Archives

Sorry, there is no English version for this post. Click here if you would like to read it in Portuguese.

[lang_pt]

[lang_pt]

Open Translation Project, sponsored by Nokia, and housed by TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) is a project in which volunteer translators help translate educational talks into a variety of languages so that ideas can be spread around the globe.

The goal of TED is to “foster the spread of great ideas.” The project “aims to provide a platform for the world’s smartest thinkers, greatest visionaries and most inspiring teachers, so that millions of people can gain a better understanding of the biggest issues faced by the world, and a desire to help create a better future.” They further explain that “core to this goal is a belief that there is no greater force for changing the world than a powerful idea.”

TED is owned by The Sapling Foundation, a non-profit organization that provides global conferences aimed at bringing together great minds and challenges them to give the greatest speeches of their lives. These speeches are published free of charge on the TED.com website in the hopes that these ideas will be spread around the globe and better the lives of humanity as a whole.

Speech topics include areas such as Technology, Entertainment, Design, Business, Science and Global Issues. The best speakers earn a chance to receive a TEDPrize, a grant aimed at transforming their extraordinary ideas into reality. Past speakers include Bill Clinton, Jane Goodall and Bono among hundreds of other brilliant minds.

The purpose of the Open Translation Project is to translate these talks into as many languages as possible so that the information can reach people all over the world. For example, in his talk on Endangered Cultures, National Geographic Explorer Wade Davis discusses the amazing diversity of cultures that may be disappearing from the world. This speech is translated in 23 languages ranging from Arabic to Vietnamese and everything in between.

Just for fun, I calculated the number of people that can potentially be reached by simply translating this one speech into 23 languages. The result “very” roughly amounts to over 3 billion people worldwide. That’s an incredible amount of people that could make a huge impact in the social, economic and environmental improvement of our world.

How it works is that users can select one of hundreds of talks from the TED website. The spoken language of the speech is English. There is an option to view subtitles of the speech in a variety of translated languages. In addition, and even better, there’s an option to view a written transcript of that speech in various languages. A drop down list offers a choice of languages that the use
r can choose from, as long as they have been translated before. Users can also click on any phrase in the interactive transcript and the speaker in the video will repeat that particular phrase in English. So cool!

To date, 630 TED talks have been translated into 50 languages, with the help of 243 translators (and counting!). There are currently 1681 translations in progress into 72 languages with the help of 1085 translators. Translators can volunteer by registering at http://www.ted.com/pages/view/id/293. Although there is no monetary compensation, translators are heavily credited for their work and can be seen in the member profile section with a list of their translations. Most of all, translators have the satisfaction of knowing that they are contributing to a project aimed at creating a better world.

Visit the http://www.ted.com website, translate a talk, sponsor a cause, SPREAD AN IDEA!

According to the Global Language Monitor, “at the current pace with a new English-language word created about every 98 minutes, English will cross the Million Word Mark on June 10th, 2009, at 10:22 a.m. (Stratford-on Avon Time).” This is basically RIGHT NOW!!! And, as predicted, the 1,000,000th word mark was reached.

Neologisms, or the invention of new words, are popping up everywhere. We see this frequently in the modern world due to the rapid growth of technology and the creation of slangs. For example, does anyone reading this remember when a mouse was simply a small furry rodent that ate cheese? Or when “cool” actually meant not warm?

Interestingly enough as the world globalizes and the history of language dissipates, neologisms are becoming more prevalent around the globe. In his book, A Million Words and Counting, Paul J.J. Payack, president and chief word analyst at Global Language Monitor, discusses how Global English is rewriting the World.

The Global Language Monitor methodology to count words uses super computers and detailed calculations in order to predict the number of words that exist in the English language today. They actually say that 1,000,000 is quite a conservative number and there are probably quite a few more.

In order to be included in the codex of the English language, words must be cited a minimum of 25,000 times in media, literature, etc. The last 15 words to be added to the global dictionary are:

Web 2.0 (1,000,000): The next generation of web products and services, coming soon to a browser near you.

Jai Ho! (999,999): The Hindi phrase signifying the joy of victory, used as an exclamation, sometimes rendered as “It is accomplished”. Achieved English-language popularity through the multiple Academy Award Winning film Slumdog Millionaire.

N00b (999,998): From the Gamer Community, a neophyte in playing a particular game; used as a disparaging term.

Slumdog (999,997): a formerly disparaging, now often endearing, comment upon those residing in the slums of India.

Cloud Computing (999,996): The ‘cloud’ has been technical jargon for the Internet for many years. It is now passing into more general usage.

Carbon Neutral (999,995): One of the many phrases relating to the effort to stem climate change.

Slow Food (999,994): Food other than the fast-food variety hopefully produced locally (locavores).

Octomom (999,993): The media phenomenon relating to the travails of the mother of the octuplets.

Greenwashing (999,992): Re-branding an old, often inferior, product as environmentally friendly.

Sexting (999,991): Sending email (or text messages) with sexual content.

Shovel Ready (999,990): Projects are ready to begin immediately upon the release of federal stimulus funds.

Defriend (999,989): Social networking terminology for cutting the connection with a formal friend.

Chengguan (999,988): Urban management officers, a cross between mayors, sheriff, and city managers.

Recessionista (999,987): Fashion conscious who use the global economic restructuring to their financial benefit.

Zombie Banks (999,986): Banks that would be dead if not for government intervention and cash infusion.

In addition, the 1,000,001st word is Financial Tsunami, meaning the global financial restructuring that seemingly swept out of nowhere, wiping out trillions of dollars of assets, in a matter of months.

Happy Wording!

There are two aspects to observe as far as fonts are concerned. They will be covered in the topics below.

a) Font Names Specified in the Code

Remember Unicode? I promised to talk about this subject, but had not done so yet… Be prepared, because the subject is so extensive that it is worth of another series. The advent of Unicode has made it possible to display thousands of distinct characters, rather than sets of ten characters, which is the case of ASCII.

Most fonts do not encompass the complex set of Unicode characters. Therefore, if the name of a font type displays only Latin characters, and no Japanese ideogram is directly inserted into the software (or Web page) programming, all the Japanese localized text will be displayed as question marks, squares or strange characters, inserted for word space adjustment.

As an example, consider the Google homepage in Japanese. The first case is displayed incorrectly, whereas the second one is shown with its correct character set.

Click to enlarge the image

Click to enlarge the image

One reason for not using font names in programming is that the desired font may not be available in the system where the text is being displayed. That is, if your client’s computer does not have the AuntieLucyBold font, the text can be displayed with a substitute font, which may cause visualization problems.

b) Font Sizes Specified in the Code

Some writing forms are more complex than others. The most complex forms need more pixels (or “points”) for correct display.

For instance, most Latin characters may be displayed in a 5×7 grid; Japanese characters, however, need at least a 16×16 grid for clear visualization. Chinese characters need a 24×24 grid!

The chart below illustrates why some characters displayed in small fonts become illegible.

Font Size

As you can see, it is impossible to understand a Japanese ideogram with a font of size 7, while the Latin character “E” is perfectly legible, regardless of its size.

In the next post we will talk about number formats… 1, 2, 3 and… Get ready!