Japanese scientists
make
automated translation
breakthrough
Throughout
history languages have separated human beings into exclusive groups,
making communication difficult or impossible, exacerbating their cultural
differences and contributing to wars and other kinds of violence.
The
primary reason for this linguistic plague is the fact that languages are
the reservoir, the transmitter, and the controller of cultures. People who
speak different
languages have problems because they think and behave in different ways.
It
is easy to learn that water is agua (ah-gwah) in Spanish and
mizu (mee-zoo) in Japanese. There is no cultural conflict, no friction
involved. But when words that are pregnant with cultural content are
involved, differences in cultural values and the control they have
over the thinking and behavior of the people range from minor to enormous.
To
fully explain the cultural content and role of the Spanish term macho
(mah-choh) requires several hundred words. To fully
explain the Japanese term kaizen (kigh-zen), or "continuous
improvement," requires as many as a thousand words or more (there is
a whole book on the subject).
When
working as a trade journalist in Asia in the 1950s and 60s I learned that
the cultures of China, Korea and Japan were bound up in hundreds of key
words in each of the three languages, and that you simply could not
understand their respective ways of thinking and behaving without intimate
knowledge of these key words.
But
technology, the new "God" of humanity, is on the verge of
eliminating some of the linguistic barriers that separate human beings —
not any time soon but certainly within the foreseeable future.
Most
of the world is familiar with the "universal language" devices
used by the fictional Capt. James T. Kirk and the intrepid crew of Star
Trek to communicate with the various life-forms they encountered
during their travels around the galaxies.
Now,
reality is rapidly catching up with fiction. Japan's Council for
Science and Technology Policy [CSTP] has challenged the country's
automated speech translation researchers to improve the present technology
in the next five years to the point that automated translators will in
fact be a reality for Japanese who want to communicate with English and
Mandarin speakers.
Prototypes
of these translators have already been field-tested in China, and the word
is that they worked perfectly as long as the conversations were simple.
The process is based on storing hundreds of thousands of sentences and
speech patterns into the devices that have exact equivalents in the target
languages.
The
goal of the CSTP is to have universal translators on
the market for all of the world's major
languages within ten years!
The
impact that this will have on the world is so
potentially profound and broad that over a period of
a few generations it will surely change the nature
of human cultures — something that gods have not
been able to do since they were first created!
But
this revolutionary change in the ability of human
beings to communicate with each other across
language barriers will inevitably increase the
volume of conversations. Every word in each language
that is pregnant with cultural nuances and uses will
have to be explained in detail to make the
communication complete.
If
you think there is too much babble in today's world,
consider what it will be like when this is
multiplied many times over!
© Boyé Lafayette De Mente 2008 All rights reserved
______________________________________
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Boye Lafayette De Mente has been involved
with Japan, Korea, China and Mexico since the late 1940s as a member of a
U.S. intelligence agency, student, journalist, and editor. He is the
author of more than 50 books on these countries, including the first books
ever on the Japanese way of doing business: Japanese Etiquette &
Ethics in Business published in 1959, and How to Do Business in
Japan, published in 1961.
To see a complete list of his titles,
please visit his personal website at http://www.boyedemente.com
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