Finding Common Ground in Translation

I'm reminded of that by a call this morning from António Granado, who writes about science for Publico, a major daily newspaper, and posts frequently to his own journalism blog. He's reviewing We the Media, which has just been published in Portuguese.

We Americans tend to take for granted the ascendency of English. While English has become the international language of commerce, science and aviation -- and it's becoming a common second language around the globe -- cultures are holding onto what makes them unique. As they should.

One of the reasons I like to travel is meeting people who aren't like me in their own lands. We all refract life through human lenses, but our cultures determine a lot about who we are beyond that.

Comments

[Octavio Isaac Rojas Orduña]

You hit the nail on the head!

I believe English is a wonderful language, but the blogosphere speak in different languages!

I know that you are open to use online translation tools, as I do when I want to read in German or other languages.

I have participated in Global PR Blog Week in Spanish and am the only Spanish blogger in Media Blogger Asociation.

Let's keep internet open and truly global.

Best regards,

[Marc Snyder]

Considering the fact that Brasil is absolutely on the fore front of personal blogging, expect to get a lot of new hits from that country.

MS

[Bob McKeand]

Dan said: "We Americans tend to take for granted the ascendency of English. While English has become the international language of commerce, science and aviation -- and it's becoming a common second language around the globe -- cultures are holding onto what makes them unique. As they should."

Well, well, well, now there are TWO americans (USians) that see the light!

[luis santos]

Dan,

A note on Antonio - his own blog has just celebrated its forth anniversary, which makes him one of the pioneers of the portuguese blogosphere. He has also won Deutsche Welle's 'Best Portuguese Language journalism blog of the year" award.

A note on the dangers of english-centred approaches: the recent webcred conference was very much "we talk about ourselves" and most remarks would only apply to the US. That is not in itself a problem, as long as people use expressions like "the world's this and that" with restraint.