Category Archives: Foreign Languages

‘Ticket-holding fits’? (lost in translation)

Posted on July 1, 2011 by Kevin

Have you ever been so excited to ride a boat that you had ticket-holding fits? Perhaps, but I don’t think that’s what the translator of a certain Chinese sign meant. A photo on Leonie Doyle’s blog (Lightlyskipping) shows a sign … Continue reading →

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‘The Calculendar Commercial’ video (Rebecca Black – ‘Friday’-Inspired)

Posted on April 1, 2011 by Kevin

Have trouble figuring out the days of the week? You need The Calculendar! (Available in many languages.) This TV-commercial parody was inspired by the lyrics Yesterday was Thursday, Thursday Today it is Friday, Friday [. . .] Tomorrow is Saturday … Continue reading →

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Happy Chinese New Year ‘tu’ you!

Posted on February 4, 2011 by Kevin

It’s Chinese New Year’s Day. Happy Year of the Rabbit! According to Language Log and Dog sun, the clever thing for Chinese cards now is Chinese-English mixing of greetings. Thus: “Happy New Year 兔 you!” (Happy New Year tu you!; … Continue reading →

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‘Spot the Ambiguity’ video

Posted on January 25, 2011 by Kevin

Steven and Brandon have a misunderstanding. Can you spot the ambiguity? Link to video Closed-captioning (CC) and transcript available.

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‘The Time That’s Spruced With Pine’ (my video)

Posted on December 20, 2010 by Kevin

After a short, original light-verse poem, hear about Christmas and Japanese New Year’s and learn some Japanese words related to New Year’s. Link to video Closed-captioning (CC) and transcript available.

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Resources for constructing alien languages

Posted on August 13, 2010 by Kevin

If you want to create a realistic science fiction/fantasy world, language helps a lot. Here are some conlang (constructed language) resources for creators and those interested. How to write the next great alien language (io9.com on J.R.R. Tolkien’s Elvish and … Continue reading →

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The Force is strong in these GPS voices

Posted on July 12, 2010 by Kevin

[Obligatory Yoda inverted word order here insert you may.] The folks at TomTom are selling Star Wars voices for their GPS devices and seemed to have enjoyed the making of behind-the-scenes videos of the recording sessions. The Yoda one has … Continue reading →

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2008 New Zealand Sign Language Week

Posted on May 9, 2008 by Kevin

As I wrote last year (2007 (First) NZ Sign Language Week), New Zealand has given official status to New Zealand Sign Language, the natural language of New Zealand’s Deaf community. New Zealand Sign Language Week is this week (May 5-11, … Continue reading →

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2008: International Year of Languages

Posted on January 8, 2008 by Kevin

The United Nations has declared 2008 to be an International Year of Languages, to be overseen by UNESCO. Happy new year to all.

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Lingro: Free Web page translation by word and more

Posted on November 30, 2007 by Kevin

You can get whole Web pages translated (Google Language Tools, Babel Fish, etc.), but here’s a free tool to translate any individual word on a Web page you want: Lingro (via Education Week). Lingro works for English-English and both to … Continue reading →

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