ak2 translation - General interest

Tokyo prof strives to rescue an Aboriginal language from oblivion

Wed, 20 Jan 2010 10:07:55 -0500

"Every language is a cultural asset of humanity," is how Tasaku Tsunoda expressed his motivation for costarting a project in 2002 to teach the extinct Warrongo language to the Aboriginal people of the Warrongo tribe of northeastern Australia.

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China overtaking India in English usage: study

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 08:40:32 -0500

LONDON: India is falling behind China in its attempts to increase the use of English, risking squandering a key economic advantage, a new report
says.

A "huge shortage" of teachers and quality institutions means China may now have more people who speak English than India, says the study by the British Council, Britain's international cultural relations body.

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Be careful not to bend your gender in Japanese

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 07:59:32 -0500

One of the biggest omissions in Japanese textbooks, classes and one-on-one lessons is gendered language. Ignore it and at some point you will wind up sounding like a little Japanese girl — or a guy — when you didn't intend too.

What exactly is "gendered language"? This refers to how males and females speak differently from one another within a language. It is a feature of other languages (Spanish, for one), but the Japanese version differs as it refers to gender roles and is not "grammatically gendered" — meaning that if you are a boy and speak like a girl, there is nothing grammatically incorrect about it. You would just sound like a girl, and that's no fun.

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Korea Fails to Honor Heroine of Quiet Research

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 07:56:31 -0500

...After receiving a Ph.D. in history in France, Park began working at the national library in Paris in 1967, where she discovered the dust-covered "Jikji Simche Yojeol." The book, printed by the Buddhist monk Baekun in 1377, is an anthology of the teachings of the Buddha for meditation. At a global symposium of Asia experts in 1972, Park proved that it was printed 78 years earlier than Johannes Gutenberg's 42-Line Bible printed in 1455. Her findings gained international recognition.

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Jikji Simche Yojeol: The world's oldest extant movable metal print book

Smart spectacles aid translation

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 07:54:50 -0500

Resembling glasses but lacking lenses, the headset uses a tiny projector to display images on a user's retina.

NEC said it planned a version that used real-time translation to provide subtitles for a conversation between people lacking a common language.

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How to lose your temper in Japanese

Tue, 06 Oct 2009 08:55:34 -0400

Sometimes you just want to wring someone's neck (kubi wo hinetteyaru). Oh, only figuratively, I mean. And having wrung — verbally, that is — you feel like a new man or woman, totally refreshed. This may even clear the air, or, in Japanese, sukatto suru, and be the basis for a passionate makeup.

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Bhutan: Dzongkha to get simpler?

Sat, 19 Sep 2009 06:15:34 -0400

19 September, 2009 - The 9th Dzongkha Development Commission (DDC) Conference, that ended yesterday, has made a series of recommendations to promote and simplify the national language so that people not only speak it but also find it easier to read and write it.

In total, the 75 experts and members attending the conference made 62 recommendations ranging for simplifying the language, making the curriculum uniform and interesting to future policies and plans.

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Ancient Book of Buddhism Chantings Found

Tue, 15 Sep 2009 13:23:50 -0400

A Hangeul copy of an ancient Chinese book that contains the notes of the Joseon Kingdom (1392-1910) scholar Kim Si-seup has been discovered.

The book was originally written by a Buddhist master from the Tang Dynasty (618-907) and dates back to the 16th century.

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Scholars hail Jesuit's success at world Sanskrit conference

Mon, 14 Sep 2009 08:49:10 -0400

PUNE, India : Christian and Hindu leaders in India as well as scholars from around the world have praised the performance of a Jesuit priest in convening the recent 14th World Sanskrit Conference.

Father Noel Sheth, a lecturer in Indian religions, served as chief convener of the History of Religion section at the meeting in Kyoto, Japan, the first Catholic priest so honored. The International Association of Sanskrit Studies had invited the University of Kyoto to host the triennial conference this year, held Sept. 1-5.

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New International Version of Bible to be rewritten after row over politically correct language

Thu, 03 Sep 2009 08:33:25 -0400

A best-selling edition of the Bible is being rewritten after attempts to make it more politically correct ended in ridicule.

Publishers of the New International Version previously tried to make the holy text of Christianity “gender accurate” by changing phrases such as “sons of God” to “children of God” and “brethren” to “brothers and sisters”.

They also described the Virgin Mary as “pregnant” rather than “with child”, and removed mentions of people being “stoned”.

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Sri Lanka: Sinhala translations of Pali Buddhist scriptures presented to the President

Sun, 30 Aug 2009 05:56:44 -0400

Aug 30, Colombo: Ven. Kirama Wimalajothi Thero presented 47 volumes of Sinhala translations of Pali Scriptures to the President Mahinda Rajapaksa at Temple Trees on August 28th.

Following an ancient tradition of handing over Buddhist scriptures and books to the ruler of the land by the Buddhist clergy, the Venerable Thero handed over the translated volumes to the present day ruler, President Rajapaksa in a ceremony on Friday.

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Finding New Meaning in One of the World’s Oldest Books

Sat, 29 Aug 2009 09:21:16 -0400

Since at least the fifth century, generations of Buddhists have memorized and chanted the Diamond Sutra, a short Mahayana Buddhist scripture. The work, which offers meditations on illusion and perception, was originally written in Sanskrit and first translated into Chinese in 402 A.D. Despite the text’s longevity, Stanford religious studies professor Paul Harrison’s latest research suggests that previous translations may have incorrectly interpreted certain words in a way that affects the entire meaning of the text.

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Crazy English: How China's language teachers became big celebrities

Sat, 29 Aug 2009 08:01:38 -0400

This year it will be announced that China now has more English speakers than any other country in the world. And such is the demand for their services that top teachers have become big stars

"Where are you from? Do you speak English?" It's a familiar phrase near the Forbidden City in Beijing, or along the capital's Nanjing Road, as Chinese people try a standard opening gambit to spark up a conversation with a foreigner. Many visitors baulk at being approached so baldly, and are worried that it could be a scam. Very occasionally it is a con – and tourists should be wary when some nice young people offer to bring them to a tea house – but mostly the youngsters are desperate for access to real live Anglophones who can help them improve their conversational English.

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Shanghai tackles bad English

Tue, 25 Aug 2009 08:29:16 -0400

SHANGHAI - TOURISTS visiting Shanghai for next year's World Expo could be confused by signs on wet floors reading 'Slip Carefully!' So authorities in China want to make sure they never see them.

The Shanghai government, along with neighbouring Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces, published a 20-page guide book this week to standardise signs and eliminate notoriously bad, and sometimes amusing, English translations.

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'Use It Or Lose It’ Warning On Pacific Languages

Tue, 25 Aug 2009 08:23:08 -0400

Victoria University senior lecturer Galumalemana Alfred Hunkin told a 2009 Diversity Forum discussion that the future for Pacific languages rested in a simple approach: ‘use it or lose it’.

‘If we don’t work on preserving our languages now, they will be lost forever’, said Mr Hunkin, the chair of the forum hosted by the Ministry for Pacific Island Affairs and the New Zealand National Commission for UNESCO in Wellington today.

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