Translations

Having been a Spanish major, my fallback career may have been in translation. With my fancy Dartmouth education, thankfully I'm still lightyears ahead of BabelFish(!), but a new iPhone app may make me replaceable. For someone interested in language, and for our lectores hispanoparlantes, this new translation app may interest you. Jokes after the break.


Think of how practical this could be, especially once it's expanded into a variety of languages.

--Lost in Chinatown seemingly miles from American civilization, a Chinese version of this app could help you back to the States.

--American soldiers in Iraq already are "equipped" with iPods to assess drone data and satellite information. With an Arabic version they could also question locals re the whereabouts of weapons of mass destruction.

--In Afghanistan, or little Afghanistan (my old haunts on the East AND West sides of 52nd and 9th in NYC), innocent street goers could even chat up their taxi driver en route to the office, once the Afghani version is released.

--Here in the Great White North... nah... too soon. No diversity here -or cultural understanding for that matter.

--In the medical realm, this app could be a crucial mediator between doctor speak and lay person understanding.
Dr: Ma'am, unfortunately magnetic resonance imaging of your brain suggests penetrating cerebral lesions affecting the orbitofrontal lobes bilaterally. This most certainly has impaired your executive function and lead to your disinhibited affect and behavioral abnormalities.
Translation? You're f***ing crazy. (See Phineas Gage)

--There's even the chance that an urban dictionary translator of sorts could narrow the generational language gap in this country. Halloween provides a great example.
Homeowner: What are you supposed to be?
Seemingly cute kid's answer: I'm a jelly bean.
Translation? I'm supposed to be done by now. C'mon lady, I've got 6 houses on this block.

--And lastly, a blogging translator might even help to make my posts funny to others. Maybe.

*Note this post was stupidly made last friday pre-Halloween LiveBlogging and is being re-posted now so people can actually see it and because, in continuing with my AMDAL trend-setting (multi-language posting and audio feeds), I thought we should also incorporate repeat posting in downtimes, just like the TV networks.