Archive for 'Archived Posts'
Rooster Dialects and the Age of Information Posted by Malachi Rempen on Sep 7, 2015 in Archived Posts
You know what I love about the internet? I love the fact that you can learn almost everything you need to know by just looking it up, and information about just about everything humanity has ever done is available instantaneously. The dumbest things can be checked and, in some cases, verified. Take, for example, the comic…
How Google Translate Works, and Why It Doesn’t Measure Up Posted by Transparent Language on Sep 2, 2015 in Archived Posts
With over 200 million daily translations, there’s no denying that Google Translate is a wildly popular translation service. Indeed, machine translation has come very far since its infancy in the early 2000s. Instead of translating words at face value, machine translators have developed complex algorithms to deliver more accurate translations, and some even take into…
Staying Resourceful in Language Learning Posted by Malachi Rempen on Aug 26, 2015 in Archived Posts
Do any of the following sound like they might have come out of your mouth at one time or another? “I know drilling grammar is important, but it’s just not fun…and life’s too short.” “I can read street signs and menus, and understand when spoken to, but I can’t speak it. I just can’t find…
How U.S. Libraries Survive—and Thrive—in the Changing Linguistic Landscape (Part 1) Posted by Transparent Language on Aug 24, 2015 in Archived Posts
All 119,000+ libraries in the United States (whether public, academic, or government) share a common goal: to serve their community. As the linguistic landscape of the U.S. shifts, libraries must adapt to better serve their diverse members. How exactly can libraries respond to meet the needs of recent immigrants, resettled refugees, and non-English speakers in…
Appreciating the Little Things about Language Learning Posted by Malachi Rempen on Aug 19, 2015 in Archived Posts
I love the way that learning languages, like learning anything I suppose, slowly strips away the fog of ignorance. If you don’t speak French, it might sound to you like some kind of sugar-whipped vocal pastry, a pretty but unintelligible alien tongue. As you learn, however, gently the veil begins to lift, and what was previously opaque becomes…
How to Learn a Language with Twitter Posted by meaghan on Aug 12, 2015 in Archived Posts
As much as I try to resist, when I pull up Chrome, my finger automatically gravitates toward the F or T keys. Facebook and Twitter have some kind of gravitational pull over my hands, I swear. Apparently, I’m not alone—28% of all time spent online is on social networks. There’s no reason that social media…
Transforming the Economics of Language Learning (Part 6): The Elegant Discipline of DABL Posted by Transparent Language on Aug 10, 2015 in Archived Posts
Ask a doctor the one thing that would make most patients healthier and you might hear, “if my patients would simply do what I ask them to do.” For many ailments, the cure is a simple behavior change: stop smoking, exercise. But behavior is astonishingly stubborn. Language learning, on the other hand, is as actually…