Mar 25, 2022 | Blog, Communication, Traditions
The Language of Women As A Secret Language The language we speak shapes our thoughts about gender and our perception of reality. Many linguistic studies say that there are several types of languages in the world, including the language of women. There are natural languages (or human languages), formal languages, and artificial languages. The latter are often used and created either for amusement or for practical purposes, e.g. Esperanto. Among these are the languages created by women and for women. Mothers are key figures in children’s language development, so much so that we speak about a “mother tongue” to identify a native speaker of a particular language. However, from a linguistic point of view, there is no “female language”, “language of women” or “natural female language”. The Language of Women and Prejudices We also have to consider that our language reflects our social prejudices. What happens if none of the existing languages enable women to express the feelings and emotions inherent to them? What happens if women can’t express the way they feel and think because their language doesn’t contain the right words to convey their thoughts? Or because their language describes and reflects a patriarchal society? Think about how you use your language and whether it’s more geared towards how men or how women express themselves. Native Tongue As A Language of Women, By Suzette Haden Elgin The American linguist and writer Suzette Haden Elgin addressed this topic in the 80’s. She theorized that if women had their own language to express their opinions, they might represent reality in a very different way than when men talk. To...
Mar 23, 2022 | Blog, Communication, Worldwide
Gender Neutrality In Everyday Life Set in 1961, Hidden Figures is a film about the true story of a team of African-American mathematicians in which gender and racial distinction are broken down in favour of neutrality. The main protagonist, Katherine Johnson, is a talented woman who is hired to work for NASA. However, she works in a white, male-dominated environment, where the toilets for coloured women are in a completely different building from the one where she works. For this reason, every day she has to go back and forth between the two, meaning she’s often absent from her desk. When her boss demands an explanation for her constant absenteeism, Katherine, filled with indignation, makes a moving speech about how the racially divided, male-dominated society in which they live is impeding her from doing a good job. In agreement, her boss destroys the “colored ladies room” sign outside the toilets to stop the segregation. Hidden Figures might be set in the early sixties but gender and racial discrimination are still present in our lives. The difference is that today is not just about the distinction between male and female. This happens because we live in a gender-fluid society where things are far more complex. In this blog post, we will explore what is gender neutrality and how it affects languages. The Way Gendered Languages Shape Our World Historically, the masculine gender has always been the default gender for describing situations where both men and women are present. Indeed, with respect to gender, we can distinguish three types of languages: Gendered languages like Spanish, French and Italian, where nouns and...
Dec 17, 2021 | Blog, Communication
What is artificial intelligence and how is it dominating the world? In an increasingly digitalized world, we can’t deny that Artificial Intelligence (AI) is taking over. In this blog post, we look into the connection between artificial intelligence and translation. The leader in AI is the United States, inventor of the Internet, but China is quickly taking its place. In this race between the US and China, Russia is also trying its best to keep up. Indeed, at the AI Journey 2019 conference held in Moscow, Putin said: “Artificial intelligence is a resource of colossal power. Those who will own it will take the lead and will acquire a huge competitive edge.” But what is AI exactly? And what is its impact on our daily life? Artificial intelligence is the ability for computers to simulate human thought and behaviour in real-world environments. It works with deep learning, that imitates our brain’s functionality and allows computers to analyze situations based on data. A pioneering force in AI was the Logic Theorist, a program designed to mimic the problem-solving skills of a human being. Allen Newell, Herbert A. Simon and Cliff Shaw invented it in 1956, while John McCarthy coined the term AI. The Logic Theorist function was to prove mathematical theorems like the ones in Russell and Whitehead’s book Principia Mathematica. It proved 38 out of 52 problems in the book, showing better results than the authors. Artificial intelligence and translation – What is machine learning? The term artificial intelligence is often used interchangeably with the term machine learning, but they actually refer to different realities. While AI is the...
Nov 28, 2021 | Blog, Communication, Worldwide
The connection between language and reality When we think about the relationship between language and reality, the following question arises: does language shape reality or is it the other way round? There’s a philosophy, called “direction of fit”, according to which both statements are true. This philosophy distinguishes two directions of fit. The first one is that language reflects reality. According to this direction, called the “word-to-world” direction of fit, the words match reality. For example, in the sentence “there is a pen on the table”, these words immediately match the world around us. In this case, language creates statements that can be true or false according to the reality they match. The second direction, the one we are going to explore in this blog post, is when we use language to change reality. This is the “world-to-word” direction of fit because the world is shaped to match the words. In other words, we can say that language is extremely powerful and individuals often use it to manipulate and control. In this blog post, we’ll see how this happened during periods of war and how it is happening today during the COVID-19 pandemic. The language in political speeches during the war and times of crisis: World War I When World War I broke out, politicians gave speeches to persuade citizens to fight for victory. These speeches were not just words. Rather, they were a smart way to brainwash citizens and lead them to think that fighting was the best choice. An example is the speech of Woodrow Wilson, the then United States President. In 1917, the United States declared...
Sep 26, 2021 | Blog, Communication, English language, Tips
Language teaching theories and methods September has come and, in many countries, its arrival ushers in a new scholastic year. In schools, many students are involved in language learning. Indeed, they study one or more languages, other than their native one. Foreign language teaching refers to the teaching of a language that is not native. Firstly, it is important to make a distinction between foreign language and second language, especially if we think about English language teaching. The terms English as Second Language (ESL) and English as Foreign Language (EFL) are not synonymous. Indeed, the difference between ESL and EFL lies in the environment in which it is taught. We refer to ESL when we learn English in a country where it is spoken. In this case, students can practice it outside of the scholastic context. EFL, instead, is taught in countries where it is not spoken outside of the scholastic context, with little chance of practising it. This is true also for the teaching of other languages. However, as English is increasingly becoming an international language and is used as a lingua franca in countries that do not speak it, the distinction between ESL and EFL is so blurred that it is not always easy to differentiate them. Language teaching methodologies Over the years, different theories of language teaching have emerged, resulting in different language teaching methodologies. We can think of the innatist theory, according to which children have an innate ability to discover language rules. This would explain why we are able to learn complex grammar rules. If we shift to the behaviourist theory, instead, we discover...
Apr 11, 2021 | Blog, Communication, Language Services, Tips, Translation
Learn how to produce multilingual subtitles in your YouTube videos Have you ever considered adding multilingual subtitles to your YouTube or company videos in English, Spanish, French, Chinese, Arabic, Russian or any other language? Do you see yourself or your company as a global communicator and multilingual content creator? Would you like to gain more exposure in different countries where people do not speak English as their native language? In this blog post and video tutorial, learn the basics of subtitling using YouTube Studio and how to easily add English and multilingual subtitles. Learning how to subtitle a video in other languages can be a lengthy process. There is not just the actual translation but also specific subtitling rules to follow. There are various subtitling programs, as well as different ways to display subtitles. Looking to hire professionals to add subtitles to your videos? Get a free translation quote here >>. How can you manage to learn it all? At LingoStar, we’ve used YouTube Studio to translate subtitles from English into French, Spanish, and Czech. We’ll show you the easy way to start creating your subtitled videos in foreign languages. By doing so, you’ll be able to attract viewers in multilingual communities both in your own country and worldwide. Are you ready to become a global entrepreneur? You’ll also find out how to use the closed caption option in YouTube where subtitles can be turned on and off. Furthermore, you’ll get to know about the differences between closed captions and embedded subtitles and how to handle both versions before publishing them on YouTube.YouTube offers the option to add subtitles...
