The site over at translation party is designed to show how machine translation still has a way to go. It shows how, when you translate into from either Japanese or English into the other language, and [...]]]>

Translate back and forth between English and Japanese until it reaches "equilibrium". See how far that is from the original.

The site over at translation party is designed to show how machine translation still has a way to go. It shows how, when you translate into from either Japanese or English into the other language, and back again, there are still differences. It continues until there are no differences, and calls that “equilibrium”. The final version it reaches is sometimes very different from the original. You could play games by trying to find sentences that are the most different, or sentences that require the most steps (translations) to reach equilibrium. A good time-waster for translators or language students.

Ken, over at What Japan Thinks, is doing a great job of deciphering polls and consumer studies in Japan. Today he looks at what people regret telling lies about. First comes Rich, then comes being able to speak English. Be careful about stretching the truth. It can get you [...]]]>

What Japan Thinks

Ken, over at What Japan Thinks, is doing a great job of deciphering polls and consumer studies in Japan. Today he looks at what people regret telling lies about. First comes Rich, then comes being able to speak English. Be careful about stretching the truth. It can get you in trouble.

Luis over at Blog from another Dimension found a really creepy High School advertisement.

For my students: There are different ways of doing things, and when you think of doing many things with many girls, it usually [...]]]>

So Many Girls...so many ways

Luis over at Blog from another Dimension found a really creepy High School advertisement.

For my students: There are different ways of doing things, and when you think of doing many things with many girls, it usually involves sex.

The folks over at Say it Visually have more like [...]]]> This is 4 minutes of your life well spent. Watch and listen how a wonderful Aussie woman explains how social media works. Love that accent, and the way the video is put together.

The folks over at Say it Visually have more like this too.

Whodunit? Mysteries for langauge laerning

Published by Abax, this is one of the first creative Commons textbooks available. You can download it and pay what you think is the best price (shades of RadioHead or Pearl Jam).  After reading through [...]]]> Adam Gray and Marcos Benavides have collaborated on a textbook of mysteries for language learning called Whodunit.

Whodunit? Mysteries for langauge laerning

Published by Abax, this is one of the first creative Commons textbooks available. You can download it and pay what you think is the best price (shades of RadioHead or Pearl Jam).  After reading through the very interesting mysteries, I decided I would use it in 3 of my classes. I am most curious as to how it works in an average class in japan (at ShowaELC) and how it is different from my exceptional students and University of Tokyo. Will keep you updated, but this looks like a great text out of the box, easy to use and thorough. The paper edition comes with additional audio to round out the experience. I am going to have my students use both versions (paper and pdf), so they can get the entire experience. I will be adding supplementary materials to my Moodle on this topic as well, with 2-minute and 5-minute mysteries, and a tutorial on how to write a mystery.

Image Swirl [...]]]> Similar to Google’s Wonder Wheel, there is an image search that links concepts. Click on Image Swirl, and start clicking on linked concepts.

Image Swirl by Google