Archive for the ‘Most Popular’ Category

Scholarships and Grants
for Language and Translation Students

June 10th, 2010 by Maria, Contributing Writer

Obtaining a degree in the field of translation/interpretation can be a grueling and costly process. Top U.S. universities like the Monterey Institute of International Studies, and top-tier schools with degree-seeking programs in this field, like Georgetown and Stanford University, have yearly tuitions exceeding $30,000, and relatively few slots available for highly competitive merit-based scholarships. But before the future translators and interpreters of the world lose hope, it should be noted that grants, scholarships, and fellowships are out there. To help you start your search, we’re providing you with information about some of the most generous funds currently available to language students.

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Funny Talk: 5 Comedy Sketches about Language

June 3rd, 2010 by Daniel, Beyond Words Contributor

If you’ve been following the headlines lately, chances are, you probably haven’t found much humor in current events. Economic bailouts, oil spills, and ship raids aren’t easy fodder for comedy. In spite of everything, we wanted to take a break from all the bad news and try to have a good chuckle.

Even though the language business isn’t exactly a joke factory, language and translation have always provided comics with material. The following five sketches span several decades, and they show that issues involving language often work their ways into a comedian’s repertoire. Enjoy!

A Bit of Fry & Laurie: The Subject of Language

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The Ugliest Words in English

April 15th, 2010 by Daniel, Beyond Words Contributor

Robert E. Wolverton Sr., a Mississippi State classics professor, occasionally asks his students to vote on the most beautiful and the ugliest words in English. In his last survey conducted in 2009, the words vomit, moist, puke, phlegm, slaughter, snot, ugly, damp, and mucus, topped the list for ugliest. What makes one word uglier than another? Wolverton says a variety factors probably influence people’s perception of a word, from the word’s language of origin to the number of syllables it contains.

The associations people make between words and their meanings probably play a role in perception as well. When people hear the word mucus, they might first think of a slimy organic mixture secreted by glands throughout the body before considering the possibly hidden beauty of the word. Also, some words just don’t roll off the tongue.

We compiled our own list of the ugliest English words from a survey we conducted via Facebook, Twitter, and Reddit. Given that today does happen to be the tax filing deadline in the U.S., some readers may relish the fact that a certain three-letter word made it on this list. As for the rest of you, we hope you enjoy all of these charmingly ugly words:

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5 Must-See TED Talks on Language

February 18th, 2010 by Daniel, Beyond Words Contributor

The 2010 Technology Entertainment Design conference wrapped up on February 13, in Long Beach, California, and the new talks are just now making it online. If you’re not familiar with the conferences, they started in 1984, and showcase some of the world’s most engaging thinkers in short talks about specific topics.

Before we have time enjoy all the new talks in search of the next great language moments at TED, we thought we could at least round up five of the most thoughtful, interesting, and entertaining talks from past TED conferences. The following talks approach the subject of language from diverse fields including linguistics, biology, and digital media.

1. Wade Davis on endangered cultures

National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence, Wade Davis, discusses the erosion of the ethnosphere in this TED talk from 2007. He proposes that language loss may be the greatest indicator of weakening global cultural diversity. To use Davis’ own words, the experience of watching this talk might be like “being shot out of a rifle barrel lined with Baroque paintings and landing on a sea of electricity”—and even if it’s not that, it is definitely one of the most entertaining TED talks about language and culture currently available.

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Haitian Creole In Translation:
Medical Phrase Pronunciation Guide

February 16th, 2010 by Daniel, Beyond Words Contributor

Since the earthquake in Haiti, thousands of medical workers, translators, and interpreters have organized for specialized relief efforts. Translators Without Borders will soon offer a medical triage dictionary for use with Haitian Creole, and ALTA has enlisted our resources to translate and record Haitian Creole medical phrases for aid workers and volunteers. Based on selections from the Emergency Multilingual Phrasebook published by the Red Cross, we hope that the phrases are useful for those who want free Haitian Creole pronunciation practice.

Haitian Creole sometimes has more than one term or phrase to describe a medical condition or English term. In those cases, our translator was asked to choose the most common Haitian Creole variant in order to be understood by all speakers despite regional and cultural differences.

You can listen to the phrases directly on our website or download them for later playback on any standard MP3 compatible device. Each sound clip contains a recording of the English phrase followed by the Haitian Creole pronunciation, and finishes with the Haitian Creole phrase repeated for emphasis. We hope that this resource is helpful and we welcome any feedback.