jeudi 9 avril 2009
Found in translation
My French has deteriorated so much since I've left Quebec that I've been reduced to using online translators when I want to quickly write something on Facebook without having to think about verb conjugation and whether something is feminine/masculine. I know, how sad. However, I'm finding that Babelfish (formerly of Altavista, now Yahoo!) is getting increasingly impossible to use because it doesn't seem to recognize apostrophes! How silly is that?! As a result, I've finally made the switch over to Google Translate but the only thing is that I can't find an official Firefox add-on for it...
Libellés : language
mardi 20 janvier 2009
The language of expediency
I meant to write about this last fall after driving by a church that had the following message on its sign: TTYL, I'll BRB. - Jesus
Personally, I believe church signs end up being more humourous than life-changing whereas others are just mind-boggling (as in why?). Remember the church sign generator that was a big hit in the blogosphere a while back? Well, I figure some of the real ones are probably funnier than anything I could ever come up with.
Anyways, back to this particular sign. As much as it's a groaner, it definitely points to our culture's use of shortcuts in language. We're so used to having everything instantly that even our speech is shortened to make this possible. This made me think about the songs that we sing in church, especially the songs that are sung during the young adults worship services.
I know complaining about worship music isn't new but this has been a growing frustration for me. Why is it that the majority of the songs that we now sing are composed of three or four word sentences? Without naming any particular songs, here is an example of what we seem to be singing nowadays:
God is here / Let us come / We raise our hands / And lift our voices / To worship Him / With our songs / And our hearts / Together we sing / Of His love / etc.
So not only are we singing simple sentences, one after another, but they don't say very much at all (yes, I know I made three references to singing all at once but there are some songs out there that do this)! These songs end up becoming more about us than about God. There's a lack of theology and of the richness and beauty that accompanies the hymns and psalms that we once sang. I don't want to lose that in the quest to reduce things into smaller, shorter, quicker "packages". I'm not advocating that we go back to archaic language that says a lot and isn't easily understandable but I am suggesting that we be more intentional about what we sing as we praise God - are we singing these songs just to get lost in the emotion or are we worshipping God in spirit and in truth as He has revealed Himself through Christ and the Bible?
Okay, maybe I'm a bit biased as I do prefer this to this :)
What finally prompted this post is this text abbreviation post from SCL. Hilarious. And I hope not true... although WOTAM fits in nicely with what I've just written.
mardi 28 novembre 2006
You all
I wish there was a word that we could use for the plural of "you" in English. It would definitely aid in Bible reading so that we could see if Jesus was addressing "you" as in everybody or "you" for a specific person - without having to look at the footnotes or a Greek Bible, that is. When I parsed Greek I learned to always write "you (pl.)"; this became second-nature after a while but probably wouldn't work if I submitted it in a paper. I absolutely refuse to ever say or write the term "y'all", which I suppose is the closest you could get to a pluralized "you" in our language (whether or not it's utilized outside of the southern states is another question). It's nice that French has retained the vous for cases like this.
Side note: I'm glad I took Greek for fun, seeing as how it's somehow helped me fit in with the other seminarians (even though my Mounce system differs from their Goetchius) - now I just need Hebrew. Um, maybe not. Besides, I'd like to think that I'm more of a Greek personality :)
Libellés : language
mercredi 12 juillet 2006
Regional differences
Can you tell the differences between the following Canadian English speakers? There are some parts where I can kind of detect a slight variation, but other parts sound identical to me.
1. British Columbia
2. Prairie (or this one)
3. Ontario (this one and this one might be better)
4. Quebec
I remember a few years ago at work when a British man came into the office and started speaking with us. One of the women who I worked with was also from the UK (do I say UK, England or Britain?) and right away, she could tell which region he came from and he could tell which one she came from. It's fascinating that in such a small country, there can be different accents whereas English seems to be pretty uniform across Canada. Granted, Maritime English is more distinctive but I can't automatically peg someone as a Torontonian or a Vancouverite simply from their accent - maybe through their choice of words or idioms but not otherwise.
* This is probably my favourite accent though :) Or this.
Libellés : language
dimanche 9 juillet 2006
Woes with words
"When language is limited, I am thereby diminished, too." - Madeleine L'Engle
I've been having such a problem communicating lately, no matter what language I use. I'm probably overwhelmed because I'm attempting to learn French, Cantonese and Hokkien at the same time that I'm working to improve the languages I do speak. I took Koine Greek last year but that didn't stick too well, evident of how fast I can lose even the basics of a written language much less spoken.
I guess the hardest thing has been writing on here, which explains why posts have been pretty sparse. It is summertime but I'm hoping my brain hasn't turned to mush yet. I still have lots of course work to finish up so I can't afford to lose my thinking at my point :) The weather has been lovely but the mosquitoes have been absolutely terrible; perhaps it's the vitamin D that I've been lacking for fear of going outside.
Maybe this comic can express what I've been going through these last few weeks. I learned a lot about discipline from God while I was away during May and June, only to come back home and crash into this bad habit again:
Libellés : language
mercredi 16 novembre 2005
How sad
"However, as world globalises, the language [Teochew] is losing popularity among the native speakers. In Singapore, due to common culture and influences from media, Singaporean Chinese youths whose native language is Teochew are either converting to English, Standard Mandarin or Hokkien. Teochew remains the native language of many Chinese people in Singapore (Teochew people are 2nd largest group in Singapore, after the Hokkiens), although Mandarin is gradually supplanting Teochew as their mother tongue, especially among the younger generations."Every time I hear someone speak Mandarin, I always wonder if there was another language that they originally spoke before switching to China's national language. While a uniform tongue does help with communication, it is leading to the death of many beautiful languages and dialects. What a tragedy.
- Source
jeudi 4 août 2005
Babel times 10
I used to do this manually when I was really bored, but I found a faster way to multi-babelize sentences now: Lost in Translation.
Here's a nursery rhyme gone wrong:
Twinkle, twinkle, little star.
How I wonder what you are.
Up above the world so high.
Like a diamond in the sky.
transformed into Tonhoehenschwankungen, tonhoehenschwankungen,
one, to continue to the first paper.
How it thinks to him of some later one of the doubt?
In the world it probably speaks with the sustenation, fort.
The diamond without one is similar.
Or John 3:16 - For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
becoming Therefore each possible person thinks that she has and/or of the Weltnondead, the one that is eternal of the duration that this the chain, because it loved God, of this is only determined.
Good thing Bible translation doesn't happen like this at all. Have fun!
Libellés : language
vendredi 15 octobre 2004
Comeback kid
Time flies when you're not blogging.
Over the last few weeks, I've been able to keep up with most of my reading and stay on top of assignments. My extracurricular activities have doubled, which I'm hoping won't affect my schoolwork. Just in the span of a few weeks, I had four things added to my plate, on which there was already a ton of things. I knew I would be pretty busy starting the school year, but not to this point! But enough about me.
One of my favourite classes this semester is theology, and it ties in with everything else I'm taking. I didn't have any theology classes last year so it's really nice to get back into studying something other than general arts.
Of course, a common theme in the class is heresy and how much the early church had to combat it. In one of my readings, the author was talking about how widespread the heresy of Arianism was and how it had penetrated the church to the point that if it were not for one particular word (actually the lack of one little marking in that word) in the Nicene Creed, we could all be Arians due to the political influence that Roman emperors had. But praise God that at 325, the right word was put into the creed and that no orthodox Christian was willing to compromise on it.
This class makes me realize how fragile our faith is while at the same time being the strongest thing in the world, with its foundation built on the solid rock of Christ. I can also definitely see the amazing way God has preserved His truth throughout all time. By studying the nuances and details of Christianity's history, I have learned to appreciate how rooted it is in reality and human history and not to take its past for granted. I am truly awed at how God has actively been working in the lives of people who had a significant role to play in early Christianity, especially people like Athanasius and the Cappadocian fathers, who did everything they could to defend the truth of the Trinity and to teach orthodoxy.
Another class I'm taking is Greek, and it's been great translating some verses in the New Testament. The language and the class have not posed too many problems as of yet, but I hear it's going to get tougher when we hit verbs. I find it easier to pick up than French (due to the closed text and limited vocabulary) but I'm thankful I had some years of French to help me with Greek. English alone wouldn't have helped much because we don't learn things like the dative and genitive cases, or chart our verbs into different tenses with the six pronouns. (Side note: Bilingual brains are different).
Anyways, it's been a long week and it's going to get twice as busy next week, so I'll end this. Maybe Lissa will write some posts to make up for the lack of mine. This blog isn't dead; it's just catching up on much-needed rest. Make that the authors!
Libellés : language
dimanche 28 décembre 2003
Decomposition
Lately, it's become increasingly difficult for me to craft words together. I'm not sure what it is, but I would like to be able to write (considering school starts in eight days). I remember coming back to school after Christmas break in elementary school - having to go through the process of writing. It felt as though I had to retrain my hand to write. The letters that my hand was creating seemed foreign to me, and took a few days to reach a place of familiarity within my fingers. That's how I feel now, except that it's my brain instead of my hand. Seeing as how it's going to be a new year, I should do something about my mind. Cleanse it, give it a thorough wash and set it out to dry. I need to be transformed by the renewing of my mind. It's clogged and jammed full of useless information that is hindering me from making sound decisions. Maybe when my gutterhead is washed fresh, I'll be able to compose once again.
Libellés : language
jeudi 6 novembre 2003
Joys of English class
So... my confidence in my writing has been shattered. Two papers in a row that I have handed in have not been up to par. I guess I'm mostly disappointed in myself since I thought I was actually decent at writing well. Now I'm just glad I decided not to major in English after all.
At least my prof wrote this in my second paper:
"I know I've been hard on you, but I want you to become even more proficient in your writing and communication. Your good mind and gifted powers of expression can find an even clearer channel."
Well I suppose that wasn't too bad then. I was really encouraged today when I met with him after class and he offered suggestions on how to write more succinctly. I think I beat around the bush too much. And he even prayed for me, which lifted my spirits a bit. I'm going to miss that when I leave Bible college this year.
Libellés : language
mercredi 24 septembre 2003
Textbook cost
Have I ever mentioned how incredibly grateful I am that my college textbooks really aren't that expensive after all? I used to think so but this has changed my mind:
Language of the New Testament
(The following texts are all required)
Greek English Lexicon of the New Testament - Bauer, Gingrich, Danker - 239.99
Language of the New Testament - Goetchius, Eugene Van Ness - 66.95
Language of the New Testament Workbook - Goetchius, Eugene Van Ness - 40.95
comes to the lovely total of: 372.24, GST included! Ouch!!
I'm thankful my costs are substantially lower - all of my textbooks for this whole semester cost 45% of the price for this one class! Granted, I did borrow three history books from a friend but still, even that total would come to 74% of this price! How can anyone afford to be a college student, much less a Bible college student?!
Archives are back up... thanks Blogger. As are comments!
