Let me know what you think (Translation)

I guess you can only write in your on time slot..makes sense...

Anyways i was looking at Sarah's seminar group at noon, and i came across Matt's attempt to translate Teplik..Im sure it would have been interesting to try and figure it out, but is it even possible??? When translating languages with one another there is always going to be changes. Its unevitable. When using a word in one language and trying to convert it into another there are different words,phrases and grammar involved that may mean the same thing, but completely different text... Therefore how can Matt or whoever try and attempt to solve such language as an example..We can make an educated guess on what we think is trying to be expressed but when you come down to it..Using 2 people to try and translate the same thing, theres going to be different outcomes... The game we played in our tutorial is a perfect example.. when we drew the pictures and tried to get the exact sentence of what the picture means or viseversa.. Let me know what you guys think...do you think languages can be translate the same way? Correct me if im wrong :)

JT

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Translation Activity

This activity was actually really interesting. This translation activity reminded me of the game broken telephone!!
You would have a primary sentence and it would go through being passed around to everyone until the last person says aloud the final outcome, and no matter what it always ends up being different then the original...
Much like, when you choose a statement, phrase, etc and try to get the translation from another language and then another language and then back to the original english you intially started with, you recieve a totally different outcome!
This activity i thought was really fun, and really makes you think about how significantly, different phrases in other languages could mean something the same but in completely different text.

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Announcement - New Lecture Hall, Second Term

Michael,

Due to scheduling issues your classroom for CUST 100 has been changed to SW208 effective the next term, January 2007. Signage will be posted on your current classroom door in January but could you also please make an announcement in class to notify your students of the change.

Thank-you for your cooperation,
Rae - Trent in Oshawa

Rae Gibeault, Trent in Oshawa
2000 Simcoe St. North, Room C111
Gordon Willey Building
Oshawa, ON L1H 7L7
(905)721-3003

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Google Translator

This week's assignment reminded me of French class in high school when everyone would always try to get out of doing their homework by using a program like the Google translator for English to French translations. By doing this assignment it's obvious to tell why the trick usually failed miserably. Because the Google translator translates the words individually they are taken out of context and the setences usually turn out gramatically incorrect or non-sensical. I agree with what Katie said in her post about people who's professions are involved with tranlating languages and how they would have to be very skilled in the different languages to properly convey messages. This assignment allowed me to see the difficulty that the translator really does face as they not only have to know how to speak both languages but also how to manipulate the words into conveying the same message in the other language.

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Translation

This week's assignment was a really interesting way to illustrate how a meaningful translation cannot simply be made word by word, but rather the context and meaning has to be looked into further for the translation to make sense. Witnessing how different an electronical translation can make a sentence shows how skillful and talented a live translator must be in order to be successful in their field.

The activity we participated in class was also helpful to illustrate this point, showing in relation to pictures and text how translations can alter based on personal experience of a language, or in this case images as well. This experience affects how the translation will read, and may change the meaning of the segment all together.

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The Translator

The translation assignment made me think about the actual job of a translator. The person would have to be very knowledgeable in numerous languages and have a diverse sense of meaning for various words in both languages being translated. The job to me would be very complex because to be a good translator your own personal perspective would have to be limited in order to communicate the “true” meaning that the language is trying to express. Also, with relation to the assignment the computer translator was not a very skilled interpreter, I guess because it did not have the reliable resources to produce a recognizable translation. I realized that a skilled interpreter because the actual job is like an “art.” You need the ability to basically have the right word in the right place at the right time.

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Lewis Carroll

I was tweaking up my Jabberwocky assignment and I when doing so started asking myself a question... Was Lewis Carrroll attempting to make his own language. Cos a lot of the words in his work are words that he created and defined? Why is that?

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rhetoric/logic connection

Just to bring it back a bit... I was doing my rewrite on logic and rhetoric and i found a connection with the two. It's almost like they practically rely on one another. Think about it. I used the exmaple of cigarettes. Logic would state something like they are bad for you. Whereas, the rhetoric may entail something along the lines of: “we’re all going to die anyways, so don’t talk away our freedoms! Lots of things kill you anyways; why not die for a reason. Cigarettes taste good, so why not die with some flavour in your life!” Anything that would promote the buying of the product. This is where the two differ. But think about it on a connection level. Without having any logic, the rhetoric would have nothing to feed from, and try and persuade. On the other hand, without rhetoric the logic would still remain honest no doubt, but would have nothing to paint that pretty picture for the consumer. Just thought i would throw it out there.

Jackie :)

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Bestiary -

I was thinking and in response to Melissa Bestiary blog and how she wondering if in fact people at that time had an easier chance of believing in animals existence based upon how realistic the pictures were. The way I look at it was at that time there weren’t many other sources for these people to get other information on these animals from, unlike today how we could just go on the internet, tv, or go to the library. Because of the fact that they didn’t have these other tools with information I think that they probably belived pretty much everything that they were told, as they had nothing telling them differently.

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Bestiary

I completely agree with Katie when she says that she found Bestiary articles very humourous. I have to say that the one i found was most interesting is the Caladrius, it just has such a story to it. About a sick man who can be saved by this bird if the bird continues to stare at him. It is a type of fantasy, you almost wish some of these things are true.

I also thought that with an animal like the fox, he is percieved and being myschevious and is posed as a more negative animal. We follow chacteristics like this through our lives. What i mean is that if you look at stories like Little Red Riding Hood and The Big Bad Wolf this is what has always given me the idea of a fox being bad instead of good. I think it all has to do with how obvious the animal is and if there is something that has made us think this rather then the actual animal. I know that without have Little Red Riding hood i never would have imagined with such a negative image in my mind. I think that you have to step back and think about it, if you have been persuaded about an animal because of it being exposed or if it truley makes sense as to why this animal has been categorized as this.

Casey

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Jabberwocky

This goes along a bit with Natasha & Tawny's post about the game that was played in the tutorial. I compeltely agree with her that it relates to relavism because if there is a different meaning to each word, then the definition is almost "to each is own". And Natasha is right that if everyone decided to stay to their own definition, language and interation would not be possible.
Jabberwocky i have found is one of the more interesting topics that we have disussed, to me it is amazing that you are able to take a word that makes no sense and then put it into context so that you are able to make sense of the sentence. Just like the game in the tutorial when each person could only see one line above, no matter what was put down, it would make sense however i believe that to each person it would have been interpreted differently.

Thats my blog!
Casey

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