Why I Hate Interpreting and Translating: multilinguals are not “natural” interpreters and translators
Just because somebody speaks two languages, he/she is not a natural, automatic interpreter and translator. A multilingual person can’t translate anything anybody wants, and can’t do simultaneous interpretation. I have received many requests and demands to translate and interpret on the spot from monolingual people and from multilinguals who aren’t used to being in situations where they have to interpret or translate.
The idea that just because somebody is bilingual that they should make a career as a translator and an interpreter or do it for friends and family as favors is absolutely faulty.
You are not your language. Linguistic snobbery blocks language learning
f you fashion yourself Ernest Hemingway or Jorge Luis Borges’ incarnate and therefore exempt from learning an “inferior” tongue, let’s do a reality check.
Where’s your Nobel Prize for Literature?
Where are the bookshelves of tomes in your name worthy of mention?
Even spies need to read my book!
Having just read this article written by Nikita Khrushchev's great grand-daughter about how one of the Russian spies couldn't hide his Russian accent makes me both laugh and wonder why the Russian government spent...
Russia through French eyes: Experiencing life anew in a different language
Rare is the book which envelops my attention, delights me in its prose, makes me re-read passages both for the joy of the flow of the sentences and for the content and strikes a...
MTV, here we come! 17 polyglots redo “Call me Maybe” in 30+ languages
That's right. Seventeen Internet polyglots came together, under the tireless direction of Benny Lewis of Fluent in Three Months, to create the first ever polyglot music video. There are over 30 languages in this...
Watch “Saved by Language” online or on DVD
The film, Saved by Language about how Moris Albahari saved his life in World War II in Bosnia by using the Ladino language is now available to the public! You can rent it for $7 to watch online as many times as you like in a three-day period or you can buy the DVD for $25 and watch it whenever you want. You can order the DVD in either the PAL or NTSC format.
Both the DVD and the online rental have subtitles in English, Ladino, Spanish, Portuguese and Bosnian/Serbo-Croatian.
Don’t fault innovative musicians!
Instead of criticizing people who are risk takers, we should be applauding their efforts because if we don’t innovate, these languages are going to die.
Sensual Brazilian music —> Learn Portuguese
Luciana Lage of Street Smart Brazil and I have a video series on how to learn Portuguese via Brazilian songs.
Here is the introductory video where we explain the connection between listening, music and learning...
Where are the female and non-white polyglots?
Most of the public Internet polyglots are white males.
Do race and national origin play a role in the decisions people make about learning languages? What can we do to inspire more non-whites to learn...
Susanna’s interview on the Polygot Project Podcast
David Mansaray and Claude Cartaginese are doing a The Polyglot Project Podcast with interviews of language learners. It was an honor to talk to them about how I learned languages. I clarified how I...