Text-Number: 0111E
Available: 26/08/1996
Category: Politics, CultureNumber of characters: 5596
Author: Pam Blackstone
Written: 
Abbreviation (when applicable):
Title: Language Links Beckon Surfers
Pending publication by/on:
Previous publication by/on: 
Printed in Victoria Times-Colonist, June 1996
Copyright: Pam Blackstone
Diskussion/Letters to the Editor:

Pam Blackstone

Language Links Beckon Surfers 

A couple of weeks ago, we explored online Canadian Unity resources and examined ways the Internet can help overcome the vast geographical distances that separate Canadians. Here, indeed, technology has made important strides in surmounting the geographical isolation that divides and alienates us. However, the language gulf is an even more challenging obstacle confronting those of us who wish to begin a dialogue with our French-Canadian neighbours. How can we begin to understand each other when we speak entirely different languages? Likewise, the Net offers the potential for truly global communication, but not until we address the fact that dozens of different languages are spoken around the world. 
I encountered this dilemma head-on when I began to explore Canadian Unity sites for the last column. My French — awkward and rarely used — is barely adequate for ordering in restaurants never mind carrying on a meaningful conversation. After experiencing the frustration of attempting to decipher posts in French at some Unity sites, I began to realize that this experience must be doubly frustrating for French-Canadians since the majority of the messages posted are in English. (A few sites provide two-way translation, a service that is essential for real dialogue to begin.)
Realizing that many people, myself included, do not have the time or resources to provide automatic translation at their web sites, I began to search out online language resources that might help. I found a profusion of sites offering everything from world language jumplists, online language lessons, tests, translation services, and links to sites in just about any language you can imagine.
Jumplists are a great place to start if you’re looking for online resources in a particular language. Among the most notable are Willamette University’s Human Languages Page (http://www.willamette.edu/~tjones/Language-Page.html), with links for everything from Urdu to Swahili. The French link on this page results in an excellent jumplist of French language resources.
The GNN (Global Network Navigator) languages subject tree (http://www-e1c.gnn.com/gnn/wic/wics/hum.lang.html) provides links to everything from Chinese, Yiddish, and Egyptian to the Mayan Hieroglyphic Syllabary. 
Foreign Languages for Travellers (http://www.travlang.com/languages/) is an interesting and award-winning site that allows you to select the language you wish to learn and proceed to a quick tutorial. This site is oriented to basic communication for the traveller, covering basics like vocabulary, numbers, asking directions, shopping and dining, places, and dates and times, and provides links to online dictionaries, tour guides, and travel information.
There are actually quite a few online English-French and French-English dictionaries, including E.F. Bridge (http://mlab-power3.uiah.fi/EnglishFrench/ef.html) which offers both hypertext and audio links. E.F. Bridge also offers the English-French Meeting Point (http://mlab-power3.uiah.fi/EnglishFrench/avenues.html), a web site that promises to be “an interactive learning and studying environment.” 
If you’re determined to really learn French, surf on over to Jacques Léon’s online French Language course (http://www.kd.qd.se/iii/languages/french/course/). This award-winning site presents French lessons in an appealing and straight-forward manner. 
If you’re interested in learning Spanish online, check out University of Calgary professor Michael Dabrowski’s Spanish Student Resources (http://www.ucalgary.ca/~dabrowsk/span/res.htm). Dabrowski makes available not only to his students but to the entire online community not only Spanish drills and lessons, but old exams. Beautifully done, although I did encounter some 404 Not Found errors.  Another site for online Spanish lessons is Tyler Jones’ Web Spanish Lessons (http://www.willamette.edu/~tjones/Spanish/Spanish-main.html), which focuses only on the fundamentals but offers the chance to hear the words spoken if you have a sound card. Jones also links to several other online Spanish resources.
Finally, there’s a mixed bag of language sites that defy categorization, such as  the University of Chicago’s French Verb Conjugation page (http://humanities.uchicago.edu/forms_unrest/inflect.query.html), a form that lets you conjugate a verb by selecting the tense and entering the infinitive form in a template. Or the Transword Foreign Lanuage Crossword Puzzle page (ftp://ftp.dartmouth.edu/pub/LLTI-IALL/365german-news/tw/index.htm), where you can try your hand at crosswords in one of several languages. 
That’s just for starters. For the determined language student with access to the Net and lots of time on his or her hands, there are tons of online resources available. Their real value may lie in the ability to spontaneously lookup and translate the odd word or phrase as you surf. How effective a solution they may be for serious language study remains to be seen. Their usefulness is limited by the very tangible costs of online study, not only in dollars but in bandwidth. Many of the graphics and sound clips download slowly, and thus present a far from ideal solution. In the end, it’s probably cheaper and simpler to just take an evening course or buy a tape or pocket guide.

Pam Blackstone is a Canadian Internet consultant who writes a weekly column about the Internet for the Victoria Times-Colonist newspaper. You can reach Pam by e-mail at pb@islandnet.com.
Copyright © 1996 Pam Blackstone. All rights reserved. Reprinted here with permission.