How do you say “get lost” in ‘Elephant Language’?

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The world of languages can often throw up some odd translations due to the sheer complexity and varied ways of how diverse cultures have expressed themselves not to mention the customs of communities around the world. For these reasons, in a world of global communication professional translation services provided by professional translation agencies has played a pivotal role in connecting different language speakers as some words or expressions in one language could mean something completely different, gibberish, or worse offend in another language and in some cases it may simply not translate at all.

But in truth translation and localisation services have come so far in the recent decades and the growing amount of technological advancements in recent years has seen the acceleration of improved, fast translations amongst humans that we are now starting to look at communicating with animals!

We have already seen with the Temptations ‘catterbox’ device which is hoping to translate cat ‘language’ and how Swedish tech company Gavagai AB are hoping to gain an understanding of dolphin communications and now the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust along with ElephantVoices have developed through over 40 years of research a text/emoji to Elephant translator. So if you have ever wanted to greet your partner or tell that annoying co-worker to “get lost” like an elephant, well good news, you can do exactly that right now!

All you have to do is head over to Hello in Elephant which was launched on 12th August 2017, World Elephant Day; input your phrase or emoji into the translator and you will be shown a quick video of the elephant translation. Other selected phrases include “I love you,” “Let’s go,” and “hello” to name a few.

But behind the fun of this elephant translator comes a serious message, the number of African elephants are decreasing at an alarming rate due to poaching and the effects of an ever-increasing human population. According to the Great Elephant Census the number of African elephants being as high as over 10 million at the start of the 20th century and now less than 400 thousand there has been a major decline in the elephant population. Hopefully this elephant translator can highlight the way in which elephants communicate with each other as a way to raise awareness and as a result conserve the African elephant population.

Original story: National Geographic.

Are emoji translations more than a gimmick?

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In a previous post we have already touched to the emergence of emoji’s or emoticons and how they are now being used every day to communicate with one another instead of using actually words. And now in fact there are now emoji to text translation software’s available to download on your phones right now. You could be forgiven by thinking this is all just a gimmick and nothing really more than a novelty that would eventually lose its appeal. But for some people these alternative translation services mean much more to them.

In a story originally reported by VICE’s Motherboard; they tell a story of how a stroke survivors use of emoji to text translation software is having a positive impact for people who have communication problems, helping them to break the barriers.

In 2005, Judy Crane was at the peak of her powers in medical sales when she was diagnosed with aortic dissection at the age of 47. As a result of a complication from the surgery of her aortic valve, she had a stroke she which left with paralysis and aphasia. Aphasia affects the part of the brain responsible for communication. Crane had problems reading, writing, speaking and processing information; this inevitably left her unable to continue her job.

Crane, who runs the Young Aphasia Communications Club, said to Motherboard that all she wanted to do was to get her message across and tell her story and that not being able to convey her message was frustrating as well as isolating and anything that could aide this would be ‘wonderful’.

There are an estimated two million people in the United States alone who suffer from aphasia, according to the National Aphasia Association (NAA) but not enough technology to support them. However Crane did use Dragon’s speech recognition software as well as things such as speech to text and predictive texting via her phone. This is where Samsung’s emoji to text translator ‘Wemogee’ can help improve matters.  Wemogee is an app which is used to communicate through emoji’s, the sender will send their message using an emoji from the library of 140 phrases and the receiver will then get the fast translation of the message written in text. For example a smile and thumbs up emoji sent will be received as “How are you?”

When asked her thoughts on this app for people with aphasia she noted that although she did not really pay attention to emoji’s as such but friends in her Young Aphasia Communications Club will find it useful as sometimes those with this disorder will shy away from communication when it becomes too hard and this app just might be the way to keep them communicating which is vital for individuals with aphasia.

Crane can write, send emails and hold conversations now twelve years after her stroke and she advocates that assistive technology could be better in helping however they can.

Of course this technology is in the early stages so it is understandable there are glitches in the app but it just goes to show the potential in this software and that emoji translations are not as ridiculous as you once thought and who knows maybe one day companies would be offering multi-lingual emoji translations, emoji to Romanian translation services anyone?

Why many African languages may become extinct

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When it comes to discussing Africa and its role in the world there are many topics which are up for debate and despite being the second most populous continent with around 1.2 billion occupants and over 2000 languages spoken, it seems as though African languages are never at the forefront when it comes to global discussions on this topic. In spite of being hailed as the origin of human kind it is sometimes perplexing as to how such a culturally diverse, natural resource rich continent is often overlooked.

We previously talked about which languages in Britain would pay the most and found that on average the best paid jobs were those which required candidates to speak a second language with the top language being Mandarin. Evidence of this was highlighted based on a search of how many job opportunities were available online via jobsites. There are many reasons for this some of which can be attributed to China’s economic growth one being its shift to becoming a global force to be reckoned with over the last few decades. With China’s GDP ranked second on a global scale behind the US it is no wonder why many people are deciding to learn Chinese more specifically Mandarin which is China’s most widely spoken language which has also fuelled the need for Mandarin translation services for businesses looking to trade effectively with China.

Now back to the point about African languages one of the major reasons why African languages are not at the forefront of discussions could be put down to the fact that many African countries still use their colonial languages as their first language and these languages are also used as the official language by their governments and education. This is evident in countries like Nigeria arguable one of Africa’s richest nations and one of the most traded with western nation’s especially exporting oil which is one of its major resources. Nigeria adapted its colonial British language of English as its official language. Countries like Angola which was colonised by the Portuguese also adapted the language as the official language of the nation. This being the case many local languages although spoken by large numbers of the population, many of them cannot read or write in their native tongue despite being able to do so in their colonial languages.

This has become even more of a concern as more and more people travel across the world and settle down in different parts of the world where their local language becomes less and less relevant as they often communicate with their children in the native tongue of the country they are living in. You will find this is the case with many first and second generation immigrants in the UK who will communicate with their children in English instead of their mother tongue and thus eliminating the development of their native language. This is not only the case with migrants there are many native Africans within the African continent who cannot understand or speak their own mother tongue but are highly fluent in English. With that being said is there any hope to save African languages for generations to come?

What are your thoughts?

Image by: Paul Birnie

Is this the most translated book ever?

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The old classic “Le Petit Prince” or “The Little Prince” in English has recently received translation services which marks a special landmark for the old novella. You see Le Petit Prince has long been one of the most translated books in the world and with this latest translation into Hassanya, a local variety of Maghrebi Arabic spoken by an estimated 3 million people in Mauritania, Morocco, Algeria, Libya, Mali, Niger, Senegal  and Western Sahara. It is particular fascinating because this now means that Le Petit Prince is now the most translated book ever, excluding religious books of course.

The old tale was originally written in 1943 by French writer Antoine de Saint-Exupéry who himself an interesting man was born to an aristocratic Catholic family in Lyon in 1900; he was also a poet, journalist and pioneering aviator. The translation of his most famous story into Hassanya and therefore the 300th language translation of the book have a big significance as the Hassanya language is spoken in the area of Cap Juby, Southern Morocco which is in fact where Antoine de Saint-Exupéry was working as Aéropostale station manager. Whilst flying one day he crashed in the Libyan Desert, somehow he and his navigator André Prévot had managed to survive for 4 days on just rations which eventually inspired him to write the setting of Le Petit Prince in.

Le Petit Prince has been a major success with a very positive retail translation all over the world and as well as now being the most translated non-religious book of all time with 300 translations receiving the likes of Abkhaz to Portuguese translation services, the Saint-Exupéry classic is also one of the bestselling books of all time, with an estimated 140 million copies sold around the world and nearly 2 million still being sold annually.

Google’s translation services

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In a previous post we brought you the news that human translations trumped machine and artificial intelligence (AI) assisted translations in the translation showdown to end all showdowns, hosted in Korea a couple weeks back. And with all the talk about the ever increasing technological sophistication of AI assisted translations and machine translations and the countless topics of discussions of what effect it will have on translation services and the industry as whole as we know it.

Many have envisioned a future where computers completely replace real human translators, leaving human translators obsolete with only the major professional translation agencies seeing a positive financial translation, others have claimed that machine translations will never be able to match the level of human translators due to the complexities and feeling for the languages that a machine just would not be able to create. Whilst some imagining that rather than humans and computers  competing, there is a thought that maybe machine translators can be used by human translators to make their jobs easier as they have for a number of years now.

One thing is for sure, whatever argument you agree with, machine and AI assisted translations do exist and will be getting better. The majority of the opinion is that machine translations are nothing but basic translations with many grammatical errors, whilst good for one or two lines to get a basic understanding, but when a paragraph is put into a machine translation software, all hell breaks loose.

In a story originally reported by long running Israeli newspaper Haaretz, in a reaction to Google’s announcement that as part of the language list that their Google’s neural machine translators (NMT) already worked within, they were adding Arabic and Hebrew to the list; two much more testing languages to translate. So Haaretz decided to test just how good Google’s NMT Arabic and Hebrew translation services were using a passage of a Hebrew written article to be translated into English. The results? Not so good. They commented on the fact that the overall translation was “adequate” with some sentences being acceptable whilst others lost meaning altogether.

You can read the whole story here:  http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.781219

How idioms translate hilariously into English

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Languages are very complex and interesting ways to communicate from one person to another. The way in which some languages are expressed are more creative than others, without these sometimes utterly bizarre differences between languages there would be absolutely no need for things such as translation services.

These services that are provided by a professional translation agency and professional translators help us comprehend and translate one language to another for individual or professional use. You could also obtain basic translations from machine translation software’s such as Google translate although not the greatest tool. One thing that machine translation would definitely be no help for is idioms of different languages.

These certain quirky sayings can easily be misconstrued when translated unless they are carried out by a native of course. For example from an infographic created by Citybase apartments, take the German phrase ‘Leben wie die Made im Speck’ without some type of German translation services or native to help, you will get the literal English translation of ‘to live like a maggot in bacon’! Now to us that makes no sense because through simple translation the phrase has lost its meaning, the true meaning of this German idiom is ‘to live luxuriously.’

Another perfect example of idioms lost in English translation is that of the Italian phrase ‘un cane in chiesa’ which if you were to use translation software the literal English translation would produce a phrase of ‘A dog in a church’ which would mean absolutely nothing, but if you were to use Italian translation services by native translators they would tell you what the idiom actually means ‘An unwanted guest’.

It is not just limited to the German and Italian languages, all languages have phrases and idioms that will have bizarre and hilarious translations including English, imagine what the Romanian translation of ‘Like water off a duck’s back’ will be like. Thanks to Citybase apartments here is a list of 21 idioms translated into English to comedic effect.

Idioms

Lost In Translation: 21 Idioms Which Literally Make No Sense When Translated – An infographic by the team at Citybase Apartments

 

 

Internet marketing worth it? What entrepreneurs need to understand

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Since the dot com era many companies have managed to use the internet as a means of reaching global audiences at the click of a button. Whether it is tech companies, translation agencies or video production companies, the phenomenon of the internet has enable companies both small and multi-national to boost sales of their products and services by reaching global audiences.

Many of today’s international companies such as eBay were founded by entrepreneurs from their bedrooms. Some successful entrepreneurs like Mashable’s Pete Cashmore started writing blogs as a hobby and did not foresee the success Mashable has translated to date within the social media industry from its humble beginnings, however one thing that stands out and that is common by all such companies or entrepreneurs is their ability to use internet marketing in order to generate sales.

Online marketing has been a growing industry for many years now with expertise earning substantial amounts of money for services such as Search Engine Optimization (SEO) which involves activities such as link building, directory submission, article writing and social media to name a few. SEO can now also be studied at higher education level in some countries. Over the years this field has grown extensively and pretty much anyone can do this type of marketing by simply learning the basics through published books and online forums. With that has come numerous bad practices in online marketing most notably in the form of spammers. Many are spamming blogs and forums with unnecessary links in the hope to generate traffic. The question is does this pay off?

In the short term maybe! You may boost your companies’ visibility in major search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing, but for companies with a long term focus, such practices must be avoided. Investing in a good online marketing strategy is what will give companies longevity in search engines and allows the company to be seen as a credible source by its users which will enable the company website to rank even higher on major search engines and provide a competitive edge. This is also where good budgeting comes into effect. As a fundamental rule of marketing strategy it is better to be both effective as well as efficient. Being effective means you have a good strong product or core service to offer whereas being efficient means you have the right team to sell and market your product. Both need to be present in order to achieve optimum success.

With over one billion search queries per day for products and services on Google alone, it is vital that in this day businesses appear in such search engine results. This is a must as this is a major source of traffic to your website. As any online marketing manager will tell you, doing so will ultimately lead to higher revenues.

Internet Marketing VS Traditional marketing

One thing to understand is that internet marketing does not and should not work in isolation. The traditional styles of marketing such as face-to-face or business to business marketing are still valuable in this day in age as they allow companies to have a personalised touch to their service. Having these key principles of marketing work alongside online/internet marketing will lead to positive financial results for your company which proves the value of internet or online marketing as a valuable contribution to business.

Translation agencies around the world have clearly taken advantage of this. By simply typing a keyword such as Slovak translation services or German translation services through Google you will find millions of results to choose from. From this it is usually the top 5 companies appearing in the search results of these particular keywords that will gain the most business from this; another clear example of the value and influence of online marketing and SEO.

Undeniably internet marketing is a competitive industry but is not something that should be vaguely overlooked by companies.  Today over 95% of the most successful companies in the world poses a website; however it is only the businesses that effectively uses internet marketing that pull the most traffic to their sites and so make the most revenues.

You’ll never guess which language translation these two children’s classics received

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Over the years a lot of famous books and literature have had the ‘translation service treatment’ including what is widely considered as the world’s oldest novel which we previously wrote about in an earlier post. But now two more recent famous children’s classics; Julia Donaldson’s ‘The Gruffalo’ and Roald Dahl’s ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, have now received a translation and you would be forgiven for thinking that it would be along the lines of a French, Spanish or even German translation but that is not the case.

You would usually associate book translations with some type of translation service of more prominentg languages for example Mandarin, English, Arabic, and Italian translation services to name a few, so it might come as a surprise that these children’s favourites from Julia Donaldson and Roald Dahl have been translated into the Scots language from Scotland.

So instead of Oopmpa-Loompas how about Heedrum-Hodrums? This is the Scots version of Mr Willie Wonka’s (or Wullie Wonka’s) tiny orange helpers. The 1964 Roald Dahl story was translated into Scots by poet, novelist and translator Mattew Fitt. Fitt has previously worked with Black & White Publishing’s to translate other Dahl stories into Scots including The BFG (The Guid Freendly Giant), George’s Marvellous Medicine (Geordie’s Mingin Medicine) and our personal favourite The Twits (The Eejits).

Whilst The Gruffalo has been giving more of a Glaswegian take on the language of the story originally released in 1999 and written by Julia Donaldson, The Gruffalo has been translated into Glaswegian Scots by Actress and comedienne Elaine C Smith for Scots language books specialist Itchy Coo. To give you a feel of the translation, the opening line of the original Gruffalo goes “A mouse took a stroll through a deep dark wood. A fox saw the mouse and the mouse looked good.”  Whilst the Scots translation is as follows “A gallus moose taen a dauner through a scary big wood. A fox clocked the moose an the moose looked good.” The Glasgow Gruffalo as it has been renamed has also had a Dundonian Scots in addition to a Shetlandic Scots translation.

It will be interesting to see just how the translations of these series of children’s books influence the number of Scots speakers within the new generations to come.

Image by: pettifoggist Flickr

What I didn’t learn in university

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4 years on; Reflections of a graduate

Four years into the so called real world many people do not get time to even stop and analyse how far they have come since graduating from university. Many of us caught up in the so called ‘rat race’ barely get time to actually process and translate what we have or have not achieved in that time. Some have gone into retail work while others have ventured into fields such as finance, translation services or marketing. While most of our weekdays are spent commuting to and from work, working and spending time with family and friends whilst weekends are spent either getting drunk (if you can still keep up, going out to eat and running errands, we even manage to fit in the occasional holiday once or twice a year for the lucky ones both have enough to fund them or lucky enough to get the time off their busy careers.

Before getting into this it is important to highlight that university teaches us a lot both academically and socially. The aim of university is to prepare us for the real world whether that is transitioning into full time employment or perhaps for some of the risk takers venturing out on your own. When at university you learn several skills including how to work with others via group assignments, importance of meeting deadlines, presenting in front of an audience etc. What you don’t learn is that you may not necessarily get into the industry you studied for; you may actually not like working in that particular industry once you get in or getting high grades doesn’t necessarily mean you get the better job!

Once you leave university you begin to better understand the term “it’s who you know more than what you know” as you experience the ups and downs of work ranging from lows such as working under incompetent managers, favouritism in the workplace, or highs such as job satisfaction and bonuses. Unfortunately or fortunately depending on how you look at it this is something that we cannot avoid hence why many successful people constantly advise on building a good professional network for yourself whether in business or in employment. Networking is something that can be started whilst at university. You do not need to wait for graduation day to start networking. There are many ways you can do so whether it is attending job fairs or local meet ups to applying for internships in the field you hope to get into. Proactively doing so will give you an advantage over other graduates who have not done the same.

Often times it takes people to lose a loved one to realise what so called ‘life’ is about and many say it really puts their life into perspective e.g. losing someone to lung cancer can have a profound influence in helping you quit smoking. Why wait for it to get to that stage why not start living a healthier lifestyle now, why not walk away from that company who values you the same way you value a KFC chicken bone, why not go travelling as you planned 2 years ago? We discussed previously on 3 signs you need a career break how and when it is time to take a career break whether it is to rejuvenate or simply reassess your life goals and such a choice can have greater rewards than you could imagine.

Can you really be yourself at an interview?

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Interviews, that thing you have to do to get that new job you really want; yes that thing the majority of us dread and just wish getting a job was as easy as handing your CV and getting a no or when can you start answer. Sadly that is not the reality we live in, interviews are a big part of not only our professional lives but also translate into our personal lives and mastering the art of interviewing can enhance ones prospects in life.

One common misconception about interviews is that you cannot really be your true self and well in some respects this is right. In order to make it in life you have to be able to adapt accordingly in different situations whether its having your first child and the need to spend less time at the bar or getting that first mortgage and cutting down on the number of holidays you take in a year, being able to adapt well in these situations surely will lead to more successful outcomes. Also knowing the type of interview you will be taking part in is key as your approach will differ. Perhaps you have a competency based interview at a language translation agency applying for a Russian translation role you will find that practicing competency based questions will enable you to go far in the interview process as these types of interviews require you to provide solid examples of your previous accomplishments on the spot. Having an idea of what to talk about whilst relating to the role you have applied for will make you appear as a well-researched candidate, something recruiters admire.

When it comes to attending an interview many people feel as though they have to be someone different to who they really are and very often going in with this approach ultimately ends on a sour note as further down the line you realise you cannot pretend to be someone you’re not all the time especially if you will be spending the majority of your time at work interacting and living up to expectations you may not fit.

One thing to note is that human beings come with multiple layers of personality and habits. Perhaps you are one of those people who laugh a lot at any statement made, surely you will not do that in an interview as maybe your more professional side kicks in. Let’s face it people are rarely altogether ‘themselves’ all the time especially at interview stages because they often are trying to be the person they feel the interviewer wants to hire. Really the best way to approach this is to showcase your personality in a professional setting and that is something that takes practice. Try it out with friends and family and get some feedback on how you come across before going to interview and you will become more conscious of what to reveal and what not to at that interview.

3 Things for English speakers to take into account when learning a new language

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So you have decided that you want to learn a new language, first of all well done to you. As someone who speaks English and just like many other English speakers, the truth is we expect everyone around the world to know our language with a fluency of the Royal Family! Although English is generally accepted as the ‘universal’ language of the world, the majority of the world doesn’t actually use it instead communicate in their own various different languages and dialects and it would be arrogant to go traveling around the world without some sort of translation service to help.

So do give yourself a pat on the back for considering putting effort into learning another language, whether it is for a need, hobby or just something for you to tick off the bucket list but there are a few things to take into account before you embark on this journey

It takes time/patience

Learning a new language, especially a language that is on a separate branch of the language tree is going to require full attention and a lot of time and patience. It is estimated that for an English speaker to achieve a basic fluency in a new language could take between 480-720 hours of learning depending on the difficulty and intensity of learning. So if you are heading on your travels in a weeks’ time and you think a couple minutes of your English to Mandarin translation book will help you, think again!

Forget your language rules

Forget every grammar rule you know, well at least just for when you are trying to comprehend your new chosen lingo. The mistake that many people make when they are learning a new language from English is that they apply the same rules that the English language consists of for the language which they are learning. Save yourself a lot of time and frustration and remember, most languages just have different rules and you have to adapt yourself to them accordingly. You will find that some languages are affected by male/female words, some languages where a different tone of voice will change the meaning and so on. You will also discover that some words and phrases might not have a direct nor fast translation into English.

Immersing yourself is key

This last point really is an important one because like any growth skill actively engaging in your subject will lead to quicker results and this applies to learning a new language. If you were to constantly speak to a native, read literature, watch films or even live in the country of the language you are learning you will find yourself becoming more fluent at a quicker rate. For example if you were learning Romanian, a good idea would be to live out in Romania for a while and with the help of Romanian translation services of some type or English speaking locals you would then be able to encounter the Romanian language on a day to day basis, thus picking up the language even quicker as well as learning some informal expressions used by native speakers.

Are you an English speaker that has learnt a new language? Share your experiences below or if you have learnt English as a second language let us know your thoughts!

Image: © Thomas Williams/Crossroads Foundation

Why being a hard worker isn’t enough

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Which other skills do you need to be successful?

Whether you run a business or are an employee of an organisation there is no doubt that each respective role involves a high level of competition, graft and perseverance which translates to success. In spite of this there is something that seems to stand out when people think of success which is attributed to being a ‘hard worker’! When you ask most people what the key to success is, the first thing that comes to thought is hard work. This is also something that is instilled in us from a young age by our parents and teachers, as children we are taught that if we work hard we will be successful and be able to afford all the things we want in life. Although that is very much a big part of becoming successful it is without saying that hard work only gets you so far.

As we get older it becomes clearer that hard work simply isn’t enough to get you to the top of the chain when it comes to career or business. Whether you are in the translation services business or are a medical doctor you have to be able to communicate with different levels of stakeholders, be able to plan and meet deadlines for projects, be willing to sacrifice sleep to get stuff done, be able to network with different people, be a good leader and the list goes on…

Leadership

Having good leadership skills will surely help propel you to get further in your career after all if you look at any organisation often times the leader delegates and the workers perform tasks assigned to them by the leader/supervisor and in most cases the leader earns a substantial amount more than their juniors so if you want to become successful in whatever you do it is important to develop your leadership skills. Although some may argue that some people are natural born leaders there is nothing stopping you from becoming a good leader. So next time your boss asks you to participate in a leadership training programme at work take that with two hands and learn as much as you can.

Networking

Being able to network is very important not only in business and career wise but life in general. Now we have all heard the saying it’s not what you know but who you know. Sadly in most cases it is! Statistics show that hiring managers are more likely to hire someone who is referred to by a family or friend before they select others. If you are looking for new business opportunities or a new career network the life out of yourself until you meet the right people that can help you achieve your goals. Here’s a great piece of advice from Forbes about networking.  

Having been taught that hard work is the key to success many find later in life that all these other skills are vital, take for example you have a manager who works hard but does not know how to lead or communicate with their team, chances are they will probably not last long in that role. Another example could be a hard worker who settles to work in a supermarket warehouse but has talents that can enable them to be successful in the business world. In that case they are not harnessing their full potential and although they might be happy and feel successful and some may argue that success differs from one person to another which is true, they are not living up to their full potential.

Taking from this remember hard work will get you far in life but life skills and your network will take you even further.

Image by: Go Fish Digital

Is there any chance to save endangered languages?

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What can be done to save languages on the brink of extinction?

The definition of an endangered language is so complex that it is hard to narrow down it just to one simple definition. The United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) whose values include supporting global education so as every child has access to quality education and building cultural understanding among nations, have managed to categorise the definition of endangered languages into 5 groups highlighted below.

endangered-languages

Source: Moseley, Christopher (ed.). 2010. Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger, 3rd edn. Paris, UNESCO Publishing. Online version.

The latest Atlas of the Worlds Languages in Danger which was published in English, Spanish and French by UNESCO has estimated there to be around 3000 endangered languages worldwide. This alarming number leads to the question whether such languages can be saved and whether they are worth saving?

For many decades English has been referred to as the global language and is the official language in as many as 60+ countries such that it is the language used in education, work and government. Although that maybe the case, many people in these countries where English is the official language commonly use their native languages and also pass these languages onto their children and thus the language is preserved from generation to generation. Take a country like Zambia where the majority of people who have gone to school speak and write in English, you will find that many of them also speak languages like Bemba and Nyanja mostly at home with family but also when communicating with friends. Although such examples show that languages like Bemba will not become extinct anytime soon if ever, there are many other languages where even fewer than 10 people are able to communicate. Languages like Kuuku Ya’u an aboriginal language now spoken by only 9 people is classified as critically endangered on its way to extinction (Source: UNESCO).

Causes

Before finding a solution to any problem you first have to look at the cause. For many languages the causes of them being extinct are varied and these causes include a lack of incentive to learn the language where learning another language brings more benefits both economically and socially. History has taught us this through colonialism by the British and French Empire where those languages combined are now the official languages of over 100 countries worldwide which has not always been the case. Other causes for language endangerment include natural disasters famine and diseases. War and famine have also in the past contributed to languages becoming extinct.

Effects

The loss of languages can have negative effects in a people’s culture as some may experience a loss of identity. Speaking a language specific to your region brings a sense of identity for many people and that is why when a community loses its language it often loses part of its culture e.g. it may lose its songs, poetry and teachings which may not necessarily translate well into another language. Other effects may be a loss of political legitimacy for example in some African and Asian countries traditional leaders may lose their voice in favour of political leaders which could potentially have negative consequences for their own people.

Solutions

As far as solutions go there are several parties concerned and actively working towards the prevention of language extinction. Governements, NGO’s and international bodies such as the EU and UNESCO as well as for profit companies are all working in one way or another for this cause.

For example a new start-up Tribalingual which aims to teach endangered languages in order to prevent them from extinction has started with 3 dialects; “Ojibwe, an endangered musical language in North America; Tulu, a South Indian language that is passed down orally only and doesn’t have a writing system; and Ainu, the language of a marginalised indigenous tribe in Japan, with less than 10 speakers worldwide”. Read more at Cambridge News.

What are your thoughts? how do you think languages can be prevented from extinction?

Learning a new language can advance brain power in just one week

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When it comes to picking up a new language many can agree that it does not come easy especially as you get older of which there are many reasons as to why you don’t pick up a language as quickly as someone who is 6 years old. Some attribute this to the way in we have been taught to learn and how we process information which is not so beneficial when trying to learn a language. Many people take to studying a new language at university level, using language translation software, migrating to a new country or for other reasons such as business or marketing use a professional translation agency to translate their documents for them.

Learning a language is not simply about memorising words and their meanings but it involves using those words in practical everyday life situations and this takes time to master especially as adults who are used to doing things in a particular way compared to children who are more free as their brains are not yet as conditioned to do things in a certain way.

Recently a study conducted at the University of Edinburgh where a sample of 76 students aged between 18 to 78 (33 of the students were participating in a one week intensive Gaelic language course and were compared with 16 other students who were taking part in a comparable course but not involving foreign language learning) showed evidence that the language learners had in fact increased their attention span. The non-language learners who were taking park in a similar intense programme did also increase their attention spans however when compared to those that did not take part in a one week learning program, results showed that the Gaelic language learners had a more significant change in their attention spans.

Within the Gaelic language learners group a study was conducted to see whether age had an effect on performance. Having split the students into 3 groups (18-40, 41-60 and 61-78), results showed that the lower age group scored the highest in the subtests testing everyday attention. In second place was the learners aged 41-60 and in third the students aged between 61-78.

The results also showed that those that practiced 5 hours or more per week had improved performance 9 months after the initial study in comparison with students who practiced for 4 hours per week whose results were inconsistent.

Lead researcher on the study Dr. Thomas Bak stated that “I think there are three important messages from our study: firstly, it is never too late to start a novel mental activity such as learning a new language. Secondly, even a short intensive course can show beneficial effects on some cognitive functions. Thirdly, this effect can be maintained through practice”.

The full results were published in the Journal PLOS ONE.

Image source: Neil Conway

Leave a comment below. We would like to hear your take on this theory.

How a courageous deafblind woman became a Lawyer

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When you think of someone who is deaf you probably think how challenging it is for them to communicate with people who cannot use sign language and can only communicate through the use of some type of translation service. When you think of someone who is blind you may well think unless they have someone that can describe what is in front of them they will not be able to have a full understanding of what is in front of them as opposed to someone with good eyesight. Now when you think of someone who is deaf and blind can you imagine they would someday graduate from one of the most prestigious and competitive law schools in the world, even more become a lawyer and be recognised by the president of the United States? Well this is exactly what an inspiring lady called Haben Girma has achieved.

To understand Habenn Girma’s story you first need to understand the term deafblindness. It is a condition where a person has little to no sight and little to no hearing. Different types of deafblindness exist and people affected by this use different tools/technology to communicate, for example someone who is born deaf and later in life develops blindness are most likely to use communication methods such as interpreting services including sign language interpreters. Other deafblindness forms of communication include braille equipment such as telebraille and graphic braille. With the continued advancement in technology for the deafblind Habenn manages to communicate effectively with the use of a digital braille device.

Haben was born in the US after her mother moved from Eritrea as a refugee with her brother who is also deafblind. Haben graduated from college in 2010 after studying a BA in Sociology/Anthropology. She then went on to study at the sought after Harvard Law School where she became the first deafblind student to graduate from the institution. Haben is now an attorney for the disabilities rights advocated in Berkeley California representing people with mobility disabilities and “Representing the National Federation of the Blind in an action seeking to render Scribd’s reading subscription service accessible”. Outside her work as an attorney Haben often attends speaking events as a guest speaker and has presented keynote speaches for Google and also delivered a TED speech at the TEDxBaltimore 2014. Haben is a keen surfer and was recently featured in the Washington post.

 

What are the best languages to learn and why?

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With globalisation at an ever increasing rate people don’t stay in the same city/country/place they were born and brought up in anymore. Nowadays people tend to travel for all sorts of reasons whether it is backpack traveling for leisure, for business or work purposes you will not be surprised to see communities fused with different cultures at any given time. With this has come a very common glitch that is language barriers. Have you ever been on holiday in a foreign country and tried to ask where the toilet was and the only way was pointing towards your private regions to get your message across? Well depending on who you were speaking to, their interpretation of your query may have differed to your intent. There is however a solution to that, one is you can use translation services to get your message across in a different language or you can learn the language yourself.
With that being said let’s take a look at six languages worth learning today based on performing economies and/or job/business prospects in no particular order.

1. Mandarin
Well this is an obvious one, the language spoken in China and also being one of the official languages of Singapore both booming economies, it is no surprise that the Mandarin language is at the top of the list. Over the years China become a global force to be reckoned with and is rapidly becoming one of the biggest economies in the world. With that being said it is important to note that learning mandarin is not an easy task for English speakers. The language itself has been classed as one of the hardest to learn with some schools in the UK making studying Mandarin compulsory for 13 year olds as reported by The Telegraph.

2. Portuguese
Portuguese is the official language of Portugal as well as Brazil. The language is not only spoken by over 200 million people in Brazil alone but it is also the first language for its inhabitants and official business language in the region. Alongside Portuguese, having a good grasp of the English language as well as Spanish (which is predominantly spoken by surrounding Latin nations) is sought after by Brazilian employers and is also likely to broaden your business prospects.

3. Japanese
Placed 3rd in the list of top 10 biggest economies in the world Japan is a global force to be reckoned with. Its profound influence in sectors such as automobile manufacturing and electronics has made Japan an attractive place for business and work. Its rich culture is also an attractive place for tourists with the reporting that an estimated 14 million people visited Japan between January and September 2015. A huge opportunity for English speakers to teach in japan has been around for years and has been a popular option for English degree holders. Average monthly salaries for teaching English in Japan are around 250,000 Japanese yen roughly 1,357 British pounds. This is a good way to earn money whilst you learn Japanese which can increase your work prospects once you get a good understanding of the language.

4. Russian
Russia has had somewhat of a rocky relationship with the UK with one contributing factor being the Russian-Ukraine conflict. Despite Russia’s ‘rocky’ relationship with the West, the country is among the top 10 biggest economies of the world. Not only that, Russia is listed amongst the biggest markets for exports of UK goods with around 600 U companies having a Physical presence in Russia according to UK Trade and Investment (UKTI).

5. Arabic
Arabic is predominantly spoken by countries of the Middle East and North Africa. The Middle East in particular possess huge opportunities for businesses to trade within this oil rich region of the world. Countries such as Qatar and Kuwait have attracted expats from all over the world to work within the oil industry which boats huge rewards. Learning Arabic will surely teach you valuable language skills which can be used to your advantage in over 20 countries. For students this could also help your scholarship horizons.

6. German
Germany has had a big influence on the UK economy in a sense that it is the biggest trade import partner by value according to UKTI. Germanys economy is a very attractive one for both job and business prospects. With the population of Germany estimated to be over 80 million of which for the majority of people living there German is their first language. Germany is one of the major languages sought after by graduate recruiters with speakers of both English and German having an advantage in the recruitment process. This applies heavily for multi-national corporations and is desirable for hiring investment banks as highlighted by Target Jobs.

What languages do you think are the most worth learning? Leave us a comment below.

Are our languages shaped by the heat in our environments?

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An interesting new theory has arisen recently on just how our languages have developed, but could it really be down to the heat of the environment? Take the English language for example, with consonant heavy words such as ‘catchphrase’ in the vocabulary; it comes as no surprise that the language evolved in a cold, open environment. Well at least not to Ian Maddieson, a University of Mexico linguist as he explains how consonants do not translate well in dense forests or mountain ranges. “If you have a lot of tree cover, for example, [sound] will reflect off the surface of leaves and trunks. That will break up the coherence of the transmitted sound.” Although vowel sounds such as “a” and “e” are able to transmit much further through a dense environment, whereas consonant are likely to be drowned out.

translation services

Dense Rainforest

Added to the environmental factors, the heat factor could have a hand in shaping how words and sounds travel as in warm climates; the sun creates pockets of warm air that can affect the sound waves. As Maddieson explains “You disrupt the way it was originally produced, and it becomes much harder to recognize what sound it was.”

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Open cool environment

Maddieson backs up this theory by further illustrating that an open, cooler environment produces a consonant thick language such as the Georgian language whereby on the other hand, compared to a warm, dense ecosystem such as Hawaii a language consisting of very few consonants have occurred. “In a more open, temperate landscape, prairies in the Midwest of the United States [or in Georgia] for example, you wouldn’t have that. So the sound would be transmitted with fewer modifications.”

Tecumseh Fitch, a linguist of the University of Vienna, who was not part of this study, has put forward an argument using bird songs which could relate to human languages developed in forest habitats. Fitch suggests that when a bird in a forest sings “Stree! Stree! Stree!” due to the thick, humid environment, others interpret and learn the song as “Ree! Ree! Ree!” as the “St” has filtered out through the environment.

Fitch, although impressed and intrigued by Maddieson’s hypothesis, proposes that there are too many factors involved in a formation of a language and until more research is carried out it is hard to know exactly, thus the hypothesis remains unproven.

Sean Roberts, a researcher from the Netherlands at Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, also not involved in the study champions such research carried out by Maddieson and claims that Maddieson’s hypothesis is just the start of research into how nature shapes our languages. Roberts further concludes that he has found that dry, empty places are unlikely to ever have developed tonal languages such as Mandarin. He even studied decade’s worth of Larry King transcripts, claiming he matched the days for the humidity data and on the dry days, Larry King used more consonants.

A story originally reported on http://www.npr.org

What are your views on this interesting piece of research?

7 Habits you Must Develop Now to be Successful

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Be an Early Bird

So you want to be successful? Well you are not going to be successful by sleeping your days away. Successful individuals tend to get up early in order to start off their productive days before anyone else. The old saying goes “The early bird catches the worm” this couldn’t be any truer. As The US Centres for Disease Control Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report suggests that the more a person sleeps the better it translates financially for them. So if you want to be successful get some shut eye!

Plan/Goal setting

One of the surest ways to achieve anything or get anything done in life is to plan ahead or write down goals. Get into the habit of planning for the long term and short term, as goal setting will always give you a focus rather than just having nothing in mind and floating around in life. Your short term goals will always relate to your long term goals as they are the building blocks for your future plan. Without any plans or goal set it would be like walking around aimlessly with no destination in mind, you will be going nowhere and waste a hell of a lot of time and before you know it your life has past. So to be successful… Plan ahead! Prioritise! Start now!

Meditation

Meditation, you might be thinking, what has sitting in one spot, cross-legged and possibly chanting something have to do with being successful? Well the benefits that meditation could have on not only your success but on you as a person and your health in general is a whole article in itself. Just some of the benefits of meditation are improved focus, reduced stress, lowered blood pressure, clarity of the mind, emotional stability, increased creativity, and many more. Develop the habit of taking just 10 minutes out of your day to practice mediation or stillness will drastically improve your life and success. Successful individuals such as Oprah Winfrey, Sir Paul McCartney and Richard Branson are all advocates of meditation.

Stay Active

Most of us are lazy, its human nature to find the easiest way to do something. As time has gone on we have moved from brawn to brain, as we have gotten smarter we have also gotten weaker, but one thing we must have a habit of is exercise. Much like meditation, exercising and staying active has many benefits in life in general, too much to list. Staying active will also keep your mind active and increases serotonin levels which help ward off depression and helps keep you positive which will translate into success. Also being fit through exercise will boost confidence within you which is one of the most important things to have to be a success. When you look good, you feel good! So get exercising!

Read and Learn

Pick up a book and read! As simple as that, have the habit of always looking to expand your horizons, learn more, ask questions, anything you need to know? Increase your knowledge!

Balancing Act

Now what is life without balance? You will never be successful if all you do is play around and on the flip side you might be successful if you are a workaholic but what is the point of creating success if you never have time to enjoy it? So it is vitally important that you get into the habit of managing the workload with leisure time or in other words as you work hard you must also play hard!

Give back and have Gratitude

Never lose sight of where you have come from, always be grateful for everything you have in life and the journeys you have been through. Create time in your life to donate or volunteer time to help others, whether community, charities, or individuals every successful person knows that when you are grateful, you are truly successful.

Image by Roland

Why is this young Nigerian man making waves in Japan?

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The name Ufot Ekong Junior is a relatively unknown name, but is definitely a name you should remember. “Why should I know this name?” I hear you ask. Well for those of you who do not know or haven’t heard yet, Ufot Ekong is the name of a young Nigerian student currently making waves in Japan.

What is it that is so impressive about this young man from Nigeria? Well, Ufot Ekong Jnr, 24, who had studied at Tokyo’s Tokai University, a private university which was established in 1942 by Shigeyoshi Matsumae, has rather spectacularly managed to achieve the highest grades at the prestigious university and universities nationwide in Japan, for the last 50 years, a record which has stood since 1965.

Ufor Ekong

Not only has Ufot Jnr succeeded in breaking the 50 year old record for highest grades achieved in the private Japanese university, he is also credited with solving a previous ‘unsolvable’ maths equation which had stood to see many unsuccessful attempts for the last 30 years. He managed to solve the quizzical equation amazingly in his first semester at Tokai University.

EkongThat wasn’t all for Ufot Jnr’s achievements, throughout his university career, through dedication and hard work he immersed himself in his work and managed to earn a staggering 6 academic excellence awards. In the end he graduated with a first class degree with honours in electrical and electronics engineering.

He had no need for a translator or translations as such, as Ufot Jnr is fluent in Japanese seeing that previous to enrolling himself on the electrical and electronics engineering undergraduate course, he studied Japanese for a year and a half. He is also fluent in English, French and Yoruba; it wouldn’t be surprising if he added Hebrew to this list of languages.

All of these wonderful achievements in academia for a man so young and in a country not of his mother tongue and perhaps the most amazing this is that he is completely self-funded and managed to put himself through the respected university by working 2 jobs whilst studying with no financial aid. He is currently studying for a master’s degree at the same university with a view to pursuing a PHD in the future.

Whatever Mr Ufot Ufot Ekong Junior goes on to achieve in his life, his story should be used as inspiration and himself and individuals like him should be celebrated.

Photo credits: Ufot Ekong Twitter