Choose a Common Language For Critique Post's

[Phil_Light]

My point is not an ethnocentric position in the least, but concerns our

ability to communicate between languages and cultures. I think that if we

continue to participate in a photo-critique forum on a site which is primarily

based in English, that for the benefit of the majority of readers, we attempt

to make our comments available to the majority of users by translation into

English. We can easily make use of the Babel Fish Translation site at: <A

HREF="http://babelfish.altavista.com/">http://babelfish.altavista.com/</A>,

all at no charge to translate comments. I am continually finding all Spanish

or all Italian commentary which is both difficult to understand when it comes

to the nuances of what is being written. Choosing the common langauage would

just seem to be the practical and sensible way to operate. Am I wrong?

[will king]

What would you purpose for those who do not speak English at all?

[pico_digoliardi]

Let us move to Latin. I learned it as a child, so anyone else can, too. :)

 

Of course, Italian would be most welcome as well.

[walterh]

1) My personal vote is Chinese.

2) If you seriously suggest that anything posted in another language than english to be translated by babelfish you should post this in various languages so the potential poster could understand this post. You could easily have your post translated at: http://babelfish.altavista.com/

 

And then repost it. The way it is posted now only the people fluent in english will be able to read it - what a waste :-)

[emre]

If the person in question does not have a strong grasp of English (it is possible), it makes sense for him to write in his native language. That way, people who do understand that foreign language won't have to suffer a machine translation.

 

Do you know there are Firefox extensions that make it easier for you to translate text? https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/181/

[Jeremy Stein]

First of all, I have never found that the Babelfish translator can handle nuances at all. Indeed, many of its word and phrase choices seem more likely to confuse than to communicate. Secondly, if we are really to have a single language for all comments ( a solution in search of a problem, BTW), then let's use one intended as a lingua franca from its inception. I refer of course to Esperanto; that will put all or nearly all of us at the same disadvantage!

 

Actually, I rather like it the way it is. Everyone gets to express themselves in the language of their choice, and we can either try to understand comments, or try a translation program, or just ignore the comments we do not understand. It's just like the real world!

[michaelging]

Philip, I too have received comments on my photographs from languages other than English, which is my native tounge.One of the things about Photo.net that I like so much, is the richness that comes from other viewpoints , especially ones from other countries. I would hate to loose that richness ,just to gain conformity. I have used Babelfish in the past to find out what a commenter was saying about a photo , and although Babelfish helps, its not perfect. I am always trying to learn the local language when I travel and this is a good excuse for me to try to figure out what someone is saying. Because of Photo.net I have been published in Digital Photographer Magazine in the Ukraine. Now trying to read a description of a photo in Cyrillic is a real challenge.

[terri1]

I don't have a problem with people posting comments in their native tougue. I've been using babelfish for posts in other than English, & while it's not perfect I get the gist of what is being said. <br>

<br>

While having everyone post in the same language would make communication easier, not everyone speaks English or is fluent in it. (as an aside, I have yet to see someone with a portfolio in another language complain that we who leave comments in English are not leaving them in THEIR native language). Maybe I'm mistaking the intention of this post, but it sounded like wanting people to translate to English before making their post/reply.

[darrell_m]

Wow, neat post dude. Is there anyway, like, you think we could get the Americans to speak English. IMHO, that would be kinda awesome.

[Phil_Light]

My post wasn't intended to provoke cynical replies from us all. But to help encourage multi-language communications between the diverse cultural base that comprises Photo.Net. For those who don't understand English, you can plug in your basic language (on the Babel Fish site) and have it translated to English. You may not understand it, but if you can copy and paste you can do it too.<p>Espanol- Mi poste no fue pensado para provocar las contestaciones cínicas de nosotros todas. Pero para ayudar a animar comunicaciones de la multi-lengua entre la base cultural diversa que abarca Photo.Net. Para las que no entiendan ingles, usted puede enchufar su lengua básica (en el sitio de los Babel Fish) y hacerla traducir al ingles. Usted no puede entenderla, sino que si usted puede copiar y pegar usted puede hacerla tambien.

[Phil_Light]

Unfortunately the site doesn't support the Chinese character set with either the ascii or HTML setting. And it's funny, I don't seem to remember a single Chinese posting...

[mike dixon]

<i>For those who don't understand English, you can plug in your basic language (on the Babel Fish site) and have it translated to English.</i><P>

You greatly overestimate the powers of BabelFish. As Jeremy Stein noted above, quite often the translations that it provides are very confusing and difficult to understand. For example, if you use it to translate Korean to English, the result sounds more like free-form poetry by someone who's tripping on acid than understandable English (and English to Korean is no better).

[stephen hazelton]

Since most of the content is in English, I've just assumed that most users have some knowledge of English & that therefore, if I leave an English comment it will be more or less understood.

 

I feel like the primary purpose of comments left on a photo are to communicate with the taker of the photo. The purpose of any language is to communicate, and the language should be used that best communicates the thoughts in question. If both commenter and photographer speak the same language, there's no reason not to communicate in it. I think it's unreasonable to expect everyone to speak in my language for my benefit.

[Phil_Light]

The temperature seems to have gone from lukewarm to full heated on this topic. Seems a provoking topic none-the-less. I am fully able and willing to continue to receive commentary/critique in any language for any image. The overwhelming opinion here seems to be to leave things as they are. This is completely acceptable to me and I respect the overwhelming decision of the high court of public opinion expressed by the majority of posters to this topic. Viva l'difference.

[mike dixon]

<i>The temperature seems to have gone from lukewarm to full heated on this topic.</i><P>

Huh? I don't see a single heated response in this thread. Everyone has been completely civil, even jovial in some cases.

[Phil_Light]

Just commenting on the rapidity by which the replies flooded in on this topic. That is all...

[john falkenstine]

Babelfish simply does not work, reminds me of some leftover software from the Eighties that just won't die a natural digital death.

[neild]

People should have the right to post in any language they wish to. Naturally, we all retain the right to skip over posts that we cannot understand... so is there a problem? People who speak a language other than English already put much more effort into being understood than those who speak English do.

[gluteal cleft]

<p><i>I am continually finding all Spanish or all Italian commentary which is both difficult to understand when it comes to the nuances of what is being written.</i></p>

 

<p>I think that's pretty funny. If you can't understand the nuances of Spanish or Italian, then a Babelfish translation isn't going to do you any good, either.</p>

 

<p>Your arguments seem to boil down to making things more convenient for you, at the expense of others.</p>

 

<p>How does the joke go? If you speak three languages, you're trilingual. If you speak two languages, you're bilingual. If you speak one language, you're.... American.</p>

 

<p>(Yes, I'm American, and I'm fluent in two languages, and can work at least a little with three others).</p>

 

<p>Shoot, as long as I'm telling jokes... if you're American in the kitchen, Asian in the kitchen, and African in the living room, what are you in the bathroom? European.</p>

[gluteal cleft]

<p><i>Espanol- Mi poste no fue pensado para provocar las contestaciones c�nicas de nosotros todas. Pero para ayudar a animar comunicaciones de la multi-lengua entre la base cultural diversa que abarca Photo.Net. Para las que no entiendan ingles, usted puede enchufar su lengua b�sica (en el sitio de los Babel Fish) y hacerla traducir al ingles. Usted no puede entenderla, sino que si usted puede copiar y pegar usted puede hacerla tambien.</i></p>

 

<p>I think that is a perfect example of why people should post in their own language, instead of slaughtering another.</p>

[flyfisher159]

I will take critisism or a compliment in any language. Kinda fun trying to figure out what was said.

 

Adios

SM

[savagesax]

Lets all speak Pig Latin!

[walterh]

"Unfortunately the site doesn't support the Chinese character set with either the ascii or HTML setting. And it's funny, I don't seem to remember a single Chinese posting..."

 

Philip I must admit that this part of my post was not entirely serious. I just tried to make us aware that in the WWW we should not forget the "world-wide" part. And worldwide there are other very widespread languages. The funny thing is that from your response I can see that one can easily conclude that there is no demand for Chinese, but then tell me how could anbody post in Chinese if there is no support for the Character set? Hmm.

 

Philip I take it that you have the best intentions and it seems that other responses assume this too. Otherwise this thread would have taken a less well behaved direction. This again is a good indication that we can communicate even on touchy themes like this one, which perhaps is the best part of your thread - to be ware of the problem and to try to communicate across languages even if there is no "easy" solution without own effort.

[kelly_flanigan1]

Ars longa, vita brevis.

[kelly_flanigan1]

Est modus in rebus.