New English/Arabic Translation Site Hopes To Promote Citizen Diplomacy

Wired has mention of a new site that hopes to encourage a grassroots "citizen diplomacy" movement by combining English/Arabic translation software with a Facebook-style meeting place. "Meedan, which officially launches Monday, lets users post stories and comments in English and have them automatically translated into Arabic, or the opposite. People who don’t share a common language can have an online discussion in near real time. The name, appropriately, means 'gathering place' or 'town hall'; in Arabic. Think of it as a social network filled with people you don't know, but want to understand."

Comments

And the first translation?

[Chas]

First post!

All I can think is...

[MaskedSlacker]

...what could possibly go wrong?

Re:All I can think is...

[Tetsujin]

Meanwhile, the poor Babel fish, by effectively removing all barriers to communication between different races and cultures, has caused more and bloodier wars than anything else in the history of creation.

How many different ways do you suppose there are to say "infidel"?

Derka derka, Mohammed Jihad!

Re:All I can think is...

[Opportunist]

My nipples are exploding with delight!

Re:All I can think is...

[flaming error]

That's a beautiful idea.

Before taking it international, I recommend you cut your teeth on a more modest goal. You might start by introducing tolerance, respect and understanding among more geographically united people that already speak a common language, say, on the message boards of Yahoo or youTube.

How do you say "slashdotted" in Arabic?

[Anonymous Coward]

I wish I knew

Re:How do you say "slashdotted" in Arabic?

[Animal Farm Pig]

not the article, but meedan.net

My hovercraft is full of eels

[spun]

Do you want to come back to my place, bouncy bouncy?

Re:My hovercraft is full of eels

[spun]

Drop your panties, Sir William, I can not wait until lunchtime!

Re:My hovercraft is full of eels

[Conchobair]

Sounds Hungarian to me... and dirty... so dirty, my nipples explode with delight!

What's next?

[Yvan256]

Arabic numerals?

Ecological Ramifications

[flyneye]

It could be considered a "Green" site. The flames from the forum could heat several countries, thus saving the need for petrochemical or electric heating.

Re:This won't end well

[hey!]

I wanted to see just how inadvisable something like this was. So I sent a whole passel of George Bush quotes through Google's English to Arabic translator, then took the translation and fed it back through the Arabic to English translator, looking for cases where the sense of the words might be disastrously mangled. Immediately, this example popped out:

The truth in this matter is, if you listen carefully, Saddam would still be in power if he was president of the United States and the world would be better off.

Now going back to the original text, what Bush actually said was ...

Oh.

Never mind.

Re:How do you say...

[zippthorne]

We never utter the phrase, "There's no word for it in English." in English. When we find a culture that has a concept for which no word currently exists in Engilsh, we say, "well, what's your word for it." Then we hit their language with a sack of potatoes and run off with the word. Sometimes the assault is more violent than than that, sometimes the exchange is far too friendly to be described in polite company, but by hook or by crook, there is no concept which cannot be expressed in English. At least, not for any length of time.

Re:Just curious how does one say "Towel Head" in a

[Snarf You]

Towel is not a correct depiction of what they wear on ther heads, its more like a 'little sheet' wrapped around there heads.

Somehow I don't think they would enjoy being referred to as "little sheet heads" either.

Re:Dirka Dirka

[Anonymous Coward]

first post?