Comment Challenge Day 24: Comment on a Blog Written in a Foreign Language
Today's activity was suggested by both Sue Waters and Silvia Tolisano.
Their idea is that we comment on a blog post in another language. For
some of us, this may mean dusting off our foreign language skills from
high school or college. If you're like me, you'll need something a
little more heavy duty to figure this out. Sue suggests trying Google's Translator, which should allow you to both read a blog post as well as translate your comment into the proper language.
To find an appropriate blog, try translation a keyword into the language you want to search for--for example, if you want to find a Spanish-language blog that discusses education, search for the keyword "educacion" in Technorati or Google Blog Search. Then copy and paste the post text into Google Translator, which should give you a reasonable idea of what the post says. You can then write your response and translate it into the other language. You might want to mention that you're using Google Translator for this purpose because your comment won't be perfectly translated. If you blog about the experience, be sure to use the "comment08" tag.
Kia Ora Michele!
(This is sent from TCS again since I can't send it from home)-:
Now this is an odd task - about the foreign language - for one wonders if there is a level playing field here. As it happens I know little French and even less Maori and that would be the extent of my foreign language skills (I am almost a monoglot :-)
But for someone who has none (and I'm being the devil's advocate again!) this task would put them at a real disadvantage over the polyglots.
Also, there are quite a few (sophisticated isn't the word for them) Internet based (free) translators that purport to translate not only words but phrases and also sentences. This brings me to . . .
. . . the other problem that I see is the inevitable misunderstanding that can arise through inexpert translation. There have been books written on this and some are a hoot!
In that one of my Write A Great Comment bullets was about writing clear and unequivocal communication, I wonder (again) about the wisdom of attempting to comment in a foreign tongue within an environment where such things as tone of voice (emoticons aside) and body language are not a component of the communication. Could be diplomatically compromising. Joosy mai . ?
Ka kite
from Middle-earth
Posted by: Ken Allan | May 25, 2008 at 07:14 PM
Exploration always comes fraught with danger, eh?
I hope some are willing to give this a go and see where it leads. At the very least, it takes us out of our comfort zone, and I am of the mind that that can be fruitful.
Peace,
Kevin
Posted by: Kevin | May 25, 2008 at 08:18 PM
@Kevin - Takes us out of our comfort zone? Hmm. Sounds like a good scheme to me.
Ka kite
Posted by: Ken Allan | May 26, 2008 at 06:09 AM
@Kevin - this one's for you: La paz sea con ustedes
Posted by: Ken Allan | May 26, 2008 at 06:33 AM
Peaceflame.
Nice.
Might be fodder for a new poem.
Kevin
Posted by: Kevin | May 26, 2008 at 07:17 AM
Hi Ken--definitely puts some of us at a disadvantage (myself included), but I think that's OK, because learning means that sometimes we have to put ourselves out there and not have an advantage, you know? I'm with Kevin that it's a good thing for us to be challenging ourselves to go out of our comfort zones. :-)
Posted by: Michele Martin | May 26, 2008 at 08:07 AM
@Michele - out of our comfort zone?
Wot me worry? ^..^----/
Posted by: Ken Allan | May 27, 2008 at 04:16 AM
Really nice!
Posted by: test | May 27, 2008 at 06:32 AM