Languages

1. how are we using automated translation?

2. the web

2.1. english

2.1.1. ascii

2.1.2. us-en

2.2. monolingual scientific space to start with

2.3. still totally anglo-centric

3. research

3.1. appearance of other languages on the internet?

4. localisation issues

4.1. still monolingual

4.2. languages don't have the same grammatical structure

4.3. languages don't take up the same space

4.4. languages don't have the same typographical rules

5. default languages based on country

5.1. cf. CH !== de rant

6. wordpress.com translation system

7. SBAW

8. wikipedia localisation

8.1. rewriting

8.2. links to equivalent pages made by humans

9. a web page is usually expected to be in one language

10. translation is a tedious process

11. hiding content in a language that is not "known" can mean depriving the user of valuable content if there is no equivalent in "known" languages

11.1. e.g. I don't consider I "know" italian but I can understand a lot of it

11.2. need for a more subtle way of mapping people's linguistic abilities

12. bridge bloggers and people

13. the most important borders on the internet are linguistic

13.1. in the world too -- it is the thing that most prevents people from communicating

14. hire multilingual editors to offer digests of the foreign-speaking web (did this idea happen?)

14.1. translation

14.2. rewriting

15. bilingual me

16. many people don't live in monolingual spaces

16.1. switzerland

16.2. india

16.3. work

16.4. immigrants

17. many different ways of "knowing" a language

17.1. understanding

17.2. basic communication

17.3. a few words

17.4. full mastery

17.5. mother tongue

18. people "know" english

18.1. too often assumed

18.2. "knowing" does not mean "comfortable with"

19. automatic translation is often more funny than really useful

19.1. can help, though

19.1.1. e.g. post on coComment in japanese

19.1.2. particularly when there is some knowledge of the translated language

20. blogging multilingually: how to embrace one's languages

20.1. translation (equivalent content)

20.2. rewriting

20.2.1. close to original

20.2.2. very distant from original

20.2.2.1. excerpts

20.3. markup for mixed pages

21. language-sensitive services (search etc)

21.1. language recognition

21.2. do they use the lang attribute?

21.3. can they accept more than one language per page?

22. english only as a barrier to adoption

23. importance of opening up to other languages/cultures

23.1. better understanding of those who are "different"

23.2. more tolerance

23.3. better understanding of oneself

24. offline, non-verbal communication is the safety net if you don't share a language with somebody. Online, there are often only words.

25. Non-native speakers come across as rude or stupid

25.1. make mistakes

25.2. miscommunicate

25.3. don't understand

25.4. can't be understood

25.5. aren't as eloquent as native speakers

25.6. there was a blog post about this, can I dig it out?

26. giving this talk in english!!

26.1. who's mother tongue is not english?

27. English is the lingua franca

27.1. a lingua franca is not a bad thing

27.2. globish

27.2.1. can we really hope for a unique link language?

27.2.2. lack of subtlety

27.2.3. business-oriented

27.2.3.1. but the living web isn't just about business