Íarnóta amháin eile

[ap_aelfwine]

And in the face of needing to write a paper in Irish in the not too distant future, I decided I needed immediate writing practice. And I remembered that I'd had a plan since some time ago to write an Irish-language version of one of the shorter fics I've written in my life: "Her Best Friend's Girlfriend

Comments

[dukebrymin]

One of the more interesting articles I've read in the last while was on the unreasonable effectiveness of huge data. Its postulate was that as the amount of accessible text increases (i.e. people writing things on the Internet and such), then the job of various text-processing heuristics becomes easier. As the amount of (for example) Swahili writings increases, then there are more (hopefully) valid examples of "correct" Swahili. And as that amount continues to grow, then eventually there would be an example of every possible sentence/paragraph/thought for (e.g.) Google Translate to cull from.

I think that's a gross oversimplification, but I think the basic idea is sound. So we just need a whole bunch of people to start writing things in Spanish, Swahili, Irish, Urdu, Quiche and so forth, so translation software has an easier time.

I studied French in high school, but never got anywhere close to fluency. But I did spend two years in Uruguay (serving a mission for my church--The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, colloquially known as the Mormons) and was reasonably fluent within four months, and dreaming in Spanish inside of six. Amazing what 24/7 immersion in a language will do to you. I had somewhat of a hard time adjusting to speaking in English-only. When I saw my youngest sister for the first time after returning, I said, "Wow you're big, ¿Cuántos años tienes?" At her rather confused stare, I said, "How many years do you have?" She at least understood the words that time, but still thought I was rather insane.

Ah well, you'd think I'd have kept more fluent, spending the last 14 years in New Mexico, but there always seems to be something more important than reading Spanish for pleasure, or what-not.

I'm rooting for your papers--I haven't had to publish for quite some time, and never in Spanish (barring term papers for my BA in Spanish). The problem I've always had is that if I did write a paper, and it was accepted, then I 'd have to present it, and that drives my agoraphobia rather wonky.

All right, I've pontificated enough for the night Happy New Year! In 25 hours. . .

[ap_aelfwine]

I think that's a gross oversimplification, but I think the basic idea is sound. So we just need a whole bunch of people to start writing things in Spanish, Swahili, Irish, Urdu, Quiche and so forth, so translation software has an easier time.

Maybe. It would be an interesting thing to try. I'd wonder how well it would ever handle dialect, but a large enough sample might do something. Of course, there's already huge amounts of stuff online, although previous generations of translation software (I've seen several fora offering Google translate versions in the couple of dozen languages available through Google translate, which makes searching doubly interesting, and I've even seen google translate versions of fiction put up on Archive,org,) might make it difficult for computers to separate the wheat for the chaff, as it were.

But I did spend two years in Uruguay (serving a mission for my church--The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, colloquially known as the Mormons) and was reasonably fluent within four months, and dreaming in Spanish inside of six. Amazing what 24/7 immersion in a language will do to you. I had somewhat of a hard time adjusting to speaking in English-only. When I saw my youngest sister for the first time after returning, I said, "Wow you're big, ¿Cuántos años tienes?" At her rather confused stare, I said, "How many years do you have?" She at least understood the words that time, but still thought I was rather insane.

Cool that you had that experience in Uruguay. I've never managed to be truly immersed for more than a week at a time, or maybe two at the outside. I have sometimes left messages in the wrong language--the first time was after a long span in Donegal, when I rang home to check on what my parents were doing. If I'd been talking to someone I think it would've come back, but when it was only the recording my tongue did what iwas used to do.

I sometimes dream in a mishmash of languages, but I'm not sure I've ever had an exclusively Irish-language dream.

I'm rooting for your papers--I haven't had to publish for quite some time, and never in Spanish (barring term papers for my BA in Spanish). The problem I've always had is that if I did write a paper, and it was accepted, then I 'd have to present it, and that drives my agoraphobia rather wonky.

Thank you! I'm pretty sure I'm not really looking forward to the presenting part, but I've taught a bit and gigged a bit more and I reckon it's not all that different to teaching or playing on stage. Or at least that's what I'm telling myself. :-)

Happy New Year! In 25 hours. . .

Thank you! Happy New Year to you and yours!