tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Thu Aug 19 11:48:17 1999
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RE: Klingon Translator
- From: "d'Armond Speers" <[email protected]>
- Subject: RE: Klingon Translator
- Date: Thu, 19 Aug 1999 12:32:42 -0600
As the author of pojwI', I thought I'd add a comment or two.
On Tuesday, August 17, 1999 6:46 PM, [email protected] [SMTP:[email protected]] wrote:
> While you should definitely take a look at the pojwI', I want to reiterate
> pagh's warning, in strong terms.
>
> For one thing, do NOT think of the program as a "translator."
Indeed, it's' {pojwI'}, not {mughwI'}.
> ...with all due
> respect to Holtej, pojwI' is *not* a general-purpose translator. At best,
> it's a very powerful dictionary, capable of looking up even affixed words
> and supplying translations of the affixes as appropriate. It will NOT do
> the job of teaching you Klingon, or generating Klingon for you from
> English. Maybe it can break down simple Klingon sentences into an English
> gloss you could understand, but in that capacity it will only diminish
your
> opportunities to learn to read on your own.
jIQochbe'chu'. The danger of using any device for assistance with the
language is becoming dependent upon that device, and thus not learning the
language. I'm a computational linguist, and {pojwI'} started out for me as
an interesting exercise in combining three strong interests of mine,
Klingon, linguistics, and programming. It's a nifty tool, but it does have
the potential to inhibit the learning process, rather than assisting it, if
one depends upon it too much.
> I personally never use pojwI', and have only played with it on rare
> occasion to see how it works and what it can do. And it IS a cool
program,
> make no mistake. But if you want it to translate for you, you're in for a
> surprise, and if you use it to make sense of Klingon posts for you, then
> you'll have a difficult time ever learning Klingon for yourself.
There are those who are interested in reading Klingon posts, who don't
really want to learn Klingon. Tools like {pojwI'} will help there. But if
you want to learn Klingon, it takes work, real work, and a lot of time.
{pojwI'} now has some nifty things that will help, including lessons,
flashcards (though they don't really compare to ter'eS's fantastic
KLIFlash), a chatterbot, and some other things. Just don't let the
dictionary/thesaurus part become a crutch.
> So go out there and learn.
yIruch neH.
> ~mark
-- Holtej 'utlh
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