Lossy translation
Before I continue with this post, I’d like to quote a translated phrase from an Indian film:
Language in itself, is such a great thing that, you can never really insult it.
Language is a great tool to communicate, provided you know it; while its unfamiliarity tends to breed contempt.
Internet today is a single ‘online world’, primarily, because of one language: English. Even though I come from a land that has over 20 official languages of its own, I understand the simplicity of this particular ‘foreign’ language, and understand why my country chose to adopt it as one of its national languages. It is straight-simple, succinct, funny and arguably the easiest. And solely because of this, I am able to connect with anyone across the world.
I pick-up a newspaper, on my way to office, in the train, and all I can read are the pictures. Not knowing Dutch is tough in Holland and parts of Benelux, especially if you’re here to stay for a while.
Everything in print (the townhall papers, the grocery list, the bills, letters, signage, contracts, user manuals, et al) is in Dutch. You cannot even pronounce words (thanks to their use of double words together) let alone read it1. You feel like an illiterate, just barely better than using your thumb for signature2.
Sneha and I heard from a few of our asian neighbors, who have been here long enough to tell us, about how difficult it was during the pre-internet times. Communities formed just to exchange useful information (the real social network). They’d call each other to tell where what’s available, how to recognize the names and words. How to know what’s what, finding vegetarian stuff, so on and so forth. People would call up in the middle of the night some times, just to disseminate information, lest they’d forget.
It was truly fascinating to learn from people who had experienced it all. We shuddered at the thought of such a scenario. In the end, we thought “My God, we’re lucky to be in these times, where there’s internet!”
To put it simply, languages are complicated. They can never be translated in their true meanings or in understanding their depth.
In Holland, I am frankly, in awe at the speed at which the Dutch converse. It is amazing, yet, I do not understand a word of it. You could blame me for not making an effort3, but there’s only so many languages one can learn as a normal human being4. In the same way, when the Dutch try to explain something to me in English, I see them scrambling for words sometimes, and drumming their fingers for that right word.
So, while people like me are hinging on one common language, English5, to make an effective conversation with the rest of the world, this new trend of enabling multi-language in the new media troubles me, as much as it excites me.
On one hand, it empowers people to express in the language they’re best at, while on the other, if I, as a user or reader does not understand that particular language, then I can hardly make a distinction between their prose and poetry, however wonderful they may be. Now that would be a real shame, given my practical inability to learn a new language every time I move to a new place.
This is the crux of the problem: The ability of creating content in other languages tends to breed isolated communities, many internets instead of one; much like the real world was in ancient times.
I hate Google when it shows me its search results in Dutch, just because I am accessing it from within Holland. That’s stupid. Allowing people to choose their own language should only be by way of an option, while keeping the default to English.
Ideally, any content should be readable in the language of your choice; at the same time it should allow you to create it in the language you love. If we have to have both, then, we still have a long way to go, as far as technology is concerned.
And lastly, I think (and this is a personal opinion), people should be less insular, feel less threatened by what would happen to their language if no one spoke. Language will always remain mankind’s greatest asset, tool, and it is not going to erode away if it is not in the (global) mainstream.
India is a perfect example of how languages live and thrive in harmony and yet it has embraced one language, Hindi, for identity and one universal language, English, for simplicity and for global communication. I wish it was the same in Europe.
- We read them the hard way — type out the entire letter in Dutch as is and then paste that in a language translator make some meaning of it. Now, you know where we are channeling our energy. [←]
- Mind you, this is not a dissent, not a gripe, just recording my life experiences for posterity’s sake and, probably, to look back and laugh about how we managed it all. Along the way, I am also learning uniqueness about all this. The keyword again here is “different”. [←]
- Sneha is though, since she’s taking Dutch lessons. [←]
- I know four languages; any more would be an overkill for me. [←]
- My mother tongue is not English either. [←]
It is a tricky slope regarding language on the Internet. Some may argue that it is best to have the language that the target audience understands e.g. regional newspapers but then we are also excluding the rest of the world from the conversation. Frankly, English has emerged as the common language of the world and no nation can lay claim to it although some like to.
Apr 13, 07 at 16:03Absolutely. Local v. Global. How to strike a balance is the question for most nations whose native language is not English. Also, the undercurrent in Europe, if I sense it right, is the pride that seems to be getting in the way of usability. That needs to change.
There are some really good things happening right now, and I hope those initiatives also touch upon language usability and readability issues as well.
Bang-on target! We would love to have both (with one as a default and the other as an option). But technology isn’t there yet. So, language on the net is in a state of Web 0.2, really.
Apr 13, 07 at 16:57