Other Languages

[Kortpeel (imported)]

I haven't actually counted but lately we seem to be getting more and more stories in languages other than English.

I have no objection to this, other than me being unable to read them. I think it is a good thing and it is splendid that people are contributing in their own languages.

Unfortunately I have a natural inaptitude for languages other than English. At school I was on the headmaster's carpet for falling asleep in a Latin class

Some of the stories look like they would be well worth a read and if anyone thought a story was good enough perhaps they would care to make a translation into English? I felt quite flattered when someone translated one of my stories into Spanish.

The important thing is: keep 'em coming. The stories that is.

[gandalf (imported)]

Just for the fun of it, I opened a story that was in German,and tried something. I right clicked on my mouse and went to Yahoo. It said, "translate...".

I tried it and it did convert it into English. No smooth, but readable and understandable. Then when I went back to the story listing, it was again in the original German. Was an interesting read even if not in smooth flowing English.

[kristoff]

You can also try google language tools. It does a fair job at translating quite a few languages. Open the story, copy its URL, open google (see link), and paste into the translate page/link segment, choose your language , and go. This link is set for English as base language. It also works for segments of text or single words.

http://www.google.com/language_tools?hl=en

[cleaner (imported)]

Ich finde es schade, dass die meisten Geschichten nur in Englisch geschrieben sind. Ich hab den Eindruck, dass eine Menge deutsche hier sind und die ihre Geschichten totzdem nur in Englisch posten. Warum nicht beide Sprachen? Ich kann mit den englischen leider wenig anfangen, vielleicht kann ja der eine oder die andere ein paar gute mal übersetzen?

[Slammr (imported)]

Ich finde es schade, dass die meisten Geschichten nur in Englisch geschrieben sind. Ich hab den Eindruck, dass eine Menge deutsche hier sind und die ihre Geschichten totzdem nur in Englisch posten. Warum nicht beide Sprachen? Ich kann mit den englischen leider wenig anfangen, vielleicht kann ja der eine oder die andere ein paar gute mal übersetzen?

I find it sad that most of the stories are written in English only. I have the impression that a lot here are German and post their stories totzdem in English only. Why not both? I can start with the English, unfortunately, I don't always get a good translation.Actually, many stories are submitted in German. Since I help with the moderation of submitted stories, I read the translated version of them all the time. Some German authors may also submit an English version, but I've seen little evidence of it, unless they also speak excellent English. Generally, it's fairly obvious when someone isn't writing in his or her native language.

Tatsächlich sind viele Geschichten in deutscher Sprache eingereicht. Da helfe ich mit der Moderation der eingereichten Geschichten, ich lese die übersetzte Version von ihnen die ganze Zeit. Einige deutsche Autoren können ihre Beiträge eine englische Version, aber ich habe wenig Beweise dafür gesehen, es sei denn, sie sprechen auch gut Englisch. Generell ist es ziemlich offensichtlich, wenn jemand schreibt nicht in seiner Muttersprache.

[Stefan (imported)]

Unfortunately I have a natural inaptitude for languages other than English. At school I was on the headmaster's carpet for falling asleep in a Latin class

I know how diffcult it is to learn a forign language. And every one is reading his native language much faster than any other. I didn't fall allings asleep in foreign language classes. So I learned English and French. For a native german speaker its easy to learn English, but it was diffcult to learn French, but I learned it.

Some of the stories look like they would be well worth a read and if anyone thought a story was good enough perhaps they would care to make a translation into English? I felt quite flattered when someone translated one of my stories into Spanish.

I know there is one some very good german language stories. But if someone want translate them correctly it will need plenty of time. E. g. the rules of english grammar is different to german grammar, and there're some word you'll never translate correctly.

I like language other than my own, because I learn a little more about a foreign language.

[Stefan (imported)]

Ich finde es schade, dass die meisten Geschichten nur in Englisch geschrieben sind. Ich hab den Eindruck, dass eine Menge deutsche hier sind und die ihre Geschichten totzdem nur in Englisch posten. Warum nicht beide Sprachen? Ich kann mit den englischen leider wenig anfangen, vielleicht kann ja der eine oder die andere ein paar gute mal übersetzen?

Umgekehrt ist es so, dass der Ursprungsposter nichts mit anderen Sprachen ausser Englisch anfangen kann. Für mich das das weniger ein Problem, da ich auch mit den englischsprachigen Stories etwas anfangen kann.

[Stefan (imported)]

Slammar, you did that translation very weill. But the last sentence means exactly the oppsite of your translation. I had to learn, that only one word can give a pharse a totally diffent meaning.

In Germany Englisch ist obligatory a schools, nowadays from 3th level in Grundschule (Basic school). Many people learn English, and our economy needs English, because we're actually number three of worlds economies.

People from other countries finding this space, will have a high level of understanding English language. But understanding and speaking is not writing. (like you'll see by my many mistakes in this comment). I think, thats why people using thier native language, because its much easier to use it. Writing a phrase in german I can put nuances in. Writing in foreign language means translating in writing and thinking.

[Slammr (imported)]

Slammar, you did that translation very weill. But the last sentence means exactly the oppsite of your translation. I had to learn, that only one word can give a pharse a totally diffent meaning.

In Germany Englisch ist obligatory a schools, nowadays from 3th level in Grundschule (Basic school). Many people learn English, and our economy needs English, because we're actually number three of worlds economies.

People from other countries finding this space, will have a high level of understanding English language. But understanding and speaking is not writing. (like you'll see by my many mistakes in this comment). I think, thats why people using thier native language, because its much easier to use it. Writing a phrase in german I can put nuances in. Writing in foreign language means translating in writing and thinking.

Google translator wasn't making much sense of that last sentence, so I wrote what I thought he was saying. Looks like I was wrong. Thanks.

I'm afraid the prevalence of English throughout the world has made us English speakers lazy. We don't have to learn other languages, and that's a shame. It's difficult to really know other people, if one isn't fluent in their language. I've had Internet friends in Germany, Switzerland, and Sweden, and I've been astounded at how well they write English. I assume they can speak it as well.

[Stefan (imported)]

Google translator wasn't making much sense of that last sentence, so I wrote what I thought he was saying. Looks like I was wrong. Thanks.

It was just one phrase. And if you're reading fast even a native speaker will ignore only that word which makes it opposite. On the other hand, I'm sometimes not sure, about the meaning of some phrase, especially if someone is using idioms. If you translate idioms, you understand the word, but not what it means.

I'm afraid the prevalence of English throughout the world has made us English speakers lazy. We don't have to learn other languages, and that's a shame. It's difficult to really know other people, if one isn't fluent in their language. I've had Internet friends in Germany, Switzerland, and Sweden, and I've been astounded at how well they write English. I assume they can speak it as well.

But, I know that many people in Germany very lazy about learning English. Everything is translated in German. When you watch a mini-series from US on TV you'll have it in German. In Scandinavia there only subtitles and you're hearing the original language. Scandinavians are very good in foreign languages.

From Northern America I know people, with very good German skills. Especially in areas where German people settled in ancient times.