchline for many a Polish joke.
Nikita Khruschev, 1935 (Hulton Archive/ Getty Images)
Keep digging
Google Translate might not have been able to prevent one error that turned down the temperature by several degrees during the Cold War. In 1956, Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev was translated as saying “We will bury you” to Western ambassadors at a reception at the Polish embassy in Moscow. The phrase was plastered across magazine covers and newspaper headlines, further cooling relations between the Soviet Union and the West.
Yet when set in context, Khruschev’s words were closer to meaning “Whether you like it or not, history is on our side. We will dig you in”. He was stating that Communism would outlast capitalism, which would destroy itself from within, referring to a passage in Karl Marx’s Communist Manifesto that argued “What the bourgeoisie therefore produces, above all, are its own grave-diggers.” While not the most calming phrase he could have uttered, it was not the sabre-rattling threat that inflamed anti-Communists and raised the spectre of a nuclear attack in the minds of Americans.
Khruschev himself clarified his statement – although not for several years. “I once said ‘We will bury you’, and I got into trouble with it,” he said during a 1963 speech in Yugoslavia. “Of course we will not bury you with a shovel. Your own working class will bury you.”
Diplomatic immunity
Mistranslations during negotiations have often proven contentious. Confusion over the French word ‘demander’, meaning ‘to ask’, inflamed talks between Paris and Washington in 1830. After a secretary translated a message sent to the White House that began “le gouvernement français demande” as “the French government demands”, the US President took issue with what he perceived as a set of demands. Once the error was corrected, negotiations continued.
Some authorities have been accused of exploiting differences in language for their own ends. The Treaty of Waitangi, a written agreement between the British Crown and the Māori people in New Zealand, was signed by 500 tribal chiefs in 1840. Yet conflicting emphases in the English and Māori versions have led to disputes, with a poster claiming ‘The Treaty is a fraud’ featuring in the Māori protest movement.
Zhou Enlai, 1950 (Hulton Archive/ Getty Images)
Taking the long view
More of a misunderstanding than a mistranslation, one often-repeated phrase might have been reinforced by racial stereotypes. During Richard Nixon’s visit to China in 1972, Chinese premier Zhou Enlai famously said it was ‘too early to tell’ when evaluating the effects of the French Revolution. He was praised for his sage words, seen as reflecting Chinese philosophy; yet he was actually referring to the May 1968 events in France.
According to retired US diplomat Charles W Freeman Jr – Nixon’s interpreter during the historic trip – the misconstrued comment was “one of those convenient misunderstandings that never gets corrected.” Freeman said: “I cannot explain the confusion about Zhou’s comment except in terms of the extent to which it conveniently bolstered a stereotype (as usual with all stereotypes, partly perceptive) about Chinese statesmen as far-sighted individuals who think in longer terms than their Western counterparts.
“It was what people wanted to hear and believe, so it took hold.”
If you would like to comment on this story or anything else you have seen on BBC Culture, head over to our Facebook page or message us on Twitter.
Via Charles Tiayon
Lynn Visson is a teacher and writer, and was an interpreter at the United Nations for 22 years, interpreting French and Russian into English for politicians like former President Jimmy Carter.
Speed is key when doing high-stakes interpreting with delegates and other notable figures, Visson tells Here & Now's Jeremy Hobson.
"You have to be able to listen, immediately grasp what someone is saying, and put it into another language, and put it into grammatical sentences and full sentences," she says. "One of the worst things an interpreter can do is not finish a sentence."
Got a question about learning or speaking a different language? Let us know.
Interview Highlights
On the difference between an interpreter and a translator
"The difference — and a lot of people confuse this, even some interpreters and translators — is that with a translator, you give the person a written text in one language and the person will give you back a written text in another language. With an interpreter, you will speak to the person in one language and the person will really interpret that and speak in the other language. It's the difference between written and oral."
"I think every interpreter I know, every professional, has at some point been stumped." Lynn Visson
On notable people she's had to interpret
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"Well I've done quite a few, not necessarily at the U.N. ... I interpreted for Boris Yeltsin when he was the president of Russia. He was quite easy because he spoke very slowly. I interpreted for Jimmy Carter when he was receiving a Russian Baptist minister, and Carter was quite easy to do because he had very good diction and spoke very clearly. And then there are all kinds of U.N. delegates — some of them go like bats out of hell at 100 miles an hour. And others realize that the interpreter needs time and they slow down.
"You want to be sure that you're speaking in grammatical sentences, that you're using proper intonation. It is very difficult to listen to a monotone when somebody is not varying the sound of their voice ... because eventually, you'll lose your audience. And one thing you when you train interpreters, you train them in the use of intonation, and intonation in the language into which they're interpreting, not from which they're working."
On if there's a tendency to try to soften harsh language while interpreting
"That happens, but that's not your job. Your job is to interpret what is actually being said, even though it may be very unpleasant, or it may be something that you personally find repulsive or disagree with. It's a bit like acting. There are plenty of great actors who act murderers, even though they'd never in their lives kill anybody."
On situations when something just doesn't translate
"I think every interpreter I know, every professional, has at some point been stumped. And anyone who tells you they haven't been is not telling the truth. What you learn is how to cope with it."
On the importance of language learning
"It's something the majority of Americans — I would add unfortunately — don't do. I wish there were more of it. I think there is far too little emphasis now on the learning of foreign languages. It's very useful, both in terms of thinking and learning the structure of other languages, and of course for travel and for getting to know people and for literature. Reading a translation is not the same thing as reading a book in the original."
On the one language she'd like to go back and learn
"At the U.N., where I worked for 22 years, there were free language courses for any U.N. staff members, any of the six official U.N. languages. So I took Spanish, I took Chinese and I took a little Arabic. And that was great fun. And if I had the chance, I'd love to go back to Chinese, because I didn't have the time to keep up with it, and I really enjoyed those courses and they were very well taught."
This segment aired on July 18, 2018.
Via Charles Tiayon
Bilingualism is a strength Texas is failing to nurture for hundreds of thousands of students EXPLAINERS : Dec. 16, 2024 EDUCATION Nearly one-fourth of all students in Texas public schools are emergent bilingual, meaning their home language is something other than English.
Via Dual Language Education of New Mexico
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The number of people who spoke a language other than English at home nearly tripled from 1980 to 2019, but the number who spoke only English also increased.
By Francis Kwarteng
“Many people do not know that Jesus did not speak Latin or English or Hebrew; he spoke Aramaic. But nobody knows that language. So we’re talking about the Bible itself being a translation of a translation of a translation. And, in reality, it has affected people’s lives in history” (Ngugi wa Thiong’o).
Daniel Bugri Naabu is the Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the Northern Region.
The Ga word for “mouth” is “naabu,” coincidentally also Bugri’s second name.
According to Mustapha Hamid, Akufo-Addo’s spokesperson says this eloquent or articulate “naabu” can only spit poor English and furthermore, this same vulgar “naabu” has no knowledge of “the twi language.”
Are Twi and English the only languages spoken in Ghana, a unitary state whose citizens—save some ignorant ethnocentric hegemonists—are known for their expression of liberal tolerance for multilingualism and multiculturalism?
Even Jesus, who did not speak English and Twi some two thousand years ago, can now speak both languages extremely well today, thanks to modern technology among others.
The answer? Translation!
Ngugi wa Thiong’o recalls an incident, a funny one of course, in which a Western missionary, who could not stop disturbing the ears of Kenyans that Jesus spoke English, was sharply reminded that Jesus did not in fact speak English but rather Aramaic, possibly Hebrew as well.
What is all this infatuation about English about? Many Ghanaian are polyglots these days and therefore Bugri could have been present at the press conference with some of these polyglots in tow.
Yet these are beside the point of what we actually want to put across, which is that he could have been present and made his case at the press conference against President Mahama and his brother, Ibrahim Mahama.
What language is he Bugri going to speak if he is assigned a portfolio in a potential Akufo-Addo government?
How is he going to communicate with Ghanaians and the larger world as a public figure in a potential Akufo-Addo government since Hamid says his English is poor, and that he does not understand Twi?
Is that what the laws say, that Ghanaians are required to speak only English and Twi?
Are there not Ghanaian parliamentarians who cannot even speak English? How do these folks contribute to legislative deliberations?
The misplaced idea that one is not intelligent because one does not speak English—however passably—is a really sad one.
No wonder Bishop Obinim reportedly said “The only thing I fear is the English Language,” words we put in Hamid’s mouth.
In fact the English language does scare the wits out of loudmouths like Bishop Obinim.
Unlike Bishop Obinim however, Madam Akua Donkor is not fazed by the English language.
“I am not illiterate as some believe. I deal with well-educated people and I express myself well to their understanding but I don’t speak the English language often because it’s not my language. It’s unfortunate Ghanaians value the English language than their mother-tongue. Even the foreigners make fun of us. No Chinese will speak English, they value theirs.
“It’s nonsense and shameful for us [Ghanaians] to speak English after sacking our colonial masters. If we want to speak English then we should bring them back to Ghana to rule us. I will never speak English…I value my own language and I’m proud of it.”
Of course while not everything she alludes to in these statements might necessarily be true in a literal sense, such as her position that “no Chinese will speak English,” Madam Donkor is certainly right on the Ghanaian neocolonial craze or appetite for the English language.
On the other hand, she might be right if her Chinese example underscores the patriotic pride with which the Chinese embrace their language.
We see how their leaders generally confidently speak Chinese (“Mandarin”) during press conferences in Western capitals in the presence of their Western colleagues, unlike our leaders who want to prove to the native Western English speaker that they are better at the language than the native Western English speaker.
What on earth will Bugri want to say in his poor English that he could not otherwise say in his native tongue?
What language(s) was the alleged bribery conducted in?
What about the nature of the professional language of banking transactions in which the alleged bribery took place?
If the bribery allegations go to court as Madam Joyce Bawa Mogtari has said, and Bugri is called to testify, what language is he going to speak?
As a matter of fact is he going to ask people like Hamid to represent him in court, while he does not show up to defend himself?
Or he is going to appear in court in his one behalf, but take to pleading the fifth on the basis of his poor English, of his lack of knowledge of Twi?
Is it a crime to speak Broken or Pidgin English in Ghana?
Didn’t William Shakespeare use Broken English in some of his history plays?
How about Amos Tuotola, the famous Nigerian writer whose classic novel “The Palm-Wine Drinkard” made liberal use of Pidgin English?
In Ghana and across Africa we tend to look askance at intelligent men and women who are articulate in their native tongues, even disapprovingly labeling them “villagers” among other stigmatic labels.
Ngugi wa Thiong’o has railed against this tendentious posturing of Africans in a number of high-profile publications, thus buttressing his proverbial formula of publishing in both Kikuyu and English, a technique primarily aimed at reaching a wider audience of Kikuyu-speaking Kenyans and of those Kenyans who can only read in English.
In the main, Hamid could have served the world better by demanding Bugri’s physical appearance at the said press conference where he presented his side of the story in any language of his choice, a language he speaks so well—beyond passable acquaintance—and then allowed another person to translate for him.
The irony is that Bugri allegedly took the bribery money and cars all of which have everything to do with the English language in one way or another.
Let’s call a spade a spade: Bugri speaks Aramaic, which Thiong’o says “but nobody knows that language.”
But by allegedly accepting the bribery gifts, he incidentally acquires English and all the possibilities it represents.
“A person who acquires English has access to all the things that that language makes possible” (Ngugi wa Thiong’o).
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
Now that Bugri Naabu has reportedly converted from Christianity to Islam for political expediency, rather than for personal convictions bordering on spiritual ethos, he may long have clearly understood the language Jesus spoke when he gave a press conference announcing to the world his betrayal by Judas, before his crucifixion.
Between Jesus and Judas, who is the Judas here? Who betrayed whom as Alfred Mahama, the president’s brother, has recently alleged in the wake of the controversy, that he Bugri stabbed Ibrahim Mahama—who had previously given gifts to the latter—in the back? Who are the benefactor here and the Judas there in this unfolding drama of labyrinthine political theatre resembling Orwellian “Animal Farm”?
CONCLUDING REMARKS
Bugri Naabu’s physical presence at the press conference, to present his version of events and to answer questions directly related to the bribery scandal, perhaps, will have gone a long way to disabuse the minds of those skeptics who still believe he may have been coached by some criminal minds within the NPP to tarnish the office of the presidency.
In our opinion, this will probably have enhanced his public and moral credibility the more since the timing of the press conference raises more questions than answers.
For instance, one wonders why he did not take up this seismic scandalous controversy with the minority NPP MPs for them to have lodged impeachment proceedings against President Mahama while still prosecuting him [the president] and his brother in the court of public opinion. This will probably have given the leadership of the NDC and its political propagandists less room to maneuver.
Perhaps, the Bugri camp entertained the fear that the parliamentary majority which the NDC enjoys will have potentially led to their strategy being shot down as happened in the Rawlings-Abacha case.
Regardless, what we have are lame sensational allegations and the NDC’s inexcusable skirting the “substantive” issues surrounding the allegations. NPP should pursue this matter to its logical conclusion if it wins the elections. The NDC should also pursue this same matter to its logical conclusion should it retain its incumbency. This is the only way we come to the truth and learn from it.
Nevertheless a story half told requires uncompromising finality, a moral and political denouement in the political theatre.
For now, it appears the NPP may have won the propaganda contest hands down. Let’s wait and see how this reflects on the general outcome of the upcoming elections.
REFERENCES
Ghanaweb. “It’s Nonsense To Speak English In Ghana—Akua Donkor.” November 3, 2015.
Via Charles Tiayon
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French songs for GCSE French split by topic and theme with song title and artist - perfect for French GCSE lessons, FLE and French listening classes.
Via Filomena Gomes
Machine translation (MT) is the process of automatically translating text from one language into another using computer applications. Nov 17 2023 · 10:39 UTC | Updated Nov 17 2023 · 10:42 UTC
by John Caroline Machine translation has been very helpful to businesses seeking to improve the way they serve their customers. Let us help you understand all that there is to know about machine translation in this comprehensive guide. Before the inception of remarkable modern technologies, the global market was limited by language barriers which restricted the success of many businesses. While there are diverse languages across the nations of the globe, people from different races and ethnicities often find it difficult to interact with each other and execute certain transactions together, depriving them of several opportunities. Nonetheless, the challenges that come with these language differences have called for the need to build an infrastructure that allows languages to be translated and facilitates the process of communication. This idea has been brought to reality through machine translation (MT) which allows you to leverage computer applications to interpret languages. To help you grasp this concept better, here is a guide that will help you understand machine translation and describe its types, benefits, challenges, and lots more. Machine Translation Explained Machine translation can simply be defined as the process of automatically translating text or speech from one language into another using computer applications. The sole aim of this technology is to unify speakers of different languages together, allowing them to seamlessly communicate with each other with little or no barriers. Due to its design, machine translation features a system that takes the text in one language and converts it into another language while keeping the meaning and context as accurate as possible for its audience to understand. It employs advanced algorithms and machine learning to automatically convert text or speech from one language to another. This process generally involves preparing the input text or speech by cleaning and organizing it. Thus, the machine translation system is trained using various examples of texts in multiple languages and their corresponding translations. It learns patterns and probabilities of how words and phrases are translated from these examples. When you input new text for translation, the system uses what it has learned to generate the translation. In some cases, additional adjustments may be made to refine the results if necessary. While the machine translation system is trained via the data inputted into them over time, the data it is using can be either generic data, which is knowledge from all past translations, making them versatile for different applications, or custom data, where specific subject matter expertise is added to the engine, like in engineering or other specialized fields. Users can utilize either of the data depending on their needs. Machine Translation: Brief History The history of machine translation dates back to the 1950s when early computer scientists attempted to use computing power for language translation. However, the task’s complexity exceeded their expectations, and early machines lacked the necessary processing power and storage. It wasn’t until the early 2000s that software, data, and hardware reached a level where basic machine translation became possible. Developers used statistical language databases to teach computer translation, a process that required considerable manual effort. Notably, the 2010s marked a significant breakthrough with the rise of neural machine translation, introducing deep learning techniques and neural networks to translation models. Google’s “Google Neural Machine Translation” (GNMT) system in 2016 represented a pivotal moment in this technology’s development. Machine Translation Types While the technology behind machine translation systems has advanced significantly in recent years, it has adopted three primary approaches to automatically translate text or speech from one language into another. These approaches include rule-based machine translation (RBMT), statistical machine translation (SMT), and neural machine translation (NMT). Rule-Based Machine Translation (RBMT) Rule-based machine translation (RBMT) was an early approach to translation using predefined linguistic rules. It had low-quality output, required manual addition of languages, and significant human editing. RBMT relies on linguistic experts to create rules for source and target languages, resulting in grammatically accurate but often overly literal translations. While RBMT is precise for languages with strict rules, it struggles with context and nuance, leading to less natural translations. Developing and maintaining rules for various languages is labor-intensive, especially for languages with complex grammar. Additionally, RBMT may struggle with ambiguous phrases or words in the source text. This traditional method is rarely used today due to these limitations. Statistical Machine Translation (SMT) Statistical machine translation (SMT) uses statistical models to understand the relationships between words, phrases, and sentences in a text and then applies this knowledge to translate it into another language. While it’s an improvement over rule-based MT, it still has some of the same issues. SMT is being replaced by neural MT but is occasionally used for older machine translation systems. It stands out from RBMT as it doesn’t rely on predefined rules but learns from large bilingual text collections to make translation decisions. However, SMT has its limitations, such as being reliant on the availability and quality of parallel text data, struggling with context, and potentially generating less fluent or contextually accurate translations, especially for less common phrases. Neural Machine Translation (NMT) Neural machine translation (NMT) represents a modern approach to automated translation, leveraging artificial intelligence to mimic the continuous learning of human neural networks. Unlike older rule-based or statistical methods, NMT’s neural networks are responsible for encoding and decoding the source text. NMT is the prevailing standard in machine translation due to its superior accuracy, scalability to multiple languages, and faster performance once trained. It excels in capturing context and delivering fluent, contextually accurate translations. Nevertheless, NMT does have limitations. Its performance relies on the availability of large, high-quality parallel corpora for training. Additionally, training and deploying NMT models can be computationally intensive, often necessitating powerful hardware like GPUs or TPUs. Automated vs Machine Translation Let’s clarify the distinction between automated translation and machine translation, as they often get mixed up, however, they perform different roles. Automated translation involves incorporating features into computer-assisted translation tools (CAT tools) or cloud translation management systems (TMS) to automate manual or repetitive translation-related tasks. Its purpose is to streamline the overall translation process, improving efficiency. For instance, automated translation might initiate machine translation for a portion of the text as one of the many steps in a translation workflow. On the other hand, machine translation is all about using software to convert text from one natural language to another without any human involvement, unlike traditional translation. This is why it’s also referred to as automatic translation. Capabilities and Challenges Over the years, machine translation’s speed and volume capabilities have seen remarkable enhancements due to ongoing improvements in machine learning algorithms and hardware technology. It can now translate millions of words almost instantaneously and continues to get better as more content is translated. For high-volume projects, MT not only handles volume at speed but can also integrate with other software platforms like content or translation management systems to maintain organization and context during translation. Moreover, MT’s improved accessibility, offering translations in multiple languages, benefits both businesses and customers by eliminating language barriers and enhancing the customer experience. This expansion to a wider audience helps businesses grow their market share. Another advantage of MT is cost reduction. While human translators still play a role in refining translations to match the original content’s intent and localize it per region, MT does the initial heavy lifting, saving time and costs, even when post-editing by human translators is involved. Nonetheless, while machine translation is a cost-effective and quick solution for global expansion, it’s important to recognize the challenges it presents. These challenges include: Accuracy and domain specificity. MT can struggle with precise domain-specific terminology and context, often producing translations that lack the depth of understanding that human experts can provide. Linguistic nuances. MT may miss subtle linguistic nuances, cultural references, or idiomatic expressions, which are crucial for conveying meaning accurately and effectively. Low-resource languages. MT is less effective for languages with limited available training data, as it relies on extensive bilingual corpora for training. Machine translation post-editing. To address issues with MT quality, businesses often employ human post-editors to refine the translations. This adds a layer of cost and time. Privacy. When sensitive or confidential information is involved, relying solely on MT can pose privacy risks. Human involvement is necessary to maintain data security and confidentiality. Future of Machine Translation: Will It Replace Humans? Translation technology has made significant advancements, but it’s unlikely to completely replace human translators. While machine translation tools like neural machine translation (NMT) are proficient in handling straightforward, repetitive tasks and providing quick translations, they still struggle with context, nuance, and understanding the cultural and linguistic subtleties that human translators excel at. Human translators bring cultural and contextual insights to their work, ensuring that translations are accurate, idiomatic, and sensitive to the nuances of the source and target languages. They are indispensable in complex or specialized fields like legal, medical, or creative content, where precise and culturally appropriate translations are critical. Machine Translation Engines The main providers of generic machine translation engines include Google Translate, Microsoft Translator, DeepL, and IBM Language Translator. These providers offer pre-trained models for a wide range of languages and general translation needs. For custom machine translation engines, there are specialized companies like Lilt and Iconic Translation Machines that offer tailored solutions for specific industries or organizations. Final Thoughts Machine translation (MT) has added lots of value to the global space, eradicating barriers to language differences while allowing people to seamlessly access translations to languages they do not understand. While this has greatly impacted businesses worldwide, especially those that hold international deals, it has also impacted the social life of many as it tends to strengthen relationships among people of different languages. As this technology continues to evolve, the world will soon overcome every limitation that tends to come with language barriers using efficient computer tools.
Via Charles Tiayon
A new Tamil e-dictionary app that includes some 50,000 words could also be used by students for their examinations in the future. 25 Apr 2024 16:32 | Updated at: 26 Apr 2024 05:30 | 4 mins read A new Tamil e-dictionary app that includes some 50,000 words could also be used by students for their examinations in the future. Inspired by the handy dictionary devices used in Malay and Chinese exams, the new “The Agaram” Tamil e-dictionary app was conceptualised and tailored to the needs of Tamil-speaking students in Singapore. Unveiled on April 21 at the Umar Pulavar Tamil Language Centre, the app marks a significant stride in bridging the gap between traditional learning and digital innovation, ensuring Tamil’s accessibility and relevance to modern learners, said Mr Shahul Hameed, business development manager of Cosmic Consultancy, the company that launched the app. With support from the Lee Kuan Yew Fund for Bilingualism, a team led by local poet S. Thinnappan helped developed the app in a collaborative effort which included contributions from various academics. The team ensured the app’s effectiveness in nurturing linguistic proficiency among students, said Mr Hameed, adding that “the Agaram e-Dictionary is more than just a linguistic tool, it’s a gateway to empowerment”. Discussions are underway with the Singapore Examinations and Assessment Board to integrate the app into formal education systems, Mr Hameed noted. The app comprises some 50,000 Tamil words used in the Singaporean context, with its English translations, accurate audio pronunciation guides and grammatical contexts. Along with visual aids, the app also shows examples of how to use a word in a sentence. Mr Anbarasu Rajendran, CEO of the Singapore Indian Development Association, who was the guest of honour at the unveiling event, said he appreciated the efforts of the team and highlighted the importance of Tamil language learning and the app’s potential to enrich students’ language skills. Aishwarya, a student at Crescent Girls School, said: “While writing an essay, we tend to think of words in English. Tamil is an extensive language with 247 letters, it is difficult to find a synonym of a word in a big dictionary. By typing the English word in this app, the synonym appears quickly.” Rather than worrying about words, students can now focus on developing creativity and imagination, she added. Mr Hameed revealed plans to enhance the app’s functionality by incorporating features such as the thesaurus and lexicons. Accessible via www.minagaram.com, the Agaram e-dictionary app is also available on the Apple app store. It will be available for Android users on Google Play Store in the future. “The Agaram e-Dictionary is more than just a linguistic tool, it’s a gateway to empowerment.”
Via Charles Tiayon
Sealaska Heritage Institute has published a trilogy of illustrated dictionaries in Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian languages in efforts to help preserve some of Alaska's native languages.
Via Charles Tiayon
When only 4,200 people in the U.S. speak your language, it can be tough to find an interpreter – let alone a stranger so that the interpretation itself doesn't break federal privacy laws.
But Language Access Network LLC does it.
I covered a $15 million private equity investment in the Columbus company, which provides interpreters via two-way video for some 500 U.S. hospitals, in the weekly print edition of Columbus Business First. The infusion will help it add two more interpreting centers for a total of seven, and add 100 jobs to the current total of 200. Meanwhile, it is spinning out its private video-optimized broadband fiber network connecting hospitals into Carenection LLC as a communications platform for telemedicine.
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Augmenting a hospital's staff interpreters, the service reduces costs, its executives say, by preventing miscommunication between patient and doctor, preventing unneeded tests, speeding care for better outcomes and improving patient satisfaction.
“We’ve found a way to do good and make a profit,” CEO Jamey Edwards told me.
The company also is providing career paths for immigrants and refugees, Edwards said. Some of its interpreters are doctors who aren't yet certified to practice in the U.S.
The company has low turnover, founder and COO Andy Panos said, and past interpreters have been promoted to client advocate and network engineer. The senior manager of interpreting services started on the overnight shift.
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Via Charles Tiayon
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"Every year, the world loses some of its 7,000 languages. Parents stop speaking them to their children, words are forgotten and communities lose the ability to read their own scripts. The rate of loss is quickening, from one every three months a decade ago to one every 40 days in 2019 – meaning nine languages die a year. The UN’s culture agency, Unesco, says predictions that half the world’s languages will have died out by the end of the century are optimistic. Some languages are disappearing with their last speakers, but thousands are endangered because they are not being spoken widely enough or are not being used in formal settings such as schools or workplaces. A quiet fightback is under way in communities that feel their traditions are drowned out by the dominance of the most spoken languages globally, such as English, or by the official languages of their country. Tochi Precious, a Nigerian living in Abuja who helps endangered language activists, says: “It pains my heart every day to see that a language is dying off, because it’s not just about the language, it’s also about the people. “It’s also about the history associated with it and the culture. When it dies, everything linked to it dies off too.” Precious says it was the community aspect that brought her to join efforts to save Igbo, a west African language that was predicted to become extinct by 2025. Ensuring there is a substantial record of words and meanings, how it is written and how it is used is key, according to campaigners such as Precious, who help others protect their languages through the organisation Wikitongues. Amrit Sufi, who speaks the Angika language of India’s eastern state of Bihar, records videos to preserve its very oral culture, providing transcriptions and translations. “Documenting the folk songs was my way into getting to know my culture and doing my bit for it,” says Sufi, who has recorded dozens of such videos. “It is urgent to document and to make it accessible where other people can see it – not just archived somewhere in a library,” she says. “Oral culture is disappearing as new generations are more inclined towards consuming industry-produced music rather than sitting in groups and singing.” Sufi says that while Angika has about 7 million speakers, it is not used in schools and is rarely written down, which is accelerating its downfall. Some people are ashamed to speak it because of a perceived stigma attached to it, seeing Angika as inferior to dominant languages such as Hindi. Sufi uses the same set of tools that Precious used for Igbo to upload videos of people speaking Angika. Wikipedia is favoured by language activists as a good way to upload media and build effective and affordable dictionaries. Wikitongues, in particular, focuses on helping activists document languages using collective resources such as dictionaries and alternative-language Wikipedia entries. Wikitongues says it has supported activists to document about 700 languages in this way. There are moves to use artificial intelligence to document languages by processing texts and feeding them into chatbots, though some have ethical concerns around these services “stealing” written material for training purposes. Many language activists also create books, videos and recordings that can be widely shared. Community radio stations also have a long record of providing services in local languages. For the Rohingya people from Myanmar, who now mostly live as refugees in Bangladesh after decades of persecution, concerns about their mostly oral language being lost because of their dispersal abroad have led to attempts to develop a written version. Books written in the recently developed Hanifi script have now been distributed to more than 500 schools within the Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh, which host more than a million people. Sahat Zia Hero, who works with the Rohingya Cultural Memory Centre, says: “Using books translated into Rohingya language, as well as historical, political and educational books published in our Rohingya language, can significantly speed up the process of educating our community. “If we prioritise teaching our language, especially to the younger generation, we can prevent the loss of both education and cultural identity for future generations. Otherwise, they will face the dual threat of losing their language and access to meaningful education.” The museum provides a physical space for Rohingya culture. There are also efforts to use the script on social media, where most Rohingya write their language using Roman or Burmese lettering. But after preservation, activists then have to persuade people to use a language – a major challenge. Precious says that even though Igbo is one of Nigeria’s largest languages, many parents believe only English is useful for a child’s future. “Parents saw that if you do not speak English you do not belong, you’re not part of the society, and it feels like you don’t know anything. So, no one was passing down the language any more – they used to say you’re not going anywhere with Igbo,” she says. But efforts to save it have worked, she says, adding that it gives her pleasure to see the language thriving again. “I have realised that, yes, a language can be endangered but then the people who speak the language can also fight for its survival. Because 2025 is already here, and definitely Igbo is not going extinct,” she says.
Via Charles Tiayon
Every Sunday for a year, young Suzanne Cromlish would sit in the pews of First Baptist Church in Salisbury, North Carolina and look for a sign.
Actually, a dozen or so of them.
Then she'd write the signs down in her spiral-bound notebook and practice them all week. They weren't messages from the messiah; they were part of American Sign Language, used to communicate with the church's deaf congregants.
Her mother had prompted her to "go and help those people," so Cromlish sat with the 40 or so deaf churchgoers and studied the aging interpreter.
Cromlish has never had any hearing impairments, nor does anyone in her family. By the time she was 17, though, she could fluently convey the preacher's message to deaf congregants. Interpreting for the deaf using sign language became a lifelong passion.
On Aug. 27, off to the side for most people but the center of attention for the deaf, she interpreted Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton's words during her speech at Case Western Reserve University.
So how did a North Carolina church girl end up signing at a Cleveland political rally? The same way she ended up signing for presidents Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush, and George W. Bush. Plus First Lady Rosalyn Carter, Rainbow Coalition leader Jesse Jackson, and Demoratic presidential candidate Michael Dukakis. (Click here for a C-Span video of a 1996 Bob Dole campaign rally where Texas Gov. George W. Bush also spoke. Cromlish is on the left side of your screen when the camera pulls back.)
She volunteered.
Cromlish is a 64-year-old doctor of management student at CWRU's Weatherhead School of Management. She travels to Cleveland from her home in Statesville, North Carolina once a month for classes and does the rest of her work at home. She hopes to earn her doctorate by May 2017.
She was informed by the school via e-mail in August, as all students were, that her usual parking garage would be off limits because the former secretary of state was giving a speech. So she got on the phone, tracked down the right people, and offered her services.
She and her husband, Dave, were headed to campus the next day.
"This has only been a hobby for me," she said. "It's been a bunch of fun."
That early experience in church gave her an insight into some of the frustrations of deaf people, she said.
"I realized how isolated they were," she said. And she wondered why church should be the only place where deaf people could understand what was being said. So she visited the mayor of Salisbury and asked him to allow her to interpret his speeches. He was all for it.
"Whenever he had a public event, he would call me and I would go on the stage," she said. She then began signing for the local Lions Club, for its state convention and soon for the many people who would call and ask her to help.
"The next thing you know a senator calls me and then the governor calls me," she said. After graduating from Catawba College in Salisbury, she moved to San Francisco and interpreted for various speakers, including Jesse Jackson and others at the Democratic National Convention there in 1984.
She and Dave, traveled the country in a motor home from around that time until 1997, training police departments on sign language and hand signals for officers to communicate silently. The company was called "Talking Hands." Their phone kept ringing for political rallies and policy speeches.
The training business folded when Cromlish's mother grew ill and she came home to take care of her. That experience led to another career as a nursing home administrator. When she attended training sessions required to keep her license in good stead, she realized the teachers weren't great.
"I thought, 'I could do a better job than you, but you have a bunch of letters after your name and I don't have any,'" she said. Not true. She was an LNHA (Licensed Nursing Home Administrator.) But she needed academic letters, too.
So she went to graduate school at Pfeiffer University's branch campus in Charlotte and tacked on MHA (Master's of Health Administration) and MBA (Master's of Business Administration.) She began teaching business and health care courses at Mitchell Community College in Statesville.
Her dean mentioned that there are a hundred applicants for every teaching job. She decided she was still three letters short.
"I said, 'I need to get a PhD!'"
She set out to find a well-respected, internationally accredited program that would take the least amount of time and that wouldn't require full-time attendance. "I'm too old to live in the dorms," she said.
That's how she ended up at the Weatherhead School of Management at CWRU.
"At 64 years old, it sounds ridiculous doesn't it? It sounded ridiculous to me and my husband, too," she said. "My life just took a turn. And this program is just so amazing."
She's cracking the books hard now with research and writing, not to mention commuting. But if time permits and the situation arises, she's up for another interpreting gig.
"I really think it was the Lord who had a purpose for me to do this. There have been many deaf people at these rallies," she said. " But a lot of time, I think, even for those who don't know sign language and aren't deaf, I think I am there for awareness. To make people aware: Let's not forget about deaf people."
Via Charles Tiayon
Stop me if you've heard this one before.
What do you call someone who speaks two languages? Bilingual.
What do you call someone who only speaks one language? American.
That old joke highlights America's reputation for being largely monolingual. In comparison to places like, say, the entire European Union, where over half the people can speak at least two languages, the U.S. has got some linguistic catching up to do.
In particular, no U.S. presidents after Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882-1945) have been bilingual. Brought up in a wealthy home with an evolving door of governesses, FDR was the last U.S. president who was fluent in a language besides English — he spoke French and German.
SEE ALSO: America's 12-week maternity policy has nothing to do with families
After FDR came decades of monolingual leaders. A number of presidents have been conversational in other languages: Jimmy Carter speaks conversational Spanish, as do George W. Bush and Barack Obama (who also speaks some Bahasa Indonesian).
Bill Clinton studied German in college, though he isn't fluent. That's a far cry from the varied bilingual and multilingual leaders of the past. Early presidents like Thomas Jefferson and John Quincy Adams were fluent in at least two other languages (Jefferson dominated, speaking French, Italian and Latin). Martin Van Buren's native language was Dutch. Herbert Hoover was fluent in Chinese.
After FDR, the fluency comes to a halt. Why the dramatic downturn?
"Before FDR, you had a number of patrician presidents," author and historian Dr. Gordon Chang tells Mashable. "People with high levels of education are more likely to have fluency in a second language." Though there were also presidents from "humble origins," such as Abraham Lincoln, the White House was often home to men with wealthier roots.
However, that makes it harder to explain presidents like John F. Kennedy, who had an elite upbringing, but wasn't fluent in any other languages. Dr. Larry Sabato, the director at the University of Virginia's Center for Politics, attributes this to a lack of focus on foreign languages in the U.S. at the time.
"For much of modern American history, language study was not stressed or even encouraged in our schools, or our secondary schools or colleges," Dr. Sabato tells Mashable.
In 2010, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan spoke about America's "language gap" at the Foreign Language Summit, saying "...the United States may be the only nation in the world where it is possible to complete high school and college without any foreign language study." He also shared this statistic about our "spotty" U.S. foreign language system: Just 18% of Americans speak another language besides English Just 18% of Americans speak another language besides English, compared to 53% of Europeans who speak more than one language.
When did this decline begin? Dr. Chang has a theory.
"The United States became very powerful after the second World War," he says. "Americans didn’t need to learn another language — other countries needed to learn English."
"You're either with us, or against us."
It should be noted, numerous presidential candidates have been at least bilingual. John Kerry, who ran against George W. Bush in 2004, is fluent in French. Jon Huntsman, who ran in 2012, has a healthy grasp on Chinese (though his claims of fluency seem to be overinflated). Mitt Romney, who has run numerous times, most recently in 2012, is fluent in French. Jeb Bush (who is "actively exploring" a 2016 run) is fluent in Spanish.
However, in recent years bilingual candidates have been attacked for their linguistic capabilities in the past, particularly by the Republican party. In 2011, Romney was attacked for his skill, accused of being too French by detractors; an attack ad was created based on his French-speaking abilities alone. The same thing happened to John Kerry in 2004.
"There’s always a hidden American fear about the 'Manchurian candidate' — the idea that someone not genuinely American would become president," Dr. Sabato says.
That type of fear isn't just limited to the U.S. — numerous world leaders have declined to speak foreign languages, particularly English. This past June, Indian prime minister Narendra Modi, who speaks English, decided he will only speak Hindi when meeting with global leaders.
As Washington Post's Adam Taylor points out, Modi isn't doing this to be difficult — he's doing it to showcase pride for his country, especially because speaking English has caused a divide between non-English speakers. In addition, India's history of English colonialism might also lend itself to Modi's decision, Dr. Chang notes.
There's also one more, well, strategic reason politicians pick their language first in global meetings.
"If questions are translated into their own language, it gives them more time to think," Dr. Chang explains. "The president or prime minister will completely understand the question...and on the other side, translators get to clean up answers."
A future asset for a connected world.
"It really is the era of the global community," Dr. Sabato says.
Since Secretary Duncan's 2010 speech about the lack of foreign language speakers, the Census Bureau has found that an additional 2.2 million people report speaking a foreign language as of 2013. There's also been a rapid increase, starting in the mid-1980s, of college students who study abroad There's also been a rapid increase, starting in the mid-1980s, of college students who study abroad, writes David Northrup, author of How English Became the Global Language. This has helped "stem the decline of foreign language study" in the U.S., he writes.
It's a positive sign, though it's a small achievement in the scheme of things. The NAFSA found that in the 2012-2013 school year, about 289,408 students studied abroad, which only represents about 1% of all U.S. students enrolled in higher education.
However, America's greater landscape is changing. By 2050, immigrants will make up 37% of the population, the highest in history according to a Pew Research study. The Hispanic population will make up 28% of the country, up tremendously from 2010's 16%. Politicians recognize the importance of capturing those votes. In 2012, President Obama nabbed more than 70% of the Hispanic vote, as well as the Asian-American vote.
Jeb Bush, in his "active" exploration of a 2016 bid, has basically been flaunting his Spanish-speaking skills, a big no-no from the last election cycle.
Hoy estamos lanzando el #RighttoRise PAC para apoyar a candidatos que estén de acuerdo conmigo en que los valores #conservadores son exactamente lo que este país necesita. Vete a www.RighttoRisePAC.org para más información.
A video posted by Jeb Bush (@jebbush) on Jan 06, 2015
"The Republican Party, they realize Hispanics are a very important voting block and are going to determine elections in the future," Dr. Chang says. He anticipates more language-flaunting in the future.
"It’s inevitable — in the end, politicians do reflect their constituency," Dr. Sabato notes.
Outside of the White House, that constituency is rapidly evolving.
Have something to add to this story? Share it in the comments.
Via Charles Tiayon
In her book, Found in Translation, Nataly Kelly argues that translation can influence the world, including even the presidency of the United States. She discovered many interesting links between language translation and President Jimmy Carter. Natie Kelly from www.amazon.com
Here’s the second part of our two-part post based on Ten Ways That Carter Influenced Translation -- and Vice Versa, a Huffington Post blog post by Nataly Kelly. 6. President Carter strengthened support for sign language interpreters when he signed the Disabilities Act of 1978, a predecessor to the Americans with Disabilities Act. This move significantly increased access to interpreters for the deaf. Interestingly, the word "interpreters" is mentioned 16 times in the law. 7. Carter used translation to court Latino voters. When asked about the importance of Spanish speakers in the United States during an interview with Televisa in 1979, the president voiced his support for the language, even delivering part of his answer in Spanish. Later that year, when he visited Mexico, he delivered an entire speech, translated ahead of time, in Spanish. 8. An interpreter once covered for Carter in Japan. In 1981 shortly after leaving the White House, Carter began a speech with a joke. The interpreter translated it into Japanese, and the audience erupted in laughter. Impressed with the interpreter's skill, Carter asked how he had managed to get such a laugh. Eventually, the interpreter admitted that he had said, "President Carter told a funny story. Everyone must laugh." 9. Carter takes no chances with interpreters during a crisis situation. Having learned plenty of lessons about working with interpreters, the former president was extremely careful during the North Korean nuclear crisis in 1994. Rather than rely on the Korean interpreters provided there, he brought along his own interpreter in order to ensure that his words were being conveyed as he intended.
Via Charles Tiayon
The French bilingual education program has hit a significant milestone, marking 30 years since its inception in Vietnam, and is poised for exciting developments…
Via Dual Language Education of New Mexico
By Hossam Elsherbiny, PhD., Associate Director of The Center for Languages & Intercultural Communication, Rice University, and Dean Toumajian, Rice University . DOI: https://www.doi.org/10.69732/PWER3384 From the fictional artificial intelligence computer HAL 9000’s menacing evolution in “2001: A Space Odyssey” to
Via Ana Cristina Pratas
Suburban cultural enclaves usually have some of the lowest voter turnouts. Linguistic diversity can be the solution to voter apathy. By Maham KaleemContributor Mon., May 23, 2022 Ontario mein do sau zabaan boli jati hain. This translates as, “Ontario is home to 200 languages.” You have just been introduced to a sentence in Urdu, one of the many languages that illustrate the province’s unique linguistic diversity. This diversity tells a story of how people from all walks of life bring their oral traditions, stories and experiences to Ontario. In fact, the province receives 50 per cent of all immigrants who come to Canada. The wide range of mother tongues in Ontario evokes a sense of curiosity in those who want to learn more, and provides a sense of comfort for those who do not see their language as popularly displayed as English. That brings us to the upcoming Ontario election. There are 198 more languages in Ontario than we typically see when talking about the vote. Suburban cultural enclaves usually have some of the lowest voter turnouts, despite having a lot to lose if political leaders fail to recognize their interests. Why aren’t they voting? A recent Statistics Canada report explored reasons why some people didn’t participate in the 2021 federal election. One main reason was people simply weren’t interested. In other words, very little caught their attention. Ontario is one of the most diverse provinces in the country, and these communities have the power to ensure election results reflect their priorities. This makes engaging with Ontario’s diverse population a crucial part of promoting civic participation. YOU MIGHT BE INTERESTED IN... RELATIONSHIPSADVICE My partner sent my daughter a shocking text message. Is our relationship over? Ask Ellie POLITICSOPINION There’s only one person left who can defeat Doug Ford That’s where the power of language comes in: linguistic diversity can be the solution to voter apathy. Language offers a way to truly form deep connections with intended audiences. By speaking to communities in the languages that fill their homes, friend circles or even eating spaces, we can better motivate Ontarians to feel interested and excited about elections. To speak to this issue, the David Suzuki Foundation released multilingual voter guides that inform people about how to register and where to vote. The neat thing about linguistic diversity (and our guides) is that it extends beyond language. Since language is a gateway to a world of expressions, values and unspoken sentiments, its power stems from much that is unspoken. We started with six languages, offering a way for communities to feel excited about the beauty their languages bring to the Ontario mosaic. By distributing them to restaurants like Naan & Chai in Ajax and Aunty’s Kitchen in Mississauga, we are motivating people to interact with the elections in languages and places they connect with. Just as environmental diversity and protection are critical elements of what makes Ontario thrive, its linguistic diversity must also be recognized and reflected to get people to register and vote. This is why we hope others will also work in multiple languages this election season. We have an entire province that is ready to listen, in about 200 languages. Zabaan dil se suni jaati hai, bolnay say nahi. “Language is heard by the heart, not solely by speaking.” Maham Kaleem is an elections campaigner for the David Suzuki Foundation.
Via Charles Tiayon
Google has announced the addition of 15 more African languages to Voice Search, Gboard talk-to-type, and Translate dictation, allowing approximately 300 million more Africans to interact with the web using their voices.
Yoruba, Hausa, Igbo, Nigerian pidgin Chichewa, Kikuyu, Oromo, Rundi, Shona, Somali, Tigrinya, and Twi are the latest languages added to Voice Search and Gboard's talk-to-type features. On Translate, voice input is now available in Hausa, Yoruba, Igbo, Chichewa, Oromo, Rundi, Shona, Somali, South Ndebele, Swati, Tigrinya, Tswana and Twi.
Google already supports typing with custom keyboards in Gboard for around 200 African languages and automatic translation in Translate for over 60 languages spoken in Africa.
The tech company confirmed that Gboard and Voice Search now support 12 more languages, bringing the total to 25. Translate adds 13 new languages, bringing the total to 22.
Google attributes this result to advances in AI, specifically multilingual speech recognition, which translates speech into text. The AI model learns languages in ways a child would, associating speech sounds with sequences of characters in written form.
Speech recognition models are trained on data from multiple languages to transcribe speech into text in any of those languages.
Similarly, the company announced a $5.8 million commitment by Google.org to support AI skilling and education across sub-Saharan Africa. The funds will be used to provide foundational AI and cybersecurity skills to workers and students and support nonprofit leaders and the public sector in developing these skills.
According to the company, recipients of the funding include the Data Scientists Network Foundation, which will receive a $1.5 million grant to create a programme that trains unemployed and at-risk Nigerians in digital and technology training, with the long-term goal of developing advanced data and AI skills.
Raspberry Pi Foundation will also collaborate with Young Scientists Kenya and Data Scientists Network Foundation to provide AI literacy education to Kenyan and Nigerian youth.
“This new funding builds on the $20 million of Google.org support for organisations helping Africans develop digital skills from Google's economic opportunity initiative, ” Google added.
Via Charles Tiayon
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Rescooped by
Dennis Swender
from Educational Technology News
October 28, 2024 3:14 PM
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New research from the University of Georgia shows virtual reality can aid students who speak English as a secondary language.
Via EDTECH@UTRGV
American Indian and Alaska Native Tribes and Tribal Organizations have been awarded a total of $5.723 million to revitalize language their Native languages.
The Living Languages Grants are awarded by the Indian Affairs Office of Indian Economic Development and range in value from $200,000 to $300,000 per year for three years. The program targets Tribes whose languages are at risk of disappearing due to declining native-speaker population. The degradation of Native language is a result of more than a century of oppression and forced assimilation driven by federal Indian Boarding Schools that forbade Native children from speaking the language of their peoples. “Living Languages Grant Program funding supports Tribal communities in restoring and revitalizing their traditional languages, thereby preserving the essence of their cultural identities and sovereignty,” said Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Bryan Newland in a statement. “Investing in Native language revitalization is just one part of our all-of-government approach to addressing the harms caused by federal policies of the past, such as Federal Indian Boarding School which actively worked to suppress Native languages and cultures.” The Living Languages Grant Program’s focus for fiscal year 2024 is on Native language immersion projects that support a cohesive Tribal community-approach through collaborative instruction based on current language immersion models. This year’s funding is intended for projects that provide an “all-of-community” language program with measurable outcomes that will be achieved within three years. The award recipients and amounts are: Cherokee Nation, Tahlequah, Oklahoma: $300,000 Kickapoo Tribe of Oklahoma, McLoud, Oklahoma: $300,000 Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians, Bayfield, Wisconsin: $300,000 Reno-Sparks Indian Colony, Reno, Nevada: $300,000 Sac & Fox Nation, Stroud, Oklahoma: $300,000 Igiugig Village, Igiugig, Alaska: $299,999 Sitting Bull College, Fort Yates, North Dakota: $299,928 Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw Indians, Coos Co., Oregon: $299,900 Metlakatla Indian Community, Metlakatla, Alaska: $299,900 Modoc Nation, Miami, Oklahoma: $299,807 Wichita and Affiliated Tribes, Anadarko, Oklahoma: $299,279 Kalispel Indian Community, Cusick, Washington: $298,552 Lower Brule Sioux Tribe, Lower Brule, South Dakota: $296,273 Lummi Tribe, Bellingham, Washington: $296,000 Bundled Arrows Inc., Niagara Falls, New York: $288,098 Shawnee Tribe, Miami, Oklahoma: $280,200 Tribal Government of St. Paul Island, St. Paul Island, Alaska: $277,500 Central Council of the Tlingit & Haida Indian Tribes, Juneau, Alaska: $265,920 San Carlos Apache Tribal Council, San Carlos, Arizona: $219,647 Quechan Tribe, Yuma, Arizona: $201,997
Via Charles Tiayon
May 11, 2024 Society | May 10, 2024, Friday // 16:00 The official spelling and grammar dictionary of the Bulgarian language has been launched online for the first time, thanks to the BERON platform developed by the Bulgarian Academy of Science (BAS). Published periodically by the Bulgarian Language Institute at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, this dictionary establishes norms in Bulgarian language usage and is regarded as the authority on proper speech and spelling. Introduced at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (BAS), the BERON platform falls under the Ministry of Education's domain. The timing of its unveiling was deliberate, being the day following Europe Day and preceding May 11, the feast day of Cyril and Methodius in the old calendar. BERON offers users the ability to both hear and see word characteristics. For instance, for each verb, users can access conjugations, forms across different verb tenses, and other relevant features. With approximately 2,400,000 forms, the platform serves as a comprehensive reference for spelling, grammar, legal language, and information on homonyms and doublets. It provides free, reliable access to information on the Bulgarian literary language, including a "Question of the Day" section, addressing inquiries frequently received by the Language Reference and Consultation Service of the Institute of the Bulgarian Language. Prof. Dr. Ruska Stancheva spearheaded the creation of the BERON project, naming it in honor of Dr. Peter Beron. The acronym BERON stands for "Bulgarian Language Resources Online" (Български езикови ресурси онлайн). Prof. Stancheva highlighted the importance of Beron's primer in shaping the Bulgarian literary language's rules, emphasizing the platform's aim to disseminate knowledge and assist people in their daily lives. The pronunciation of words on the platform is provided by actress Gergana Stoyanova, and a mobile version of the dictionary is also available.
Via Charles Tiayon
The full extent of Southeast Asia's cultural diversity risks being ignored by AI models built on English and Mandarin Chinese. AI can help bridge Southeast Asia’s 1,000 languages—but the work ‘has to be done by Southeast Asians’ July 30, 2024 at 2:53 PM GMT+1 “AI models are built on data…and the region is not well represented in the digital space," said Leslie Teo, lead on the Southeast Asian Languages in One Network (Sea-Lion) project. With over 1,000 languages, Southeast Asia is one of the most linguistically diverse regions in the world—and that’s a challenge for businesses trying to operate with talent and customers right next door. “The language barrier can be a huge issue,” Kisson Lin, co-founder and chief operating officer for Singaporean AI startup Mindverse AI at the Fortune Brainstorm AI Singapore conference on Tuesday. “We have different colleagues from different regions speaking different languages. It’s not only that you [find] it hard to collaborate, but also hard to bond with each other.” But can AI bridge the linguistic divide, without eradicating the cultural nuances within a diverse population of 600 million? Solving this question can unlock new markets for global businesses. Lin pointed out that Alibaba’s sales revenue spiked once it started using AI to translate product information. AI might even help India’s prolific, multilingual entertainment industry “propagate to the whole world,” says Sambit Sahu, senior vice president of silicon design for Ola Kutrim, an Indian AI startup. Yet Leslie Teo, lead of the Southeast Asian Languages in One Network (Sea-Lion) project, said that hundreds of Southeast Asian languages present a unique challenge to developers. “AI models are built on data…and the region is not well represented in the digital space.” That means the richness of the area’s food, history, and culture—particularly from smaller language groups like Khmer and Lao—risks being left out. The benchmarks for judging AI’s performance are also largely driven by English and Mandarin Chinese...
Via Charles Tiayon
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I personally agree the article, that english should be the official language of the United States. But we'd face many conflicts in the process of switching everyone that doesn't speak english, to english. There's over 300 languages spoke in the U.S. It would take a lot of time and effort to pull something like this off
I personally agree with the article that English should be the official language of the United States. But we would face many conflicts in the process. There are over 300 languages spoke in the U.S. Imagine having to switch over all those people from the language they were speaking to English. It would take a lot of time and effort to pull off an act such like this. L.D.C.